Cro (TV series)

This article is about the television series. For other uses, see CRO (disambiguation).

Cro
Opening title to Cro
Based on	The Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Developed by	Mark Zaslove
Starring	Max Casella as Cro
Voices of	Charlie Adler Ruth Buzzi Jim Cummings Tress MacNeille Candi Milo Laurie O'Brien April Ortiz Jane Singer Jussie Smollett Frank Welker
Composer	Stacy Widelistz
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	20 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Phil Roman Jeffrey Nelson Franklin Getchell Marjorie Kalins Joan Ganz Cooney Mark Zaslove
Producer	Bob Richardson
Running time	Approx. 23 mins.
Production companies	Children's Television Workshop (CTW) Film Roman
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 18, 1993 – October 22, 1994

Cro is an American animated television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop) and Film Roman. It debuted on September 18, 1993 as part of the Saturday morning line-up for fall 1993 on ABC. Cro lasted 1½ seasons and ran in reruns through summer 1995. The show had an educational theme (this was before federal educational/informational mandates took effect in 1996), introducing basic concepts of physics, mechanical engineering, and technology. The premise of using woolly mammoths as a teaching tool for the principles of technology was inspired by David Macaulay's The Way Things Work; Macaulay is credited as writer on the show. The last new episode aired on October 22, 1994. The show was released on video (VHS) in a total of nine volumes.

Premise

A scientist named Dr. C and her assistant Mike travel to the Arctic to study artifacts and find a frozen woolly mammoth named Phil. They thaw him out and are surprised to find that he can speak. Whenever a situation in modern times involves physics principles, Phil remembers when a similar event occurred long ago in the prehistoric valley of Woollyville with his fellow mammoths and his Cro-Magnon friend Cro, who lived with a family of Neanderthals. Each episode features Phil narrating how a problem was resolved through simple engineering.

The show's (and lead character's) name is an Occitan word for "cave"; it alludes to Cro-Magnon, the location in France where the earliest anatomically modern humans were first discovered.

Characters

"Dr. C" redirects here. Not to be confused with Mr. C.

Cavepeople

• Cro (voiced by Max Casella) - A fully evolved, 11-year-old Cro-Magnon boy who was adopted by a tribe of Neanderthals. He was a somewhat scrawny and yet still rather muscular young Cro-Magnon boy with long, shaggy, red hair and wore a yellow armband on one arm. Most of the Neanderthals that he lives with are jealous of his intelligence. Unlike the rest of the tribe, Cro speaks in complete sentences.
• Ogg (voiced by Jim Cummings) - The selfish, bossy leader of Cro's adoptive Neanderthal tribe. He is difficult to get along with.
• Gogg (voiced by Frank Welker) - A sensitive Neanderthal who sticks up for Bobb and mostly translates for him, even though Nandy and Ogg do occasionally.
• Bobb (voiced by Frank Welker) - Another adopted member of the Neanderthal tribe and the lowest rank in the evolutionary scale, meaning he is still an ape-like creature. He does not speak like the rest of the Neanderthals, but makes monkey-like noises which Gogg and Nandy then translate. When Bobb was younger, he was in a different tribe made up of ape-like creatures that looked like him. The tribe took a nap and Bobb woke up to find the whole tribe had vanished without a trace, creating a fear of loneliness until the Neanderthals found him.
• Nandy (voiced by Ruth Buzzi) - The matriarch of the Neanderthal tribe who is noted for her urban legends. Some of her legends include the legend of "Big Thing" and a monster called "Big Skinny Thing with Many, Many Legs." She gets into arguments with Ogg and usually wins as she is fully aware of Ogg's own fears. Nandy is very overprotective of Cro and motherly around everyone else.

Woolly Mammoths

• Phil (voiced by Jim Cummings) - A smart but goofy woolly mammoth with orange and reddish fur who is kind to humans and mammoths alike. During the end of the Ice Age, Phil fell into a glacier while saving Cro from Selene and was thawed out by Mike and Dr. C 45,000 years later. He narrates stories of his life in Woollyville in every episode.
• Ivanna (voiced by Laurie O'Brien) - Ivanna is a southern belle woolly mammoth with yellow fur and brown skin with a mole who is Phil's love life. She is the second oldest female mammoth in Phil's herd next to Esmeralda. She usually uses Phil for her experiments.
• Pakka (voiced by Candi Milo) - A young woolly mammoth with light orange fur and yellow skin and a close friend of Cro's. She and Cro meet after Cro confronts Selene the Smilodon. She is the third oldest female mammoth next to Ivanna and Esmeralda. She sometimes tells Cro interesting facts about mammoths.
• Steamer (voiced by Charlie Adler) - The youngest woolly mammoth in Phil's herd with maroon fur and light purple skin, whose hyperactivity and love of making mischief often land him in hot water.
• Esmeralda (voiced by Tress MacNeille) - The oldest female woolly mammoth and matriarch of Phil's herd with light yellow fur and gray skin. She makes sure that everything goes to order and that those who have wronged the mammoth society be punished. She has strongly mixed feelings about the presence of Cro's tribe in Woollyville.
• Earle (voiced by Frank Welker) - An elderly woolly mammoth with gay fur with dark gray-blue skin and a bald spot due to not having longer fur on his head. He hates humans and prefer traditions over new ways of life.
• Mojo (voiced by Charlie Adler) - A woolly mammoth who is Earle's younger brother with gray fur and light gray skin. Like Earle, Mojo hates humans and prefer traditions over new ways of life.

