fish-pole

Ads

The Big Comfy Couch

The Big Comfy Couch is a Canadian children's television series about Loonette the Clown and her friends, produced by Cheryl Wagner and Robert Mills and directed by Wayne Moss and Mills. It premiered on March 2,1993 in Canada and in 1994 in the USA on public television stations across the country.

The shows format revolves around Loonette the Clown, who lives with her doll, Molly, on the eponymous Big Comfy Couch. Episodes are generally focused on a theme or a lesson. For example, Season 3's episode "Full of Life" explored the concepts of "full" and "empty", while "Sticks and Stones" dealt with name-calling and teasing.

Each episode contains several common elements. Early in each episode, Loonette performs an exercise routine she calls the "Clock Rug Stretch", normal, sometimes short in order to save time for more surprises, often extended, fast if she's in a hurry then normal when she comes back, or in a floppy way when she feels floppy, and toward the end, she performs a high-speed clean-up routine called the "Ten-Second Tidy". If, however, there was no mess made, then it is called the "Ten-Second Untidy, Tidy". If Loonette didn't make a mess but Molly did, then Molly had to do the "Ten-Second Tidy" with Loonette's help. Other oft-repeated elements include reading a story to Molly, visits to various places in "Clowntown", and a trip to Granny Garbanzo's garden. Here she encounters Snicklefritz, Granny Garbanzo's cat; Major Bedhead, the local mail-delivery clown, who travels on a unicycle; and of course, Granny Garbanzo herself. The conversation with Granny Garbanzo is often used as the episode's "teachable moment", where Granny offers Loonette advice or lessons, often with the help of Major Bedhead, who delivers gifts and messages from Auntie Macassar or Uncle Chester.

Along with the lessons and problem-solving sequences, imaginative play is also emphasized. These episodes often take place in the context of a "visit to Clowntown", with sites such as Granny Garbanzo's "Cabbage Club Cooking School" and Major Bedhead's "Clown Chi Mojo Dojo and Dancing School". Additionally, Loonette is gifted in the art of classical dance and runs "Miss Loonette's Dance Academy". In early episodes, Loonette was too young to visit Clowntown alone, but in later seasons, she makes frequent (adult supervised) trips to Clowntown, and volunteers at the "Clowndergarten", where she teaches "little clowns" (played by young children) games, songs, and stories. This imaginative play was also demonstrated through dress-up games and through Loonette's dollhouse, in which she imagined the adventures of "The Foley Family". Shown first as a doll-sized family, in Loonette's imagination they would become a family of regular-sized clowns, whose actions were shown in high speed and with a musical background in the style of old silent movies. The Foleys (a mother, father and son) did not speak. An alternative version is the dust bunnies who lived under the big comfy couch, of which Loonette and Molly are sitting on, and play together on other kinds of play things such as working together, seeing new things, and playing games. In "Full of Life", they discovered that the couch is missing and decided to play in a paper bag instead. They often hang on to a heart-shaped fish pole held by Molly and Loonette would sing a song about not believing in dust bunnies but would believe anyways.

The show was originally produced by Radical Sheep Productions and Owl Communications, then Canadian children's television network YTV, with a run of 65 episodes. In 2003, 13 new episodes were produced with Benny Smart, an American children's television production company, Tadpole TV and Treehouse TV, a companion channel of YTV.

Radical Sheep Productions and Amity Entertainment in association with Treehouse TV and Nashville Public Television, produced 22 additional episodes, which debuted on American Public Television in 2006. This marked the debut of Ramona Gilmour-Darling as Loonette, replacing Alyson Court.

Additional items for kids, like coloring pages, can be found on the Big Comfy Couch website Official Big Comfy Couch Website Episodes also can be seen on video on demand in some cable and satellite systems on Studio 4 Kids, as well as in short-form on Studio4kids.tv.

