Between the Lions is a PBS Kids

PBS Kids

PBS Kids is the brand for children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States founded in 1993. As with all PBS programming, PBS Kids programming is non-commercial. It is aimed at children ages 2 to 10...

' puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between WGBH

WGBH-TV

WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...

 in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting

Mississippi Public Broadcasting

Mississippi Public Broadcasting is the public broadcasting state network in Mississippi, United States. It is owned by the Mississippi Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Mississippi state government that holds the licenses for all of the PBS and NPR member stations in the...

, in Mississippi. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy

Daytime Emmy Award

The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...

awards between 2001 and 2007. The target audience is children 4 to 7 years old. It has the same puppet style as Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

and several season 2 episodes, notably in Dance in Smarty Pants, had a few characters from Sesame Street guest appearing. Between The Lions started its 10th and final season on September 20, 2010.

Plot

Between the Lions is about a family of lions who live in a library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 known as the Barnaby B. Busterfield III Memorial Public library. The beastly father Theodore(Theo) is the head of the family and the loving mother is Cleopatra(Cleo). They have two cubs, the seven-year-old Lionel, who is fun-loving, and four year old Leona, who is just learning to read. Despite being lions, the lions are actually very nice, friendly, and helpful to the library's patrons, which include people, monkeys, and chickens. The library features a lot of regular patrons including Walter and Clay Pigeons, which often annoy the statue of Mr. Busterfield himself, as well as Babs Caplan, an aspiring writer who often has trouble coming up with new stories. Each episode always includes a story which is read out, and a similar situation occurring in the library, often to much chaos.

Characters

The main characters are the lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

 cubs Lionel (who is 7 years old) and Leona (who is 4 years old) and their parents Theo (Theodore) and Cleo (Cleopatra), who read stories to the cubs in almost every episode, so they can get wild about reading.

Barnaby B. Busterfield III - A grumpy rock statue that is the founder of the library, because it is named after him. He is often left annoyed by the antics of Walter and Clay Pigeons and, being a statue, can't go anywhere. He is annoyed by the pigeons calling him "Buster".

Walter and Clay Pigeon - The two birds that Barnaby talks to, and they talk to (and annoy) him. That's why he says, "don't call me Buster!" Walter and Clay Pigeon are true urban birds, but let's just say that they are not the brightest lights in the sky—without each other's help, they might never manage to complete their own thoughts (for example, the Pigeons say, "We are going roller . . . uh . . . skating.").

Dr. Alexander Graham Nitwhite (often mispronounced as "Dr. Nitwit", in which he hates being called, by his duck assistant, Watson and sometimes by other characters) is a pelican

Pelican

A pelican, derived from the Greek word πελεκυς pelekys is a large water bird with a large throat pouch, belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae....

 scientist. In his skits, he announces to Watson that he has discovered "the only word in the entire English language" with a certain letter combination (which is nearly always related to the lesson of the whole episode). However, his "discoveries" always turn out to be incorrect, as Watson inadvertently points out; as such, his nickname is rather apt.

Information Hen - The library's information specialist. Each time she appears, she gives inforamtion about the library and reading to various callers.

Click - A live computer mouse shaped after the rodent

Mouse

A mouse is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse . It is also a popular pet. In some places, certain kinds of field mice are also common. This rodent is eaten by large birds such as hawks and eagles...

 of the same name. Click is a very high tech mouse in the fact that she can drag and drop objects and characters into and out of books and websites. Her only hindrances are, being a computer mouse, she must always stay connected to a computer and that she is vulnerable to computer viruses, as shown in one episode.

Heath the Thesaurus - The library's thesaurus

Thesaurus

A thesaurus is a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning , in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations...

 who is literally a giant dinosaur as a pun on the word "thesaurus" or "the saurus" He often shows up unexpectedly when a character asks about a homophonic word or when a situation is called for one.

Humorous content

Between the Lions often makes wild parodies of (often children's) programming. The title itself is a twofold pun, first on the phrase "between the lines", the second is that many classic library buildings have two lions separated by the main entrance. Thus in order to enter the library, you must go "between the lions". Some recurring segments include:

The Monkey Pop-Up Theatre

A monkey (monkeys are often featured as background characters or library patrons in this series) opens a pop-up book which presents a zany musical performance by monkeys who sing in opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

tic voices.

The Vowelles

Three lips, different colors, along with different colors of hair, gloves, and scarves, perform songs to an audience. These songs are simply a sequence of the same vocalizations of vowel sounds. The Vowelles are often accompanied by Johnny Consanante and/or Martha Reader. In 2000, the stage background is not lit, leaving viewers to see only lips, and usually gloves, scarves, and hair. In 2001, the dark stage background is replaced with a bright silver background, obviously revealing that The Vowelles are merely three pairs of floating lips, surrounded by hair...and usually accompanied by scarves and gloves.

