''Ants in Your Pants'' is a Canadian children's music video television program made and aired by

Treehouse TV Treehouse TV is a Canadian English-language specialty channel for preschoolers aged 2 to 5 that was launched in 1997. Its name comes from YTV's former preschool block, " The Treehouse". The channel is owned by YTV Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of ...

that ran from November 1, 1997 to June 15, 2004. The series was created and produced by Kathilee Porter.

Plot

The show's intro consists mostly of CGI animations with the "Ants In Your Pants" theme, written by children's music artist Douglas John, whose music videos also appear on the show. The host, a puppet monkey in corduroy overalls, named Lickety Split, then takes over. He lives in a tree with his mother (who is not seen, only heard or mentioned). He usually explains what he has been doing lately. A music video is shown. Usually, there are three music videos, separated by Lickety segments. After the last music video is played, an image of scattered leaves is shown before the next Lickety segment. In the second segment, the Pesky Carpenter Ants, named Chainsaw, Woodchip and Dusty, are introduced. They frequently cause trouble for Lickety, but can also be helpful and kind on rare occasions. In the third season, "Kidding Around" and "Stretch and Wiggle" are presented. "Kidding Around" features a CGI video camera showing kids doing fun activities or singing songs. "Stretch and Wiggle" (hosted by Shelley Hamilton and Corey Michaels, and sometimes Douglas John) shows exercises. The last segment before the end of the show is titled "Lickety's Tree Fort" and features a guest star. Guest stars include

Al Simmons Aloysius Harry Simmons (May 22, 1902 – May 26, 1956), born Alois Szymanski, was an American professional baseball player. Nicknamed "Bucketfoot Al", he played for two decades in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder and had his best year ...

Bob McGrath Robert Emmett McGrath (June 13, 1932 – December 4, 2022) was an American actor, musician, and children's author best known for playing original human character and music teacher Bob Johnson on the long-running educational television series ' ...

, Carmen Campagne,

Jack Grunsky Jack Grunsky (born July 1, 1945) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Grunsky's musical career has spanned two continents. More than three decades of recording and touring have earned him a wide following from both adult and children's audiences. ...

Jackie Richardson Jackie Richardson (born January 4, 1947) is a Canadian singer and actress. Richardson is known for her screen roles in '' Turning to Stone'', ''The Gospel According to the Blues'', '' The Doodlebops'', and '' Sins of the Father''. She is also kn ...

and

Ken Whiteley Kenneth Whiteley (born April 30, 1951) is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer. He began performing folk music in the early 1970s, making frequent appearances at the Mariposa Folk Festival and recording and touring with acclaimed childre ...

Cast

* Marty Stelnick as Lickety Split * Jason Hopley, Ben Deustch, Colin Penman as Chainsaw, Woodchip, and Dusty

Soundtrack

Segments

Popularity

''Ants in Your Pants'' was an entirely new concept in children's television. Although many children's programs (both then and now) were very musically based, this was the first known to feature music videos. As a result, the show became popular with Canadian children and was widely praised by adults. Its soundtrack was a Juno nominee in 2000 for Best Children's Album. A number of music videos from the program began appearing on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

in 2007, with the highest-viewed including "Tomato Hat" by a young Justin Hines and "Do Your Socks Get Soggy" by Douglas John, which each had more than 100,000 views as of January 2017. Other highly viewed videos include the Joe Scruggs songs "This Little Piggy", and "Bahamas Pajamas".

References

External links

Wayback Machine Archive on TreehouseTV.com

Douglas John Page archived by the Wayback Machine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ants In Your Pants Treehouse TV original programming 1990s Canadian children's television series 2000s Canadian children's television series 1990s Canadian music television series 2000s Canadian music television series 1999 Canadian television series debuts 2000 Canadian television series endings Television series by Corus Entertainment Television series about monkeys Television series about insects Canadian television shows featuring puppetry Canadian children's musical television series Canadian preschool education television series 1990s preschool education television series 2000s preschool education television series