CRO
| Cro | |
|---|---|
| Based on | The Way Things Work by David Macaulay |
| Developed by | Mark Zaslove |
| Starring | Max Casella as Cro |
| Voices of |
Charlie Adler Ruth Buzzi Jim Cummings Tress MacNeille Candi Milo Laurie O'Brien April Ortiz Jane Singer Jussie Smollett Frank Welker |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 20 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Phil Roman Jeffrey Nelson |
| Running time | Approx. 23 mins. |
| Production company(s) | Children's Television Workshop (CTW) Film Roman |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 18, 1993 – October 22, 1994 |
Cro is an American animated television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop) and Film Roman. It debuted on September 18, 1993 as part of the Saturday morning line-up for fall 1993 on ABC. Cro lasted 1½ seasons and ran in reruns through summer 1995. The show had an educational theme (this was before federal educational/informational mandates took effect in 1996), introducing basic concepts of physics, mechanical engineering, and technology. The premise of using woolly mammoths as a teaching tool for the principles of technology was inspired by David Macaulay's The Way Things Work; Macaulay is credited as writer on the show. The last new episode aired on October 22, 1994. The show was released on video (VHS) in a total of nine volumes.
Dr. C and Mike travel to the Arctic to study artifacts, and find a frozen woolly mammoth named Phil. They thaw it out, and are surprised to find that it can speak. Whenever a situation involves physics principles, Phil remembers when a similar situation occurred long ago in Woollyville with his fellow mammoths and his Cro-Magnon friend Cro who lives with a family of Neanderthals. Each episode runs through how the situation was resolved through simple engineering.
The show's (and lead character's) name is an Occitan word for "cave"; it alludes to Cro-Magnon, the location in France where the earliest anatomically modern humans were first discovered.
The videos that were released by Republic Home Video in the United States are:
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