Peep and the Big Wide World

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Use mdy dates Template:Convert to Episode table Template:Infobox television Peep and the Big Wide World is an animated preschool television series created by Danish-Canadian animator Kaj Pindal. It revolves around the lives of three birds named Peep, Chirp, and Quack, as they discover, investigate, and explore the world around them.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The show was based on the 1988 short film of the same name produced by the National Film Board of Canada,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> which itself is based on the 1962 short film The Peep Show,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> also produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The series premiered on April 12, 2004, on Discovery Kids and on TLC as part of their Ready Set Learn! children's block in the United States, and on TVOKids in Canada. It was produced by WGBH Boston (through its kids division WGBH Kids), 9 Story Media Group (formerly 9 Story Entertainment; in its debut production), Eggbox LLC, the National Film Board of Canada, and Discovery Kids Original Productions (seasons 1–3), in association with TVOntario and Discovery Kids, and is distributed by Alliance Atlantis (through AAC Kids for the first season).

Throughout its run, it was underwritten by the National Science Foundation,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with Northrop Grumman underwriting season four in 2010.

Each episode consists of two 9-minute stories, which are animated segments, and two 2-minute live-action segments, in which children explore and demonstrate the same topic presented in the animated segment. The show is narrated by Joan Cusack and the background music is produced by Steve D' Angelo and Terry Tompkins.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Overview

Viewers follow Peep, Chirp, and Quack as they investigate and explore the world around them. Following the 9-minute animated episode, there is a 2-minute live-action segment which features children exploring and demonstrating the same topic presented in the episode. The animation consists of bright colors, 2D, 3D and simple shapes, which simulates and reflects a youthful art style.

Characters

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Main

• Peep (voiced by Scott Beaudin in seasons 1–3, Shawn Molko in season 4 and Maxwell Uretsky in season 5) is a male, yellow chicken who is very curious. He is the youngest bird of the group. The show's title is derived from his name. However, Peep is female in the original short film.
• Chirp (voiced by Amanda Soha) is a female, red robin who is also very curious, and attempts frequently to fly, with unsatisfying results, until "A Daring Duck", when she flies to the ground. In "Big Bird", she meets an adult robin for the first time. She is Peep and Quack's best friend. However, Chirp is male in the original short film.
• Quack (voiced by Jamie Watson) is a male, indigo blue duckling who wears a white sailor's hat. He is older than Peep and Chirp, as they are still chicks. He frequently boasts about himself and ducks as a whole, and unwittingly makes many discoveries. Quack is purple in the original short film and is now referred to as blue, but is still quite indigo. He also seems to have a hoarding issue, as evidenced in the episode "An Inconvenient Tooth, Part 1".
• The Narrator (voiced by Joan Cusack) is an omniscient voice who narrates each episode. She usually remains separate from the action, but occasionally, the characters are shown to be able to hear her and will interact with her.

