Between the Lions
Between the Lions is a
PBS children's puppet show designed to promote reading. The show is a co-production between
WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with
Mississippi Public Broadcasting. The show has won six
Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and 2004.
The main characters are the
lion cubs Lionel and Leona and their parents Theo (Theodor) and Cleo (Cleopatra).
In addition to the lions, other characters include Click the Mouse (a computer mouse made to resemble the
rodent), Barnaby B. Busterfield III, Walter and Clay Pigeon, Arty Smartypants, Heath the Thesaurus, Gus the Bunny, Dr. Ruth Wordheimer, and a variety of monkeys who visit the library.
Barnaby B. Busterfield III is a rock statue that talks to the pigeons, Walter and Clay, and they talk to him.
Between the Lions focuses on teaching reading and a love of books to young children in a fun, informative way.
Among the educational techniques used by Between the Lions are the following:
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Featured Letters and Sounds: Every episode has a feature letter or sound, such as 'h' or 'the long ee sound'. Throughout the show, the featured letter or sound is heard and seen in a variety of words.
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Text on Screen: Frequently, key words or entire sentences of dialog are shown on screen as the characters talk, with the featured letter or combination highlighted.
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Stories: Every episode contains one or more short stories in the form of books read by the Lion family. These stories tie in thematically with the rest of the episode and also serve as another way to present words with the featured sound in context. Sometimes the stories are real books (like "The Carrot Seed" by
Ruth Krauss) or well-known tales (like "
Rumplestiltskin"); other times they are books that are made-up to fit the episode (like Lionel's favorite book, "Nothing but Lug Nuts").
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Songs: Silly but informative songs sum up the rules of English spelling and pronunciation in easy-to-remember ways, with lyrics like "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" or "Even the blues would be blue without an s" and many others. Often the text of the song is shown on screen.
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Animations and skits: A variety of animations and skits show how words are formed and how one word can be changed into another by adding or removing letters.
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Definitions: Whenever a long or unusual word is used in a dialog or story, a quick definition is given. Usually, it is subtly worked into the conversation, such as when one of the parents responds to a question from the children. Other times it may be provided in a humorous way, such as when Heath Thesaurus pokes his head in to define a word. Occasionally words may be defined by showing pictures or other artistic methods.
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Repeated Vocabulary: Various vocabulary words are introduced in each episode, ranging from simple, everyday concepts like "jump" and "read" to more complex words like "sequel", "dictionary", or "drought". After a word has been introduced, it usually used a number of times throughout the episode.
In addition to teaching basic reading, pronunciation, and grammar skills, Between the Lions also strives to promote a general love of reading in its viewers. It explores the many subjects that books can cover and shows how different people may enjoy reading different things. It also demonstrates the value of reference books and the importance of reading in other everyday activities like using a computer, cooking with a recipe, or finding your way with street signs.
Some Between the Lions episodes also deal with larger episodes related to literary matters: How to handle the scary parts of a story, for example, or the fact that it's okay to be a little sad if something bad happens to a character that you like in a book. It also shows how children can use books as jumping points for their own imagination.
Above all, every character on the show expresses a contagious enthusiasm for reading, with the underlying message being "Reading is cool".
Between the Lions often makes wild parodies of children's programming. The title itself is a twofold pun, first on the phrase "
between the lines", the second is that many classic library buildings have two lions separated by the main entrance. Thus in order to enter the library, you must go "between the lions". Every so often, an unseen child comments on the strange content she sees while watching Between the Lions. A mom's voice then says "It's educational television. It's good for you". Recurring segments include:
The Word Doctor with Dr. Ruth Wordheimer
Dr.
Ruth Westheimer plays "Dr. Ruth Wordheimer," a therapist. Her two types of clients are:
- Monkeys who need help reading or understanding long or difficult words (they are having a "long word freakout").
- Words who are dissastisfied with their current meaning. (By replacing certain well-chosen letters, Dr. Wordheimer is able to give the word a new meaning and a new lease on life.)
Little Wendy Tales
A girl (an unbearably cute parody of
Sailor Moon cliches) reads the misadventures found in Little Wendy Tales. In classic fashion, the big-eyed girl transforms herself into The Punctuator and saves Wendy by means of Punctuation.
Fun with Chicken Jane
Fun with Chicken Jane is a
parody of the famous
Dick and Jane books for children. In this, two naive children, Scot and Dot, place themselves in harms way. An intelligent chicken named Chicken Jane spells out an obvious solution to the problem. At the last moment the children get out of the way and Chicken Jane gets hurt instead.
Cliff Hanger
Cliff Hanger is a cartoon outdoorsman usually featured hanging off the side of a cliff, hanging onto a branch. He is then presented with an unusual situation of some kind, which he resolves by reaching into his backpack to pull out what he calls his "trusty survival manual", which is also labelled as such. The instructions in the manual then work and Cliff briefly escapes from the cliff but then another preposterous incident occurs which forces Cliff to hang onto the branch once again. The cartoon then ends with his catchphrase: "Can't On Longer!"
Each segment begins and ends with a chorus that flies by in a helicopter, singing "Cliff Hanger, hanging from a cliff! And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger!" Cliff attempts to attract their attention to his predicament by shouting "Excuse me!", but to no avail.
Gawain's Word
A
Wayne's World spoof about two jousting knights charging at each other, each touting an air bubble with half of a word which then became their respective names. For example, one skit featured Sir Ch and Sir Air. When Ch collided into Air, their air bubbles melded together to form the word "chair".
Sam Spud
A spoof of the
Sam Spade detective stories, this segment portrays a personified potato who is a detective. He always writes stories in which there is a spelling mistake. In this case, he will say, "That's not right. That shouldn't be a -."
The Un-People vs The Re-People
This
cartoon is aimed at teaching kids their
prefixes. For example, Monica Maxwell, the main character in this
cartoon might have a bag full of menacing
hippos. All of a sudden, the evil Un-People come along and "un-zip" the bag, causing the
hippos to run free and cause all sorts of destruction. But when the crime-fighting Re-People appear, they "re-zip" the bag and the destruction of the charging
hippos stops. This segment may be considered a
parody of common
superhero-themed
cartoons such as the
Justice League.
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Between the Lions was one of few shows to override the WGBH sting logo with the theme music to the show itself, ostensibly because the infamous ident's music would scare the target audience.
* Lionel on
Between the Lions wears the number "42" on his rugby jersey sleeve. This is a deliberate homage by two of the show's creators,
Michael Frith and
Christopher Cerf, to their late friend,
Douglas Adams, in whose
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "42" was revealed to be the answer to "the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything." Cerf discusses this in his introduction to the US Editions of Adams'
The Salmon of Doubt.
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Sesame Street*
Official site