The Word Doctor with Dr. Ruth Wordheimer

Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Ruth Westheimer

Ruth Westheimer is an American sex therapist, media personality, and author. Best known as Dr. Ruth, the New York Times described her as a "Sorbonne-trained psychologist who became a kind of cultural icon in the 1980s...

 plays "Dr. Ruth Wordheimer", a friendly therapist. Her two types of clients are:

• Monkeys who need help reading or understanding long or difficult words (they are having a "long word freakout").
• Words who are dissatisfied with their current meaning. (By replacing certain well-chosen letters, Dr. Wordheimer is able to give the word a new meaning and a new lease on life.)

Little Wendy Tales

A girl with black hair

Black hair

Black hair is the darkest and most common of all human hair colors globally. It is a dominant genetic trait, and it is found in people of all backgrounds and ethnicities. It has large amounts of eumelanin and is less dense than other hair colors. Black hair is known to be the shiniest of all hair...

 tied in pigtails (a parody of Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon, known as , is a media franchise created by manga artist Naoko Takeuchi. Fred Patten credits Takeuchi with popularizing the concept of a team of magical girls, and Paul Gravett credits the series with "revitalizing" the magical-girl genre itself...

, among other anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 clichés) reads the misadventures found in Little Wendy Tales when sitting next to her white cat Cuddly Kitty. In classic fashion, the big-eyed girl transforms herself into The Punctuator and saves Wendy by means of switching around the punctuation, altering the scene in the process. She rereads the altered adventures after correcting the sentences. The TV series was premiered on October 15, 2006 on Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (TV channel)

Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

.

Fun with Chicken Jane

Fun with Chicken Jane is a parody of the famous Dick and Jane books for children. In this, two naive children, Scot and Dot, place themselves in harm's way. An intelligent chicken named Chicken Jane spells out an obvious solution to the problem. At the last moment the children get out of the way and Chicken Jane gets hurt instead. The theme song is a parody of the old Alka Seltzer jingle. When the skit starts, Scot, Dot and Chicken Jane come skipping down a dirt road to the jingle that goes "Look, look, see, see, coming down the lane. Here comes Scot, here comes Dot, here comes Chicken Jane!" When the skit is over, Scot and Dot head back up the road (Chicken Jane limping along behind with an injured wing) to "Look, look, see, see, going up the lane. There goes Scot, there goes Dot, there goes Chicken Jane!". Chicken Jane once fell out of one of the books, and ended up in several other books, including a cookbook written by Molly Stewpot (a reference to Martha Stewart) and they appear in A Wild Hare. The very demanding chef Molly sees Chicken Jane, and wants to use her in one of her recipes. The book is swatted at in an attempt for Chicken Jane to escape, while jelly is spilled onto Molly Stewpot.

Cliff Hanger

Cliff Hanger is a cartoon lantern-jawed outdoorsman usually featured hanging off the side of a cliff, holding onto a branch. Each episode presents Cliff with a preposterous situation of some kind, which he attempts to use to his advantage by reaching into his backpack, pulling out what he calls his "trusty survival manual", and following the instructions provided there. The instructions, though often highly unorthodox, usually prove successful, and Cliff briefly escapes from the cliff. But, inevitably, another highly unlikely incident occurs that leaves Cliff back where he started, hanging onto his branch once again. The cartoon then ends with Cliff's baleful catchphrase: "Can't -- hold -- on -- much -- longer!" Much like Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

' Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner

Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese...

, these cartoon clips follow along the same story line; although Cliff never gives up on trying to get off the cliff, he never succeeds.

Each segment begins and usually ends with a theme song sung by a formally-dressed group of singers that flies by in a helicopter, singing "Cliff Hanger, hanging from a cliff! And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!" Cliff attempts to attract their attention to his predicament by shouting "Excuse me!", but to no avail. In one episode, he apparently succeeds at drawing their attention, and they rescue him, but it turns out he is simply dreaming. Cliff Hanger once escaped the cliff in an online story on the Between the Lions website, but eventually missed his cliff and, through a series of bizarre events, got himself back onto it.

In two episodes Cliff Hanger and the Solid Oil Lamp and Cliff Hanger and the Sheep on a Ship, Cliff Hanger imagines he is in a restaurant eating steak, he is in a bath tub and a starstruck door.

In another episode Lionel's friend Lenny, an alligator introduces a similarly-styled series of books called Justin Time, about a stereotypical explorer named Justin Time who relaxes in a hammock until an absurd scenario like those of Cliff Hanger occurs, forcing him to intervene to restore the calm. He too used a version of the Survival Manual, called a Safety Manual, which is from his Survival Kit, a version of Cliff Hanger's backpack and the same formally-dressed chorus introduces him at the beginning of the story. Ironically, Lionel disliked this series. Only one Justin Time segment was ever shown as it only appeared in one episode.

