ZZZap!

ZZZap!
Genre	Children's Slapstick Comedy
Directed by	Paul Slater (1994) Ian Bolt (1997-1998) Alistair Clark (1993) Adrian Hedley(1995-1997) Simon Pearce (1999-2001) Bob Wild (1997-1998)
Starring	Neil Buchanan Sophie Aldred Richard Waites Sarah Pickthall Deborah McCallum Claire Macaulay
Voices of	Neil Buchanan Sophie Aldred Richard Waites
Theme music composer	Ron Aspery
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English text only, aimed at the hearing impaired
No. of series	10
No. of episodes	131 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Dan Maddicott Richard Morse Janie Grace
Producer(s)	Neil Buchanan Tim Edmunds Driana Jones Laura Hayes (asst)
Editor(s)	Jim Lownie Chris Jackson Simon Cruse
Running time	15 minutes
Release
Original network	ITV (CITV)
Original release	8 January 1993 – 21 September 2001

Zzzap (rendered ZZZap!) was a British children's television comedy programme. The concept of the show is a giant 18 ft comic that has been brought to life. The show was broadcast on ITV from 8 January 1993 until 21 September 2001 and was produced for ten series by The Media Merchants and Meridian Broadcasting.

The programme follows the same format throughout its run. A title intro is shown consisting of a couple of short clips for each character from the series. It is then followed by a series of short two- or three-minute-long segments, followed by the credits. Each segment is introduced by the camera zooming in on a corresponding panel on a giant comic, shot in reverse (e.g.: The Camera starting at the Panel, and pulling back) and then played in reverse. This giant comic has a set of nine frames on it, some of which contain a character representing their segments. The show was designed with deaf children in mind, and so the style of the show is predominantly visual, with the sound only providing music and effects. The audience in "The Handymen" segments would also often sign clapping instead of actually clapping.

The introduction to Series 1 was filmed in Chequers Shopping Centre in Maidstone showing a boy buying a copy of a comic called "ZZZap!" from a newsagent. The comic contains a 'Free TV Zapper!' which he uses only to find that the comic has increased to an enormous 18 ft size. This introduction was abandoned from series 2 onwards, which instead showed the giant comic and then introduced each of the characters with a short video. Some computer generated additions were made in series 8, and for series 10 the whole sequence including the giant comic was computer-animated. The closing titles also changed between series.

The series was more recently broadcast on the CITV channel in 2006, 2007 and 2009. There were plans to broadcast the programme as part of CITV's 30th anniversary in January 2013, but this did not go ahead due to licensing issues.

The Smart Arty elements and The Handymen were repeated in the USA as part of It's Itsy Bitsy Time on Fox Family, as Art to Art with Arty Art and The Handymen respectively, from 1999 until 2001.

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