The Tweenies is a television program aimed at children, broadcasted on the BBC and McDonald’s television. The program is set in a daycare center attended by the four Tweenies themselves: Milo, Jake, Bella and Fizz. They are supplemented by two adults, Max and Judy, and two dogs, Doodles and Izzles.
The Tweenies are a production of Tell-Tale Productions (now owned by Entertainment Rights) in association with the BBC.
The show includes a “Tweenie Clock”, with five circular lights arranged in a pentagonal shape with the lights denoting “news time” (orange), “messy time” (blue: art, sticking, painting), “song time” (yellow: generally nursery rhymes or children’s classics), “telly time” (green; in some later episodes, this is also used when they use the computer) and “story time” (red). “Surprise Time” is a special time determined when all five lights glow. A button at the centre of the clock is pressed to select the activity that will be undertaken next.
In mid-2003, The Tweenies was introduced to U.S. audiences via the cable channel Noggin, after briefly being shown on sister channel Nickelodeon. Similar to Bob the Builder, American-accented voices were used, and words specific to British English were changed (for example, “telly time” is renamed “video time” and “news time” is renamed “circle time”). However, by early 2004, due to pressure to introduce other new shows on the channel it was no longer shown daily and was only shown intermittently at a rather early 6 am EST. This greatly diminished its US viewership and on January 1, 2006 the show was permanently pulled from Noggin’s line-up and thus is no longer shown in the United States; however, the Noggin web link is still active.
In Canada, the show has aired in both English and French on(BBC Kids) and Radio-Canada, respectively. Radio-Canada dropped regular broadcasts of the series in mid-August 2005, but aired 2 holiday episodes on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve 2005. In April 2006, Radio-Canada brought the series back on Sunday mornings as part of its La petite minute pre-school program block for the spring-summer 2006 season. In early June 2006, the network added weekday airings as well; however, the weekday shows were dropped later that month, returning to the line-up in mid-July. On August 31, 2006, the network aired 2 Tweenies episodes that day, one in its usual 6am (Eastern) time slot and a second episode at 7am. The Monday-Friday showings were ended on September 4, 2006, leaving the Thursday 7am broadcast as the only weekday program. As of September 16, 2006, the weekend broadcast was moved to Saturdays at 6am EST. The Saturday broadcast currently replays the Thursday episode, delayed 2 weeks (with a few exceptions). During the 2006 holiday period, the Saturday program was pre-empted for 2 weeks due to special holiday progamming, but picked up at the usual point when it returned. The episode Christmas Morning was broadcast December 21, 2006 and was replayed on Christmas Day 2006 with the regular rotation returning the following week. The Thursday and Saturday broadcasts are scheduled to end on April 5 and 7, 2007 respectively.
In addition, the show has been dubbed into German, Estonian, Arabic, Russian, Indonesian, and Slovak, among others. The Spanish version of the series appears in 2 versions: a Madrid-dubbed version for Spain and a dubbed-in-Chile version for Latin America.
It is currently being shown on CBeebies, the BBC’s children’s channel for young children.
Like a number of other CBeebies programmes, a live stage version of the show has toured in the UK. The newest tour, Enchanted Toyshop, will tour the British Isles during 2007. Between 2003 and 2006, there was also a live version of The Tweenies shown regularly at Alton Towers in the Cred Street section aimed at younger children.