In the series, the character Lionel is a fan of Cliff Hanger books, which his sister Leona thinks are pointless.

Gawain's Word

A Wayne's World

Wayne's World

Wayne's World was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series Saturday Night Live. It evolved from a segment titled "Wayne's Power Minute" on the CBC Television series It's Only Rock & Roll, as the main character first appeared in that show...

spoof featuring two jousting knights charging at each other, each touting a speech balloon with half of a word which then became their respective names, then demonstrating the word. For example, one skit featured "Sir ch" and "Sir air". When Sir ch collided into Sir air, their speech balloons melded together to form the word "chair." Then they took advantage of the word, by sitting on chairs. Though the title of the segment clearly is a parody of the SNL skit, the two knights in the segment speak more characteristically like Bill & Ted from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure is a 1989 American science fiction–comedy buddy film and the first film in the Bill & Ted franchise in which two metalhead slackers travel through time to assemble a menagerie of historical figures for their high school history presentation.The film was written by...

than Wayne & Garth from Wayne's World.

Sam Spud

A spoof of the Sam Spade

Sam Spade

Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories by Hammett....

 detective stories, this segment portrays a par-boiled potato who types out the voice-over narration typical of film noir on a late night, making and correcting typographical errors that demonstrate word sounds. This segment makes heavy use of sight gags based on wordplay (such as the narrator referring to the entrance of a "tomato" -- 30s slang for an attractive woman—who is revealed to be a real tomato wearing a costume; or a neon sign that blinks the words "Flicker Flicker" or "On" and "Off"). In most cases the segments would end with a live-action boy or girl watching Sam Spud on television and calling out to his or her mother that "there's a talking potato with a hat on and no mouth!" (or some variation), and the mother calling from offscreen telling her child not to worry and that it's educational television, so it must be good for him/her.

The Un-People vs The Re-People

This cartoon

Cartoon

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...

 is aimed at teaching kids their prefixes. The main character is "young" Monica Maxwell, a girl about 8 years old who seems to have an inordinate amount of trouble with a group of rambunctious rhino

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....

s. The segment always begins with the rhinos running amok, usually in Monica's house. The clever, resourceful girl somehow manages to subdue or round up the rhinos, for example, putting them in a zippered bag. All of a sudden, the evil Un-People come along and "un-zip" the bag, causing the rhinos to run free again and resume their rampage of destruction. But when the crime-fighting Re-People appear, they "re-zip" the bag and the destruction of the charging rhinos stops. This segment may be considered a parody

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 of common superhero

Superhero

A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...

-themed cartoons such as the Justice League

Justice League

The Justice League, also called the Justice League of America or JLA, is a fictional superhero team that appears in comic books published by DC Comics....

.

There is at least one skit that didn't feature rhinos—the "undressed"/"redressed" skit where a marching band is seen without clothes, only to get redressed in their outfits.

Silent E

A criminal, Silent E, has the ability to make the vowel sounds say their names and changes the words without a silent e into words with a silent e, for example: he changes a cub (which resembles Leona) into a cube, a tub into a tube, a twin into a twine and a can into a cane.

In each segment, Silent E is carted off to jail by a policeman. Silent E then writes a note to the policeman, which usually reads something like, "Sure do like that pin/cap you're wearing! I would love to get a closer look!" The policeman then remarks, "Well, sure! I don't see any harm in that!" The policeman hands the object to Silent E, who then easily escapes by using either the policeman's pin and turning it into a pine to climb out the window or the policeman's cap and turning it into a cape to fly out the window. Either way, after that, the policeman shouts, "Well, Silent E, you may have slipped out of my grasp this time, but mark my words: I'll get you YET!"

Vowel Boot Camp

In this segment, the soldiers, who are vowels (except the drill sergeant, who is an exclamation point), practice making their sounds and then go out to make words. The famous catchphrase is "This isn't happy baby camp; this is Vowel Boot Camp!" He always ends up getting trampled by the vowels as they leave.

The Lone Rearranger Rewrites Again

A parody of The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture....

, this animated segment features an intelligent, banana

Banana

Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....

 nose cowboy named The Lone Rerranger, (or Lone for short), with his horse Hiho, and his sidekick who's name is Russell-Upsome Grub, and a sentence which needs to be rearranged. For example, "Horses must ride cowboys into the corral" needs to be rearranged to say "Cowboys must ride horses into the corral". After Lone fixes the sentence, he, Hiho, and Russell leave and the people who did what the original sign said for them to do never get a chance to thank him or Russel, or something related to what happened.

Moby Duck

A parody of Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...

, this takes place in a peapod

Peapod

Peapod, LLC is an online grocery delivery service owned by Royal Ahold and operating only in a select number of US cities. The company is based in Skokie, Illinois."." Peapod. Retrieved on February 15, 2011. "Corporate Headquarters 9933 Woods Drive, Skokie, IL 60077 ."-History:Peapod was founded in...

