The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (season 1)

The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (season 1)
Tighten up, get loose!
Genre: Comedy Puppetry Musical Surreal humor Children's Dark comedy Running Time: 30 minutes Country: United States Release Date: October 13, 1996 – August 17, 1997 2004-2006 (VHS) 2004-2013 (DVD) Network(s): Nickelodeon Distributed by: The Jim Henson Company Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (pre-2010) Lionsgate (2010-2013) Vivendi Entertainment (2013-2015) Starring: Bruce Lanoil Anthony Asbury John Kennedy Stephanie D'Abruzzo Kathryn Mullen Episodes: 20

"The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss" is an American children's puppet comedy television series based on characters created by Dr. Seuss, produced by The Jim Henson Company. It is notable for its use of live puppets with digitally animated backgrounds, for refashioning characters and themes from the original Dr. Seuss books into new stories that often retained much of the flavor of Dr. Seuss' own works.

Why It Makes Us Tighten Up And Get Loose (In a Good Way)

1. Very faithful to the Dr. Seuss books and great at adapting the works of Dr. Seuss into another form of media.
2. Very silly and creative props like the Muckster.
3. Perfectly talented puppeteering.
4. Appealing locations, like Seussville and Mount Crumpit.
5. Great voice acting, especially with Bruce Lanoil as the Cat in the Hat.
6. Very fun, wacky, and dense humor.
7. Very funny songs, like "Don't Get A Gink", "The Grass Ain't Always Greener", and "Who Are You, Sue Snue?".
8. Some distinctly dark elements and humor, like in several Dr. Seuss books.
9. Hilarious theme song.
10. Good morals, like "the only thing that'll make you happy is what you don't have."
11. The Cat in the Hat in this show is very faithful to his book counterpart. He even reprises his role as a trickster in episodes like "The Simplifier".
12. Every episode in this season is great and underrated, this is due to how faithful the show is at making the Seuss world come to life.

Bad Qualities

1. Though not as bad as other shows that went into seasonal rot, the show lost the charm in the second season due to focus group testing (according to Defunctland, a focus group at a test screening of "The King's Beard" thought that the show was for much younger kids in its first season):
   • The show became a traditional children's television program a la Barney & Friends.
   • The Cat in the Hat also got way too much screen time and not enough could be given to the other Dr. Seuss characters, due to the new format having him cover various stories in the Wubbulous World by consulting the Wubbuloscope.
   • In the Season 2 episode "The Cat in the Hat Cleans Up His Act", Yertle the Turtle was flanderized from a turtle who tortured millions of other turtles into an annoying and generic business salesman. He would later be flanderized again in "A Bird's Best Friend".
2. Most of the puppets are ugly and creepy to look at, with their wide mouths and oversized upper lips.
3. The CGI backgrounds are hideous and have aged badly even for its time in the 1990's, being on par with the earliest VeggieTales videos as well as N64 graphics.
4. Terrence McBird and Little Cat Z, introduced in the second and final season, are very annoying. All Little Cat Z does is mutter Z-words and Terrence refuses to try new things.
5. In "The Guest", Larry Nooly's parents act like he doesn't exist on their honeymoon and ignore his warnings about the Grinch.
6. The voice acting in the 2000s Hebrew dub of the show (which, aside from the intro uploaded to YouTube in 2010, is considered lost media) ranges from bland to downright hammy. The title card is also poorly translated and generic, with the logo being reduced to having "Dr. Seuss" in the Hebrew language spin onto the circle.

Reception

• It holds a rating of 6.7/10 on IMDB, and is well-received by lots of people for being faithful to the Dr. Seuss books, with the late Audrey Geisel even approving of the show.

Trivia

• According to Defunctland, the show was pitched to The Jim Henson Company by Dr. Seuss' widow Audrey Geisel, who then pitched it to Nickelodeon. Herb Scannell (then president and CEO of Nickelodeon) liked the concept so much that Nick picked up the show and gave it a second season renewal.
• The show originally aired on Sundays at 8:30 PM on Nickelodeon from late 1996 to mid-1997 with a good amount of advertising, but it was briefly taken off after the first season ended. The show was later dumped on the Nick Jr. block in October 1997, and while Season 2 (which began airing on March 9, 1998) was decently promoted, it aired out-of-order and was burned off in a dead zone 11:00 AM slot... over the course of two months. The show's time slots on the block were also shuffled from time to time, with episodes sometimes airing at 10:30 AM or 1:00 PM instead.
  • Not long after, Nickelodeon quietly cancelled the show; they went out of their way to make everyone forget that it existed by only airing reruns sporadically after July 1998 with no advertising whatsoever (and if there was a rerun, it would be on weekday afternoons while the show's target audience was at school, or on Saturday mornings when they would still be asleep). Inevitably, the network completely buried it in the latter slot in January 1999, where it aired until late September. When it came back from November 1999 to February 2000 before Nick discarded the show entirely, it was moved to a 6:00 AM timeslot and the second season was rarely rerun.
• On KCET in Los Angeles, TWWODS aired as part of the "Captain Infinity Theatre" block from 2011 to circa 2015. Even there, KCET outright refused to show the more mature season 1 episodes once the second season started airing and only showed episodes from the latter season, which was more kid-friendly. The show was also barely advertised on the block, aside from clips of a few season 2 episodes being featured in the block's opening and closing. This was the only time that the show ever aired on PBS, as no other affiliate ever picked up the show for syndication.
• Starz Kids & Family began carrying reruns of the series in early 2018 within a very brief timeframe before dropping it.
• According to a Defunctland interview, elementary school-aged kids at a test screening of "The King's Beard" liked the show, but didn't say they would recommend it to a friend because they felt it was for much younger kids. Meanwhile, some viewers complained about the show being too dark in season 1. This resulted in the show undergoing a drastic, more preschooler-oriented shift for season 2.
• The show being a commercial flop put any attempts at a Dr. Seuss TV show adaptation on hold for the next thirteen years until The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! premiered on PBS Kids in 2010.
• After the show ended, one of the Wickersham puppets from the show appeared in two sketches on Sesame Street; one from Episode 4153, where he appears as a member of Count Billy Bob Von Count Jr.'s greasemonkey work crew, and one from Happy Healthy Monsters (performed by David Rudman) who jumps alongside India Arie and other Muppet animals.
• Will Ryan, voice of Grubby from Teddy Ruxpin, wrote several episodes of this show.
• The complete series is available on Prime Video, the Roku Family Channel, Google Play, Peacock and Apple TV. Before that, most of season 2 and a few season 1 episodes were released to VHS, while most of the show was released on DVD between 2003 and 2013. Those releases, however, have long since gone out of print.
• This series' merchandise included a series of reading and activity books, a series of plushes from Mattel, a See N' Say with different rhymes for many of the show's characters, a viewmaster and reels, and a series of Christmas ornaments by Enesco.
• The pitch reel had Marty P. Robinson performing the Cat in the Hat instead of Bruce Lanoil; he would reprise his role as this character in season 2.
• During production, the original plan was to do episode adaptations based on the original Seuss books as well as original stories. However, Dr. Seuss' estate stated adapting the books was off-limits.
• An early idea by executive producer David Steven Cohen was to have the Little Cats acting more as a Greek chorus, with their singing voices being provided by the Roches rather than the Muppet performers.
• Despite its obscurity and short lifespan (with just 40 episodes over two seasons), the show has amassed a very small cult following.

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