Episodes

Season 1 - 1993

101 - Pie in the Sky
102 - Pinch To Grow an Inch
103 - All Aboard for Bed
104 - Knit One Twirl Too
105 - Upsey Downsey Day
106 - Flippy Floppy Fun
107 - Something's Fishy Around Here
108 - Scrub-a-Dub
109 - Red Light, Green Light
110 - Gesundheit
111 - Ping Pong Polka
112 - Funny Faces
113 - Snug as a Bug

Season 2 - 1994

201 - Babs in Toyland
202 - 1-2-3 Dizzy Dizzy Me
203 - Wobbly
204 - Jump Start
205 - This Little Piggy
206 - Juggling the Jitters
207 - Hoopla
208 - Wrong Side of the Couch
209 - I Feel Good
210 - Boomerang
211 - Rude-I-Culous
212 - Make It Snappy
213 - Feast of Fools

Season 3 - 1995

301 - Give Yer Head a Shake
302 - It’s About Time
303 - Clownus Interruptus
304 - Why?
305 - Monkey See Monkey Do
306 - Sticks and Stones
307 - Horsing Around
308 - All Over and Under
309 - Pants on Fire
310 - All Fall Down
311 - Traveling Papers
312 - Hiccups
313 - Full of Life

Season 4 - 1996

401 - Backwards!
402 - Picky Eaters
403 - Forty Winks
404 - Swing-a-Ling
405 - Spare Some Change
406 - Stuck in the Muck
407 - Gimme Gimme Never Gets
408 - One Step at a Time
409 - Enough Already!
410 - Where Do Clowns Come From?
411 - Are You Ready for School?
412 - Hit Parade
413 - Comfy and Joy

Season 5 - 2000

501 - Bad Hair Day
502 - Clownvitations
503 - Nothing To Do
504 - The Big Brain Drain
505 - One Potato Two Potato
506 - Earth to Loonette
507 - Lettuce, Turnip and Pee
508 - Time for Molly
509 - Gizmo Shmizmo
510 - Clothes Make the Clown
511 - Don't Tell
512 - You're a Gem!
513 - See Ya in My Dreams

Season 6 - 2003

601 - Clowning in the Rain
602 - Lost and Clowned
603 - Button Up!
604 - Scaredy Cat!
605 - It’s the Thought that Counts
606 - Growing Pains
607 - Donut Let It Get You Down
608 - Fancy Dancer
609 - The Big Bang Boom
610 - Ain't It Amazing, Gracie?
611 - Between the Covers
612 - Going Up
613 - Cool It!

Season 7 - 2006

701 - Apple of My Eye
702 - Dat's Da Law!
703 - Fibberish Gibberish
704 - Slow Down Clown
705 - Floppy
706 - Clown with a Frown
707 - Rub A Dub Day
708 - Upside Down Clown
709 - The Clown Promise
710 - Lost & Found Clowns
711 - Phony Baloney
712 - Popcorn-Y
713 - Ouch
714 - Peek-a-Boo
715 - Big Blow Hard
716 - Shh Shh Shh Quiet
717 - Freeze Please
718 - Clown in the Round
719 - Molly's Bellybutton
720 - Just Purrfect
721 - Ready, Steady, Go!
722 - Happy Mirthday, Granny!

The Big Comfy Couch on DVD

The Big Comfy Couch has 5 DVD featuring the new season starring Ramona Gilmour-Darling. The other DVDs and VHS featuring Alyson Court are discontinued.

The Big Comfy Couch: Clown in the Round (Nov. 7 2006)
The Big Comfy Couch: Cooking Up Fun (Nov. 7, 2006)
The Big Comfy Couch: Let's Have a Party (Feb. 6, 2007)
The Big Comfy Couch: Wiggling and Giggling (Feb. 6, 2007)
The Big Comfy Couch: Upside Down Clown (April 15, 2008)

Trivia

The character name "Auntie Macassar" is a play on words. An antimacassar is a cloth or doily placed on the back of a couch to keep the upholstery clean; therefore, one would logically find an "Auntie Macassar" on "The Big Comfy Couch". (There is in fact an antimacassar displayed on the back of the middle cushion of the Couch.)