 (parody of Pequod

Pequod

Pequod may refer to:*Pequot, tribe of Native Americans*Pequod , a fictional whaleship that appears in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick...

) where there are two captains

Captain (nautical)

A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...

. The first is Captain Starbuck, the second Captain Scatterbrain'd. Starbuck looks through a telescope

Telescope

A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...

 and sees a white animal and yells, "Wait, Cap'n! Thar she quacks! Moby, the great white duck!" Captain Scatterbrain'd takes a closer look and gives the tagline "Argh! That not be Moby, the great white duck! Argh!", and explains the differences and sounds out syllables, showing, for example, Daisy, the entertaining white snail. The 2 admit defeat before continuing their search. A repeated gag is the fact that they never look behind them, which is exactly where Moby is.

Blending Bowl

A kind of "bowl game

Bowl game

In North America, a bowl game is commonly considered to refer to one of a number of post-season college football games. Prior to 2002, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals and the games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating...

" in which players blend sounds to make words. It stars former NFL superstar quarterback Terry Bradshaw

Terry Bradshaw

Terry Paxton Bradshaw is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League . He played 14 seasons. He is a football analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday...

 as a commentator. It is a form of Gawain's Word and Blend Mart but with a football setting.

Opposite Bunny

A superhero bunny who saves the day by turning bad things happening in the neighborhood back into good things. The segment ends with the neighbors reviewing the opposites. saying "First it was raw now it is cooked. How does that bunny do it!"

Arty Smartypants

A farcical and somewhat discombolated man with large pants ("smarty pants"). He is the start of a few different segments:

• "Magic Time With The Great Smartini": Arty puts two, three or four words in his pants and says a magic word like ebracadebra, or oobracadoobra, then dances to "ooh ahh, dance in smarty pants," until he has made a compound word. His assistant and mother is "Smarmy Marmy."
• In another segment, he reads "four words without any assistance whatsoever". Four words appear in each corner of the screen and he points to them first wth his hands then with his feet After realizing he is floating in the air, he comes crashing down.
• "Not As Smart As A Puck": In this segment, Arty hosts a game show where the contestant wins if they can prove they are not as smart as a hockey puck
  Hockey puck
  A puck is a disk used in various games serving the same functions as a ball does in ball games. The best-known use of pucks is in ice hockey, a major international sport.- Etymology :The origin of the word "puck" is obscure...
  
  .

Swami Marmy

This segment features Marmy Smartypants as a fortune teller who tells monkeys their future. In one segment she tells a monkey that his sister will drop in for a visit, after which she literally, drops in from above. In another segment, she simply tells a monkey "Oops!" after which Marmy knocks her crystal ball off the table and it rolls off and breaks.

Fred

Fred Newman

Fred Newman (actor)

Frederick R. Newman is an American actor, voice actor, composer, and sound effects artist, as well as a former talk show host....

 portraying himself appears onscreen sounding out a word syllable by syllable, after which he acts it or demonstrates it in his usual humor.

What's Cooking with Theo and Cleo

A cooking segment starring Theo and Cleo Lion as chefs. In each segment, they have a recipe and all the things they need (and a few they don't) in front of them with their names on them. They read the recipe step-by-step which usually involves getting rid of the extra ingredients and doing something to the main item before placing it in something. When they get down to the last step, which involves cooking it, they just say "Nah!" and, being lions, eat it raw.

Educational content

Between the Lions focuses on teaching reading and a love of books to young children in a fun, informative way.

Among the educational techniques used by Between the Lions are the following:

• Featured Letters and Sounds: Every episode has a feature letter or sound, such as 'h' or 'the long ee sound'. Throughout the show, the featured letter or sound is heard and seen in a variety of words. In seasons 7 and 8, an ad shows what's coming up next followed by a hand selecting a letter from the word from usually the first book.
• Text on Screen: Frequently, key words or entire sentences of dialog are shown on screen as the characters talk, with the featured letter or combination highlighted.
• Stories: Every episode contains one or more short stories in the form of books read by the Lion family. These stories tie in thematically with the rest of the episode and also serve as another way to present words with the featured sound in context. Sometimes the stories are real books (like "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" by William Steig
  William Steig
  William Steig was a prolific American cartoonist, sculptor and, later in life, an author of popular children's literature...
  
  , "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat" by Simms Taback
  Simms Taback
  Simms Taback is an American author, graphic artist, and illustrator and winner of the Caldecott Medal. Taback has illustrated over 35 books, including the Caldecott Medal winning Joseph Had a Little Overcoat and the Caldecott Honor book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly.Taback graduated...
  
  , and "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss
  Ruth Krauss
  Ruth Krauss was an author of children's books, one of the most well known being The Carrot Seed, and an author of theatrical poems for an adult audience. Many of her books are still in print....
  
