View Full Version : Question for Playhouse Disney Parents
Okay, so am I the only one who wonders what the heck happened to all the great shows that used to be on Playhouse Disney??
I mean, I'm as much a fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as the next guy, but why did they get rid of all the terrific shows they had a couple years back?
Think about it ... what happened to Bear in the Big Blue House, The Book of Pooh, Bunnytown, Charlie & Lola, The Doodlebobs (okay, I hated them but still ... ), Higglytown Heroes, Johnny and the Sprites, JoJo's Circus, The Koala Brothers, PB&J Otter, Rolie Polie Olie, Stanley, and even The Wiggles??
I swear, all that's on now is MMCH, Little Einstein's, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Handy Manny, and Imagination Movers!
We loved some of those older shows and I know they were broadly popular. How come they all just vanished in what seemed like the span of only a few months??
Madame Leona
08-27-2009, 05:50 PM
Awesom question. My sons love Bear but I have to rent the movies from the library. We catch the Doodlebops on a Canadian station on occasion but they are the really old epsidodes. I would like to see a lot of them come back.
Strmchsr
08-27-2009, 06:02 PM
I'm with you Ian. Bear has always been a big favorite with us. Stanley, PB&J, Rollie Pollie all were great. My guess is they cut the budget for shows. It seemed like the Disney Channel had gone bad for several years then they put a ton of effort into it with Shows like Bear and Rollie Pollie but now it seems to be going south again. The shows now aren't bad at all, just not enough variety. I still miss Dumbo's Circus. :mickey:
chefmickey3
08-27-2009, 06:06 PM
I miss Bear soooo much! We still sing the "Good-bye" song as our family good night song. I like some of the new prorgramming but it is too formula-like. The old stuff told good stories. I wish they would stop changing good programs.
Basket Mommy
08-27-2009, 07:50 PM
I just saw Charlie & Lola on Sunday. I love that show.
tiaramom
08-27-2009, 08:16 PM
Bear is a favorite here as well.
I agree- the other PlayHouse Disney shows were much better- As were the shows at Hollywood studios in Disney. Jo Jos circus , was adorabel. The doodle Bops so cool. Now- Handy Manny
come on??? the tigger Pooh - is cute but not as adorable as BEAR in the BIg Blue House.
Bring it back please!!!!!
Yeah, the ones I miss the most are JoJo (and no foolin' ... JoJo was popular!), PB&J Otter (I loved doing the Noodle Dance!), and The Koala Brothers (we always had fun guessing who they were going to help that day ... I always picked Lolly ;) ).
The new shows are okay, I guess, but I kinda feel like they decided to cut budgets and produced shows mostly around Disney owned properties or something. Outside of Imagination Movers, the rest of the shows on now all feature Disney-owned content.
baldburke
08-28-2009, 12:43 AM
I'm surprised they don't run more of their back catalog in the off hours on some of their channels. Maybe they do and I just don't notice it. It would be cool if they had a preschool only channel like Noggin.
Disney Doll
08-28-2009, 11:33 AM
Don't forget about Oso, I think that's my son's favorite Disney show right now. I don't understand why Phineas and Ferb is included in the Playhouse Disney morning lineup. It's seems like it is for older kids. Isn't Playhouse Disney supposed to be for preschoolers?
RedSoxFan
08-28-2009, 12:33 PM
Kourtney loved Playhouse Disney when she was little with Bear, PB&J & Rollie Pollie. She would go around sniffing as a toddler and it wasn't until I saw the beginning of Bear that I knew why. It was her favorite show. And she got to see all her favorite characters on her first trip to WDW in kindergarten and was so thrilled. :mickey:
Don't forget about Oso, I think that's my son's favorite Disney show right now.My kids like it, too, but I don't get it at all. I think it's terrible!!
But then again, I'm obviously not the target audience. ;)
DisneyAggies
08-28-2009, 02:12 PM
I'm thinking (HOPING) that some of the other playhouse disney shows are going to come back once they switch over to their 'normal' schedule. I HATE when they change things around for the summer.
Sadly, I think that Doodlebops, Koala Bros, and Bear in the Big Blue house are gone...I fear the same for Higglytown heroes!
ETA: They'd better bring back Charlie and Lola to a respectable time slot---if not I'm throwing a FIT!!! (I LOVE Lola!!) Even have the theme as my ringtone!!
