Noddy (TV series)

Noddy, also named as The Noddy Shop, is an American-Canadian television series based on Enid Blyton's children's book series of the same name with stop-motion sequences from Noddy's Toyland Adventures that aired from September 28, 1998 to February 16, 2000 on PBS. Following its cancellation, reruns were aired until September 13, 2002. The series is produced by WNET and WNYE-TV.

The show starred Sean McCann as Noah Tomten, a former old salt, who now runs an antique shop, the NODDY Shop (this stood for, "Notions, Oddities, Doodads and Delights of Yesterday"). His catchphrases included "What in tarnation?!" and "Great Neptune's Ghost!", usually whenever he was excited about something. It also starred Jayne Eastwood as his scatter-brained sister, Agatha Flugelschmidt, who runs a hat shop next door to the Noddy shop. One of her catchphrases included "Oh, pish-posh!", usually whenever she disagreed with something that someone else said.

The stories in The Noddy Shop mainly centred on three children- Noah's grandchildren, Kate and Truman, and a friend of Kate's named Daniel Johnson, shortened to D.J., who came to play at the shop, and were collected by their (unseen) parents at the end of the day, implying the episodes were set after school, during school holidays or at weekends. Most episodes had a moral message, which was conveyed with a Noddy story, usually told by Kate using the Noddy dolls in the shop, which the viewer saw as recycled animation from earlier Noddy cartoons. The moral message was also a theme in a song sung by the shop's population of anthropomorphic toys. There was sometimes a second song, usually a re-enactment of a popular folk tale.

Toys and antiques

• Warloworth Q. Weasel, usually shortened to "Warlow", was a weasel in a bowler hat who resided in a jack-in-the-box. He was a malicious weasel who was always playing tricks on the other toys, but usually got his comeuppance.
• Bonita Flamingo – A bright orange toy flamingo who sported a Carmen Miranda-style headdress. She spoke in a strong Spanish accent, sometimes saying things in both Spanish and English.
• Johnny Crawfish – A rubber lobster who tells a lot of jokes and resides in a fish tank, and sometimes plays rock and roll songs on the piano.
• Sherman – A clockwork turtle with wheels like a tank, who wore an army helmet.
• Rusty – A toy clown who was good friends with Sherman, and always rode on his back.
• Planet Pup – A small robotic dog, supposedly from outer space
• Lichtenstein – A beer tankard shaped like a Viking's head, usually referred to simply as "Stein". He didn't speak much, but could usually be seen singing along with the songs. When he did speak, he had a noticeable German accent, and ended many of his sentences with "Ja".
• Island Princess – A wooden carving, rather like a ship's figurehead, in a traditional Hawaiian costume. She sees everything that goes on in the shop.
• Gertie Gator – A plastic alligator who stood on two legs, wore a purple dress and carried a matching umbrella
• Granny Duck – A wise plastic duck on wheels
• The Penguins – Four penguins who never spoke, only sang– along with the Wax Lips, they often provided short interludes introducing the Noddy story, or a turning point in the action of the episode
• Wax Lips – A box of five fake lips who had no spoken dialogue, but sang in every episode
• Fred and Cherie – A French pig couple
• The Crybabies – Two babies, one male, one female – one was dressed in pink, the other in blue – in a cradle. They often cry at any tense situation.
• Shorty Salt Shaker and Slim Pepper Shaker – Salt and pepper shakers shaped like cactuses
• Gumball – A wise gumball machine
• Wind-up Teeth – A pair of wind-up novelty teeth that chatters when excited or scared

Cast

• Sean McCann as Noah Tomten
• Katie Boland as Kate Tomten
• Max Morrow as Truman Tomten
• Kyle Kassardjian as Daniel "D.J." Johnson
• Jayne Eastwood as Aunt Agatha Flugelschmidt
• Dan Redican as Officer Carl Spiffy (Season 1) (various episodes)
• Neil Crone as Bud Topper (Season 2) (various episodes)
• Taborah Johnson as Miss Hilda Sweetly (various episodes)
• Gina Sorell as April May McJune (various episodes)
• Gerry Quigley as Davy Gladhand (various episodes)
• Jim Calder as Lurk Goblins
• Nikki Pascetta as Snipe Goblins
• Gil Filar as Boobull (Season 1)

Puppeteers

• Terry Angus
• Tim Gosley
• Trish Leeper
• Rob Mills
• Gord Robertson
• Bob Stutt
• Karen Valleau
• Cheryl Wagner

Episodes

1. "The Magic Key"
2. "Monkey Business"
3. "Mixed up Magic"
4. "Lost and Found"
5. "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Goblins"
6. "The Tooth Fairy"
7. "Stop, Listen and Learn"
8. "Making up is Easy to Do"
9. "If at First You Don't Succeed..."
10. "The Birthday Party"
11. "Telling Tails"
12. "It's About Time"
13. "A Promise is a Promise"
14. "To the Rescue"
15. "Chills and Spills"
16. "The Big Race"
17. "A Dog's Best Friend"
18. "Hooray for the Kids"
19. "The Mystery Box"
20. "We All Say Boo!"
21. "Trying Something New"
22. "The Fish Story"
23. "The Big Fight"
24. "Following Directions"
25. "Mixed Up Masks"
26. "Truman, Come Home"
27. "Something's Lost, Something's Found"
28. "The Magic Show"
29. "The Big Mess"
30. "Recipe for Learning"
31. "Recycle and Reuse it"
32. "Telling the Whole Truth"
33. "Secret Valentines"
34. "Sing Yourself to Sleep"
35. "Treasure Hunt"
36. "Jack Frost is Coming to Town"
37. "The Trouble with Truman"
38. "Let's Go Fly a Kite"
39. "Thing Big"
40. "Noah's Leaving"
41. "Anything can Happen at Christmas"
42. "Little Swap of Horrors"
43. "Dance to Your Own Music"
44. "Ask Permission"
45. "Take a Stand"
46. "The Sandman Cometh"
47. "Noah's Treasure"
48. "Be True to Who you Are"
49. "All Play and No work"
50. "April Fool"
51. "Lights, Camera, Chaos"
52. "How Rude"
53. "Part of the Family"
54. "Big Bullies"
55. "Paying Attention to Kate"
56. "Skunked"
57. "Thunder and Lightning"
58. "Going Bananas"
59. "Slugger"
60. "Find your Own Song"
61. "The Big Showdown"
62. "Growing Lies"
63. "The Human Touch"
64. "Be Patient"
65. "Kate Loves a Parade"
66. "Closing up Shop"

External links

• Noddy at the Internet Movie Database

References