Minor

• Ant (voiced by Robert Tinkler) is a very busy male ant who is leader of the ants.
• Bat (voiced by Ron Rubin in season 1 and Ron Pardo in season 2) is a very shy bat.
• Beaver Boy (voiced by Tessa Marshall in seasons 1–3 and Amanda Gryniewski in seasons 4–5) is a young naïve male beaver who lives in an adjoining pond to Quack's pond. He appears in several episodes. His desire to please his mom and dad often results in him chewing down too many trees. He often calls Quack "Blue Sailor", Peep "Yellow Guy", and Chirp "Red Round".
• Beaver Dad (voiced by Phillip Williams) is Beaver Boy's businesslike father.
• Beaver Mom (voiced by Kathleen Laskey in season 1 and Debra McGrath seasons 2–3) is Beaver Boy's workaholic mother.
• Blue Jays (voiced by David Huband and Kathleen Laskey for male and female, resp.) are very silly blue and white birds who love to cause lots of trouble when they see stuff.
• Bunnies (voiced by Melanie Tonello, Raquel Cadilha, Alexander Conti, resp. in seasons 1–2; Avigail Humphreys and Riele Downs in seasons 4–5) are inhabitants who live in rabbit holes. In season 1, three bunnies who lived in a rabbit hole became Peep's friends in "Peep in Rabbitland". In season 4, five bunnies are aided by Peep and Quack to find their bunnysitter in "You Can Count on Bunnies".
• Bunnysitter (voiced by Jake Sim) is a bunny who babysits the 5 bunnies.
• Dragonfly (voiced by Catherine Disher) is a quiet dragonfly.
• Fish (voiced by John McGrath in season 1 and Robert Tinkler in season 2) are cohabitations of Quack's pond.
• Fish Jr. (voiced by Phoebe McAuley in seasons 1–2 and Sarah Commisso in season 3) is the youngest fish in the pond and Quack's best fish friend.
• Frog (voiced by Robert Tinkler) is a frog who lives in Quack's pond. He rarely talks.
• Groundhog (voiced by Rachel Marcus) is a young groundhog destined to find her shadow.
• Old Groundhog (voiced by Adrian Truss) is the oldest of all groundhogs.
• Hoot (voiced by Corinne Conley) is a menacing, but kind purple female owl who lives in the Deep Dark Woods.
• "Me" Tiny Ant<ref name="PeepCredits"/> (voiced by Erica Commisso) is the tiniest ant in the anthill. "Me" was named after a misinterpretation from Peep.
• Nellie (voiced by Marium Carvell) is a red female dog who acts as a seemingly maternal figure for the birds.
• Newton (voiced by Colin Fox) is an old, male, dark-green turtle who lives under an apple tree.
• Quack #2 (voiced by Megan Mullally) is a female duck who has her own pond, built by Quack, Peep, Chirp, Beaver Boy and his parents, and Quack's pink doppelgänger. Like Quack, Quack #2 is boastful and narcissistic, but unlike Quack, Quack #2 is annoying, cruel, and bad-intentioned.
• Rabbit (voiced by Jayne Eastwood) is an excitable and somewhat distracted rabbit.
• Raccoon (voiced by Jeff Lumby) is a gobbo, male brown & black raccoon who has lots of rubbish.
• Robins (voiced by Kathleen Laskey and Holly Hunter respectively) are two individual robins with differentiating personalities. One is a blue robin who flies around giving Chirp pep talks and comes from "Chirp Builds a Nest". Another is an adult robin who appears in "Big Bird" and "Chirp Flies the Coop".
• Skunk (voiced by Adrian Truss) is a rather deadpan skunk who lives near Quack's pond.
• Snail (voiced by Laura Lynn) is a pondweller in Quack's pond.
• Spider (voiced by Marium Carvell) is a smart and sneaky spider.
• Splendid Bird from Paradise (voiced by Jabella A. Urrejola-Lugo) is a green bird who was captured from the jungle, adopted by a little girl and found her way in the Big Wide World.
• Squeak (voiced by Kathleen Laskey) is an anxious pink, female mouse who lives under a brick and always worries a lot about what could go wrong.
• Squirrel (voiced by Peter Wildman) is a brown squirrel with a long tail who favors acorns.
• Tom (voiced by Alex Hood in season 1 and Matthew Knight in season 2) is a sly, male blue kitten with black stripes who often tries to eat Peep, Chirp, and Quack. He is the sole antagonist.

Episodes

Season 1 (2004)