ETA2: PHEW...just saw...C&L are coming back to their 'normal' time on Sept. 8!! YAAY!
Princess'Mom
08-28-2009, 04:04 PM
The oldie goldies - we miss them in our household too. My DD grew up on all of them and she is just 7! Thinking back, almost all of her birthday party themes were a Disney Playhouse character - Bear, Roly, Wiggles...
Personally I really miss PB&J. I loved the Snooty Poodles and Aunt Nanner. Another Noggin show that is/was pretty good - Max & Ruby!
Luckily Charlie & Lola are coming back - I just love Lola!
It is hard to get excited about P&F. I don't "get" them.
TigChatt
08-30-2009, 11:46 PM
Unfortunately most of the favorite shows that you have mentioned got cut off BEFORE summer programming. They cut the show as of JANUARY. The shows that they show now are a rip-off compared to the ones before. I wish you could vote on the shows and vote on the ones to bring back. I miss Jo-Jo(Goliath was my favorite), Higglytown Heros, PB&J Otter, Bear to name a few. I change the channel on Handy Manny & Oso(yuck). My son's favorites are MMC & Imagination Movers. I think we should petition to get a channel just like Noggin only Disney shows.
Personally I really miss PB&J.:ditto:
btw, you guys are missing out if you aren't watching Phineus and Ferb ... it's my new favorite show!
There's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it ....
Melanie
08-31-2009, 07:50 AM
There's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it ....
If I've heard that line once in the last week, I've heard it a million times.
My boys LOVE this show, and maybe someone is correct in saying it's for the older set. They are 11 and 9.
alphamommy
08-31-2009, 10:21 AM
btw, you guys are missing out if you aren't watching Phineus and Ferb ... it's my new favorite show!
There's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it ....
AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! Now I'll have it in my head all day!
I can't stand the theme song to this show! DD9 has started muting the TV when it starts so I don't have to hear it. Candace's voice drives me crazy, too.
The show itself isn't bad, but it is targeted to older kids. I personally think it's an acquired taste, and I haven't acquired it. DH and DD love the show.
As for the thread topic, DD's favorite show when she was little was "Bear". When she was first learning to talk, she'd pick up the remote and say, "Butt, push, Bear!" She knew that I pushed buttons ("Butt") on the remote to change the channel, and she thought that I could make "Bear" appear whenever she wanted.
Lizzy
08-31-2009, 03:21 PM
My older son loved Rollie Pollie Olie. I do wish Disney had a playhouse disney channel like Noggin. I don't like the new Playhouse shows nearly as much (LOVED BEAR)
I can't stand the new Tigger and Pooh show. It is way to far detached from the rest of the Pooh stories. Super Sleuths seems so lame to me. They could have just come up with new characters
alphamommy
09-01-2009, 10:08 AM
I just realized another thing about Playhouse Disney. It ends much earlier than it used to.
When DD9 was the "right" age to watch, I thought it lasted until lunchtime. She had it on this morning, and it ended at 10:00.
Even though I don't have a kid in the target age group, I agree that they should have a Noggin-type Disney channel. Toon Disney has been converted to appeal to older kids, and they're not putting much into the programming for the little ones anymore.
I can't stand the new Tigger and Pooh show. It is way to far detached from the rest of the Pooh stories. Super Sleuths seems so lame to me. They could have just come up with new charactersEh ... you sort of have to remember the context of the new show. Christopher Robin is grown up and now Darby (his little sister) is playing with Christopher's stuffed animals. She's the one who has conjured up the Super Sleuths idea and that's how she plays with Pooh and the gang. The execution of the idea, though, feels low budget and is sort of lame. The songs are just terrible ... "Now it's time to think, think, think???" Gee, how hard did you have to work to come up with that one? :shake:
I just realized another thing about Playhouse Disney. It ends much earlier than it used to.
When DD9 was the "right" age to watch, I thought it lasted until lunchtime. She had it on this morning, and it ended at 10:00.Those are just the summer hours. During school it's back to running until noon.
sportsguy2315
09-07-2009, 07:57 PM
I think we should petition to get a channel just like Noggin only Disney shows.
