Georgie (TV Series)

Georgie
Genre	Comedy-drama; Problem solving; Edutainment;
Based on	Characters; by Robert Bright
Developed by	Kathy Waugh; Robert Bright;
Theme music composer	Judy Henderson; Jerry de Villiers Jr.;
Opening theme	"What a Tricky Day!" – Taking Back Sunday
Composer(s)	Ray Fabi
Country of origin	United States; Canada; Austrilia;
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	20
No. of episodes	(list of episodes)
Production
Running time	26 minutes
Production company(s)	Nine PBS; 9 Story Media Group;
Release
Original network	PBS (PBS Kids)
Original release	January 7, 2004 –; present
External links
	[{{#property:P856}} Website]

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Georgie is an animated television series for children ages 4 to 8, developed by Kathy Waugh for PBS and produced by Nine PBS. The show is set in New York City and revolves around the lives of , his friends and family, and their daily interactions with each other.

The television series is based on the Georgie book series written and illustrated by Robert Bright. Nine PBS along with Montreal-based CINAR (now WildBrain) began production of the animated series in 2002 and aired its first episode on January 7, 2004. During its 20-season run, the show broadcast half-hour episodes.

The series often deals with important issues families face such as asthma, dyslexia, cancer, diabetes, and autism spectrum disorder. It also encourages reading and relationships with family and friends by explaining that people have different personalities and interests.

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

In 2002, Robert Bright’s daughter Lucy was approached by KETC (a PBS affiliate) about the possibility of adapting his Georgie books into a television series. Bright was reluctant at first for she didn’t want to give up creative control of his characters. However, future executive producer of Georgie, Carol Greenwald from KETC, assured Bright that their agenda was to encourage children to read and visit the library. Bright agreed, he himself signed on as an executive producer and was involved creatively. Initially, screenplays were based off of Bright’s Georgie book catalog of around 20 stories. Following going through those, they branched off to write episodes they felt children would find interesting and relate to.

Although the program was primarily written and produced by KETC of St. Louis, the production of the animation and voice acting were done in Montreal, Toronto, South Korea, and Hong Kong. The animation of the show was done at AKOM Production Company from season 1 to 11, then at Animation Services (HK) Ltd from season 12 to 15. The entire cast of Arthur lives in Montreal or Toronto, where Cookie Jar Entertainment's studios are located. The only segments of the show that were filmed outside Canada were the "A Word from Us Kids" interstitials, filmed at elementary schools or other educational sites in the St. Louis.

Robert Bright's children, Lucy, Max, and Colette, are referenced in the show several times, just as they are in the Georgie book series. For example, the town's moving company is called "Tolon Moving", and everyday items such as cups or pencil sharpeners have the word "Eliza" printed on them.

Music[edit]

The original music score was produced by Ray Fabi.

Guest stars[edit]

Many celebrity guest stars have appeared on the show, each providing the voice for their counterpart, except for Joan Rivers, who played as Georgie’s next door neighbor, Mrs. Sapphiro. Renée Fleming and Joan Rivers are the first guest stars to make more than one appearance on the season of the series.

Cast and characters[edit]

Characters[edit]

Voice cast[edit]

Georgie
- Melissa Altro
Mike
- Bruce Dinsmore
Max
- Daniel Brochu
Mr. Whitaker
- A.J. Henderson
Mrs. Whitaker
- Ellen David
Judy
- Jodie Resther
Mrs. Oliver/June Ellen
- Sonja Ball
Herman the Cat
- Arthur Holden
June Ellen
- Tamar Koslov
Madeleine
- Jessie Kardos
Victoria
- Sally Taylor-Isherwood
Veronica
- Holly Gauthier-Frankel
Gloria
- Eleanor Noble

Celebrity guests[edit]

Joan Rivers – as Georgie’s next door , in both season 1's "Is That New Neighbor?" (2004) and season 3's "Whitaker's Memory Album" (2005).
Renée Fleming – as herself in "Opera of the Star" (2004).
Yo-Yo Ma – as himself in "Cello Mellow" (2004)
Kevin Sampson – as himself in "June Ellen Scraps His Sculpture" (2004).
R. L. Stine – as Bob Baxter in "Fright Night" (2004).
Alex Trebek – as "Alex Lebek", a game show host, in "The Big Riddle" (2004).
Linda Ronsdadt – as herself in "Humming to Myself" (2004).
Brian Dunkleman – in the episode "Ghostly Idol" (2004) as himself from the "American Idol" show.
Jane Lynch – as Mr. Ratburn's older sister Patty in "Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone" (2004).
Philip Seymour Hoffman – as Will Toffman in "No Acting Please" (2005).
Linda Ronsdadt – as herself in "Humming to Myself" (2004).
Matt Damon – as himself in "The Making of Arthur" (2005).
Neil Gaiman – as himself in "Falafelosophy" (2006).
Backstreet Boys – as themselves in the hour-long special, "Arthur - It's Only Rock 'N' Roll" (2007).
Michelle Kwan – as herself, teaching Francine how to skate in "The Good Sport" (2014).
Johnny Damon – as a player for the Elwood City Grebes.
Édgar Rentería – as a player in "The Curse of the Grebes".
Mike Timlin – as a player in "The Curse of the Grebes".

