50 Fun Facts About Nick Jr.

In the farewell episodes of Blue's Clues, original host Steve packs up and leaves home for where?

College was the on-screen reason, but his exit revived false rumours that actor Steve Burns had died. In 2021 he returned in a video to tell grown-up viewers he had never forgotten them.

Oswald, the gentle blue Nick Jr. hero with a hot-dog-shaped pet named Weenie, is what sea animal?

Octopus Oswald was voiced in the United States by Fred Savage, the child star of The Wonder Years. The bowler-hatted character was created by picture-book artist Dan Yaccarino.

Keith Chapman, the British creator of PAW Patrol, first found fame with which stop-motion character?

Bob the Builder came to Keith Chapman after he spotted a digger on a work site and pictured it with cartoon eyes. The machine became Scoop, and Bob was added as its human operator.

Which children's horror author was head writer of the Nick Jr. puppet show Eureeka's Castle?

R. L. Stine developed the puppet characters and ran the writing a few years before Goosebumps made him famous. He said he modelled the look of Batly the bat on his own son, Matt.

Which rapper taught beatboxing in a regular Beat of the Day segment on Yo Gabba Gabba!?

Biz Markie, best known for the 1989 hit Just a Friend, gave preschoolers a new mouth-made beat to copy in each short segment. He had already played a beatboxing alien in Men in Black II.

LazyTown, the Nick Jr. hit starring acrobatic hero Sportacus, was made and filmed in which country?

Iceland's Magnús Scheving, an aerobics champion, created LazyTown and played Sportacus himself. It grew out of a stage play adapted from a book he wrote in 1995.

Which animal-rescuing cousin of Dora the Explorer was given a Nick Jr. spin-off series of his own?

Diego first turned up in an episode of Dora the Explorer before starring in his own wildlife adventures. His best friend and sidekick there is a jaguar cub he once rescued.

Which bespectacled puppy, named after a colour, is the best friend of Blue on Blue's Clues?

Magenta looks just like Blue apart from her pinkish-purple coat and her glasses. She is the shyer of the two pups and belongs to Miranda, a friend of the host.

In the classic Nick Jr. logo, the word Nick appeared as a parent figure in which colour?

Orange Nick was the parent and blue Junior the child, and the pair kept changing shape and species. They turned up as all sorts of creatures and objects from one ident to the next.

Marshall, the clumsy Dalmatian of PAW Patrol, does which emergency job for the team of pups?

Firefighter Marshall is also the team's paramedic. In a running gag he arrives last and tumbles into the other pups, who laugh as the elevator rises.

Boots, the best friend of Dora the Explorer, named for a beloved pair of red boots, is what animal?

Monkey Boots got an unlikely voice in the 2019 live-action Dora film: tough-guy actor Danny Trejo. On television the part went to a series of child actors.

Swiper, the masked thief on Dora the Explorer who has to be stopped by viewers, is what animal?

A fox, Swiper is the only character kept from the creators' first pitch, about a band of forest animals. Nickelodeon's researchers at first found him unsettling for young children.

Chase, the spy pup and second-in-command of PAW Patrol, is which breed of dog?

German Shepherd Chase is the team's police dog, the job the breed is best known for in real life. Young Sheldon star Iain Armitage voiced him in the first PAW Patrol film.

PAW Patrol, the Nick Jr. hit about rescue pups, is produced by Spin Master in which country?

Canada is home to Spin Master, the Toronto toy company behind the pups. At home the cartoon is shown mainly by TVOntario, a public broadcaster, in its TVOKids block.

Which tech-savvy ten-year-old boy leads the pups of PAW Patrol from a tower called the Lookout?

Ryder was first pitched as the boy who had rescued all six dogs before they formed a team, an idea dropped in 2012. On screen he alerts the pups through their blinking tags.

Pablo, the excitable blue member of The Backyardigans who is prone to panic attacks, is what animal?

Penguin Pablo and his four animal neighbours dream up a new escapade in their shared backyard each episode. Every one is set to a different musical genre and features four songs.

Which big fish, able to change colour, teaches the preschool class on Bubble Guppies?