  ) or well-known tales (like "Rumplestiltskin", "The Little Red Hen
  The Little Red Hen
  The Little Red Hen is an old folk tale, most likely of Russian origin. The best known version in the United States is that popularized by Little Golden Books, a series of children's books published for the mass market since the 1940s. The story is applied in teaching children the virtues of the...
  
  ", and "The Gingerbread Man
  The Gingerbread Man
  The Gingerbread Man Thegingerbread Runner is the anthropomorphic protagonist in a fairy tale about a cookie's escape from various pursuers and his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. The Gingerbread Boy makes his first print appearance in the May 1875 issue of St...
  
  "); other times they are books that are made-up to fit the episode (like How Pecos Bill Cleans Up the West, What Instrument does Alvin Play?, and Lionel's favorite book, Nothing but Lug Nuts).
• Songs: Silly but informative songs sum up the rules of English spelling and pronunciation in easy-to-remember ways, with lyrics like "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" or "Even the blues would be blue without an s" and many others. Often the text of the song is shown on screen. The songs for the show are by Thomas Z. Shepard
  Thomas Z. Shepard
  Thomas Z. Shepard is a prolific record producer who is best known for his recordings of Broadway musicals, including the works of Stephen Sondheim...
  
  , Christopher Cerf
  Christopher Cerf
  Christopher Cerf is a U.S. author, composer-lyricist, voice actor, and record and television producer. He is known for his musical contributions to Sesame Street, for co-creating and co-producing the award-winning PBS literacy education television program Between the Lions, and for his humorous...
  
  , Sarah Durkee
  Sarah Durkee
  Sarah Durkee is a singer-songwriter, a television lyricist and screenwriter, and an author and humorist.Durkee and her husband Paul Jacobs are the creators of the theme song for the popular PBS literacy education series, Between the Lions, and have also written many other musical numbers for the...
  
   and Paul Jacobs
  Paul Jacobs (musician)
  Paul Ross Jacobs is an American Emmy award winning composer and musician.-Biography:Jacobs was born in New York City. He attended the Juilliard School and as a child, played at Carnegie Hall, on television and for Radio Free Europe. After watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, he started...
  
  .
• Animations and skits: A variety of animations and skits show how words are formed and how one word can be changed into another by adding or removing letters.
• Definitions: Whenever a long or unusual word is used in a dialog or story, a quick definition is given. Usually, it is subtly worked into the conversation, such as when one of the parents responds to a question from the children. Other times it may be provided in a humorous way, such as when Heath Thesaurus pokes his head in to define a word. Occasionally words may be defined by showing pictures or other artistic methods.
• Repeated Vocabulary: Various vocabulary words are introduced in each episode, ranging from simple, everyday concepts like "jump" and "read" to more complex words like "sequel", "dictionary", or "drought". After a word has been introduced, it is usually used a number of times throughout the episode.

In addition to teaching basic reading, pronunciation, and grammar skills, Between the Lions also strives to promote a general love of reading in its viewers. It explores the many subjects that books can cover and shows how different people may enjoy reading different things. It also demonstrates the value of reference books and the importance of reading in other everyday activities like using a computer, cooking with a recipe, or finding your way with street signs.

Some Between the Lions episodes also deal with larger episodes related to literary matters: How to handle the scary parts of a story, for example, or the fact that it's okay to be a little sad if something bad happens to a character that you like in a book. It also shows how children can use books as jumping points for their own imagination.

Above all, every character on the show expresses a contagious enthusiasm for reading, with the underlying message being "Reading is cool".

Cast

• Bertice Berry
  Bertice Berry
  Dr. Bertice Berry is an American sociologist, author, lecturer, and educator.Berry grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. She graduated magna cum laude from Jacksonville University in Florida, and earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Kent State University in Ohio, at the age of 26.She later worked as an...
  
   - Herself (2001)
• Alison Fraser
  Alison Fraser
  Alison Fraser is an American actress and singer who has appeared in concert at such venues as Carnegie Hall, The White House, Town Hall, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, The Tisch Center for the Arts, The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Wilma, The Emelin, Joe's Pub and Symphony space.Fraser is a two...
  
   - Babs Caplan
• Denyce Graves
  Denyce Graves
  Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Early life:Graves was born on March 7, 1964, to Charles Graves and Dorothy Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and was raised by her mother on Galveston Street, S.W., in the Bellevue section of Washington...
  
   - Herself
• Fred Newman
  Fred Newman (actor)
  Frederick R. Newman is an American actor, voice actor, composer, and sound effects artist, as well as a former talk show host....
  
   - Letter sounds, various live action and sound segments
• Dr. Ruth Westheimer - Dr. Ruth Wordheimer

Puppeteers

• Pam Arciero
  Pam Arciero
  Pam Arciero is puppeteer and voice-over artist who portrays Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend, Grundgetta, on Sesame Street.-Career:Arciero earned her Master's in Puppetry from the University of Connecticut....
  
