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The Big Comfy Couch
Canadian children's television series From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Big Comfy Couch (French: Le Monde de Loonette, lit. 'The World of Loonette'), is a Canadian children's prop comedy television series which is about a clown named Loonette and her doll Molly who solve everyday problems on their eponymous couch.[1][2] It was produced by Cheryl Wagner and Robert Mills, directed by Wayne Moss, Robert Mills and Steve Wright. It premiered on March 2, 1993, in Canada[3] and on January 9, 1995, in the United States on public television stations across the country, airing its final episode on December 29, 2006. The program was also broadcast on Treehouse TV from 1997 to 2011.
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Premise
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As with many children's shows, the series had a number of staple elements.[1] Loonette performs a daily exercise routine she calls the Clock Rug Stretch. She also reads stories to Molly; has unusual encounters with the dust bunnies who live under the couch; sings themed songs; and visits different places in Clowntown.
When visiting Granny Garbanzo's garden, Loonette encounters the cat, Snicklefritz; Major Bedhead, who delivers mail via unicycle; and Granny herself.[1] The conversation with Granny is typically the episode's teachable moment, in which she offers Loonette some wisdom.[citation needed] Major Bedhead often stops by with gifts and messages from Auntie Macassar (in seasons 1-5) or Uncle Chester (in seasons 6-7).[1]
Loonette is a talented dancer and runs Miss Loonette's Dance Academy, where she dances with dolls and animals. Along with simple lessons and problem-solving, the show also emphasized imaginative play. From season 7, more fixtures of Clowntown are explored: Granny Garbanzo's Cabbage Club Cooking School; Major Bedhead's Clown Chi Dojo and Dancing School; and the Clowndergarten, where Loonette volunteers and helps teach.[1] This imaginative play was also demonstrated through dress-up games and through Loonette's dollhouse, where imaginary sequences play out involving her doll family, the Foleys.[1]
Towards the end of each show, Loonette performs a Ten-Second Tidy to clean up her belongings.[4][1] All episodes end with Loonette and Molly thanking the viewers and bidding farewell, often with a reminder of the day's lesson, as they settle in for a nap. The closing credits normally end with "And the clown jumped over the moon" (an allusion to Hey Diddle Diddle), with only two exceptions being the episodes "Hiccups" (where Loonette hiccups midway in ["And the clown *hiccup* over the moon"] the line), from season 3, and "Gesundheit" (where Loonette sneezes ["AH...AH...AH-CHOO!"] instead of saying the line), from season 1.
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Characters
Main
- Loonette (portrayed by Alyson Court in seasons 1–6 and Ramona Gilmour-Darling in season 7) is the freckled-faced female lead of the series.[2][1] She is a young clown living with her doll, Molly, in their house, on the eponymous Big Comfy Couch, an oversized green floral couch.[1] She frequently reads stories to Molly, always performs a Clock Rug Stretch, and likes to visit Granny Garbanzo. Auntie Macassar or Uncle Chester frequently send Loonette postcards and gifts by mail, which Major Bedhead delivers on his unicycle. Loonette is gifted in the art of classical dance[citation needed] and runs Miss Loonette's Dance Academy. Another gift she possesses is the very unusual skill to clean just about any mess up in just ten seconds, which she calls the Ten Second Tidy.[1] Initially, Loonette was too young to visit Clowntown by herself, but starting in season 7, Loonette makes frequent trips to Clowntown to visit Granny's Cabbage Club Cooking School and Major Bedhead's Clown Chi Dojo and Dancing School. The trips to the first location help teach Loonette how to cook. The trips to this second location indicate that she practices martial arts. Loonette also takes Molly to Clowndergarten and helps out with the other young clowns.
- Molly (performed by Bob Stutt) is Loonette's living doll. Loonette found her in a barrel with a sign marked "Free to a good home", and adopted her. She believes that dust bunnies really exist, despite Loonette's disbelief. Her favorite food is donuts. Her hobbies include playing her fiddle and going fishing. She only speaks via cartoon bubbles, and usually answers Loonette's yes or no questions by either nodding or shaking her head.
Additional
- Fuzzy (performed by Bob Stutt) and Wuzzy (performed by Robert Mills) are twin dust bunnies who live under the Big Comfy Couch. Only Molly is aware of their existence, much to Loonette's annoyance, and she always does her best to protect them so she can play with them. The two dust bunnies sometimes find things that get under the couch and when they do, they play with those objects and after a while, they throw it or push it back out from under the couch. Fuzzy has gray bunny ears, and Wuzzy has brown bunny ears. Both of them speak with high pitched voices.
