Rub-A-Dub-Dub was a British nursery rhyme

Nursery rhyme

The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...

 TV series animated by Peter Lang and Alan Rogers of the Cut-Out Animation Co. They were previously famous for Pigeon Street

Pigeon Street

Pigeon Street was an animated children's television series originally shown on the BBC in 1981 as part of its 'See-saw' strand for pre-schoolers. There were two series with eight and five episodes respectively, each programme lasting fifteen minutes...

. The title is a reference to the nursery rhyme Rub-a-dub-dub

Rub-a-dub-dub

"Rub-A-Dub-Dub" is an English language nursery rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3101.-Lyrics:This rhyme exists in many variations. Among those current today is:The earliest versions of this rhyme published differ significantly in their wording...

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Rub-A-Dub-Dub was animated in a similar way, yet all the characters were anthropomorphic animals. It ran from 4 April 1988 until 1989 completing 30 episodes.

Episode Layout

The episode usually started off with the character Mother Goose and (most often) another character stood by a polka-dot patterned bathtub, with Mother Goose saying "Rub-a-dub-dub..." announcing that there was an item in the tub, an item that will then be relevant to the episode, e.g. "Rub-a-dub-dub, there's a kettle in the tub..." The line would then usually be followed up by another. In this case, the character King Crow appears at the window and says "...And King Crow wants his tea!"
The nursery rhymes themselves would be dotted in amongst the humorous dialogue between the animal characters.

Principal Characters

• Mother Goose: Could be considered the hostess of Rub-A-Dub-Dub. She begins every episode by saying "Rub-a-dub-dub, there's a... in the tub." She is a white goose, wearing what looks to be a yellow raincoat and hat, a blue skirt beneath the coat and blue shoes. She also wears pink tights with white spots.
• Polly: An irritable Parrot voiced with a high-pitched Lancashire accent. She often gets annoyed with various characters, such as with Mother Goose when she asks her to make King Crow's tea. In this instance, she responds "I'm not going to make it! Why does it always 'ave to be me!? Humph!" She is also quite unfortunate, such as when she sets her dinner down before the television, leaves to fetch a drink, and then finds her dinner has been stolen, to which she responds: "EH! Where did it go?!" Polly had a red face and blue hands and legs, wore a green jumper with red sleeves and yellow shoes.
• King Crow: The King who is a crow. He spoke with a posh accent, and was awfully demanding of his servants such as Polly, on whom he intrudes into her TV-watching time, saying "Hello Polly, get me my pipe and bowl please!" He was also awfully energetic and bounced around a lot. Like all crows, King Crow was black with a yellow beak. He wore a stereotypical King's robe and crown, black and white striped stockings and black-and-white shoes.
• Al E Gator: An alligator who was somewhat of an antagonist on the show. He spoke with an American accent. He was always causing trouble, such as tripping over Baa Sheep, causing her to fall in mud or interrupting Polly's favourite TV show as "Tonight's Special Guest". He wore a red coat and a top hat. He was also known for a distinctive cackle, once he had committed his mischief. In one episode, he lost his violin bow.
• Baa Sheep: A white sheep, who spoke with an American accent and wore red shoes. She once fell victim to Al E Gator's mischief, when he tripped her over and caused her to fall in a muddy puddle. This dirtied her wool, and, displeased, she sang I do not like thee, Doctor Fell
  I do not like thee, Doctor Fell
  I do not like thee, Doctor Fell is a nursery rhyme, said to have been written by satirical English poet Tom Brown in 1680.-Origin and basis:The anecdote associated with the origin of the rhyme is that when Brown was a student at the Christ Church, Oxford, he was caught doing mischief...
  
   to him. Al E Gator simply laughed, before asking "What did I do wrong?" before leaving. Baa was also close to Mother Goose, who cleaned her up in the eponymous tub after this incident.

Other characters

Other characters included:

• Buzz Tiger: a tiger who, along with Brian Lion and the hippo, served as the butcher, baker and candlestick maker in the eponymous nursery rhyme.
• Brian Lion: a lion who, along with Buzz Tiger and the hippo, served as the butcher, baker and candlestick maker in the eponymous nursery rhyme.
• Olga Ostrich: an ostrich who wore pink shoes. She once lost one of these shoes in one episode. She was also sat at the same restaurant as Polly when she had her dinner stolen.
• The Penguin Trio: Three traveling penguins.
• The Pig Twins: One of them was male, the other female. They both wore blue tops and red shoes. They both were present when Baa Sheep fell victim to Al E Gator's mischief, as well as being at the same restaurant as Polly when her dinner was stolen. In this segment, they were referred to Jack Sprat and his wife respectively, and featured in the nursery rhyme.
• Blue: a blue hippopotamus who featured on Polly's favourite Western TV show. He was due to face off in a duel with the rooster, before they were interrupted by Al E Gator. Also, the hippo, along with Brian Lion and Buzz Tiger, served as the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker in the eponymous nursery rhyme.
• Yankee Doodle: a white rooster who featured on Polly's favourite Western TV show. He was due to face off in a duel with the hippo, before being interrupted by Al E Gator.
• Tom Cat: A young cat who went to London to see the Queen.
• Yellow Dog: A white dog who wears blue.
• Mice: Three mice that were often in some nursery rhymes, one dressed as a Chef, one as a Butcher, and one in a yellow top with red, green and blue stars.

Release

It was directed by Lee Bernhardi. It ran on the British breakfast TV station TV-am

TV-am

TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast to the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 to 31 December 1992. It made history by being the first national operator of a commercial television franchise at breakfast-time , and broadcast every day of the week for most or all of the period...

from 4 April 1988 until 1989. The series were all original distributed on VHS, but have since not been distributed. Its release Date in the USA was 4 April 1988 .