   - Leona Lion (2003–2011)
• Anthony Asbury - Lionel Lion (2000–2010), Arty Smartypants
• Heather Asch - Clay Pigeon, Click the Mouse
• Jennifer Barnhart
  Jennifer Barnhart
  Jennifer Barnhart is a puppeteer, American actress and voice-over talent, with a portfolio of television and theatre performances...
  
   - Cleo Lion
• Cheryl Blaylock
  Cheryl Blaylock
  Cheryl Blaylock is an American puppeteer and actress on the Nick Jr. show, Eureeka's Castle from 1989 to 1995. Before she was on Eureeka's Castle, she was on Sesame Street, and The Muppets Take Manhattan. After Eureeka's Castle, she was on other shows like Oobi, The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth,...
  
   - Ursa
• Lisa Buckley - Chelsea
• Tyler Bunch
  Tyler Bunch
  Tyler Bunch is a puppeteer, puppet designer, director and actor. In addition to his work for the Jim Henson Company, Mr. Bunch has created and performed puppets for PBS, Nickelodeon, and Disney. He has acted in a few Off Broadway productions and has made appearances on American television shows...
  
   - Walter Pigeon (2000), Dr. Nitwhite
• David Matthew Feldman
  David Matthew Feldman
  David Matthew Feldman is the voice actor and puppeteer of Mayor Milford Meanswell on the children's television show LazyTown. He also performs the voice of Marumo in the manga series Mirmo!.-External links:...
  
   - Monkeys, Ducks
• James Godwin
  James Godwin
  James Basil Godwin III, a Rear Admiral of the United States Navy, is the Program Executive Officer – Enterprise Information Systems of the Department of the Navy...
  
   - Steve the Bowling Ball
• James J. Kroupa - Walter Pigeon (2000–2001)
• Tim Lagasse
  Tim Lagasse
  Timothy Lagasse is a puppeteer, puppet designer, and filmmaker. He earned his BFA from the University of Connecticut. Lagasse acts as a puppeteering consultant, and creates puppet films for stations like PBS, MTV, HBO, and Nickelodeon...
  
   - Arty Smarty-pants, Barnaby Busterfield III, Gus Rabbit, Various Characters
• Peter Linz
  Peter Linz
  Peter Linz is an American puppeteer. He is perhaps best known as the voice of Snook in It's a Big Big World and Theo Lion in Between the Lions....
  
   - Theo Lion, Heath the Thesaurus (2001–2011)
• Rick Lyon
  Rick Lyon
  Rick Lyon is a puppeteer, actor, and puppet designer and builder originally from Rochester, New York, who has worked for the Jim Henson Company as one of the operators of Big Bird...
  
   - Ted the Scientist Monkey
• Noel MacNeal
  Noel MacNeal
  Noel MacNeal is a puppeteer, writer, and director of children's television, best known as the voice and puppeteer of Bear in Bear in the Big Blue House and Breakfast with Bear...
  
   - Lionel Lion (2011)
• Kathryn Mullen
  Kathryn Mullen
  Kathryn "Kathy" Mullen is an actress, voice actress, and puppeteer most closely associated with Jim Henson projects. She began performing on The Muppet Show in its third season, primarily as Gaffer the Backstage Cat...
  
   - Leona Lion (2000–2002)
• Jim Napolitano - Zak the Surfing Monkey
• Kenneth Neptune - Harry
• Carmen Osbahr
  Carmen Osbahr
  Carmen Osbahr is an American actress who has puppeteered Rosita in the popular US children's series Sesame Street, since 1991. Osbahr has also puppeteered Kiki Flores in The Puzzle Place...
  
   - Sierra Lion
• Matt Vogel - Various Characters

Voice Cast

• Jennifer Barnhart
  Jennifer Barnhart
  Jennifer Barnhart is a puppeteer, American actress and voice-over talent, with a portfolio of television and theatre performances...
  
   - Most female cartoon roles
• Scott Dodson - Silver Knight
• Michael K. Frith
  Michael K. Frith
  Michael Kingsbury Frith born July 8, 1941 in Bermuda, is the former Executive Vice President and Creative Director for Jim Henson Productions. His contributions to Muppet projects have been extensive and varied....
  
   - Red Knight
• Dave Goelz
  Dave Goelz
  Dave Goelz is a puppeteer best-known for his association with The Muppets, and in particular with the Muppet character Gonzo. His other Muppet characters include Bunsen Honeydew, Zoot , Beauregard the janitor and Tiny...
  
   - Purple Knight
• Peter Linz
  Peter Linz
  Peter Linz is an American puppeteer. He is perhaps best known as the voice of Snook in It's a Big Big World and Theo Lion in Between the Lions....
  
