Mini Studio is a

TV show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

for kids and preteens in the MENA. It was created by Ghazy Feghaly and first aired in 1992 on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

. The show celebrated its 25th anniversary of being on air in 2016. The show's singularity holds in its 350 original characters, and its multilingual songs spanning French, English & Arabic. It spawned highly successful theatrical plays, tours, concerts, albums, DVDs, products and merchandize, entertaining and educating children across all borders.

Notable characters & songs

Kikky (Marie-Christine Naim) is the show's lead since its very beginning. She's often compared to

Chantal Goya Chantal de Guerre (; born 10 June 1942), known as Chantal Goya (), is a French singer and actress. Goya started her career as a ''yé-yé'' girl, singing a catchy mid-1960s hybrid of girl-group pop and French ''chanson''. She also enjoyed a car ...

, or Dorothee. She's accompanied by many characters including Glagla Le Clown, Woonie Le Marin, Sucette, Papouf, Mamouf, Patitoupata, Fanfan L'Elephant, and the show's original witch Ambrosia plus her crow Cornefer. All character names and songs were conceived and composed by Ghazy Feghaly. He drew inspiration from his niece's Youmna Chamcham imaginary friends. They wrote many of the songs while playing together at home. Monsieur Le Livre, once Youmna's lullaby, is now a song taught in nurseries and schools. Mini Studio was the first show to ever record the

Alphabet Song The alphabet song is any of various songs used to teach children an alphabet. Alphabet songs typically recite the names of all letters of the alphabet of a given language in order. The ABC (Verse 1) "The ABC Song", otherwise referred to as ...

in Arabic in 1996. Every year the show releases a new album and a Holiday special for

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

Musical theater

Every year, Mini Studio produced one original

Musical Theater Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...

bridging their TV characters and storylines to make fantasy worlds come to life onstage. They attracted audiences of 60,000 a year.{{citation needed, date=November 2016 Ghazy Feghaly wrote and directed a total of 22 original plays. Most of the content was originally in

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

began to be introduced in 2000, when the show started being broadcast across the world through

satellite TV Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...

and the internet. *A la recherche de l'étoile perdue (1992) *Voyage au pays d'Amareddine (1993) *La légende du fantôme prisonnier (1995) *Le secret de Chiffon La Poupée (1996) *Pierrot au pays des chansons (1997) *Les pirates de l'île aux bonbons (1998) *Kikky et le Père Noël (1999) *Oursoudoux City (1999) *Cartoon Town (2000) *Happy Birthday Lou (2001) *Christmas Wonderland (2002) *Summer Camp (2002) *It's Christmas (2003) *Le secret de Chiffon La Poupée (2003) *Mini Studio Forever (2003) *Bonjour l'école (2005) *Easter in Bonny Bunny Land (2008) *L'étoile de Fifi (2008) *Les Aventures de Peter Cottontail (2009) *Hey! Ambrosia it's Christmas (2009) *J'ai perdu le Do (2010) *Hikayat Amareddine (2011)

Album releases

Since 1995, Mini Studio issued one album per year, so children could bring their favorite new songs and characters home. The albums were sold at the musical theater performances, while on tour, as well as at

Virgin Megastore Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street. In 1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenha ...

External links

* http://ministudioclub.tv Lebanese television series 1990s Lebanese television series 2000s Lebanese television series 2010s Lebanese television series 1990s children's television series 2000s children's television series 2010s children's television series MTV (Lebanon) original programming