Peep and the Big Wide World

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 three birds named Peep, Chirp, and Quack, as viewers discover, investigate, and explore the world around them.

Peep and the Big Wide World
Genre	Educational Adventure Children's television series Comedy
Created by	Kaj Pindal[1][2]
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 version)
Country of origin	Canada United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	60 (120 segments)
Production
Executive producer	Kate Taylor
Producers	Vince Commisso Marisa Wolsky
Running time	22–25 minutes
Production companies	WGBH Boston 9 Story Entertainment TVOntario Discovery Kids Eggbox LLC National Film Board of Canada
Original release
Network	TVOKids (Canada) TLC (2004–08) and Discovery Family (2004–10) U.S. PBS Kids Member Stations (seasons 4-5) (U.S.)
Release	Original series: April 12, 2004 (2004-04-12) – September 14, 2007 (2007-09-14) Revival series: January 4, 2010 (2010-01-04) – October 14, 2011 (2011-10-14)

Peep and the Big Wide World was based on the 1988 short movie Peep and the Big Wide World. The movie was produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The short was based on the 1962 short The Peep Show.^[3] It was also produced by the National Film Board of Canada.

Peep and the Big Wide World premiered on April 12, 2004 on Discovery Kids and on TLC as part of their Ready Set Learn children's block. On the same day, it also premiered on TVOKids and Discovery Kids.

It ended on the Discovery Children's networks on October 10, 2010. It ended with the end of Ready Set Learn and the replacement of Discovery Kids with The Hub. The program is still offered to public television stations by independent public television distributor Discovery Communications. Since January 1, 2018, the series was distributed by both Discovery Kids and APT. The program was underwritten by the National Science Foundation. Northrop Grumman underwrote the fourth season in 2009.

Each episode had two 9-minute animated stories. They also had two 2-minute live action segments. In these segments, children explore and demonstrate the same topics that were shown in the animated segment.

Characters

• Peep (voiced by Scott Beaudin in seasons 1–3, Shawn Molko in season 4 and Maxwell Uretsky in season 5)
• Chirp (voiced by Amanda Soha)
• Quack (voiced by Jamie Watson)
• The Narrator (voiced by Joan Cusack)
• Ant (voiced by Robert Tinkler) is a very busy male ant who is leader of the ants.
• Bat (voiced by Ron Rubin in season 1 and Ron Pardo in season 2)
• Beaver Boy (voiced by Tessa Marshall in seasons 1–3 and Amanda Gryniewski in seasons 4–5)
• Beaver Dad (voiced by Philip Williams)
• Beaver Mom (voiced by Kathleen Laskey)
• Blue Jays (voiced by Jamie Watson and Kathleen Laskey for male and female, resp.)
• Bunnies (voiced by Melanie Tonello, Raquel Cadilha, Alexander Conti, resp. in seasons 1–2; Avigail Humphreys and Riele Downs in seasons 4–5)
• Bunnysitter (voiced by Jake Sim)
• Dragonfly (voiced by Catherine Disher)
• Fish (voiced by John McGrath in season 1 and Robert Tinkler in season 2)
• Fish Jr. (voiced by Phoebe McAuley in seasons 1–2 and Sarah Commisso in season 3)
• Frog (voiced by Robert Tinkler)
• Groundhog (voiced by Rachel Marcus)
• Old Groundhog (voiced by Adrian Truss)
• Hoot (voiced by Kathleen Laskey)
• "Me" Tiny Ant^[4] (voiced by Erica Commisso)
• Nellie (voiced by Marium Carvell)
• Newton (voiced by Colin Fox)
• Quack #2 (voiced by Kathleen Laskey)
• Rabbit (voiced by Jayne Eastwood)
• Raccoon (voiced by Jeff Lumby)
• Robins (voiced by Kathleen Laskey)
• Skunk (voiced by Adrian Truss)
• Snail (voiced by Laura Lynn)
• Spider (voiced by Marium Carvell)
• Splendid Bird from Paradise (voiced by Jabella A. Urrejola-Lugo)
• Squeak (voiced by Kathleen Laskey)
• Squirrel (voiced by Peter Wildman)
• Tom (voiced by Alex Hood in season 1 and Matthew Knight in season 2)

Crew

• Writer: Natalie Dumoulin
• Directors: Cory Bobiak, Logan O'Neil
• Assistant Directors: Lyndon Ruddy
• Casting Director: Jessie Thomson
• Storyboard Artists: Vince Commisso, Gerry Fournier, Stefanie Gignac, Logan O'Neil, Lyndon Ruddy
• Design Supervisor: Gerry Fournier

Broadcast

On January 1, 2018, Peep and the Big Wide World was picked up on the 24-hour PBS Kids channel, marking the first time to air the series for PBS member stations, which never acquired the series since it's original run in 2004. The broadcast of the series ended on December 26, 2021, when it was replaced with reruns of Dinosaur Train to the 7:30 a.m. weekend morning timeslot.