   - Gawain
• Fred Newman
  Fred Newman (actor)
  Frederick R. Newman is an American actor, voice actor, composer, and sound effects artist, as well as a former talk show host....
  
   - Golf Announcer
• Richard O'Connor
  Richard O'Connor
  General Sir Richard Nugent O'Connor KT, GCB, DSO & Bar, MC, ADC was a British Army general who commanded the Western Desert Force in the early years of World War II...
  
   - Gold Knight
• Chris Phillips
  Chris Phillips (voice actor)
  Chris Phillips is an American voice actor, writer and singer. He studied at Stella Adler and attended Emerson College in Boston, Ma.Chris might be best known as the voice of the Face mascot on Nick Jr. Face ran from 1994 until 2003...
  
   - Cliff Hanger
• Brian Schemmel - Blue Knight

Emmy Awards

Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition - 2008 Nomination

Paul Jacobs, Sarah Durkee, Christopher Cerf

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design - 2008 Nomination

Christopher Cerf, Norman Stiles, Judith Stoia, Brigid Sullivan, Bill Berner, Chris Cardillo, Philippa Hall, Diane Hartman, Rick Klein, Scott Colwell, Beth Kirsch, Carol Klein (PBS)

Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series - 2008 Nomination

Laura Brock, Karen Wing, Jerel Levanway, Bill Reinhart, Jack Thomas, Mary Goodson, Ray Green, Jimmy Thrasher (PBS)

Composition - 2008 Nomination

Paul Jacobs, Sarah Durkee, Christopher Cerf (PBS)

Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series - 2008 & 2009

Norman Stiles

Norman Stiles

Norman Stiles is a television writer, best known for his work on the show Sesame Street from 1971 until approximately 1995. As part of the Sesame Street writing team, he received eight Daytime Emmy Awards.-External links:*...

, Ray Messecar, Peter K. Hirsch, Brian Meehl, Jennifer Hamburg, Sarah Durkee

Sarah Durkee

Sarah Durkee is a singer-songwriter, a television lyricist and screenwriter, and an author and humorist.Durkee and her husband Paul Jacobs are the creators of the theme song for the popular PBS literacy education series, Between the Lions, and have also written many other musical numbers for the...

, Luis Santeiro, Christopher Cerf

Christopher Cerf

Christopher Cerf is a U.S. author, composer-lyricist, voice actor, and record and television producer. He is known for his musical contributions to Sesame Street, for co-creating and co-producing the award-winning PBS literacy education television program Between the Lions, and for his humorous...

, Beth Kirsch, Fred Newman

Fred Newman

Frederick Delano "Fred" Newman was an American philosopher, psychotherapist, playwright and political activist, and creator of a therapeutic modality called Social Therapy.-Early life:...

, Judith Stoia, Candy Kugel (PBS)

Outstanding Pre-School Children's Series - 2009

Executive Producers: Judith Stoia, Christopher Cerf

Christopher Cerf

Christopher Cerf is a U.S. author, composer-lyricist, voice actor, and record and television producer. He is known for his musical contributions to Sesame Street, for co-creating and co-producing the award-winning PBS literacy education television program Between the Lions, and for his humorous...

, Norman Stiles

Norman Stiles

Norman Stiles is a television writer, best known for his work on the show Sesame Street from 1971 until approximately 1995. As part of the Sesame Street writing team, he received eight Daytime Emmy Awards.-External links:*...

, Brigid Sullivan.
Series Producer: Beth Kirsch.
Coordinating Producer: Rick Klein, Bill Berner, Diane Hartman, Chris Cardillo, Philippa Hall

Philippa Hall

Philippa Hall is a British television presenter on Sky News.She currently works as a presenter for Sky News Active as well as a newscaster for 5 News Lunchtime on Channel 5 since September 2009....

.
Producer: Scott Colwell, Carol Klein

Carol Klein

Carol Klein is a British gardening expert, who also works as a television presenter and newspaper columnist.Born in Walkden, Salford, Lancashire, in 1945, Carol attended Bolton School and then trained as an art teacher and taught in schools in the London area before moving to Devon...

.

IMDb

Cartoon Version

There will be four animated episodes, made by CloudKid. Two are off of Nursery Tales (The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Three Little Pigs), while the other two are off of Seasons and weather (One about wind, the other about snow/Winter).

The Electric Company

Comparisons are often made to another PBS children's reading series, The Electric Company

The Electric Company

The Electric Company is an educational American children's television series that was produced by the Children's Television Workshop for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971 to April 15, 1977...

