Pinwheel (TV show)
| Pinwheel | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Created by | Vivian Horner Sandy Kavanaugh |
| Written by | Lou Berger Caroline Cox Michael Holden Michael Karp Patricia Parmalee Robert Perlman Louis Phillips Ellen Schecter |
| Directed by | Michael Bernhaut James Colistro Philip Squyres |
| Starring | George James Arline Miyazaki Caroline Cox Lindanell Rivera Dale Engel Betty Rozek Bill Cosby |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 13 |
| No. of episodes | 260 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes per episode (ran in 3-5 hour blocks) |
| Production company(s) | Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment |
| Distributor | Nickelodeon |
| Release | |
| Original network |
Pinwheel (1977-1979) Nickelodeon (1979-1989) Nick Jr. (1988-1990) |
| Picture format | NTSC |
| Audio format |
Mono (1977-1981) Stereo (1981-1990) |
| Original release | December 1, 1977 – July 6, 1990 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Nick Jr. (block) |
Pinwheel is a children's television show that aired on the Nickelodeon cable network from 1977 to 1990. The show originally aired on channel C-3 of Warner Cable's interactive system QUBE in Columbus, Ohio, and it began airing on Nickelodeon when it first launched in December 1977.
Pinwheel was the flagship program of C-3, a children's network in Columbus, Ohio, in the earliest days of cable television broadcasting. C-3 soon changed its name to "Pinwheel". In 1979, Warner Cable purchased the Sat-1 communications satellite from Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and rebranded the Pinwheel Channel as Nickelodeon, where it reformatted Pinwheel as hour-long episodes shown in three- to five-hour blocks, a format which would eventually become the model for the Nick Jr. programming for younger children.
There were a total of 13 seasons and 260 one-hour Pinwheel episodes recorded from 1977 to 1989. Pinwheel remained in syndication until 1989 on Nickelodeon and until 1990 on Nick Jr. It remains the longest-running Nickelodeon show in episodes and hours on air and was the longest-running in years until You Can't Do That on Television broke the record. It is now #6, behind All That, You Can't Do That on Television, Nick News, Rugrats and SpongeBob SquarePants.
The show was similar to Sesame Street with live-action skits mixed with animated shorts. Action scenes took place in and around a large Victorian-style boarding house called Pinwheel House with a pinwheel on one of the peaks. Live actors would interact with puppets, discussing various concepts familiar to children's programming like sharing and being considerate, basic learning skills like colors, numbers and letters. All of the characters lived and worked in the various areas in and around the house.
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