Between the Lions
| Between the Lions | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Lou Berger Christopher Cerf Michael K. Frith Kathryn Mullen Linda Rath Norman Stiles |
| Starring |
Fred Newman Dr. Ruth Westheimer Puppeteers: Pam Arciero Anthony Asbury Heather Asch Jennifer Barnhart Tyler Bunch James Kroupa Peter Linz Tim Lagasse Kathryn Mullen |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 10 |
| No. of episodes | 130 (List of episodes) |
| Production company(s) |
WGBH-TV (2000–09) WGBH Kids (2009–10) Sirius Thinking, Ltd. |
| Distributor | Mississippi Public Broadcasting |
| Release | |
| Original network | PBS Kids |
| Original release | April 3, 2000 – November 22, 2010 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Between the Lions is a PBS Kids puppet television series designed to promote reading. The show was a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, in Mississippi. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and 2007. The target audience is children 5–8 years old. It has the same puppet style as Sesame Street and several season 2 episodes, notably in Dance in Smarty Pants, had a few characters from Sesame Street guest appearing. The show premiered on April 3, 2000, replacing The Puzzle Place. Between the Lions started its 10th and final season on September 20, 2010, and the series finale aired on November 22 of that same year. It aired on PBS Kids until reruns ceased on August 31, 2011.
The series focuses on a family of anthropomorphic lions operating and living in a large, busy library starring alongside a cast of unusual characters such as Click, an electronic, anthropomorphic computer mouse. The program's format is intended to promote literacy and reading and is perhaps most notable for sections of every episode in which the lions introduce an existing picture book to the audience and read it, a book that often presents a moral. Some episodes even have featured adaptions of well-known folktales or ancient myths or fables, while others have featured popular storybooks such as 'Click, Clack, Moo! Cows that Type', or shown the lions learning or benefiting from the lessons presented by the story. Aside from this, the series often features an array of educational segments formatted each in its own distinctive style, particularly parodies of well-known media redesigned educationally for younger audiences or simple animations, some sketches more repetitive than others. A distinctive feature of the series is that it is virtually never set outside of the library, as it usually chronicles the lions' experiences within it. Another segment features a pair of pigeons named Walter and Clay comically infuriating a living bust of the library's deceased founder, Barnaby B. Busterfield III, located in an upper section of the library, that is normally intended for comic relief.
The main characters are the lion cubs Lionel (7 years old and in 1st grade) and Leona (4 years old) and their parents Theo (Theodore) and Cleo (Cleopatra), who read stories to the cubs in almost every episode, so they can get wild about reading.
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