- The Foley Family, Andy (portrayed by Fred Stinson), Jim (portrayed by Jani Lauzon), and Eileen (portrayed by Jackie Harris in seasons 1–2 and Suzanne Merriam in seasons 3–5) are a very silly family who live inside of Loonette's dollhouse. They do not speak, and only communicate with their methods of slapstick and distinguishing sounds.
- Granny Garbanzo (portrayed by Grindl Kuchirka) is Loonette's Ukrainian-accented grandmother and next-door neighbor who loves her and Molly dearly. She comes from the "old country". Granny also really likes growing things in her garden and she lives inside a gypsy wagon with Snicklefritz, her cat. Her name is derived from the garbanzo bean. In "Knit One, Twirl Two" and "Upside Down Clown", it's indirectly revealed that her given name is Donya.
- Snicklefritz (performed by Bob Stutt) is Granny's mischievous cat. He likes to play lots of pranks on the others and sometimes tries to get out of getting flea-baths. The name Snicklefritz comes from slang in German culture.
- Major Bedhead (portrayed by Fred Stinson) is the local clown courier who makes deliveries to people all over Clowntown, including Loonette from her Auntie Macassar or Uncle Chester. He can be quite goofy at times and a bit clumsy. He also dislikes lying and being dishonest. He usually makes his deliveries while riding a unicycle though sometimes he will ride something else such as a little car or a bicycle.
- Auntie Macassar (portrayed by Taborah Johnson) is Loonette's travelling aunt who likes to make an entrance whenever she visits. Her name is a pun on the word "antimacassar".
- Wobbly (portrayed by Gary Farmer) is a close friend of Granny's who lives in Clowntown as a traveling repairman.
- Uncle Chester (portrayed by Edward Knuckles) is Loonette's travelling uncle who appears in the show's last two seasons replacing Auntie Macassar.
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Production
The show was originally produced by Radical Sheep Productions with what would later be known as Owl Communications (the publishers of Owl Magazine), then Canadian children's television network YTV with a run of 65 episodes. They were presented in the United States by Benny Smart, a US children's television production company backed by Ernest creator John Cherry, in conjunction with WITF-TV Harrisburg. In 2001, Tadpole Kids, who purchased the series' U.S. rights from Hollywood Ventures Corporation, commissioned 13 more episodes presented alongside Nashville Public Television. Radical Sheep Productions and Amity Entertainment, in association with Treehouse TV; a sister channel of YTV, and Nashville Public Television, produced 22 additional episodes focusing on preventing childhood obesity, which debuted on public television stations in 2006.
From 1992 to 2002, the show was filmed at Wallace Avenue Studios in Toronto, and in 2006, it was filmed at Toronto's Studio City.
Broadcast and syndication
In the U.S., the series was syndicated by American Public Television to public television stations in that country, most of which were affiliated with PBS, starting on January 9, 1995, and ending in February 2007, with reruns airing as late as May 2009 on some stations. In Canada, the series was shown on YTV from 1993 to 1997[5] and on Treehouse TV[6] from 1997 until it ceased broadcasting on February 27, 2011. The show also airs on BTV in Botswana.[7] As of 2023, all episodes can be viewed on Amazon Prime, Vudu, Tubi, the FilmRise app, and YouTube. From September 1, 1997, to 2001, the French-language dub was aired on Canal Famille in Quebec and on TF1 in France. The show was also dubbed in Hebrew (which aired on the Hop! Channel in Israel) and Turkish (which aired on TRT 1 and Yumurcak TV in Turkey). The Spanish language dub aired on Nickelodeon, MGM Channel, Unicable, Canal 5, and Galavisión in Latin America and La Primera in Spain.
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Episodes
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Season 1 (1993)
This season was produced in 1992.[8]
Season 2 (1994)
This season was produced in 1993. A large painting of someone is now hanging on Loonette's wall to the upper right next to the couch and a fence and garden wall to Granny's garden is added. All Dance Academy shows are announced by Fred Stinson. Snicklefritz also debuts in this season. Auntie Macassar makes her in person debut in the season 2 finale.
Season 3 (1994)
The opening changes starting this season, and now features Snicklefritz and Auntie Macassar. Auntie Macassar now speaks in the postcards sent to Loonette. The Clock Rug gets a new redesign with darker colors, a new font for the numbers. The cuckoo theme for the Clock Rug is no longer used. Instead of this, a new clock rug stretch theme is added. Also, Granny's garden is redesigned with brighter green grass.