. The format is similar, with animated segments showing words suspended in the air near people who discuss them. In particular, Sam Spud, Gawain's Word and the short segments featuring Fred Newman are highly reminiscent of the old Electric Company

Guest stars

Guest stars from other series have appeared in Between The Lions. 3 castmembers of ZOOM

Zoom (1999 TV series)

ZOOM is an American educational television series, created almost entirely by children, which aired on Public Broadcasting Service originally from January 4, 1999 to June 24, 2005. It was a remake of a 1972 TV series by the same name. Both versions were produced by WGBH-TV in Boston...

 have appeared, teaching viewers how to read the word "Zoom". Al Roker

Al Roker

Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. is an American television meteorologist as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays...

, Jasmine Guy

Jasmine Guy

Jasmine Guy is an American actress, singer and dancer. She is best known for her starring role as Whitley Gilbert in the television sitcom A Different World.-Biography:...

, Denyce Graves

Denyce Graves

Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Early life:Graves was born on March 7, 1964, to Charles Graves and Dorothy Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and was raised by her mother on Galveston Street, S.W., in the Bellevue section of Washington...

 and Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour (actress)

Jane Seymour, OBE is an English actress best known for her performances in the James Bond film Live and Let Die , East of Eden , Onassis: The Richest Man in the World , and the American television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman...

 have made appearances to read words to the viewers as well as some athletes

Funding

• Chick-fil-A
  Chick-fil-A
  Chick-fil-A |"fillet"]]) is a quick service restaurant chain headquartered in College Park, Georgia, United States, specializing in chicken entrées and is known for promoting the company founder's claims of Christian values. Long associated with the southern United States, where it has been a...
  
  
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting
  Corporation for Public Broadcasting
  The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a non-profit corporation created by an act of the United States Congress, funded by the United States’ federal government to promote public broadcasting...
  
  
• Viewers Like You
• Thank You
  Thank You
  Thank You or Thank U may refer to:*"Thank you" or "thankyou" , an expression of gratitude-Albums:* Thank You * Thank You * Thank You , or the title song...
  
  

Home Video releases

Most VHS tapes are released and distributed by WGBH

WGBH-TV

WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...

, mostly with its video label, WGBH Boston Video.

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Season 1, Episode 1: Pecos Bill Cleans Up the West
Original Air Date—3 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 2: The Lost Rock
Original Air Date—4 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 3: Little Big Mouse
Original Air Date—5 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 4: Farmer Ken's Puzzle
Original Air Date—6 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 5: Shooting Stars
Original Air Date—7 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 6: The Hopping Hen
Original Air Date—9 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 7: Touching the Moon
Original Air Date—11 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 8: The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Original Air Date—12 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 9: Fuzzy Wuzzy, Wuzzy?
Original Air Date—13 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 10: Lionel's Antlers
Original Air Date—14 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 11: To the Ship! To the Ship!
Original Air Date—16 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 12: The Chap with Caps
Original Air Date—18 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 13: Pandora's Box
Original Air Date—19 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 14: Lionel's Great Escape Trick
Original Air Date—20 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 15: There's a Fly in My Soup
Original Air Date—20 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 16: The Popcorn Popper
Original Air Date—23 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 17: Something Fishy
Original Air Date—25 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 18: Hug, Hug, Hug!
Original Air Date—26 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 19: The Ram in the Pepper Patch
Original Air Date—27 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 20: A Peck of Peppers
Original Air Date—28 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 21: Sausage Nose
Original Air Date—30 April 2000
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Season 1, Episode 22: Red Hat, Green Hat
Original Air Date—2 May 2000
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Season 1, Episode 23: The Lucky Duck
Original Air Date—3 May 2000
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Season 1, Episode 24: The Old Man
Original Air Date—4 May 2000
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Season 1, Episode 25: A King and His Hawk
Original Air Date—5 May 2000
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Season 1, Episode 26: The Roar That Makes Them Run
Original Air Date—8 May 2000
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Season 1, Episode 27: Piggyback, Piggyback
Original Air Date—9 May 2000
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Season 1, Episode 28: The Fox and the Crow
Original Air Date—10 May 2000
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Season 1, Episode 29: Giants and Cubs
Original Air Date—11 May 2000
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Season 1, Episode 30: Be Bop
Original Air Date—12 May 2000
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Season 2

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Season 2, Episode 2: Humph! Humph! Humph!
Original Air Date—4 September 2000
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Season 2, Episode 7: Bug Beard
Original Air Date-10 April 2000

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Season 2, Episode 13: Oh, Yes It Can!
Original Air Date—17 December 2000

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Season 2, Episode 22: Tweet! Tweet!
Original Air Date—1 May 2001

See also

• The Electric Company
  The Electric Company
  The Electric Company is an educational American children's television series that was produced by the Children's Television Workshop for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971 to April 15, 1977...
  
  
• Asterisk animation
  Asterisk animation
  Ace&Son is a design and animation production company in New York. Ace & Son Moving Picture Company LLC creates animation and graphics for commercials, television, feature films and any other media you can conjure....
  
   - company responsible for some animation on this show
• Sesame Street
  Sesame Street
  Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...