Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks

Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks (or Jakers in Europe) is a computer-animated children's television series. The series was broadcast on PBS Kids in the United States, and on CBBC and CBeebies in the United Kingdom.[3] It was also broadcast in Australia on ABC Kids.[4] The series ran for 3 seasons and 52 episodes total from September 7, 2003 to January 24, 2007, with reruns airing through August 31, 2008. Reruns aired on the Qubo television network from June 30, 2012 (alongside Taste Buds, Artzooka! and Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs) to March 26, 2017.

Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks
Title card
Developed byMike Young
Liz Young
Sindy McKay
Directed byJohn Over
StarringPeadar Lamb
Maile Flanagan
Russi Taylor
Tara Strong
Charles Adler
Nika Futterman
Melissa Disney
Pamela Adlon
Mel Brooks
Joan Rivers
Emma Tate
Theme music composerHarriet Schock
Country of originIreland
United States
United Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes52 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producersMike Young
Stephanie Gougeon
Louisa Stretton
Bill Schultz (co-executive)
ProducersJohn Over
Cary Silver (line)
Liz Young (supervising)
Peter Anderso (creative associate)
Running time23 minutes
Production companiesEntara Ltd.
Mike Young Productions
Crest Communications
DistributorEntara[1]
Taffy Entertainment
Release
Original networkPBS Kids (US)
CBBC and CBeebies (UK)
RTE Two (Ireland)
Picture formatHDTV (720p)
Original releaseSeptember 7, 2003 (2003-09-07) –
January 24, 2007 (2007-01-24)[2]

The show chronicles the boyhood adventures of Piggley Winks, an anthropomorphic pig from Ireland, and how he relates these stories to his grandchildren as a grandfather in the modern day.[5] Many of the stories takes place on the Winks family's farm, Raloo Farm, located in the village of Tara. The word "jakers" was originally a euphemism for "Jesus" in much of Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s, and was an exclamation of surprise, delight, dismay, or alarm. Piggley and his father exclusively use it to express their delight when they discover something on their adventures. Notably, the show contains voiceover work by the actors Joan Rivers and Mel Brooks.

Plot

Jakers! takes place in two different settings, in two different time periods.

In the present time (the frame story), Piggley Winks lives in the United States (or Great Britain, according to different versions) and tells stories of his childhood in a rural area in the south of Ireland to his three grandchildren. In flashbacks, he is seen as a child, playing with his friends and going to school in rural Ireland in the mid-1950s. Most of the main characters are anthropomorphic animals—including Piggley and his family, who are all pigs. However, there are normal, non-anthropomorphic animals in the show as well.

Past

Piggley Winks lived with his parents Pádraig and Elly and his younger sister Molly at Raloo Farm in Ireland during the 1950s. His best friends are Dannan O'Mallard, a duck who lives in a hut by a pond with her rarely seen grandmother, and Fernando "Ferny" Toro, a young bull who lives with his widowed father, the Spanish blacksmith Don Toro in the village of Tara. Piggley's rival is the main antagonist, Hector McBadger.

Piggley lives his everyday life on the farm as a normal child, going to school, helping his parents, taking care of his sister, and having adventures, almost always followed by his friends. He has always been interested in stories and legends, and his fertile mind and mischievous spirit put him in many unpredictable situations, like believing fairies turned Ferny into a bug, trying to hatch a supposed dragon's egg, using the Salmon of Knowledge to pass the school exam, and even trying to capture the legendary Fir Darrig.

Each story also features a subplot featuring Wiley, the sheep (voiced by Mel Brooks). As the only sheep in the flock who can talk, he believes he is their natural leader, and tries to get the other sheep to do all kinds of different things (singing, racing, playing sports, acting, etc.), with varying degrees of success. He is later assisted by his mate, a female sheep named Shirley (in earlier seasons, Shirley had no lines; also, in the episode "Growing Pains" gave birth to a lamb, later named Little Baa).

A running gag on the show is that Wiley's subplot and Piggley's plot would collide (e.g. in "Sheep on the Loose", Wiley runs away and Piggley, as the shepherd, tries to find him).

CommonSenseMedia explains that at the end of each episode there is a live-action segment, in which "group of children talk about their own experiences and feelings, reflecting on what the episode has been about".[6]

Present

An elderly Piggley lives with his daughter Ciara and her three children, the twins Seán and Séamus, and their older sister Meg. Whenever the children have an issue, Piggley tells them one of his childhood stories as a moral lesson. The grandchildren are able to identify exaggerations in his stories.

The original American accents of Ciara and her children have been dubbed with English accents by an uncredited Emma Tate for broadcast in the United Kingdom.

Episodes
Main article: List of Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks episodes
SeasonEpisodesOriginally aired
First airedLast aired
126September 7, 2003 (2003-09-07)June 27, 2004 (2004-06-27)
214September 5, 2004 (2004-09-05)January 30, 2005 (2005-01-30)
312September 18, 2006 (2006-09-18)January 23, 2007 (2007-01-23)

Cast

Main

Additional voices

Guest star

Farm

The Wild

UK Cast

Development

Originally conceived by Denise Fitzpatrick based on her experiences as a young girl in rural Ireland, the show was originally titled Piggley Pooh, but was issued a cease and desist letter by The Walt Disney Company due to the show sharing the same name as the Winnie the Pooh series. Despite countersuing and having the European Court side with the Fitzpatrick's, their lawyer decided that changing the name of the show would be better to avoid future copyright issues. Eventually, this led to Piggley Pooh becoming Piggley Winks.[7]

After the name change, production on the show began in March 2002. Denise's husband, Frances, helped produce the show through his company, Entara,[8] while the show was executively produced by Mike Young and animated by his studio Mike Young Productions. Notably, the show was rendered in high definition, being the first cartoon to do so at the time.[9]

Broadcast

Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks was shown on CBeebies and CBBC in United Kingdom from 2004 up until early 2011. It first aired in the United Kingdom on the CBBC Channel on September 6, 2004, and later was repeated on CBeebies from February 13, 2006, on the BBC One strand at 3:25pm, But it didn't air on the CBeebies Channel until March 19, 2007, when the scheduling of CBeebies was changing,[10] and Qubo, PBS Kids, and PBS Kids Sprout in United States.[11]

9 Story Media Group currently distributes the series.[12]

Reruns on PBS Kids continued to air until August 31, 2008. However, PBS Kids Sprout aired this series in 2006, but was taken off after March 31, 2009.

