Jay Jay the Jet Plane
Encyclopedia
Jay Jay the Jet Plane is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...

 children's television series based at the fictional Tarrytown Airport. It has about 60 episodes and it is aimed at ages 2-6. The characters are talking airplane
Fixed-wing aircraft
A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...

s, a helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

, some humans, and two talking ground vehicles. The episodes are commonly distributed in pairs, with one header sequence and one end credits for each pair, and each pair is 25 minutes long. Each episode contains one or more songs; each song tends to occur in one episode. The theme song, as well as the majority of the other songs, was written by the well-known children's singer/songwriter, Stephen Michael Schwartz, and sung by his popular group, Parachute Express.
Produced by John Semper
John Semper
John Semper, Jr. is a screenwriter, producer and story editor with numerous credits in animation for television. He has worked for such diverse companies as Disney Studios, Warner Bros...

, the series is intended to be educational and teach life and sometimes moral lessons to children (and sometimes also to parents).

History

The series premiered originally on November 2, 1998 on TLC, but later moved to PBS Kids on June 11, 2001 with the same episodes plus new episodes in 2001 and in 2005. Home video releases were released by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment through 2003 as part of their "Columbia TriStar Family Fun" collection, the reason why it is distributed by Columbia TriStar Television
Columbia TriStar Television
Columbia TriStar Television was the third name of the television studio Screen Gems, named after its then-current 1991 home video division....

. Distribution was then moved over to the children's division of book publisher Thomas Nelson
Thomas Nelson (publisher)
Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in Scotland in 1798 as the namesake of its founder. Its former US division is currently the sixth largest American trade publisher and the world's largest Christian publisher. It is owned by the private equity firm Kohlberg & Company...

.

The original voice of Jay Jay and several of the other characters was voice-over
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...

 actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 Mary Kay Bergman
Mary Kay Bergman
Mary Kay Bergman was an American voice actress and animation voice over teacher, who was the lead female voice actress on South Park from the show's 1997 debut until her death and was best known as the official voice of Snow White for the Walt Disney Company starting in 1989 with the Snow White...

.

In 2006, new episodes were produced featuring new characters, including a red Latino plane named Lina. The new episodes feature a beginning segment called "Jay Jay's Mysteries", in which Jay Jay and Lina solve mysteries such as how planes fly and how the five senses are used. The mysteries segment is followed by a story pulled from the original version of the series, making the "new" episodes a repackaging of a new format with old episodes tacked on to the end.

Before the well-known animated series there was a short non-animated series made in 1995, where the plane characters were live action films of real models and human characters were of crafted models. They did not talk, but had the same personalities. The original series was narrated similarly to early episodes of Thomas The Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. He became the most popular character in the series, and the accompanying television spin-off series, Thomas and Friends.Thomas is a tank engine, painted blue...

 or Theodore Tugboat
Theodore Tugboat
Theodore Tugboat is a Canadian children's television series about a tugboat named Theodore who lives in the Big Harbour with all of his friends. The show was produced in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada by the CBC , and the now defunct Cochran Entertainment, and was filmed on a model set using radio...

 . It contained three videos: Jay Jay's First Flight, Old Oscar Leads the Parade, and Tracy's Handy Hideout. These three episodes were known as the "pilot series".

Within the series, the propeller speeds of all the plane characters have varied over the years. The first 20 stories show the propellers spinning very slowly. Beginning with the story "Picture Day", the propellors are made to look more believable. The remaining stories have the propellors spinning rapidly (unless a character is underwater). Before "Picture Day" the characters had lights but they did not appear to function. The opening theme has the propellers spin rapidly: this opening is used for the entire series.

Each of the plane characters seems to have a biological part including a stomach, that needs the same food as humans eat, and a mechanical part that needs fuel and engine oil. Some of the things that the planes are reported as doing off-camera, would need them to have foldaway arms to handle items with, but those arms are never seen on camera.

Young plane characters

  • Jay Jay. Male. 6 years old. Small blue and red jet airliner
    Jet airliner
    A jet airliner is an airliner that is powered by jet engines. This term is sometimes contracted to jetliner or jet.In contrast to today's relatively fuel-efficient, turbofan-powered air travel, first generation jet airliner travel was noisy and fuel inefficient...

