''WordGirl'' (stylized as ''W✪RD GIRL'') is an American children's Flash animated

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

television series produced by the

Soup2Nuts Soup2Nuts (sometimes referred to as Soup2Nuts Studios, and formerly part of Tom Snyder Productions) was an American animation studio founded by Tom Snyder. The studio is known for its animated comedy series, its use of Squigglevision, a techniqu ...

animation unit of

Scholastic Entertainment Scholastic Corporation () is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, parents, and children. Products are distributed via retail and on ...

for

PBS Kids PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...

. The series began as a series of shorts entitled ''The Amazing Colossal Adventures of WordGirl'' that premiered on

PBS Kids Go! PBS Kids Go! was an educational television brand used by PBS for programs aimed at early elementary-age children, in contrast to the younger, preschool target demographic of PBS Kids. Most PBS member stations aired the PBS Kids Go! block on we ...

on November 10, 2006, usually shown at the end of ''

Maya & Miguel ''Maya & Miguel'' is an American animated children's television series produced by Scholastic Productions with animation by Starburst Animation Studios and by Yeson Entertainment. It aired on PBS Kids Go! from October 11, 2004 to October 10, 2007 ...

''; the segment was then spun off into a new thirty-minute episodic series that premiered on September 3, 2007 on most

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

member stations. The series of shorts consisted of thirty episodes, with 130 episodes in the full half-hour series. ''WordGirl'' creator

Dorothea Gillim Dorothea Gillim (born July 18, 1964) is an American television producer. She is the creator of the animated series ''WordGirl'' and ''Hey Monie!'' and co-creator of ''Molly of Denali''. Under GBH, Gillim has produced multiple animated series inc ...

felt that most children's animation "underestimated hildren'ssense of humor" and hoped to create a more intellectual show for young audiences. By June 2014, many PBS stations had stopped airing ''WordGirl'', opting to air more popular series throughout the summer. However, new episodes continued to air on select stations, with streaming options on the PBS Kids website and video app. The series ended with the two-part episode "Rhyme and Reason", which was released on August 7, 2015. The show was created for children ages 4–9. By 2022, the show had gained a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

through social media.

Background

''WordGirl'' began in 2006 as a series of shorts airing immediately after ''

'', becoming an independent show in September 2007. The show's creator,

, believes that children's shows often underestimate children's intelligence: Gillim says she created the show, in part, with the idea that parents would watch the show with their children to support their learning. Each eleven-minute segment in each episode (except for the first three episodes) begins with verbal instructions to listen for two words that will be used throughout the plot of that episode. The words (examples include “diversion,” “cumbersome,” and “idolize”) are chosen according to academic guidelines. The reasoning is that children can understand words like “cumbersome” when told that it means “big and heavy and awkward.” ''

PBS NewsHour ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virg ...

'' anchor

Jim Lehrer James Charles Lehrer (; May 19, 1934 – January 23, 2020) was an American journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. Lehrer was the executive editor and a news anchor for the ''PBS NewsHour'' on PBS and was known for his role as a deb ...

agreed to do a mock interview with WordGirl. Jack D. Ferraiolo, who developed the series with Gillim and served as the series' head writer in Season One, received an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for his work on WordGirl. Rather than hiring writers experienced with children's television, the show's original writers' previous credits included ''

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on August 2 ...

'' and ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

''. Narrator

Chris Parnell Thomas Christopher Parnell (; born February 5, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1998 to 2006 and played the role of Dr. Leo Spaceman on ''30 Rock''. In animation, he voices Cyril Figgis ...

had previously worked on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

''.

Synopsis

The series follows WordGirl, a girl with

superpowers A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural s ...

whose secret identity is Becky Botsford, a student. WordGirl was born on the fictional planet Lexicon (also a term referring to the vocabulary of a language or to a dictionary) but was sent away after sneaking onto a spaceship and sleeping there. Captain Huggy Face, a chimpanzee who was a pilot in the Lexicon Air Force, piloted the ship, but lost control when WordGirl awoke, and crash-landed on Earth (more specifically in Fair City), a planet that affords WordGirl her superpowers, including flight and super strength. WordGirl utilizes these powers to save her adoptive home, using her downed spacecraft as a secret base of operations. WordGirl was adopted and provided an

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I", " doppelgänger") means an alternate self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other self, one with a differen ...

by Tim and Sally Botsford, who gave her the name Becky. While in her alter ego, she has a younger brother, TJ, obsessed with WordGirl, but still unknowingly a typical sibling rival to Becky. The Botsford family keeps Captain Huggy Face as a pet, naming him Bob. Becky attends Woodview Elementary School, where she is close friends with Violet Heaslip and the school newspaper reporter Todd “Scoops” Ming. WordGirl tries to balance her superhero activities with her "normal" life. She battles against an assortment of villains that include but are not limited to The Butcher, Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy, Dr. Two-Brains, Granny May, Mr. Big, Tobey McCalister III, and Whammer. The villains are all prone to

malapropism A malapropism (also called a malaprop, acyrologia, or Dogberryism) is the mistaken use of an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical, sometimes humorous utterance. An example is the statement attributed to ...

s. At the same time, she must worry about maintaining her second life as Becky, keeping people from discovering the truth and living normal family situations.