Univision's Planeta U carried the show as part of the block's inaugural lineup from its launch on April 5, 2008, to August 28, 2010.

DVD releases

US releases
Title Release date Episodes Ref.
Piggley Gets Into Trouble July 18, 2006
  • Pie Filling
  • All Night Long
  • Fir Not
  • For Whom the Bell Trolls
 [13]
School Days In Tara July 18, 2006
  • Salmon of Knowldege
  • Rock Around the Cluck
  • New Best Friends
  • A Little Bit of Something Extra! Extra!
 [14]
Sheep on the Loose October 31, 2006
  • Sheep on the Loose
  • Waking Thor
  • Donkeys Into Racehorses
  • Molly Had a Little Lamb
 [15]
Spooky Storytellers August 28, 2007
  • No Girls Allowed
  • Song of the Banshee
  • The Creepy Cabbages of Galway
  • Good Neighbour
 [16]
Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm February 19, 2008
  • Treasure Hunt
  • Our Dragon's Egg
  • Dannan Does a Jig
  • Growing Pains
 [17]
Wish Upon a Story January 14, 2014
  • No Girls Allowed
  • A Little Bit of Something Extra! Extra!
  • Wish Upon a Story (Parts 1 and 2)
Legends of Raloo January 14, 2014
  • Molly's Dolly
  • The Legend of Raloo
  • Lucky 'U'
  • Searching for a Shamrock
 [18]
Rock Around the Barn January 14, 2014
  • Song of the Banshee
  • Rock Around the Cluck
  • Return of the Raloo Rockers
  • A Touch of Spain

UK releases
Title Release date Episodes Ref.
School Days in Tara 24 October 2005
  • The Salmon of Knowledge
  • Rock Around the Clock
  • New Best Friends
  • A Little Bit of Something Extra! Extra!
 [19]
Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm 10 April 2006
  • Treasure Hunt
  • Our Dragon's Egg
  • Growing Pains
  • Dannan Does a Jig
 [20]
Spooky Storytellers 23 October 2006
  • No Girls Allowed
  • Song of the Banshee
  • The Creepy Cabbages of Galway
  • Good Neighbour
 [21]
Piggley Gets Into Trouble 5 March 2007
  • Pie Filling
  • All Night Long
  • Fir Not
  • For Whom the Bell Trolls
 [22]
Sheep on the Loose 22 October 2007
  • Sheep on the Loose
  • Waking Thor
  • Donkeys Into Racehorses
  • Molly Had a Little Lamb
 [23]

Reception

Critical response

CommonSenseMedia gave the show a rating of 4 stars out of 5, commenting "The animation is lovely, the characters are amusing and cute, and the lessons are so gently presented that it really is a pleasure to learn them."[6]

Awards
  • Humanitas Award Children's Animation Category for "The Gift" Written by Sindy McKay, Dennis Haley & Marcy Brown (2007)
  • Humanitas Award in the Children's Animation Category for "Waking Thor" Written by Kelly Ward and Cliff McGillivray (2005)
  • Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Animated Program (2006)
  • Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program – Maile Flanagan (2006)
  • Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction & Composition (2005)
  • Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual in Animation – Milk Melodrama (2005)
  • Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual in Animation – Production designer (2004)
  • Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual in Animation – Storyboard artist: All Night Long (2004)
  • BAFTA Award for Best Animated Series in the International Category (2005)
  • Chicago International Film Festival Gold Hugo Award in the Animated Series Category (2005)
  • Chicago International Film Festival Silver Hugo Award in the Animated Series Category (2004)
  • Webby Award for PBS/Jakers! Website (2005)
  • Parents' Choice Silver Honor Award in the Television Category (2004 & 2006)
  • Genesis Commendation Award from the Humane Society of the United States (2004)
  • New York Festivals Gold World Medal Award in the Animation category for Youth/Young Adult Programs (2006)
  • Prix Jeunesse Web Prize Winner (2004)

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 19, 2020. Retrieved March 25, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  3. "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 3, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 439–440. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  6. "Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks". commonsensemedia.org. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
  7. "There's nothing Mickey Mouse about it". Retrieved April 13, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 4, 2018. Retrieved September 10, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Mike Young Figures Out How To Count CGI Sheep". Retrieved April 13, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. "Jakers: The Adventures of Piggley Winks – Episode guide – BBC – CBBC". BBC. Archived from the original on September 4, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  11. "Jakers! | Qubo – Qubo is the nation's only 24/7 over-the-air network for children". Qubo. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
  12. "Jakers!". 9story.com.
  13. "Piggley Gets Into Trouble". Amazon.
  14. "School Days In Tara". Amazon.
  15. "Sheep on the Loose". Amazon.
  16. "Spooky Storytellers". World of Books.
  17. "Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm". Amazon.
  18. "Legends of Raloo". Amazon.
  19. "School Days in Tara". Amazon.
  20. "Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm". Amazon.
  21. "Spooky Storytellers". Amazon.
  22. "Piggley Gets Into Trouble". Amazon.
  23. "Sheep on the Loose". Amazon.
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