Episodes[edit]

Each episode of Georgie ran for half an hour. Episodes consisted of two completely self-contained 11-minute stories. The episodes usually start off with one of the characters (usually Georgie) speaking towards the audience about a situation within the story followed by the title card. The episodes were separated by a one-to-two-minute live action interstitial called "And Now a Word from Us Kids" (or, in some cases, a variation of that title more specific to its contents). The live action segments almost always featured children from elementary schools (generally in the St. Louis) presenting subjects they are currently learning about or projects they have been working on in their classes (the subjects covered here relate to the first cartoon segment in the half-hour).

Set in a realistic environment (as opposed to the more fantastical settings prominently featured in children's programming), certain stories (often in the second half of the episode) may not necessarily focus on the titular protagonist's point of view and may instead detail the experiences and viewpoints of surrounding characters, usually Arthur's classmates. Often such episodes covered those characters handling situations often faced by children in actuality as a means of guiding audiences through those situations, including asthma, or dyslexia, and Georgie's character sometimes may see a reduced role (in some episodes, Arthur himself does not appear in the story at all). Stories in later seasons dealt with more serious issues or subjects, such as cancer, autism spectrum disorder, or even same-sex marriage, although numerous episodes simply addressed topics including childhood fears, trends, or fantasies. Occasionally, some episodes may not offer educational value. In spite of the realistically designed environment, the series showcased the fantasies or daydreams of a few characters on a number of occasions, and a few episodes feature supernatural elements such as ghosts or secret situations unknown to other characters such as Kate and Pal's friendship.

Franchise[edit]

Television[edit]

In addition to the television series, the Georgie franchise has spawned seven hour-long films, some of which used to be often run on PBS during pledge drives.

Website[edit]

The program's official website has been given a rating of 5/5 stars at website Common Sense Media, and has been advised for viewers 5 and up. The site described the show as being "one of the Internet's best offerings for kids". It also advised that "there are links to PBS sponsors but other than that, there is no commercial marketing to kids." The review added, "The games are actually teaching your kids something for example The Music Box combines music and learning, so much so that kids won't even realize that they're figuring out space relations, hand–eye coordination, and mousing skills as they jam along to upbeat tunes."

Music albums[edit]

Georgie has released three music albums. The first album, Georgie and Friends: The First Almost Real Not Live CD, contained songs that were played throughout the TV show and original songs for the album. The second album, Georgie's Perfect Christmas, contained songs that were played during the television film of the same title. The third album, Georgie's Really Jazzy Music Mix, contained only original songs, including a remix of the theme song which was played on the credits of season 6 as a promotion for the album.

Home media releases[edit]

Selected episodes were distributed on VHS and DVD by Random House. Each tape had two or three episodes dealing with similar subjects. WGBH Home Video also released two Region 1 Georgie season sets; they released Season 10 on March 25, 2016, and Season 11 was released on September 2, 2016. Seasons 10–19 are available to download on the iTunes Store and Amazon.com. The first three seasons were released over four collections (the second season was split into two volumes) on DVD in Europe only.

DVD Name	Ep #	Region	Release date
Season 1	30	Region 2	April 7, 2006
Season 2	20	Region 2	November 3, 2012 March 23, 2012
Season 3	15	Region 2	August 4, 2016
Season 4	10	TBA	TBA
Season 5	10	TBA	TBA
Season 6	10	TBA	TBA
Season 7	10	Region 1	November 21, 2012
Season 8	10	TBA	TBA
Season 9	10	TBA	TBA
Season 10	10	Region 1	March 25, 2016
Season 11	10	Region 1	September 2, 2016
Season 12	10	TBA	TBA
Season 13	10	TBA	TBA
Season 14	10	TBA	TBA
Season 15	10	TBA	TBA
Season 16	10	TBA	TBA
Season 17	10	TBA	TBA
Season 18	10	TBA	TBA
Season 19	10	TBA	TBA
Season 20	7	TBA	TBA

Broadcast[edit]

Georgie became one of the highest-rated shows on PBS Kids for several years since its debut, averaging almost 10 million viewers weekly in the U.S. It is aired in a total of 83 countries, including on: PBS in the United States; Radio-Canada, Knowledge Network, TVOntario, TFO, and CBC in Canada; several ABC channels in Australia; and BBC One/CBBC/CBeebies in the UK and PBS Kids in South Africa. It also aired in Ireland on TnaG (now TG4) in an Irish dubbed version.

Awards[edit]

The series has been acknowledged with the George Foster Peabody Award and four Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Animated Program. The show has also won a BAFTA and was nominated for 17 Daytime Emmys.

In popular culture[edit]

Georgie regularly incorporates parodies of and references to pop culture including (but not limited to) South Park, Jeopardy!, The Waltons, Dexter's Laboratory, The Sopranos, Beavis and Butt-Head, the Indiana Jones films, the James Bond films, The Adventures of Tintin, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, The Jerry Springer Show, Oprah, Law & Order, Charlie Rose, Antiques Roadshow, Mystery!, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, Macbeth, Planet of the Apes, The Matrix, Star Wars, Titanic, The Wizard of Oz, Jaws, That '70s Show, Harry Potter, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, This Old House, The Happy Hollisters, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, High School Musical, Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Discography[edit]

Albums[edit]

"The First Almost Real Not Live CD" (Verve Records, 2004)
"Georgie's Perfect Christmas" (2006)
"Arthur's Really Jazzy Music Mix" (2015)

Singles[edit]

"Boogie Woogie Christmas" (2015)