    . Mary Kay Bergman
    Mary Kay Bergman
    Mary Kay Bergman was an American voice actress and animation voice over teacher, who was the lead female voice actress on South Park from the show's 1997 debut until her death and was best known as the official voice of Snow White for the Walt Disney Company starting in 1989 with the Snow White...

     was the first to provide his voice. Debi Derryberry
    Debi Derryberry
    Debi Derryberry is an American voice actress, singer, composer and kids' entertainer who won an American Anime Award.-History:...

     replaced Bergman after her death. Danica Lee replaced Derryberry after insituation.
  • Tracy. Female. 6 years old. Small pink and yellow jet airliner. Normal hearing, but understands American Sign Language
    American Sign Language
    American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

    .
  • Snuffy. Male. 4 years old. Small green propeller monoplane
    Monoplane
    A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...

    . Is equipped for skywriting
    Skywriting
    Skywriting is the process of using a small aircraft, able to expel special smoke during flight, to fly in certain patterns to create writing readable by someone on the ground...

    . In episode consistency (which depends on the order), one episode says that he has not flown further away from Tarrytown than Lightning Bug Lake, but other episodes show him flying much further; in "Catch the Buzz" Snuffy still has not got rid of his original shyness
    Shyness
    In humans, shyness is a social psychology term used to describe the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness experienced when a person is in proximity to, approaching, or being approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar people...

    , but in many other episodes he shows no sign of shyness.
  • Herky. Male. 5 years old. Yellow and green helicopter
    Helicopter
    A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...

    . Has skid
    Skid
    Skid may refer to:* Skid, a pallet, a metal, wood or plastic platform for holding machinery or equipment* Skid , an outward side-slip in an aircraft turn* Skid steering, a method of steering in which wheels or tracks are skidded sideways...

    s instead of wheel
    Wheel
    A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...

    s and cannot taxi
    Taxiing
    Taxiing refers to the movement of an aircraft on the ground, under its own power, in contrast to towing or push-back where the aircraft is moved by a tug...

     on the ground. In the original series, he spoke with a stutter. In the CGI series, he rolls his "R"s whenever he speaks, and often pronounces stressed "er" as long vocalic "r" (ɹ̩), e.g. "I'm Herky" as aɪm hɹ̩ːˈkǐ, with a strong high-rising pitch accent
    Pitch accent
    Pitch accent is a linguistic term of convenience for a variety of restricted tone systems that use variations in pitch to give prominence to a syllable or mora within a word. The placement of this tone or the way it is realized can give different meanings to otherwise similar words...

     on the final "-y".

Older plane characters

  • Big Jake. Male. Adult (supposed early 40's). Father figure. Silver Cargo carrier. Propeller-driven.
  • Savannah. Female. Adult (supposed mid 30's). Mother figure. Purple supersonic
    Supersonic
    Supersonic speed is a rate of travel of an object that exceeds the speed of sound . For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of 20 °C this speed is approximately 343 m/s, 1,125 ft/s, 768 mph or 1,235 km/h. Speeds greater than five times the speed of sound are often...

     airliner. She was made at Savannah
    Savannah, Georgia
    Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...

     in Georgia
    Georgia (U.S. state)
    Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

     (USA), hence (in the story) her name.
  • Oscar. Male. Old adult (supposed early 80's). Grandfather-like figure. Old green biplane
    Biplane
    A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...

    .

Ground vehicles

  • Revvin' Evan. Red fire engine, Cousin of Tuffy.
  • Tuffy. Blue and red towtruck, Cousin of Revvin Evan.

Humans

  • Brenda Blue: Woman in bib overall and usually wears either red or blue cap. In charge of the airport, and is the mechanic
    Mechanic
    A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...

    . She does not use the airport's control tower
    Control tower
    A control tower, or more specifically an Air Traffic Control Tower , is the name of the airport building from which the air traffic control unit controls the movement of aircraft on and around the airport. Control towers are also used to control the traffic for other forms of transportation such...

     but communicates with the planes by a portable two-way radio from the ground. Played by Eve Whittle
    Eve Whittle
    Eve Whittle is an American actress and child psychologist best known for her TV role of the earnest and enthusiastic airport supervisor/technician Brenda Blue on the PBS Kids CGI animated cartoon series Jay Jay the Jet Plane...

     and Vanessa Stacey
    Vanessa Stacey
    Vanessa Stacey is a New Zealand film, television and stage actress as well as a former playwright, comedienne and musician...

     in the UK version.
  • Mrs. Blue: is Brenda Blue's mother who sometimes visits Tarrytown Airport.
  • Miss Jones: is a deaf librarian at Tarrytown Library who knows American Sign Language
    American Sign Language
    American Sign Language, or ASL, for a time also called Ameslan, is the dominant sign language of Deaf Americans, including deaf communities in the United States, in the English-speaking parts of Canada, and in some regions of Mexico...

