The Charlie Horse Music Pizza
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''The Charlie Horse Music Pizza'' is a children's television show that was shown on PBS Kids in the United States from January 5, 1998, to January 17, 1999, with reruns continuing to air until September 3, 1999. Reruns again aired on PBJ until 2016. It is the short-lived spin-off of '' Lamb Chop's Play-Along ''and was hosted by
Shari Lewis Shari Lewis (born Phyllis Naomi Hurwitz; January 17, 1933 – August 2, 1998) was a Peabody awards, Peabody-winning American Ventriloquism, ventriloquist, puppeteer, children's entertainer, television show host, dancer, singer, actress, author, a ...
, whose strong belief in the benefits of music education for children led to the creation of the series. ''The Charlie Horse Music Pizza'' was shot at the CBC Studios in
Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
, Canada. ''The Charlie Horse Music Pizza'' was Shari's final project.


Premise

The series takes place around a
pizzeria A pizzeria is a restaurant focusing on pizza. A pizzeria may offer take-away, where the customer orders their food either in advance or at the restaurant and then takes the prepared food with them in a pizza box. A pizzeria may deliver food to ...
on the beach. Alongside the original cast of Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and Lewis, ''Charlie Horse Music Pizza'' introduced five new characters: Take Out, a big anthropomorphized dim-witted
orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...
who makes deliveries on roller skates (played by Chancz Perry); Fingers, a giant, sassy purple raccoon that lives in the dumpster behind the pizzeria (played by Gordon Robertson); Cookie, the soft-hearted opera loving cook (played by Dom DeLuise), Junior, a cool teenager who works at the pizzeria part time and plays the tuba for his high school marching band (played by Wezley Morris), and Holly, a young girl in a wheelchair (played by
Chantal Strand Chantal Strand (born October 15, 1987) is a Canadian voice and stage actress as well as former stunt performer known for her vocal roles in animation, anime and video games. Her vocal role credits include those for younger girl characters in t ...
).


Episodes


Season 1 (1998)


Season 2 (1999)


Cancellation

When Lamb Chop's Play-Along! ended, Shari and her husband Jeremy created ''The Charlie Horse Music Pizza'' to teach children about music after talking about what kids loved the most. Because a third of elementary schools were cutting music class from their curriculum at the time, Shari and Jeremy felt that they should introduce kids to music through the show. After Shari was diagnosed with inoperable uterine cancer, the show was put on hold on June 18, 1998, while she underwent chemotherapy at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. She died from viral pneumonia on August 2, 1998. After her death, ''The Charlie Horse Music Pizza'' was cancelled. The last episode of ''The Charlie Horse Music Pizza'' aired on January 17, 1999, on what would have been her 66th birthday.


Awards

, - , 2000 ,
Shari Lewis Shari Lewis (born Phyllis Naomi Hurwitz; January 17, 1933 – August 2, 1998) was a Peabody awards, Peabody-winning American Ventriloquism, ventriloquist, puppeteer, children's entertainer, television show host, dancer, singer, actress, author, a ...
for playing "Host" (posthumous award; accepted by Mallory Tarcher Lewis) ,
Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NA ...
for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series ,


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Charlie Horse Music Pizza 1990s American children's television series 1998 American television series debuts 1999 American television series endings 1990s Canadian children's television series 1998 Canadian television series debuts 1999 Canadian television series endings American children's musical television series American preschool education television series American television shows featuring puppetry American television spinoffs Canadian children's musical television series Canadian preschool education television series Canadian television shows featuring puppetry Canadian television spinoffs 1990s preschool education television series American English-language television shows PBS Kids shows PBS original programming Television series set in restaurants Television shows set on beaches Television series about horses Television series by Universal Television Television shows filmed in Vancouver