Moose and Zee

Moose and Zee
Genre	Children's television series
Created by	Teri Weiss[1]
Written by	Sarah Feldman[2] Matt Perreault[3]
Voices of	Paul Christie
Opening theme	"Fantastic Day"[4]
Ending theme	"Done Day"[5]
Composer(s)	Frank Burrows[6]
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Naree Song[7]
Running time	1–3 minutes
Production company(s)	Nickelodeon Productions Bunko Studios[8]
Distributor	MTV Networks
Release
Original network	Noggin (2003–09) Nick Jr. (2009–12)
Picture format	480i (4:3 SDTV)
First shown in	2003
Original release	April 7, 2003 (2003-04-07) – March 1, 2012 (2012-03-01)
External links
Website

Moose and Zee is an American short-form children's television series originally airing on Noggin from 2003 until 2009, and Nick Jr. from 2009 until 2012. The series premiered on April 7, 2003.^[9]

Plot

A teacher and his bluebird assistant introduce preschoolers concepts such as math, reading and colors.

Characters

• Moose A. Moose - A yellow-colored anthropomorphic moose who teaches lessons to viewers through questioning. He encourages curiosity and is very knowledgeable.
• Zee D. Bird - A small mute bird who communicates through blinking, flapping her wings and staring. She acts as Moose's sidekick and assists viewers in figuring out answers to questions.

Episodes

Over 100 shorts were produced over the series' nine-year run.^[10] 46 of these shorts have been released as part of the Noggin subscription service as of November 11, 2015.^[11]

Recurring segments

• Mighty Fine Art - Moose and Zee discuss a painting or artist at the art museum.
• Puzzle Time - Moose asks the viewer to solve a puzzle by finding shapes, matching two images or spotting the difference in a group of pictures.
• Music Video - Moose sings about a season, holiday or concept.
• In Other Words - A specific word is introduced and explained to the viewer.
• Class Pet Time - The life of an animated, hamster-like pet named "Chip-Chip" is presented. The shorts are narrated by Moose, with children's voices commenting on Chip-Chip's actions.
• Story Time - A well-known story is read aloud, occasionally by Moose himself.
• Little Green Fingers - A live-action segment featuring a type of plant. These shorts were only aired on Nick Jr. UK (until being added to the Noggin app under the title "Zee's Garden").
• Zee's Bookshelf - Zee introduces an upcoming television program. Ebb and Flo was aired exclusively between these segments.

Broadcast

Several weeks before the series' first airing, advertisements featuring Moose A. Moose were broadcast on Noggin to notify viewers of upcoming schedule changes. The series premiered on April 7, 2003, as part of the Noggin channel redesign. Three other programs premiered alongside Moose and Zee: Tweenies, Miffy and Friends, and the first full-length episode of Oobi (Oobi shorts had aired since 2000).^[12] Moose and Zee would continue to air daily on Noggin through the channel's rebranding as Nick Jr. on September 28, 2009, and would air its last episode on March 1, 2012. The series is not currently airing on television, but is available for viewing as part of Viacom's Noggin streaming app released in March 2015.^[11] The original 2015 commercial for the Noggin app depicts a child viewing Moose and Zee episodes, marking the first time since 2012 that the characters have been seen on television.^[13]

From 2008 until 2012, Moose and Zee shorts were added monthly to the "Preschool" folder included as part of the Nickelodeon On Demand service. During that time, all "Nick Jr. On Demand" promo videos featured Moose A. Moose.^[14]

The series was dubbed into Spanish in late 2015,^[15] with the dubbed episodes included as part of the Latin American Noggin application.^[16] Select episodes were aired on Nick Jr. Latin America at the time of the app's release.

Merchandise

In November 2005, Noggin released products such as clothing, notebooks, holiday ornaments and greeting cards featuring the Moose and Zee logo and its characters.^[17] These products were available through the Noggin.com online store. In 2010, Moose and Zee plush dolls, figures, shirts and "crazy straws" featuring the characters were sold at Nickelodeon's Storytime Live! performance and at Nickelodeon Universe.^[18] Several of these items are currently available at Nickelodeon Universe's online store.^[19]

A series of short stories and paper activities based on Moose and Zee titled "Learn with Moose and Zee!" was produced in 2011. The individual stories and activities were included at the ends of many Dora the Explorer books released that year, such as "Dora Saves the Enchanted Forest," "Dora and Diego Help the Little Wolf," and a reissuing of "At the Carnival."^[20][21][22] No full-length Moose and Zee books were released.