Mr. Grouper can turn his skin into a wide variety of colours and patterns. His pupils are merperson preschoolers, one of whom keeps a pet called Bubble Puppy.

Milli, Geo and Bot, the tiny superheroes of Team Umizoomi, solve problems with which school subject?

Math drives every rescue, from counting and shapes to patterns and measuring. Bot, the green robot, is voiced by Donovan Patton, better known as a host of Blue's Clues.

Max and Ruby, the Nick Jr. siblings from Rosemary Wells's picture books, are what kind of animal?

Rabbits Max and Ruby live in a town called Eastbunny Hop. Max is a rambunctious three-year-old, and his seven-year-old sister is goal-driven and sometimes bossy.

What is the name of Peppa Pig's little brother, who is rarely seen without a toy dinosaur?

George was revealed in the ninth series to be moderately deaf and began wearing a hearing aid. His beloved toy is simply called Mr. Dinosaur.

Which big blue truck cheats in races as the rival of Blaze on Blaze and the Monster Machines?

Crusher is a tractor-trailer who cheats with his own robot gadgets, yet slowly grows into a nicer character. A goofy little sidekick follows him everywhere for comic relief.

Rintoo, the rambunctious, energetic friend with a lisp on Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, is what kind of animal?

Tiger Rintoo is one of the animal friends who join a Chinese-American girl as she teaches viewers words of Mandarin. The heroine carries the birth name of creator Karen Chau.

Gullah Gullah Island was inspired by St. Helena Island, the home of host Ron Daise, in which state?

South Carolina's Sea Islands gave the 1990s series its Gullah songs and stories. Ron and Natalie Daise had toured a stage show about island heritage before Nickelodeon came calling.

Which famous illustrator drew the original Little Bear books and helped shape the Nick Jr. cartoon?

Maurice Sendak drew Else Holmelund Minarik's gentle stories in 1957, years before his own Where the Wild Things Are. Both were closely involved in creating the cartoon's new tales.

Which colour-changing animated Nick Jr. mascot introduced shows and led into commercial breaks?

Face could conjure up a robot, a clown or a traffic light and signed off with a three-note trumpet sound. His original run of segments lasted almost nine years, ending in 2003.

Which channel, co-founded with Sesame Workshop, gave way to the 24-hour Nick Jr. channel in 2009?

Noggin launched in 1999 with reruns such as The Electric Company and Ghostwriter from the Sesame library. Nick Jr. programmes had been steadily taking over its schedule since 2003.

Which younger brother of Steve, played by Donovan Patton, took over as host of Blue's Clues in 2002?

Joe arrived in a three-episode story after the producers had held 1,500 auditions to find a new host. Magazine articles and the Nickelodeon website prepared young viewers for the change.

Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper, the shakers on Blue's Clues, named their first baby after which spice?

Paprika sleeps in a crib made from a peanut and later gains a baby brother, Cinnamon. The reboot added twin siblings named Sage and Ginger.

Linny, the Wonder Pets leader who first starred in two pilot shorts, is which classroom animal?

Guinea pig Linny had solo adventures set to classical music before the team existed. The look, built by moving photos of real animals and objects, was named photo-puppetry.

Stephanie, the aspiring dancer who moves in with the mayor of LazyTown, is known for which colour?

Pink-clad Stephanie arrives as an eight-year-old, surprised by how idle the other children are. Three different actresses played her, counting an unaired pilot.

Christian Jacobs, co-creator of Yo Gabba Gabba!, is the lead singer of which California band?

The Aquabats know Jacobs by his stage persona, the MC Bat Commander. He and Scott Schultz, both new parents, funded the pilot with small loans from friends and family.

Who played the teenage title role in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, the live-action film from 2019?

Isabela Merced, then credited as Isabela Moner, played Dora as a 16-year-old sent from the jungle to a Los Angeles high school. She also voiced the character in an animated scene.

Which puppet studio brought the Cat in the Hat to Nick Jr. in The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss?

The Jim Henson Company supplied the puppeteers, who performed the Cat in the Hat as host against digitally animated backgrounds. The virtual sets came from its own Creature Shop.

