''Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks'', or ''Jakers'' in Europe, is an animated children's television series created and developed by Mike Young, Liz Young, Sindy McKay-Swerdlove and John Over based on an original idea by Denise Fitzpatrick and produced by Entara in association with Mike Young Productions with the animation provided by

Crest Communications Crest Animation Studios Ltd. (formerly ''Crest Communications'') was an Indian animation studio. It was founded by Shyam Raja Ramanna in 1990 under the name Crest Communications, and it first went public in 1995. On New Year's Day 2000, it ac ...

. The series was broadcast on

PBS Kids PBS Kids (stylized as PBS KIDS) is the branding used for nationally distributed children's programming carried by the U.S. public television network PBS. The brand encompasses a daytime block of children's programming carried daily by most PBS ...

in the United States, and on

CBBC CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

and

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content targeted for children aged six year ...

in the United Kingdom. It was also broadcast in Australia on ABC Kids. The series ran for three seasons and 52 episodes total from September 7, 2003, to January 23, 2007, with reruns airing through August 31, 2008. Reruns aired on the

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

television network from June 30, 2012 to March 26, 2017. The show chronicles the boyhood adventures of Piggley Winks, an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

pig from Ireland, and how he relates these stories to his grandchildren as a grandfather in the modern day. Many of the stories takes place on the Winks family's farm, Raloo Farm, located in the village of Tara. Piggley and his father use the word “Jakers” express their delight when they discover something on their adventures. Notably, the show contains voiceover work by the actors

Joan Rivers Joan Alexandra Molinsky (June 8, 1933 – September 4, 2014), known professionally as Joan Rivers, was an American comedienne, actress, producer, writer and television host. She was noted for her blunt, often controversial comedic persona that w ...

and

Mel Brooks Melvin James Brooks (né Kaminsky; born June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and songwriter. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodie ...

Premise

''Jakers!'' takes place in two different settings, in two different time periods. In the present time (the

frame story A frame story (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either fo ...

), Piggley Winks ( Peadar Lamb, Maile Flanagan as a young boy) lives in the United States and tells stories of his childhood in rural

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

to his three grandchildren ( Nika Futterman and

Melissa Disney Melissa Disney is an American voice actress and writer. She is most known as the voice of the titular character in the Nickelodeon animated series '' As Told by Ginger''. Disney's other voice roles include Vivi Ornitier in ''Kingdom Hearts II'', ...

). In flashbacks, he is seen as a child, playing and adventuring with his friends such as Ferny Toro the

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not Castration, castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol cattle in r ...

(

Russi Taylor Russi Taylor (May 4, 1944 – July 26, 2019) was an American voice actress. She was best remembered for voicing the character of Minnie Mouse in English from 1986 to 2019, and was married to voice actor Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse, ...

) and Dannan O’

Mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...

(

Tara Strong Tara Lyn Strong (; born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian and American actress. She is known for her voice work in animation, websites, and video games. Strong's voice roles include animated series such as '' The Powerpuff Girls'', '' The Fair ...

) and going to school in 1950s. Most of the main characters are

animals—including Piggley and his family, who are all pigs. However, there are normal, non-anthropomorphic animals in the show as well.

Past

Piggley Winks lived with his parents Pádraig and Elly and his younger sister Molly at Raloo Farm in Ireland. His best friends are Dannan O'Mallard, a duck who lives in a hut by a pond with her rarely seen grandmother, and Fernando "Ferny" Toro, a young bull who lives with his widowed father, the Spanish blacksmith Don Toro in the village of Tara. Piggley's rival is the main antagonist, Hector McBadger. Piggley lives his everyday life on the farm as a normal child, going to school, helping his parents, taking care of his sister, and having adventures, almost always followed by his friends. He has always been interested in stories and legends, and his fertile mind and mischievous spirit put him in many unpredictable situations, like believing fairies turned Ferny into a bug, trying to hatch a supposed dragon's egg, using the Salmon of Knowledge to pass the school exam, and even trying to capture the legendary Fir Darrig. Each story also features a subplot featuring a sheep named Wiley (voiced by

), who lives at Raloo Farm with his flock. As the only sheep in the flock who can talk, he believes he is their natural leader, and tries to get the other sheep to do all kinds of different things (singing, racing, playing sports, acting, etc.), with varying degrees of success. He is later assisted by his mate, a female sheep named Shirley. A running gag on the show is that Wiley's subplot and Piggley's plot would collide (e.g. in "Sheep on the Loose", Wiley runs away and Piggley, as the shepherd, tries to find him). CommonSenseMedia explains that at the end of each episode there is a live-action segment, in which "group of children talk about their own experiences and feelings, reflecting on what the episode has been about".

