Peep and the Big Wide World
| Peep and the Big Wide World | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Peep |
| Genre | Educational Adventure Children's television series Comedy |
| Created by | Kaj Pindal |
| Directed by | Rick Marshall |
| Voices of | Scott Beaudin (1-3) Shawn Molko (4) Maxwell Uretsky (5) Jamie Watson Amanda Soha |
| Narrated by | Joan Cusack |
| Theme music composer | Steve D'Angelo Terry Tompkins |
| Opening theme | "Peep and the Big Wide World" performed by Taj Mahal |
| Ending theme | "Peep and the Big Wide World" (instrumental) |
| Country of origin | Canada United States |
| Original languages | English French |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 60 (120 segments + 120 live-action segments) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Kate Taylor |
| Producers | Vince Commisso Marisa Wolsky |
| Running time | 22–25 minutes |
| Production companies | 9 Story Entertainment Eggbox LLC National Film Board of Canada Discovery Kids Original Productions (seasons 1–3) WGBH Boston |
| Original release | |
| Network | TVOKids (Canada) Discovery Kids/TLC (seasons 1–3) (U.S.) PBS Kids (seasons 4–5) (U.S.) |
| Release | April 12, 2004 – September 14, 2007 (seasons 1–3) |
| Release | February 2, 2010 – October 14, 2011 (seasons 4–5) |
Peep and the Big Wide World is an animated preschool television series created by Danish-Canadian animator Kaj Pindal. It revolves around the lives of Peep, Chirp, and Quack, as viewers discover, investigate, and explore the world around them.
The show was based on the 1988 short film of the same name produced by the National Film Board of Canada, which itself is based on the 1962 short film The Peep Show, also produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The series premiered on April 12, 2004, on Discovery Kids and on TLC as part of their Ready Set Learn! children's block in the United States, and on TVOKids in Canada. It was produced by WGBH Boston (through its kids division WGBH Kids) and 9 Story Media Group (formerly 9 Story Entertainment; in its debut production), in association with TVOntario and Discovery Kids and is distributed by Alliance Atlantis (through AAC Kids for the first season).
Carriage on the Discovery children's networks ended on October 10, 2010 with the discontinuation of Ready Set Learn! and the replacement of Discovery Kids with The Hub, and now, Discovery Family. The series was offered to public television stations via independent public television distributor American Public Television from April 1, 2007, through January 3, 2018. Beginning January 1, 2018, the series was distributed by PBS Kids. U.S. broadcasts ended December 26, 2021.
Throughout its run, it has been underwritten by the National Science Foundation, with Northrop Grumman underwriting season four in 2010.
Each episode consists of two 9-minute stories, which are animated segments, and two 2-minute live action segments, in which children explore and demonstrate the same topic presented in the animated segment. The show is narrated by Joan Cusack.