Tots TV

Tots TV
Tilly, Tom and Tiny outside their secret house.
Format	Children's television series
Developed by	Ragdoll Productions
Starring	Claire Carre Veronique Deroulede Andrew Davenport Robin Stevens
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English, French, Spanish
No. of episodes	276
Production
Running time	25 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV Network (CITV)
Original run	3 January 1993 (1993-01-03) – 27 April 1998 (1998-04-27)

Tots TV is a television show, produced by Ragdoll Productions and Central (later owned by Carlton Television) (Both Ragdoll and Central also produced Rosie and Jim and Ragdoll independently produced Teletubbies for the BBC). Tots TV was also broadcast in the USA on PBS from 3 January 1993 to 27 April 1998. It features three ragdoll friends: Tilly, a French girl, with red hair, who speaks in basic French (in the U.S. broadcast, she speaks Spanish, and in France, she speaks English), Tom, a blue haired boy with glasses, and Tiny, the youngest Tot, who is smaller than the others and has green hair. The show won two BAFTA awards for its Producer Ann Wood and Director Vic Finch. In September 1999 Tots TV moved to Carlton because Central Television was going to be replaced by the network.

The show was written by Robin Stevens and Andrew Davenport who also played the characters Tom and Tiny in the show. Tilly was played by two people: Claire Carre, who wrote along with Robin Stevens, the episode "Melon Chase" and Veronique Deroulede. It was originally shown on ITV's children's television strand, Children's ITV; it heralded an era the broadcaster abandoned much programming for older children. The show was later broadcast in the UK on CBeebies, the BBC's children's television station on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays

Characters

• Tilly - The only female tot and who is French. (In the American Version of the show, she spoke Spanish) She has red hair, wears a purple dress and bright yellow tights. She also carries a yellow and green recorder that is attached to a red ribbon around her neck that she plays when songs are being sang. Her favourite colour is Red.
• Tom - The eldest male tot and possibly the leader. He has blue hair and is black. He wears turquoise dungarees with lots of pockets (where he keeps his pencils and notebooks) and a yellow jumper as well as wearing glasses. His favourite colour is Blue.
• Tiny - The youngest of the tots and the one who carries their magic bag when they set off on their adventures. He has green hair and wears a green cardigan with badges on and red shorts. His favourite colour is Green.
• Furry Boo - A small mischievous dog that the tots do not know about.
• Donkey - The pet donkey who lived in a stable in the Tots' garden.

Titles

Every episode begins with an animated illustration of the tots' house, which fades into the real version; both are set to the theme tune.

Plots

Going out

Often but not always the Tots will go out to explore an everyday area on the human world. This often involves them helping out a young child. This also sometimes involves them using their magic bag (Sac Magique) which they always take with them, Tiny always carries it and Tilly always operates it. When asked to help, it always produces an item to help them in the situation. In some of the episodes they go out and watch 'Jane' find out about different animals. A few episodes starred a man called Jack who would set up some sort of play area for some children, the tots would secretly watch him and the children play.

In one episode, the tots visit a glass blowing studio, where they watch a glass duck being made. Another episode shows the tots visiting an animal park.

Staying in

In some episodes the Tots do something in their house - the secret house. Because the full titles feature the tots leaving the house, they are altered for such episodes. Sometimes these episodes feature one of the tots reading the other two a story. These episodes always feature the reading tot preparing to read using dolls of the characters in the story. Apparently the other two are unaware they are preparing to read a story because they always ring them up on their personal phone to ask if they want to listen to a story, despite the fact they all live in the same house. In some of the episodes the tots find an object such as a ball or a trumpet, which sometimes causes havoc. Whether the tots are in their house or out somewhere, they usually sing a song at some point.

Other

If the episode was a full-length double-bill (sometimes the 1st half with Jane or they go out on an adventure and the second half an adventure in the secret house) in the earlier episodes with Jane, they are joined with a 2 minute animation of a 'Noah's Ark' story (based on the toy Noah's ark in the secret house) or an animation of a picture that a viewer had sent in to the program.

America

Over a few episodes the Tots go to America and show them exploring the country. One of the places they visit is a diner. They also go to an apartment complex where outside lots of children dance hip-hop. There are 3 groups, each wearing matching coloured t-shirts. They also see a saloon. When they return to their house it is covered in dust.

The big treasure adventure

An hour long special was made where Tilly, Tom and Tiny go on a big adventure to find treasure by sailing across the sea in a pirate ship. The tots sail to an island where they find treasure. The treasure is accidentally dropped in the sea after Tom let Tiny steer the pirate ship.

Running Gags

• Furry Boo is always causing mischief or even helping the tots out (one such moment was when he helped put the star on the top of their Christmas tree), but they never know he's there.
• When things go wrong or the tots are just being silly, they call each other names like "Banana", "Sausage" and "Tomato".
• The Tots have telephones which signify their favourite colour with the same phone number of 12345, that they use to communicate with each other, even if they are only a small space away.

Productions

Central Television 1993 - 1997 Carlton Television 1997 - 1998

Episodes

Episodes Included:

1. Middle Of The Night
2. Hippo
3. Furry Beat
4. Tom's Trumpet
5. Old McTom
6. Tiny's Box Song
7. Tilly's Recorder
8. Castle
9. Cleaning Windows
10. Birthday Surprise
11. Naughty Little Pig
12. Tiny Leaves Home
13. Lost in the Supermarket
14. Postwoman
15. What's That Noise?
16. Vegetable Guard
17. Disco Machine
18. A Sticky Mess
19. Missing the Bus
20. Naughty Mysterious Person
21. The Dentist
22. Owl
23. Hedgehog
24. Peacock
25. Bus Ride
26. Rabbit
27. Space Robots
28. Tiny's Box
29. Rhino
30. Dreamy Tilly
31. Bike Ride
32. Donkey Ride
33. Fox
34. Camel
35. Roller Skating
36. Lemur
37. Snail
38. Hedgehog
39. Windy Day
40. Apple Picking
41. Kittens
42. Playground
43. Bike Ride
44. Dress
45. Peacock
46. Dog
47. Elephant

UK and USA DVD & Video History

• UK
  • Video Collection International (1993-1997)
  • Carlton Home Entertainment (1999)

Funding

• The Kavli Foundation
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting
• Viewers Like You

Thank you

• Kellogg's
• Intel
• Juicy Juice
• Wal-Mart
• Target Corporation
• Chuck E. Cheese's
• Knights Inn
• PBS Foundation
• Grant Thornton
• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• WGBH Boston
• Dunkin Donuts
• Kimberly Clark

External links

• Tots TV at BBC
• Tots TV at the Internet Movie Database