Present

An elderly Piggley lives with his daughter Ciara and her three children, the twins Seán and Séamus, and their older sister Meg. Whenever the children have an issue, Piggley tells them one of his childhood stories as a moral lesson. The grandchildren are able to identify potential exaggerations in his stories.

Development

''Jakers!'' was originally conceived by Denise Fitzpatrick based on her experiences on a farm as a young girl in rural Ireland. The original name for her character and the show she planned to adapt him to was originally titled ''Piggley Pooh'', which caused a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...

letter by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

due to the planned show sharing the same name as the

Winnie the Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by ...

series. Despite countersuing and having the European Court side with the Fitzpatrick's, their lawyer decided that changing the name of the show and character would be better to avoid future copyright issues. Eventually, this led to Piggley Pooh becoming ''Piggley Winks''. The term Jakers derives from the Irish interjection "Jaysus", which in turn derives from

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

. After the name change, production on the show began in March 2002, under the title of ''The Curley Tales of Piggley Winks''. Denise's husband, Frances, helped produce the show through his company, Entara, while the show was executively produced by Mike Young and animated by his studio Mike Young Productions, which at the time was handling international distribution for the series. Notably, the show was rendered in high definition, The majority of the cast recorded their voices at Salami Studios in North Hollywood, California while Lambe recorded from Ireland. The animation was outsourced to Crest Animation Studios in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, India.

Broadcast

''Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks'' was shown on

and

in United Kingdom from 2004 up until early 2011. It first aired in the United Kingdom on the CBBC Channel on September 6, 2004, as part of the short lived ''Animadness'' block, and later was repeated on CBeebies from February 13, 2006, on the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

strand at 3:25pm, but it didn't air on the CBeebies Channel until March 19, 2007, when the scheduling of CBeebies was changing, and

, and

, and PBS Kids Sprout in United States. 9 Story Media Group distributes the series. Reruns on PBS Kids continued to air until August 31, 2008, and PBS Kids Sprout aired this series in 2005, where it was made available on Sprout on Demand with selected episodes airing under the "Children's Favorites" label (and eventually in its own label). It joined the network a year later in 2006, during a Grandparents' Day marathon, but was taken off two years later on July 3, 2008.

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

's Planeta U carried the show as part of the block's inaugural lineup from its launch on April 5, 2008, to August 28, 2010.

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2003–04)

Season 2 (2004–05)

Season 3 (2006–07)

Cast

Main

* Peadar Lamb as Grandpa Piggley Winks * Maile Flanagan as Young Piggley Winks, Fergal O'Hopper (except in "Good Neighbor" and "New Best Friends") *

as Fernando "Ferny" Toro, Elly Winks (Piggley and Molly's mother) and Ciara (Piggley's daughter) *

as Dannan O'Mallard, Molly Winks, Aunt Molly (voice only; "The World According to Molly") * Nika Futterman as Seamus and Sean (Ciara's twin sons) *

as Meg (Ciara's daughter) *

as Wiley the Sheep *

as Shirley the Sheep (Season 3 only) *

Harry Shearer Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American actor, comedian, musician, radio host, writer, and producer. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member of The ...

as Other Sheep ("No Girls Allowed") *

Charlie Adler Charles Michael Adler (born October 2, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director. He is known for his roles as Buster Bunny on ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', the Bigheads on ''Rocko's Modern Life'', Ickis on ''Aaahh!!! Real Monsters'', Doc ...

as Mr. Hornsby, Pádraig Winks (Piggley and Molly's father) * Neil Ross as Mr. McGandry, Mr. O'Hopper (Fergal's Father), Buck Boylan *

Pamela Adlon Pamela Adlon ( ; ; born July 9, 1966) is an American-British actress. She is known for voicing Bobby Hill in the animated comedy series ''King of the Hill'' (1997–2010), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. She also voiced Baloo in '' Ju ...

as Hector McBadger *Fernando Escandon as Don Toro *

Kath Soucie Kath Soucie (, ). is an American voice actress, known for voicing Phil, Lil and their mother Betty DeVille in '' Rugrats'', Lola Bunny in the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise, Fifi La Fume and Li'l Sneezer in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'', Maddie Fent ...

as Millie, Katrina *

Thom Adcox-Hernandez Thom Adcox-Hernandez is an American actor, known for his roles as Brian in the prime-time soap opera ''Falcon Crest'' and the voices of Felix the Cat in the first season of ''The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat'', Lexington on '' Gargoyles'' and ...

as Fergal O'Hopper ("Good Neighbor" and "New Best Friends" only) *

Candi Milo Candyce Anne Rose Milo (born January 9, 1961) Timestamps: (00:27:12-00:27:45) Milo states that she is "firmly 51". (00:06:40-00:06:47) Milo states that she was born in Palm Springs. (00:16:23-00:16:25) She says her birthday is in January. (00:48 ...