Episode No.		Segment names		Synopsis		Original airdate	Prod code
Total	Season	First segment	Second segment	Plot A and B
1	1	Spring Thing	Springy Thingy	Peep and his friends attempt to take care of a flower he believes is the "last beautiful living thing in the cold, gray world". Peep and the trio go to the dump and discover many bouncy objects, such as a jack-in-the-box.	April 12, 2004	110
2	2	A Duck's Tale	Quack's Tracks	Quack, believing he has no self-defense tactics, is reminded of "The Power of Duck Feet". Quack and Peep learn about animal tracks.	April 13, 2004	101
3	3	Quack and the Very Big Rock	Shadow Play		April 14, 2004	102
4	4	Current Events	Quack Loses His Hat		April 15, 2004	103
5	5	Night Light	Sounds Like...		April 16, 2004	104
6	6	The Windy Day	Peep Feet		April 19, 2004	105
7	7	Newton's Big Adventure	Peep Crosses the Road		April 20, 2004	106
8	8	Stormy Weather	Peep in Rabbitland		April 21, 2004	107
9	9	Quack's Stuck Stick	Peep's Can		April 22, 2004	108
10	10	Under Duck	All Fall Down		April 23, 2004	109
11	11	The Perils of Peep and Chirp	Hoop Tricks		April 26, 2004	111
12	12	Save It for Later	The Red Ballmoon		April 27, 2004	112
13	13	Chirp Builds a Nest	Stuck Duck		April 28, 2004	113
14	14	The Real Decoy	Peep's Lost Leaf		April 29, 2004	114
15	15	Birds of a Feather	The Incredible Shrinking Duck		April 30, 2004	115
16	16	Go West Young Peep	A Delicate Balance		May 3, 2004	116
17	17	The Fish Museum	Peep's Night Out		May 4, 2004	117
18	18	There's No Place Like Home	Flipping Newton		May 5, 2004	118
19	19	Chirp's Flight Program	Mirror Mirror in the Dump		May 6, 2004	119
20	20	Bridge the Gap	Meeting Half-Way		May 7, 2004	120
21	21	Peep Plants a Seed	The Root Problem		May 10, 2004	121
22	22	Hide and Go Peep	A Peep of a Different Color		May 11, 2004	122
23	23	That's a Cat	Faster Than a Duck		May 12, 2004	123
24	24	Quack Hatches an Egg	The Whatchamacallit		May 13, 2004	124
25	25	Wandering Beaver	Peep's New Friend		May 14, 2004	125
26	26	The Trip to Green Island	Give Me a Call		May 17, 2004	126

Season 2 (2005–06)

Episode No.		Segment names		Synopsis		Original airdate	Prod code
Total	Season	First segment	Second segment	Plot A and B
27	1	Finders Keepers	Quack Quiets the Universe	2 May 2005	201
28	2	Peep's Moon Mission	The Many Moons of Quack the Duck	3 May 2005	202
29	3	The Mystery of the Thing That Went and Came Back	Peep's Color Quest	4 May 2005	203
30	4	Reflection Affection	Peep Deep in the Big Muddy	5 May 2005	204
31	5	Chirp Sorts It Out (Sort Of)	Hear Here!	6 May 2005	205
32	6	Dry Duck		9 May 2005	206
33	7	Snow Daze	Flower Shower	10 May 2005	207
34	8	Who Stole the Big Wide World?	M-U-D Spells Trouble	11 May 2005	208
35	9	Finding Time	Smaller Than a Peep	12 May 2005	209
36	10	Quack Quack	One Duck Two Many	13 May 2005	210
37	11	Count Them Out	Peep Prints	25 September 2006	212
38	12	Stick with Me	Tree Feller	26 September 2006	211
39	13	A Daring Duck	The Trouble with Bubbles	27 September 2006	213

Season 3 (2007)

Episode No.		Segment names		Synopsis		Original airdate	Prod code
Total	Season	First segment	Second segment	Plot A and B
40	1	The Tooth, the Whole Tooth, and Nothing But the Tooth	The Winter of Quack's Discontent	17 April 2007	302
41	2	Nosing Around	The Last Straw	18 April 2007	303
42	3	The Disappearing Drink	Door Tour	19 April 2007	304
43	4	In a Bind	Star Light, Star Bright	20 April 2007	305
44	5	Bedtime Story	The Deep Duck Woods	11 September 2007	306
45	6	I Spy a Spider	Robin in the Bat Cave	12 September 2007	307
46	7	Marble Mover	Fair Shares	13 September 2007	308
47	8	The Feats of Peep	Quack Goes Nuts	14 September 2007	309
48	9	The Sounds of Silence		16 April 2007	301
49	10	Big Bird	Chirp Flies the Coop	10 September 2007	310

Season 4 (2010)

Episode No.		Segment names		Synopsis		Original airdate	Prod code
Total	Season	First segment	Second segment	Plot A and B
50	1	The Lurmies are Coming	Quack's Square Deal	2 February 2010	406
51	2	An Inconvenient Tooth		1 May 2010	401
52	3	Bringing Spring	Quack's Pond Party	13 May 2010	403
53	4	You Can Count on Bunnies	Falling Feathers	14 May 2010	405
54	5	Trading Places	House of Sand and Frog	26 June 2010	402
55	6	Magic Duck Dancing	Chirp Chirp Tweet Tweet Chirp	17 July 2010	404