Although the series was never given a DVD release of its own, Moose and Zee shorts were attached to several Nick Jr. DVDs. These include the 2010 DVD Let's Hear It For the Laurie Berkner Band! (which includes the shorts "Everywhere I Go," "Music Makes Me," "We're Goin' on a Trip," and "Word of Wonder") and the Dora the Explorer DVD Explore the Earth! (which includes the shorts "I'm In Neighborhood" and "Explore the Seashore").^[23][24] In addition to physical DVD releases, some episodes of the series are available for digital download on the US iTunes Store. The episode "I Don't Like Candy Corn" is available as part of the collection Nick Jr. Haunted Halloween, Vol. 3^[25] and the episode "Winter Wonderland" is available as part of Nick Jr. Wintertime Adventures.^[26]

Several products given to attendees of "Club Noggin" (an interactive hour-long program taking place at General Growth Property malls across the United States) featured Moose and Zee.^[27] These products included posters, cut-out crafts and "badges" made of fabric. Club Noggin distributed them from 2004 until 2006.^[28]

The Moose and Zee characters are the "hosts" of a Nintendo-produced game for the Wii console, "Nickelodeon Fit."^[29] Players cannot play as Moose or Zee.

Online media

The series' title characters were prominently featured on Noggin.com (and NickJr.com, to a lesser extent) from 2003 onward. About one hundred online printables and crafts were created to coincide with new shorts.^[30][31] Recipes such as character cakes and meals inspired by the shorts were accessible through the websites for several years.^[32] Many digital games based on the series were made available, such as "Doodle Pad," "What's the Word, Bird?" and "What's Different".^[33][34][35] Video clips from Moose and Zee episodes included as part of the "Nick Jr. Video" service were live on NickJr.com until early 2012.^[36]

The Moose and Zee characters were also the focal point of two (now defunct) online learning programs. The first was titled "MyNoggin" and was available at www.mynoggin.com in 2008 through 2009.^[37] MyNoggin subscriptions were available for online purchase, as well as through several prepaid game cards sold at most major retailers.^[38] The service was also advertised in many issues of the Parents' Choice Award-winning children's publication Nick Jr. Magazine.^[39] After the Noggin network was rebranded as Nick Jr. in late 2009, MyNoggin was replaced by "Nick Jr. Boost." Nick Jr. Boost was very similar to MyNoggin and continued to use Moose A. Moose as its mascot until its close in 2013.^[40] The Boost program was a premium subscription service like its predecessor, with paid membership (stickers valid for a free month of Boost were attached to early releases of Nickelodeon's "The First Day of School" DVD).^[41]

In early 2010, a mobile application based on the show titled "A to Z with Moose and Zee" was made available for purchase in the iOS App Store worldwide.^[42] The game, aimed at preschoolers, was designed to teach children the letters of the alphabet. The app was compatible with updated iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices at the time and was sold for $1.99 in U.S. dollars. It has since been removed from the App Store.

Live shows

In late 2009, Nickelodeon partnered with Key Brand Entertainment to produce "Storytime Live!", a theatrical performance featuring Nick Jr. characters.^[43] Moose and Zee was one of the several Nick Jr. programs showcased as part of the production, with a full-size Moose costume and Zee puppet created by Geppetto Studios.^[44]

Nickelodeon created a different mascot-style costume of Moose A. Moose for "meet-and-greet" event appearances, taking place at locations such as the Nebraskan "Kidz Explore" festival.^[45] The meet-and-greet costume design differed greatly from the older Storytime Live! version, with the Moose costume being much larger and more similar to his square shape as seen in the show.

References

External links

• Moose and Zee at the Internet Movie Database
• Moose and Zee at TV.com
• Moose and Zee on LocateTV.com
• Official site
• Former show page on NickJr.com