    .
  • Easy O'Malley. He founded EZ Airlines and his cousins are Grumpy O'Malley (lives at Dewdrop Farm), Pierre O'Malley (lives in France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

    ) and Tex O'Malley (lives in Texas
    Texas
    Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

    ).
  • There are other human characters who appear from time to time.
  • Tarrytown Airport is run by a small firm called EZ Airlines.
  • In Tarrytown is a school called the Michael O'Tarry School.

Animals

  • Breezy: is a Monarch butterfly
    Monarch butterfly
    The Monarch butterfly is a milkweed butterfly , in the family Nymphalidae. It is perhaps the best known of all North American butterflies. Since the 19th century, it has been found in New Zealand, and in Australia since 1871 where it is called the Wanderer...

    .
  • Bobby Bee and Billy Bee: are two bee
    Bee
    Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...

    s.
  • The lightning bugs
    Fireflies
    Fireflies is a novel by Shiva Naipaul originally published in 1970. It was his first book, a comic novel set in Trinidad. In an essay in An Unfinished Journey, Naipaul described how in 1968 as a final year student at Oxford University studying Chinese, he had been moved to write down a sentence,...

     at Lightning Bug Lake.
  • The Blue Whale
    Blue Whale
    The blue whale is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales . At in length and or more in weight, it is the largest known animal to have ever existed....

     in the ocean.

Places

  • Tarrytown: is in a hilly area with enough rain to keep the land green, and frost and snow sometimes in the winter. There are forested mountains and desert near.
  • Tarrytown Airport: is where Jay Jay and his friends live and Brenda Blue works.
  • Tarrytown National Park
  • Smiling Meadow.
  • Sandy Landing
  • Pangabula Island
  • Tarrytown Quarry
  • Sunshine Desert
  • Tippy Toppy Peak
  • Frosty Pines.
  • Echo Canyon.
  • Cherry Tree Lake
    • Tarrytown town and airport are never seen in moving-camera shots, and therefore are likely real miniature sets which were photographed and those photographs were used as backgrounds in the CGI images. The airport runway may be a CGI ground plane texture map
      Computer-generated imagery
      Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...

      ped with a photograph of real full-size or miniature tarmac. Sometimes, the planes taxi
      Taxiing
      Taxiing refers to the movement of an aircraft on the ground, under its own power, in contrast to towing or push-back where the aircraft is moved by a tug...

       on the town streets.

How the series was produced

The series was produced by Modern Cartoons in their works in Oxnard, California
Oxnard, California
Oxnard is the 113th largest city in the United States, 19th largest city in California and largest city in Ventura County, California, by way of population. It is located at the western edge of the fertile Oxnard Plain, and is an important agricultural center, with its distinction as the...

, USA. Unlike Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine
Thomas the Tank Engine is a fictional steam locomotive in The Railway Series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son, Christopher. He became the most popular character in the series, and the accompanying television spin-off series, Thomas and Friends.Thomas is a tank engine, painted blue...

, this series used a mixture of techniques:
  • The backgrounds were miniature sets (usually built on 2 4'x8' sheets of plywood)
  • Brenda Blue was a live action
    Live action
    In filmmaking, video production, and other media, the term live action refers to cinematography, videography not produced using animation...

     actress shot in front of a greenscreen
  • The planes were computer models created in Maya
    Maya (software)
    Autodesk Maya , commonly shortened to Maya, is 3D computer graphics software that runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux, originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation and currently owned and developed by Autodesk, Inc. It is used to create interactive 3D applications, including video...

     and a proprietary software.
  • The movement of the planes was recorded by playing out the scene with wood models that had magnetic position sensors. The planes had a switch to aid landing
    Landing
    thumb|A [[Mute Swan]] alighting. Note the ruffled feathers on top of the wings indicate that the swan is flying at the [[Stall |stall]]ing speed...

     and taxiing
    Taxiing
    Taxiing refers to the movement of an aircraft on the ground, under its own power, in contrast to towing or push-back where the aircraft is moved by a tug...