Season 4 (1995)
Season 5 (1996)
This was the final season of The Foley Family Gags, Miss Loonette's Dance Academy, The Alphabet Game, Auntie Macassar, and the original lullaby ending music theme. This was also the final season that the stories Loonette read were illustrated. The 3rd Clock Rug theme is no longer used.
Season 6 (2002)
The opening changes again with children's vocals re-recorded. This was the final season where Alyson Court plays the role of Loonette. The couch is redesigned and Auntie Macassar will no longer return, she's replaced by Uncle Chester that now sends the postcards to Loonette. The dust bunny music and the ending music have been changed in this season as well. Each episode features Molly attending Doll School with Loonette accompanying her (rotating between The Alphabet Song, counting to 10 or both). The stories that Loonette reads are now in live action which introduces a city for clowns called Clowntown. Even though the Foley Family gags have come to an end, in this season, the dollhouse was still seen on the set next to the couch. Miss Loonette's Dance Academy has also been discontinued for the rest of the series along with the Alphabet Game.
Due to Court’s pregnancy during production, she was unable to film any new Clock Rug segments. Instead, archival footage from seasons 3-5 was used with the screen tinted red (to match Loonette’s baggier red clothes).[10]
Season 7 (2006)
Ramona Gilmour-Darling replaces Court in the role of Loonette.[11][1] The Clock Rug is now smaller with darker colours. Also in this season, Loonette and Molly visit places in Clowntown. Additionally, while Molly and Loonette are sleeping at the end of each episode prior to the credits, they play the dream game, dreaming about letters of the alphabet and what starts with that letter. Also the moon that rises up in the show's ending credits is larger and changed to yellow.[citation needed] The dollhouse of The Foley Family was removed. In addition, this season featured the fewest episodes with Loonette reading Molly a story.[citation needed]
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Home media
Time-Life Video was the main home media distributor for the Big Comfy Couch, releasing the series under Time-Life Video's children's label, Time-Life Kids. VHS releases were also released on May 10, 2000, by Goldhil Video.
The Big Comfy Couch has five DVDs featuring Ramona Gilmour-Darling. The DVDs and VHS tapes that feature Alyson Court are now out of print, but can be found on certain websites such as Amazon.com.
On July 30, 2013, TGG Direct released the first two seasons on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time.[12][13] Seasons 3-7 were released on August 6, 2013.[14][15][16][17][18] Each set comes with a bonus disc featuring a premiere episode of the following season. The Season 7 set, however, has a bonus disc of the premiere episode of the first season.
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Merchandise and other media
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Throughout the years, several merchandise has been sold under the show's banner such as videotapes, DVDs, books, dolls, toys and puzzles.[1]
Album releases
Several albums of the original songs written by JP Houston and performed by the cast were released on August 9, 2005, by Time-Life, as well as Naxos Music.
App releases
In 2015 and 2016, Radical Sheep, in association with Sticky Brain Studios, released some apps based on the series.
- Just Ask Molly - Released April 1, 2015, this app allows the player to ask Molly any question, and she can communicate to the player via her thought bubbles.[19]
- Fuzzy Wuzzy Fun - Released April 1, 2015, this app features the dust bunnies Fuzzy and Wuzzy playing hide and seek. The objective for the player is to help them find each other by navigating through paths.[20]
- Clock Rug Time - Released May 18, 2015, this app features Loonette and her clock rug stretch routine. Loonette can set the time for the player in both analog and digital. This app can also be used as an alarm clock. The app can also display the weather and temperature based on location.[21]
- Molly's Big Day - Released May 17, 2016, this app focuses on Molly and her big first day in Clowndergarten with the use of activities for the player.
This Hour Has 22 Minutes
On the October 18, 2016 episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, in a segment discussing the 2016 clown sightings, Loonette made an appearance as the show's "clown correspondent."[22][1] This marked the character's first television appearance in a decade since the show's finale in 2006 and the first time Alyson Court had portrayed Loonette on TV since her departure in 2002.
Tours
The Big Comfy Couch has had a few live shows at Londonderry Mall in Edmonton, Alberta and sometimes in Calgary and rarely in Regina, Saskatchewan. There was a tour through South Western Ontario in 2001.
Loonette and Molly Live Theatrical Tour
In 2005, a live theatrical production entitled Molly's Fool Moon Festival toured in Canada. The show included Loonette, Molly, Granny Garbanzo, Major Bedhead and others. The show was produced by Koba Entertainment and presented by Paquin Entertainment Group. The production starred a variety of Canadian actors such as Laura Kolisnyk, Andrew Nolan, Daniel J. Craig, Alexandra Herzog, Dawn Johnson, and others.
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References
External links
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