Caillou

This article is about the Canadian children's television show. For the main title character of the show, see Caillou (character).

Caillou
Genre	Children's drama
Created by	Christine L'Heureux Hélène Desputeaux
Starring	Bryn McAuley (1997-2000) Jaclyn Linetsky (2000-2003) Annie Bovaird (2003-present)
Composer(s)	Leon Aronson (score) Jeffrey Zahn (songs: music) Mary MacKay-Smith (songs: lyrics)
Country of origin	Canada (also airs in the United States)
Original language(s)	French
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Teletoon (1997-2007) Treehouse TV (2009-present) PBS Living - Tiny Living and Cartoonito (UK)
Original run	October 2, 1997 – September 23, 2006

Caillou (pronunciation: /ˈkaɪjuː/) is an educational Canadian children's television series, based on the books by author Christine L'Heureux and illustrator Hélène Desputeaux. During the first season, many of the stories in the animated version began with a grandmother (who is also the show's narrator) introducing the story to her grandchildren, then reading the story about the book. Since 1997, the narrator/grandmother is an unseen character. Caillou first aired on Canada's Teletoon channel in 1998; it later made its United States debut in English on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) Public television on September 4, 2000 and aired its series finale on October 3, 2010. The show also began airing on Treehouse TV on September 7, 2009. Reruns also air on PBS Kids Sprout.

Episodes

Season		Episodes	Originally aired
			Season premiere	Season finale
	1	40	October 2, 1997	July 5, 2000
	2	20	September 4, 2000	July 2, 2002
	3	16	November 15, 2002	October 7, 2005
	4	20	April 3, 2005	September 23, 2006

Plot

Based on the books by Christine L'Heureux, the show centres along a 4-year-old named Caillou (the titular character) who is fascinated by the world around him. He has many adventures with his family and friends and uses his imagination in every episode. Caillou lives in a blue house on 17 Pine Street (as mentioned in the episode "Where I Live") with his mommy, his daddy, and his 2-year-old sister, Rosie. Each episode in Season 1-3 has a theme and is divided into several short sections that mix animation, puppet skits, and video of kids in real-life situations. In Seasons 4-5, episodes are divided in 3 short sections instead of 4. In the 4th and 5th season, the puppet segment was dropped, along with the "Real Kids" version of the segment.

Protagonist of the series

Main article: List of Caillou characters

Caillou - A 4-year-old boy with a creative imagination with friends who help him navigate the trials and tribulations of growing up. He always has many adventures and imagines anything he can do as an adult. Caillou and his family live in a two-story blue house, whose address is mentioned in one episode: 17 Pine St. Caillou was first voiced by Bryn McAuley from 1997 through 2000, then Jaclyn Linetsky from 2000 through 2003, and then Annie Bovaird, the last one to do it, due to Jaclyn Linetsky's death from a car crash in 2003. In the first season, there were a few episodes in which Caillou was 3.

Production

The series was originally broadcast in French in Canada, and the episodes were later translated into English, and re-runs in English began on PBS and PBS Kids Sprout in the United States. The original books were also in French. Caillou was designed primarily for toddlers aged between 2-6 years old. It was created by child developmental psychologists.

Caillou books have been made since 1987 by Chouette Publishing Inc. In 1997, 65 5-minute episodes of Caillou were aired in Canada and in selected markets worldwide, including the U.S., as mentioned above. In 2000 they were added with 40 30-minute episodes of the show, containing a mixture of the 5-minute episodes plus new stories, songs, real kids segment and puppets. This was followed with another 16 30-minute episodes containing all-new stories in 2003. The film Caillou's Holiday Movie was released on October 7, 2003.

On April 3, 2005, a new set of 20 episodes finally premiered after a three-year hiatus. Caillou started attending preschool, and there were new themes and a new opening. The new episodes were animated in-house using Adobe Flash animation rather than the animation being outsourced to South Korea, as it was in previous seasons. On November 14, 2012 PBS Kids announced a 4th Season of Caillou of 26 episodes premiering on March 11, 2013.

Reception

A number of parents questioned why the title character, Caillou, is bald, sparking rumors for his lack of hair. The official website for PBS Kids laid such ideas to rest by publishing a FAQ answering common questions regarding Caillou, explaining that the character appeared as a much younger child in the original line of children's books.

A 2012 study conducted at the University of Virginia, published in the journal Pediatrics, tested the show's effect on preschool-aged children's attention spans and cognitive abilities. The study had three groups of four year-olds each engaged in activities; one group watched Caillou, another watched SpongeBob SquarePants, and the third group drew pictures. After nine minutes, the children were tested on mental functions; those that watched Caillou had very similar results to the group that drew pictures, both of whom performed significantly better than the group that watched the SpongeBob episode.

External links

Channels

• Caillou on ABC 4 Kids
• Caillou on Canal Panda
• Caillou on Clan
• Caillou on Discovery Kids
• Caillou on Discovery Kids Brazil
• Caillou on PBS Kids
• Caillou on PBS Kids (French)
• Caillou on RTP2
• Caillou on Sprout
• Caillou on Treehouse
• [1]

Others

• Caillou on Sprout
• Chouette publishing (publishers of Caillou)
• Official Caillou Website
• Caillou at the Internet Movie Database
• Caillou at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Caillou at TV.com
• Hélène Desputeaux official site