''Zoboomafoo'' is a live-action/animated

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

that originally aired on PBS from January 25, 1999, to November 21, 2001. After the original run on public television, reruns were shown on PBS Kids Sprout until 2012. A total of 65 episodes were aired. A creation of the Kratt Brothers (

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, and Christine. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name * Chris Abani (born 1966), Nigerian autho ...

and Martin Kratt), it features a talking

Coquerel's sifaka Coquerel's sifaka (''Propithecus coquereli'') is a Diurnality, diurnal, medium-sized lemur of the sifaka genus ''Sifaka, Propithecus''. It is native to northwest Madagascar. Coquerel's sifaka was once considered a subspecies of Verreaux's sifaka ...

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

named Zoboomafoo, performed by Canadian puppeteer Gord Robertson (who had also puppeteered on Jim Henson's ''

Fraggle Rock ''Fraggle Rock'' (also known as ''Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock'' or ''Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets'') is a children's Musical film, musical Fantasy film, fantasy television comedy, comedy puppet television series about interconnected so ...

''), and mainly portrayed by a lemur named Jovian, along with a collection of returned animal guests.

Production

''Zoboomafoo'' was produced by

PBS Kids PBS Kids (stylized as PBS KIDS) is the branding used for nationally distributed children's programming carried by the U.S. public television network PBS. The brand encompasses a daytime block of children's programming carried daily by most PBS ...

, CINAR Corporation (now folded into

WildBrain WildBrain Ltd. is a Canadian media, animation studio, production company, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest independent library of Children's tel ...

), and the Kratt brothers' Earth Creatures company. Paragon Entertainment Corporation, who previously worked on '' Kratts' Creatures'', was slated to be involved with ''Zoboomafoo'' before being replaced by CINAR. Partial filming for the series took place on location at the Duke Lemur Center in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. The claymation segments were filmed at a studio in

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

, Ontario, Canada. Although the last new episode aired on PBS Kids in November 2001, many PBS stations continued to rerun ''Zoboomafoo'' episodes in syndication through 2009. Select stations aired reruns as late as 2017. In addition, Sprout aired reruns until February 2012. The show was broadcast in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Middle East, and India. After the series ended, in 2003, the Kratt Brothers began another series titled '' Be the Creature'' on the

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

. In 2011, they created the animated series '' Wild Kratts'', which currently airs on PBS Kids and

TVOntario TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...

. Jovian (a captive

housed at the Duke Lemur Center) portrayed Zoboomafoo in the live-action segments (with his parents Nigel and Flavia sometimes serving as stand-ins). On November 10, 2014, he died of

kidney failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

in his home at the age of 20.

Cast

* Chris Kratt as himself * Martin Kratt as himself * Jovian and Gord Robertson as Zoboomafoo * Samantha Tolkacz as Jackie (Season 1) * Genevieve Farrell as Amy (Season 2)

Segments

* Zoboomafoo Theme Song * The Kratt Brothers Arrive, Calling for Zoboo, and Snacktime * The Mystery Animal (Song: "Who Could It Be?") * Zobooland Story #1 * Mystery Animal Leaves (Song: "I Feel Different") * Duck/Animal Helpers with Jackie/Amy * A Journey to Visit Animals (Song: "Going to the Closet") * Exploring the Wild and Seeing Animals * Back to Animal Junction and Another Mystery Animal * Zobooland Story #2 * Ending Theme: Animal Friends * Zoboo and Kratt Brothers Leave Animal Junction * Kids Introducing Their Pets * Meeting Animals Disclaimer (PBS and

Treehouse TV Treehouse TV (commonly known as Treehouse) is a Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary specialty channel that was launched in 1997. Its name comes from sister network YTV (Canadian TV channel), YTV's former programming b ...

airings only, shown after the credits in the latter) * Jokes From Zoboomafoo (PBS airings only) * End Credits

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (1999–2000)

Season 2 (2000–01)

Awards and nominations

''Zoboomafoo'' received the 2001 Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Series and a Parents' Choice Award for Spring 2001 and Silver Honor for Fall 2001.

Other media

There are also several video games for the PC based on ''Zoboomafoo'', where children learn the alphabet and animals that correlate to each letter. Some of the letters have interactive games to go with them, such as a coloring page.

References

Notes

External links

* {{Portal bar, 1990s, Television 1990s American animated comedy television series 1990s American children's comedy television series 1990s American sketch comedy television series 1990s Canadian children's television series 1990s Canadian sketch comedy television series 2000s American children's comedy television series 2000s American sketch comedy television series 2000s Canadian children's television series 2000s Canadian sketch comedy television series 1999 American animated television series debuts 1999 Canadian television series debuts 2001 American television series endings 2001 Canadian television series endings American English-language television shows PBS Kids shows PBS animated television series TVO original programming Nature educational television series American preschool education television series Canadian preschool education television series 1990s preschool education television series 2000s preschool education television series Animated preschool education television series American television shows featuring puppetry Canadian television shows featuring puppetry Claymation television series American stop-motion animated television series Canadian stop-motion animated television series Television series by Cookie Jar Entertainment American television series with live action and animation Canadian television series with live action and animation Television series about brothers Television series about mammals Fictional lemurs Television series created by Chris Kratt Television series created by Martin Kratt Television characters introduced in 1999 Children's sketch comedy