as Gosford *

Susan Silo Susan Silo (born July 27, 1942) is an American actress who is known for her work in voice-over roles. Early life Susan Silo was born in New York City. Both her parents were actors Jon Silo and Ruth Silo. Career Her acting career started in ...

as Miss Nanny *Mauri Bernstein as Holly * Fionnula Flanagan (no relation to Maile) as Grandma O'Mallard * Jessica DiCicco as Gaddie O'Mallard *Cathal Nugent as Angry Old Goat * David Kelly as Captain Cumara *

Brendan Gleeson Brendan Gleeson (born 29 March 1955) is an Irish actor. He has received various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, two British Independent Film Awards and three IFTA Awards, along with nominations for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Aw ...

as Uncle Fernando "Ferny" Toro * Peter Anderson as Finbarr Hornsby * Frank McCourt as Mr. McHoof * Cobi Jones as Himself (Live & Learn segments only)

Additional voices

Charlie Schlatter Charlie Schlatter is an American actor who has appeared in several films and television series. He is best known for his role as Dr. Jesse Travis, the resident student of Dr. Mark Sloan (played by Dick Van Dyke) on the CBS series '' Diagnosis: ...

Jennifer Hale Jennifer Hale is a Canadian voice actress. She is best known for her work in video game franchises such as ''Baldur's Gate'', ''Mass Effect'', '' Metal Gear Solid'', '' BioShock Infinite'', '' Metroid Prime'', '' Halo'', '' Overwatch'', and '' ...

Jess Harnell Jess Harnell (born December 23, 1963) is an American voice actor. His roles include Wakko Warner in ''Animaniacs'', Captain Hero in '' Drawn Together'', Jerry in the first two seasons of '' Totally Spies!'', Ironhide in the first three ''Tr ...

Katie Leigh Katie Leigh is an American voice actress. She has voice acted in both television, film and occasionally video game roles. Career Katie Leigh is known for her voice roles such as Sunni Gummi in '' Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears'', Zuzu in ...

* Neil Ross *

Carlos Alazraqui Carlos Jaime Alazraqui (born July 20, 1962) is an American actor. His voice acting roles include the original voice of Spyro from '' Spyro the Dragon'', the Taco Bell chihuahua in the Taco Bell commercials, Rocko on ''Rocko's Modern Life'', D ...

Denis Leary Denis Colin Leary (born August 18, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Born in Massachusetts, he first came to prominence as a stand-up comedian, especially through appearances on MTV (including the comedic song " Asshole") and th ...

UK/Irish cast

For the UK, most of the characters were given new voices by the following actors: * Angeline Ball *Gerard Ban Lavery * Connor Byrne *Julie-Ann Dean *Tracy Keating * Aoife McMahon * Maria Darling (season one only) * Joanna Ruiz The voices of Peadar Lamb,

, Fernando Escandon,

and

were retained for Grandpa Piggley, Ferny, Dannan, Don Toro, Wiley and Shirley the Sheep respectively.

DVD releases

DVD releases of the series were released by

Paramount Home Entertainment Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, originally Paramount Home Video, and operating as the namesake film studio since 2022) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures. The division oversees Para ...

US releases

UK releases

Reception

Critical response

CommonSenseMedia gave the show a rating of 4 stars out of 5, commenting "The animation is lovely, the characters are amusing and cute, and the lessons are so gently presented that it really is a pleasure to learn them."

Awards

* Humanitas Award Children's Animation Category for "The Gift", written by Sindy McKay-Swerdlove, Dennis Haley & Marcy Brown (2007) * Humanitas Award in the Children's Animation Category for "Waking Thor" Written by Kelly Ward and Cliff McGillivray (2005) *

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

for Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program (2008) *

for Outstanding Individual in Animation – Storyboard Artist (2007) *

for Outstanding Children's Animated Program (2006) *

for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Maile Flanagan (2006) *

for Outstanding Music Direction & Composition (2005) *

for Outstanding Individual in Animation – Milk Melodrama (2005) *

for Outstanding Individual in Animation – Production Designer (2004) *

for Outstanding Individual in Animation – Storyboard Artist: All Night Long (2004) * British Academy Children's Award for Best International (2005) *

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

Gold Hugo Award in the Animated Series Category (2005) * Chicago International Film Festival Silver Hugo Award in the Animated Series Category (2004) *

Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

for PBS/''Jakers!'' Website (2005) * Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award in the Television Category (2004 & 2006) * Genesis Commendation Award from the

Humane Society of the United States Humane World for Animals, formerly the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and Humane Society International (HSI), is a global nonprofit organization that focuses on animal welfare and opposes animal-related cruelties of national scop ...

(2004) * New York Festivals Gold World Medal Award in the Animation Category for Youth/Young Adult Programs (2006) * Prix Jeunesse Web Prize Winner (2004)

References

External links