Clifford the Big Red Dog (TV series)

Clifford the Big Red Dog
Based on Clifford the Big Red Dog
by Norman Bridwell
Directed by John Over
Voices of John Ritter
Grey DeLisle
Cree Summer
Kel Mitchell
Cam Clarke
Kath Soucie
Gary LeRoi Gray
Ulysses Cuadra
Earl Boen
Edie McClurg
Nick Jameson
Tony Plana
Composer(s) Josh Mancell
Mark Mothersbaugh
Country of origin United States[1]
United Kingdom[1]
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 65 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Deborah Forte
Gary Conrad
Running time 30 minutes (15 minutes per segment) (approx. per episode)
Production company(s) Scholastic Productions[2]
Release
Original network PBS Kids
Original release September 4, 2000 (2000-09-04)[3] – February 25, 2003 (2003-02-25)
Chronology
Followed by Clifford's Puppy Days

Clifford the Big Red Dog is an American-British animated children's television series, based upon Norman Bridwell's children's book series of the same name. Produced by Scholastic Productions, it originally aired on PBS Kids from September 4, 2000 to February 25, 2003. The UK version (where it was dubbed with British voice actors replacing the original American soundtrack) originally aired on BBC 2 from April 1, 2002.[4]

Two 15-minute stories made up each half-hour cartoon. Usually one story featured Clifford and his canine friends, Cleo and T-Bone among them; the other story would focus on Clifford's owner Emily Elizabeth and her friends. As in other shows of its kind, during scenes focusing on the dog characters' perspective, human speech would replace barking to engage viewers in the storyline from the dogs' point of view.

John Ritter voiced Clifford in all episodes. This was originally done by Brent Titcomb in the series that debuted in 1988 and ran into the early 1990s. Generally speaking, his schedule dictated the production of Clifford the Big Red Dog. By the time the last of the 68 half-hour cartoons and the movie were completed, Ritter was back on ABC's prime-time schedule, starring in 8 Simple Rules. Ritter's death on September 11, 2003 came less than a week before PBS debuted Clifford's Puppy Days, a function of keeping Clifford's legacy going.

While no new Clifford episodes have been released since Ritter's death in 2003, voice actors for the main characters have reprised some of their roles for the Ready to Learn PBS Kids PSAs. The film Clifford's Really Big Movie serves as the series finale due to Ritter's death, as no new episodes were made to continue from where it left off.

Characters

Dogs

Humans

Format

The series has at least 5 segments in the show, which are:

  1. Theme Song
  2. 1st Story - The opening theme is followed by the first central story, which is about the dogs, and a problem they face.
  3. Storytime with Speckle - Between the first and second story, Emily Elizabeth reads Clifford the Speckle Story, a small 60 seconds (approximately) time filler about a fictional dog (Speckle), and his animal friends.
  4. 2nd Story - This is followed by another central story, about Emily Elizabeth and her friends.
  5. Clifford's Big Ideas - Before the credits, another 30-second short takes place called Clifford's Big Ideas. The short is basically an animation of an etiquette, a proverb, or basic truth such as "Play Fair", "Help Others", etc., with narration by Emily Elizabeth.

Production

This series was only produced by Mike Young Productions and Scholastic Studios. John Ritter voices Clifford on this series before his death in 2003. Grey DeLisle voices Emily Elizabeth. She would reprise this role in the prequel Clifford's Puppy Days.

Episodes

Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 40 September 4, 2000 (2000-09-04) December 5, 2001 (2001-12-05)
2 25 May 16, 2002 (2002-05-16) February 25, 2003 (2003-02-25)

Film

In 2004, Warner Bros. Pictures distributed a feature-length animated film based on the show titled Clifford's Really Big Movie. It was about Clifford, Cleo and T-Bone joining an animal show to win a lifetime supply of dog food to provide for Clifford. This was John Ritter's last film as he died on September 11, 2003, after completing voice work for the film. The film was dedicated to his memory. The movie also stars Wayne Brady as Shackleford the Ferret, Judge Reinhold as Amazing Larry, John Goodman as J.T Wolfsbottom, and Jenna Elfman as Dorothy the Cow. The film also serves as the series finale.

Video games

Original series

Modern series

See also

References

^ Media and Culture, 5th ed., Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin and Bettina Fabos.

  1. 1 2 "Clifford the Big Red Dog (TV series) (2000)". British Film Institute. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  2. "He's Big! He's Red! He's Coming to PBS Kids! Scholastic Productions' "Clifford the Big Red Dog" Animated Series Debuts on PBS Fall 2000" (Press release). PBS. January 7, 2000. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  3. Zurawik, David (July 13, 2000). "PBS gives kids new Saturday morning shows". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved May 31, 2014.
  4. http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?order=asc&q=clifford+%22red+dog%22
  5. 1 2 Clifford the Big Red Dog - Don Markstein's Toonopedia
  6. "The Cast of Clifford the Big Red Dog®". PBS Kids. Retrieved August 17, 2015.
  7. "Little Clifford" 19 September 2000, 6 candles on cake
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