Animal Crack-Ups

Not to be confused with Animal Crackers, a Canadian animated television series.

Animal Crack-Ups
Genre	Game Show
Based on	"Wakuwaku Dōbutsu Land"
Written by	Todd Thicke
Presented by	Alan Thicke
Voices of	Susan Blu
Theme music composer	Alan and Todd Thicke Gary Pickus
Ending theme	"Animals Are Just Like People Too" by Alan Thicke
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
Production
Executive producer	Vin Di Bona
Producers	ABC Productions Vin Di Bona Productions
Running time	30 minutes
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	August 8, 1987 – September 1, 1990

Animal Crack-Ups is an ABC game show which aired in primetime from August 8 to September 12, 1987, after which it aired on Saturday mornings from September 12, 1987 to December 30, 1989 and again from June 2 to September 1, 1990. It was produced by ABC Productions in association with Vin Di Bona Productions (both companies also produce America's Funniest Home Videos) and hosted by Alan Thicke, who was on Growing Pains at the time. The program was based on a Japanese TBS Television series, Wakuwaku Dōbutsu Land (わくわく動物ランド).

The show's theme song was "Animals Are Just Like People Too", created by Thickovit music (Alan and Todd Thicke and Gary Pickus).

Gameplay

Four celebrities competed. Host Thicke introduced a video clip about an animal; at some point, the video was paused and Thicke asked a question about the clip. The celebrities give their answers, after which the remainder of the clip was played, revealing the answer.

Any celebrities giving the correct answer received a point; score was kept by placing a stuffed animal (a monkey in the first season, a hedgehog in later seasons) in front of the celebrity's podium. The celeb with the most toy animals/points won the game and $2,500 for their favorite animal charity. If a tie occurred, the money was split between the charities.

On segues to two commercial breaks, a hedgehog puppet named "Reggie the Heggie" (performed by Susan Blu) gave animal facts to the home viewers and read home-viewer mail.

International versions

• Spain had a version of this show, using the original Japanese name, Waku Waku then later as Jimanji Kanana for La 1.
• Argentina also had a version called Waku Waku with Héctor Larrea for Canal 9.
• Chile had a version called Maravillozoo for Canal 13.
• Brazil had a version called TV Animal for SBT.
• Netherlands had a version of this show, using the original Japanese name, Waku Waku for KRO.
• Portugal had a version called Arca De Noe ("Noah's Ark") for RTP.

External links

• Vin Di Bona Productions
• Animal Crack-Ups at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Clip of the show's theme song with scenes of animals