I agree; but I wish Disney would also do what Disney Channel used to be: Fun for the whole family. Also, while you're at it, bring back the cartoons I grew up with (i.e. Recess, Doug, and Weekenders). It would be appreciated :)
HallandNash
09-08-2009, 01:24 PM
I have to respectfully disagree with you folks. My daughter is 3 and we both love the current Playhouse Disney lineup. We've been watching it for probably a year or year and a half or so and I don't have any knowledge of any of the older shows mentioned here. I can say that she LOVES Clubhouse, Tigger & Pooh, Little Einsteins, and Oso. We also like the Handy Manny songs that come on in between shows. I think they're all top notch shows. :thumbsup:
I've got these all set up to DVR so we watch them whenever we want. Honestly I haven't worried about when any show (other than a Red Sox game) is scheduled to be on for years.
Well that's good that your DD enjoys the new shows, but it's kind of tough for you to really evaluate what she's missing out on if you've never seen any of the older ones.
Maybe go out and see if you can pick up some of the DVD's that are out there ... I think you'll find the older shows to be as much to her liking, if not more so, than the current ones.
Disney Doll
09-09-2009, 03:13 PM
Even though I don't have a kid in the target age group, I agree that they should have a Noggin-type Disney channel. Toon Disney has been converted to appeal to older kids, and they're not putting much into the programming for the little ones anymore.
I agree! There's not much for little ones anymore. I hate that the only show DS asks for is Wow, Wow, Wubbzy, a non-Disney show that I find irritating. Disney needs to step up their game to compete with Noggin.
BrerGnat
09-09-2009, 05:11 PM
Eh...we don't miss those old shows either. My boys are 5 and 3.5. They LOVE MMC, Oso, and Little Einsteins. In fact, my older son was around when the "older" shows were on and he NEVER got into them...at ALL. And, to be frank, I thought they were all pretty lame too, with the exception of JoJo's Circus and Higglytown Heroes (which were the only two my son would TOLERATE). I had a secret fascination with Higglytown heroes, because I always tried to guess who the special "guest star voice" hero was. :blush:
I hated Bear in the Big Blue House (I sort of have an aversion to television programming that features people dressed up in giant animal costumes...a la Barney, but I digress). Charlie and Lola was boring and never captured my kid's attention at all. And, all those shows with people singing and dancing in crazy costumes, like Doodlebops and Wiggles...my kids never got into those either. So, really, I don't feel any remorse for those shows being gone.
Now, my kids LOVE the Imagination Movers. In fact, we're seeing them in concert when they come to L.A. in December. BUT, they only love their music. They don't like the show on Playhouse Disney.
I agree that the Tigger and Pooh show is pretty horrible. My kids won't watch it. And, Handy Manny as well. No interest in that one.
I think they need more shows like Oso, which, to be honest is PERFECT for the preschool set. It features short cartoons and utilizes concepts that actually helps kids of those ages learn (observation, sequencing, problem solving). My kids have actually learned a lot from that show, in terms of following steps and doing things in order. We do a lot of things "like Oso"---"Step 1: Clean up your toys. Step 2: Take your bath Step 3: Go to bed." It's amazing how compliant they have both become when we start a process by just saying out loud "Step 1"...:thumbsup: BIG fan of Oso here...hope that show doesn't get cancelled. But we have them all on our DVR in case it does. ;)
I loathe Special Agent Oso. I think it's the worst show they've aired outside of the Doodlebops.
To me it's just so stupid it actually manages to insult the intelligence of pre-schoolers. Not to mention that Oso is sort of a bumbling fool.
Robert's Dad
09-10-2009, 03:04 PM
They have a new show that looks British, I miss Bear too!
They have a new show that looks British, I miss Bear too!I always thought Bunnytown had a British feel to it, too.
That show was maybe the shortest lived of all these shows! It was on for a couple months and that was it. I actually thought it was sort of cute, too. I was kind of surprised to see it go so fast.
And man I loved Koala Brothers. That's another show I can't believe disappeared like it did.
BrerGnat
09-12-2009, 01:01 PM
I loathe Special Agent Oso. I think it's the worst show they've aired outside of the Doodlebops.
To me it's just so stupid it actually manages to insult the intelligence of pre-schoolers. Not to mention that Oso is sort of a bumbling fool.
Oso is supposed to be sort of an idiot, a la Pink Panther. It's supposed to be a spoof on James Bond and Pink Panther. It's funny if you look at it that way. The kids in the show step up and show Oso how to do things the RIGHT way. My son actually laughs at the silliness of it. He gets the humor...