Season 5 (2011)

Episode No.		Segment names		Original airdate	Prod code
Episode No.		Segment names				Synopsis		Original airdate	Prod code
Total	Season	First segment	Second segment	Plot A and B
56	1	Two's a Crowd		10 October 2011	501
57	2	The Road Not Taken		11 October 2011	502
58	3	Soap Opera	Diva Duck	12 October 2011	503
59	4	Quack and the Amazing Sandy Magic	Duckball	13 October 2011	504
60	5	Things That Go Peep in the Night	Mud Muddle	14 October 2011	505

Music composition

Music for Peep and the Big Wide World is composed by Terry Tompkins and Steve D'Angelo, from Eggplant. The opening theme is performed by blues musician Taj Mahal.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Broadcast

United States

Peep and the Big Wide World was originally broadcast on TLC and Discovery Kids — the latter as part of the Ready Set Learn! preschool block — from April 12, 2004, to September 14, 2007. Carriage on the Discovery children's networks ended on October 8, 2010, when Discovery Kids discontinued the block and reruns of the first three seasons to make way for the new network to launch known as The Hub on October 10. WGBH began airing the series on August 1, 2004,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and it was later offered to public television stations via independent public television distributor American Public Television from April 1, 2007,<ref name="aptstart">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="aptstart1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to January 3, 2018.<ref name="aptend">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The last two seasons were broadcast exclusively on select local public television stations with episodes distributed by APT from January 4, 2010<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to October 14, 2011, though second-runs of previous episodes began as early as April 1, 2007.<ref name="aptstart" /><ref name="aptstart1" /> APT continued distributing reruns until January 3, 2018,<ref name="aptend" /> well after commercial networks dropped the program. A total of 60 episodes (120 segments) were broadcast.

Beginning on January 1, 2018, distribution and reruns of Peep and the Big Wide World began airing on the 24-hour PBS Kids channel,<ref name="pbskidsstart">Template:Cite journal</ref> marking the first time the series aired nationally on PBS Kids. Despite being a production of PBS station WGBH, Peep and the Big Wide World was turned down by PBS in 2003 in favor of developing programming directed at "slightly older children".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> (The series was geared toward preschool children ages 3–5; meanwhile, PBS eventually launched the PBS Kids Go! block in 2004 which was intended for children above the preschool level.) The U.S. broadcasts of the series ended on December 26, 2021, when it was replaced with reruns of Dinosaur Train to the 7:30 a.m. weekend morning timeslot.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

APT and PBS Kids broadcasts of Peep and the Big Wide World were paired with a short episode from Pocoyo, which aired immediately after each show from 2010 to 2021.

Media

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Home video

WGBH Boston Video released the episodes of the first season on DVD in 2005. The 2005 DVD releases each contained six segments of the specified subject; Peep Explores, Peep Finds, Peep Floats, Peep's New Friends, Chirp Flies, and Quack Knows It All. The 2007 DVD release, Peep Figures It Out contained six segments as usual, plus two bonus segments. In 2011, PBS Kids Video released two DVDs; Seasons of Adventure, and Star Light, Star Bright, which contains episodes from seasons two and three respectively. In 2012, PBS Kids Video released two more DVDs; Finders Keepers and Bringing Spring. In 2014, PBS Kids Video released two more DVDs; Diva Duck, and Peep Discovers (which was once available as a limited release to retail stores). As of 2024, all of these DVDs are now out of print and very hard to find, but commonly found at public libraries. In Canada, Entertainment One released four DVDs in both English and French languages; Quack Quack, Peep's Moon Mission, Stick With Me, and Flower Shower.

PBS LearningMedia shorts

On July 26, 2017, WGBH released PEEP and the Big Wide World: Weather Factors, a media gallery in PBS LearningMedia's Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms project. Weather Factors contains 4 animated shorts: "Peep and the Too Windy Day", "Peep and the Chilly Dam", "Peep and the Changing Sky", and "Peep and the Rainy, Snowy Day".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

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• WGBH
• 9 Story Entertainment
• National Science Foundation grant information
• Watch the original Peep and the Big Wide World at NFB.ca
• Read Goodman Research Group's executive summary of the Peep website evaluation