The characters of Oobi, a puppet series from the makers of Wonder Pets!, are played by what?

Bare hands fitted with a pair of glass eyes are a training method for puppeteers. The creator had the idea while watching performers audition that way for Sesame Street.

On Blue's Clues, what does the puppy Blue leave on each of the three objects chosen as clues?

A paw print marks each clue, and the host sketches all three in a notebook. He then settles into the Thinking Chair, a giant red armchair, to work out the answer.

Backpack, the talking bag who carries the supplies on Dora the Explorer, is which colour?

Purple Backpack travels with seven-year-old Dora Márquez and her friend Boots on every quest. The pair solve riddles and puzzles along the way with help from viewers at home.

What do Peppa Pig and the rest of the pig family especially enjoy jumping in?

Muddy puddles are such a trademark that Peppa Pig World, a theme park area in England, has a splash park named for them. Most episodes end with everyone falling over laughing.

Which spotted member of The Backyardigans belongs to a made-up species no other character shares?

Uniqua is the name of both the character and her species. Creator Janice Burgess described her as the kind of child she wished she had been: curious, confident and adventurous.

Mayor Goodway, one of the most frequent callers for help on PAW Patrol, keeps which kind of pet?

A chicken named Chickaletta belongs to the mayor. Her arch-rival, Mayor Humdinger of neighbouring Foggy Bottom, is helped instead by a crew of cats modelled on the pups.

Which reality TV star voiced Delores, a poodle at an animal shelter, in the first PAW Patrol film?

Kim Kardashian took the part because her children were fans, and said it made them think of her as a cool mom. She voiced Delores again in the 2023 sequel.

Mark Mothersbaugh, who drew pictures in a Yo Gabba Gabba! segment, co-founded which new wave band?

Devo's lead vocalist drew simple pictures that often came alive at the end of each segment. The band is best known for Whip It, a top 20 single in the United States in 1980.

Which veteran voice of Scooby-Doo also voices Bubble Puppy, the pet dog on Bubble Guppies?

Frank Welker has voiced Fred in the Scooby-Doo cartoons since 1969 and took over the Great Dane himself in 2002. Bubble Puppy is the pet and best friend of a guppy named Gil.

Which block of adult comedy took over the Nick Jr. channel each night at 10 p.m. from 2012 to 2015?

NickMom aimed its comedy at young mothers once the preschoolers were in bed. Its highest-rated programme, Instant Mom, was ordered specially for the block.

Which preschool show was the first series ever broadcast on Nickelodeon and later rerun on Nick Jr.?

Pinwheel began in 1977 on an experimental Ohio cable channel that went national as Nickelodeon in 1979. Most of its songs were styled after a wind-up music box.

Gullah Gullah Island was taped in Orlando on a house set shared with which Nickelodeon sitcom?

Clarissa Explains It All used the same house, inside and out, at Nickelodeon Studios in Florida. The home was repainted in shades of red for the Alston family.

Which musical series about a puppet girl joined Nick Jr. in 1994 alongside Gullah Gullah Island?

Allegra's Window mixed live actors, puppets and animation in the manner of Sesame Street. Two of its puppeteers later performed lions together on the PBS series Between the Lions.

Which town is home to the Lookout tower and protected by the pups of PAW Patrol?

Adventure Bay episodes usually open with the dogs at play before a call for help comes in. A 2023 spin-off sent one of the pups to work in a neighbouring town.

Skye, the air rescue pup of PAW Patrol, takes to the sky with a glider pack and which vehicle?

Helicopter pilot Skye is a seven-year-old Cockapoo, a cross between a cocker spaniel and a poodle. Mckenna Grace voiced her in the 2023 film The Mighty Movie.

Pinkfong, whose viral Baby Shark video inspired a Nick Jr. cartoon, is a brand from which country?

South Korea's Pinkfong released its version of the song in 2016. In January 2022 it became the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views.

Which Broadway understudy from Disney's Aladdin became host of the revival Blue's Clues & You!?

Josh Dela Cruz spent five years as an understudy in Aladdin before landing the job. Original host Steve Burns took part in the casting process.