Format

Often, short animated segments are shown in between and at the end of episodes. "What's Your Favorite Word?", ostensibly hosted by Todd "Scoops" Ming, is a series of

vox populi ( )Vox Populi
. Oxford Diction ...

interviews asking random children what their favorite words are and why. A short

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...

segment called "May I Have a Word?" (stylized as MAYIHAVEAWORD in the text bubble on Beau Handsome's wall) airs following each eleven-minute segment. This segment features the game show host, Beau Handsome, asking three contestants the definition of a particular word. The segment was created by Kelly Miyahara,

Barry Sonnenfeld Barry Sonnenfeld (born April 1, 1953) is an American filmmaker and television director. He originally worked as a cinematographer for the Coen brothers before directing films such as ''The Addams Family'' (1991) and its sequel ''Addams Family Va ...

, and Ryan Raddatz. Yet another segment features the interstitials announcer ( Rodger Parsons) asking Captain Huggy Face for a visual demonstration of a certain word (such as "strenuous" or "flummoxed"). When Captain Huggy Face correctly demonstrates the meaning of the word, a definition is given, followed by a victory dance by the chimpanzee sidekick. During the four-part episode, "

The Rise of Miss Power ''WordGirl'' (stylized as ''W✪RD GIRL'') is an American children's Flash animated superhero television series produced by the Soup2Nuts animation unit of Scholastic Entertainment for PBS Kids. The series began as a series of shorts entitled ...

", a four-segment "Pretty Princess Power Hour" sketch is shown between acts, filling in for the average two-segment "May I Have a Word?" sketch, presumably to fill the double-length (52 minutes) time slot.

Companion website

The companion site to WordGirl lives o
PBS Kids
and was built by interactive firm Big Bad Tomato. It contains vocabulary-building games, a section where children can submit their favorite word, a video page with clips from the show (only available in the US due to legal reasons), a "Heroes and Villains" section with character biographies and activities, and a PBS Parents section with episode guides, lessons, a site map, and more activities to play at home. As of April 2022, the website is still active.

Voice cast

Comics

A series of WordGirl comics were also released by

Boom! Studios Boom! Studios (styled BOOM! Studios) is an American comic book and graphic novel publisher, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. History Origins In the early 2000s, Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby had been working in Holly ...

new KaBOOM! line. The names of the volumes and the stories within them are: * Coalition of Malice *# Coalition of Malice - *# Super Fans - * Incredible Shrinking Allowance *# The Incredible Shrinking Allowance - *# Fondue, Fondon't - * Word Up! *# The Ham Van Makes the Man - *# Think Big - * Fashion Disaster *# Fashion Disaster - *# Fort Wham-Ground -

Series overview

Awards

The show has received seven Daytime Emmy nominations, winning four for "Outstanding Writing in Animation" in 2008, 2012–2013 and Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program in 2015. 2008: *2008 Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming, awarded July 19 *2008 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in Animation 2009: *Learning Magazine 2009 Teacher's Choice Award for Families *2009 iParenting Media Award *Featured at the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival 2009 *NY Festivals' 2009 TV Programming and Promotions award 2012: *2012 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in Animation 2013: *2013 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in Animation 2015: *2015: Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program

Legacy

The series was positively received. Emily Ashby of

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

described the series as having a "brainy heroine houses vocab to outwit bad guys." She also called it an "entertaining animated series" with some

cartoon violence Cartoon violence is the representation of violent actions involving animated characters and situations. This may include violence where a character is unharmed after the action has been inflicted. Animated violence is sometimes partitioned into c ...

and said that it is an "excellent...choice for young grade-schoolers." In 2022, ''Collider'' attested that the "non-white, little girl superhero" protagonist of WordGirl began a superhero trend. The article attests that the generation who grew up watching ''WordGirl'' later demanded new and diverse Marvel heroes, such as Captain Marvel.

References

External links

*
WordGirl at Super3
* {{TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming 2000s American animated television series 2007 American television series debuts 2010s American animated television series 2015 American television series endings American children's animated action television series American children's animated adventure television series American children's animated comic science fiction television series American children's animated education television series American children's animated superhero television series American flash animated television series Animated superheroine television shows Animated television series about children Animated television series about monkeys Animated television series about families Boom! Studios titles Child superheroes Elementary school television series English-language education television programming PBS Kids shows PBS original programming Reading and literacy television series Television series by Soup2Nuts