Villains

• Big Red (voiced by Charlie Adler) - The conniving leader of a menacing pack of bumbling dire wolves. He uses threats to scare his minions into doing a good job. The wolves are one of two antagonists on the show as they would often try to eat Cro's tribe or the younger woolly mammoths.
  • Murray (voiced by Jim Cummings) - The minions of Big Red. Because he threatens them, the dire wolves fear him. Murray thinks stupid things, which Big Red doesn't like, as shown in Things That Eat Mung in the Night.
• Selene (voiced by Jane Singer) - A seductive, purple, yellow-eyed Smilodon. She first appears in "Lever in a Million Years" and has a monstrous appetite for anything that moves, including the cavepeople. According to the show's opening theme song, she and Phil were fighting on a cliff and fell when part of the cliff gave way. She landed on a lower cliff, while Phil fell into a glacier and was frozen in suspended animation for thousands of years.

Other characters

• Dr. Cecilia (voiced by April Ortiz) - A female scientist in modern times. She and Mike thawed out Phil, so he tells them his stories. Dr. C speaks with a distinct Hispanic accent and speaks a few Spanish words in some episodes. She bears a resemblance to Cro and may in fact be his descendant.
• Mike (voiced by Jussie Smollett) - A friend of Dr. C. who wears big glasses. He likes to play basketball and lives with Dr. C for reasons not specified. He and Dr. C were the two people that thawed out Phil and therefore, he tells them his stories.
• Teddie (voiced by Bill Daber) - Teddy is a friend of Cro's. He is only featured in one episode (with the Talent Show), but is important nonetheless. He invented the first ever Rap music!
• Sooli (voiced by Cree Summer) - Sooli is another Cro-Magnon who got separated from her tribe and Cro and Pakka help her find her favorite horse. Sooli only appeared in one episode.

Episodes

Season 1 (1993–1994)

№	Title	Airdate	Synopsis
1	"Just a Stone's Throw Away" (Pilot)	September 25, 1993	After Bobb and Steamer trap themselves on the opposite side of a canyon, a few of Woolyville’s residents band together to find an ingenious way to reach the other side to rescue them. Meanwhile, in the present, Phil helps Mike with his basketball skills with aid of a catapult.
2	"No Time for Steamer"	October 2, 1993	Steamer is left behind as the other mammoths leave on vacation. Cro and the Neanderthals come up with a way to balance out everyone's time spent babysitting him.
3	"Destroy all Buckies"	October 9, 1993	Og discovers a discarded invention and has to defend it as the rest of Woolyville demands its destruction.
4	"It's Snow Problem"	October 16, 1993	Cro invents a way to get everyone up the mountain to enjoy his new sport.
5	"Let Me Help"	October 23, 1993	Phil goes a little overboard in his attempts to help the humans create a window in the cave.
6	"The Legend of Big Thing"	November 6, 1993
7	"A Bridge Too Short"	November 13, 1993	Earl and Mojo have the humans build a bridge for the Grand Medallion of Merit.
8	"Pakka's Cool Invention"	November 20, 1993	Pakka helps find a way to keep Esmeralda cool in the summer heat.
9	"Here's Looking at You, Cro"	January 29, 1994	Cro discovers a 'seemyselfer' and uses it to watch Og and Gog compete.
10	"No Way Up"	February 5, 1994	Nandy has a final request, to fly.
11	"Adventures in Miscommunications"	February 12, 1994	Earl and Mojo's insult war gets mixed up with an important message about the volcano.
12	"Escape from Mung Island"	February 19, 1994
13	"Pulley for You"	February 1, 1994
14	"Things That Eat Mung in the Night"	February 26, 1994

Season 2 (1994–1995)

№	Title	Airdate	Synopsis
15	"Meal Like a Pig"	September 17, 1994
16	"What's That Smell"	September 24, 1994	All of Woolyville is out to bathe Og, or else!
17	"Play It Again, Cro...Not!"	October 1, 1994	Cro practices his violin for the Woolyville marching band.
18	"Lever in a Million Years"	October 8, 1994
19	"Turn Up the Heat"	October 15, 1994	Cro needs to ride a mammoth for his coming of age ceremony. He hopes that making a new shower for Phil will get Phil to agree to help him.
20	"They Move Mammoths, Don't They?"	October 22, 1994

Videos

The videos that were released by Republic Home Video in the United States are:

• Have Mammoths, Will Travel

Episodes: "No Way Up" and "Escape from Mung Island"

• Adventures in Woollyville

Episodes: "Pulley to You" and "A Bridge Too Short"

• It's a Woolly, Woolly World

Episodes: "Lever in a Million Years" and "Play It Again, Cro...NOT!"

External links

• Cro at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• Cro at Big Cartoon DataBase
• Cro at Toontrackers or Download the Cro Theme Song (requires RealPlayer)
• Cro at Blast from the Past
• Cro - ABC Kids TV Guide (Australia)
• Have Mammoths, Will Travel at Rotten Tomatoes
• Adventures in Woolyville at Rotten Tomatoes
• It's a Woolly, Woolly World at Rotten Tomatoes