Now, you wanna talk about a show that INSULTS the intelligence of preschoolers...try watching DORA the Explorer. Holy cow! I lose brain cells watching that show...I don't even let my kids watch that, for fear of dumbing them down.
Now, you wanna talk about a show that INSULTS the intelligence of preschoolers...try watching DORA the Explorer. Holy cow! I lose brain cells watching that show...I don't even let my kids watch that, for fear of dumbing them down.Ugh ... I am so glad DD never got in to Dora the way some of her friends did! :ack:
alphamommy
09-13-2009, 02:13 PM
Someone earlier in this thread mentioned how much they liked Higglytown Heroes. I have to say that, IMHO, HH was one of the creepiest kids shows I've ever watched!
There was one episode where the kids were playing hide and seek with the grandpa of one of them. It turned out that the boy had hidden inside his grandpa! I just found that a little too weird.
Goofster
09-14-2009, 01:29 PM
I agree; but I wish Disney would also do what Disney Channel used to be: Fun for the whole family. Also, while you're at it, bring back the cartoons I grew up with (i.e. Recess, Doug, and Weekenders). It would be appreciated :)
Recess is on Disney XD right now. It was on Sunday in the afternoon...get it before its yanked again!
Goofster
09-14-2009, 01:45 PM
I loathe Special Agent Oso. I think it's the worst show they've aired outside of the Doodlebops.
To me it's just so stupid it actually manages to insult the intelligence of pre-schoolers. Not to mention that Oso is sort of a bumbling fool.
I agree...my three kids have no interest in it. One of the episodes I caught was searching for missing syrup for pancakes I believe...seemed like a waste of a time. Overall, they watch a lot of Noggin...not so much Playhouse Disney anymore, which is sad because it used to have a lot of great programming on it - PB & J, Rollie Pollie Ollie, Bear, etc. Instead, our local video store has free kids movies and they're able to get those series on DVD. My daughter, who is 6, loves getting the Rollie Pollie Olie DVDs while my other son likes the Koala Brothers. Its surprising that Disney doesn't have a separate channel for all of this programming. :confused:
BelleKP
09-14-2009, 07:29 PM
We still love all the programming on Playhouse Disney . . . DD5 really likes Oso (me, not so much ;)), MMCH, Tigger, Handy Manny, Little Eingsteins, Imagination Movers, et all. Now I don't know if our programming is a little different in Canada but we still get Bear, Bunnytwon, Higgletytown, Franny's Feet, etc.
Now the show that I can't stand . . . Gerald McBoing, Boing . . . I just don't get it at all. :(
Someone earlier in this thread mentioned how much they liked Higglytown Heroes. I have to say that, IMHO, HH was one of the creepiest kids shows I've ever watched!
There was one episode where the kids were playing hide and seek with the grandpa of one of them. It turned out that the boy had hidden inside his grandpa! I just found that a little too weird.Well they were supposed to be Russian Nesting Dolls (a.k.a. Matryoshka Dolls), so if you consider the show in that context maybe it's not so odd?
I mean if you were a Matryoshka Doll hiding inside your grandpa might be a very normal thing to do!
TheVBs
09-20-2009, 07:36 PM
DH and I were just talking about this!
Hands down Stanley was the best show ever. Bear too! We also loved Koala Brothers and PB&J. We've gotten Bear and Stanley on dvd for our youngest to see and she loves them. I really wish you could get more of the old shows on dvd.
She loves Little Einsteins, Charlie and Lola and Oso.
I do have to say, if I never see the Doodlebops again I'll count myself lucky. They were awful!
DH and I were just talking about this!
Hands down Stanley was the best show ever. Bear too! We also loved Koala Brothers and PB&J. We've gotten Bear and Stanley on dvd for our youngest to see and she loves them. I really wish you could get more of the old shows on dvd.
She loves Little Einsteins, Charlie and Lola and Oso.
I do have to say, if I never see the Doodlebops again I'll count myself lucky. They were awful!:ditto:
alphamommy
09-22-2009, 09:44 PM
Well they were supposed to be Russian Nesting Dolls (a.k.a. Matryoshka Dolls), so if you consider the show in that context maybe it's not so odd?
I mean if you were a Matryoshka Doll hiding inside your grandpa might be a very normal thing to do!
I know they were Russian Nesting Dolls. I still thought it was weird.
Then again, I'm not a Russian Nesting Doll!
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