    , due to some minor fluctuations in the magnetic positioning data.
  • The planes' faces and lip synching were done by "face tracking". This is a technique where reflective spots are put on a voice actor's face. The voice track is being digitally recorded along with the spot data. Then using a form of parametric animation
    Parametric animation
    Parametric animation is an animation technique used in computer software, such as in computer games, that blends two or more separate animations together to form a new animation. This new animation is constructed in real-time by the game engine, and is not stored in a separate file like a regular...

     the face is rendered.
  • Head movement and other effects were done by joystick
    Joystick
    A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...

    s.


The complex mathematical and CGI issues were solved by Frank Ford Little, PhD.

A number of proprietary software systems were used:
  • The data/audio recording and smoothing was done on a Windows machine.
  • The daily cuts were done on "Compaq
    Compaq
    Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....

     Alpha" computers running a 64-bit version of Windows NT 4.0.

10 new episodes

  • The Mystery of Plants
  • The Mystery of Weather
  • The Mystery of Size and Shape
  • The Mystery of Flight
  • The Mystery of the Five Senses
  • The Mystery of Water
  • The Mystery of Bugs
  • The Mystery of Time
  • The Mystery of Stars and Planets
  • The Mystery of Dinosaurs

New characters

  • Lina: Jay Jay's New Friend.
  • Montana: Safari
    Safari
    A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...

     plane.
  • Captain Bob: Firefighting plane.
  • Solar: Yellow. Long wide wings. 6 propellers driven by electricity from solar panel
    Photovoltaic module
    A solar panel is a packaged, connected assembly of solar cells, also known as photovoltaic cells...

    s covering the tops of his wings.
  • Truckee: Dump truck
    Dump truck
    A dump truck is a truck used for transporting loose material for construction. A typical dump truck is equipped with a hydraulically operated open-box bed hinged at the rear, the front of which can be lifted up to allow the contents to be deposited on the ground behind the truck at the site of...



Untied States

The series is broadcast over many of the 379 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and it formerly aired on 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...

.

Translations

In foreign versions of the show, the human characters are often replaced with different actors. For example, in the Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

n version of the show, a Korean actor takes the role of Brenda. Unusually, the Irish version of Jay Jay the Jet Plane mostly uses non-native speaker actors from Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 (although some minor parts are played by native-speaking actors from the Gaeltacht
Gaeltacht
is the Irish language word meaning an Irish-speaking region. In Ireland, the Gaeltacht, or an Ghaeltacht, refers individually to any, or collectively to all, of the districts where the government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant language, that is, the vernacular spoken at home...

).

Europe

    • The series is broadcast in English on Channel 5 (UK) and in Welsh on S4C
      S4C
      S4C , currently branded as S4/C, is a Welsh television channel broadcast from the capital, Cardiff. The first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking audience, it is the fifth oldest British television channel .The channel - initially broadcast on...

       called Ari Awyren
    • The series is known as Jay Jay le Petit Avion
    • The series is known as Jay Jay, el avioncito
    • The series was broadcast in Irish Tadhg an t-Eitleán and English
    • The series is known as Jay Jay, o Jatinho http://www.tvebrasil.com.br/jayjay/

Asia

    • The series was formerly shown in original version on TV2
      TV2 (Malaysia)
      RTM2, also known as TV2 is a television station in Malaysia owned and operated by the Radio Television Malaysia, a division of the Malaysian Government. RTM2 is now broadcasting for 24 hours a day effective January 2006.- History :...

       in the early 2000s. It was also dubbed in Malay by Filem Karya Nusa and aired on Astro Ria
      Astro Ria
      Astro Ria is a Malaysian 24 hour television network broadcast on the Astro satellite television service. It was one of the first 22 channels to commence broadcast on Astro in 1996.Programs on the network include Malay dramas, films and reality shows....

      , also in the early 2000s. It was later shown with new episodes on Astro Ceria
      Astro Ceria
      Astro Ceria is a 24-hour Malay language television channel that is broadcast on the Astro satellite television service. This channel is dedicated to toddlers and children...

       in 2009 where the Malay dubbing is made in-house.

    • the series formerly aired on MediaCorp TV12 Central
      MediaCorp TV12 Central
      MediaCorp TV12 Central or Central was an English and Tamil language Television channel in Singapore it was launched on 31 March 1996 replacing Premiere 12 it was launched since on 1 January 1994 as Television Corporation of Singapore since 1994.The channel was a combination of 3 distinct...

      .

    • ジェイジェイジェットプレーン (ziĕiziĕi ziĕttopurēn)

External links

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