"Caillou, Rosie's been saying a word that's not very nice. Do you know the word I mean?"
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- "You're getting to be a big boy!"
- ―Mommy at the beginning of the show's theme song and the episode "Caillou Gets Dressed."
Caillou is a Canadian educational children's television series that was first shown on Télétoon and Teletoon, with its first episode airing on the former channel on September 15, 1997; the show later moved to Treehouse TV, with its final episode being shown on that channel on October 3, 2010. The series is based on the books by Hélène Desputeaux. Because PBS co-owned Sprout when the channel was launched, it aired a variety of shows from its archive library on Sprout, including reruns of Caillou.
Caillou is Sprout's longest-running show. It is the only show to last throughout the network's entire run. It started airing in 2005, new episodes last aired on the network in 2012, and it kept airing in reruns until Sprout closed in 2017, and Universal Kids until 2019. With that, the show continued to air on PBS until January 2021. Reruns aired on Cartoon Network's Cartoonito block for a while.
Plot
- "Caillou is a wide-eyed four-year-old who learns about life - one adventure at a time! From his own backyard to his very first airplane ride, Caillou discovers the wonder and excitement of being a little boy in a very big world." (link)
For Parents
- "Get kids talking by describing an event from your day. They'll be more likely to share something from their day with you."
History on Sprout
The show premiered on September 26, 2005, along with several other shows, to celebrate the launch of the Sprout network. Before that, they released it on Sprout On Demand. At first, the show didn't do well on the linear network but was popular on-demand.
The series, or at least its first three seasons, aired in fifteen minute, three-episode blocks. This meant that there were only 25 blocks.
It has a Sprout Diner snack, Caillou's Crunchy Carrot Salad, and Annie Bovaird reprises her role as the titular character with archive audio coming from Jaclyn Linetsky. The show got two more snacks in 2010, Caillou's Cornbread Cupcakes and Caillou's Cauliflower Mash.
The show aired at 11:30AM ET and 3PM when Sprout launched, and later aired at 7:30AM ET when Musical Mornings launched, and 7:32 (later 7:45, 8:45, and 8:40), 9:40, and 11:40PM during The Good Night Show, 11AM and 11:30 ET on The Let's Go Show, and 8:30AM ET during early mornings. It also aired at 2PM ET in the early afternoon block but in September 2010, it was changed to a full hour beginning at 12PM ET.
Caillou would air Grand Grandparents' Day, marathons for Grandparents' Day every September, since the show prominently features Caillou's grandma and grandpa, Rosemary and Hadley. As of 2014, the marathons later aired Zou episodes as well as Caillou's.
- "We're celebrating Caillou's Grand Grandparents Day! Join Caillou on September 8th for a special Caillou marathon. Find fun crafts, recipes, and activities to celebrate grandparents. And don't forget to send a special message, it may be on TV!" (link)
A marathon of the series aired for April Fools' Day in 2017. That same year, Sprout pulled a prank on its viewers by announcing new episodes of its shows.
Caillou was panned by critics and audiences for the title character's whining, but was popular enough to survive the 10th-anniversary rebranding (alongside Sesame Street and The Berenstain Bears), but unlike both said shows, which stopped airing in November 2015 and September 2017 respectively, reruns continued to air until March 31, 2019, even after the launch of Universal Kids on September 9th, 2017, to the relief of many viewers everywhere.
Caillou's feature film, Caillou's Holiday Movie, aired several times on Sprout. It originally premiered during Hooray for the Holidays on December 17th, 2007, at 4:30 ET. It also aired for both Elmo's Movie Merry-Thon and Merry Movies.
- "Caillou learns about special Christmas traditions from all around the world in "Caillou's Holiday Movie"! Watch the US Broadcast Premiere December 17 & 20 at 5 pm ET and December 25!" (link)
Characters
Games
- Caillou Follow the Stars
- The Caillou Memory Game
- Caillou Painting Activity
- The Caillou Puzzle Game
- Caillou the Cook
- Spelling with Caillou
Connections
- Shelley Hoffman and Robert Pincombe served as writers for the series.
- Jagjiwan Sohal wrote for the 2022 revival.
- John Van Bruggen served as a writer for the series.
- Kevin Yamada performed Rexy in the puppet segments.
Notes
- When the 24/7 PBS Kids channel returned in January 2017, Caillou was part of the lineup on that channel, and it aired at the same time as it did on Sprout.
- On Sprout airings of the episode "Caillou Plays Baseball", Caillou's line "I hate baseball!" was edited, muting the word "hate". Now, Caillou says "I...baseball!". Sprout considers the word "hate" strong enough to be a swear word. Note that this is the only known instance of this censorship, as several other episodes of the series use the word "hate", and it is unknown if the other episodes were censored this way.
- A similar thing happened with Sprout airings of the Thomas & Friends episode "Haunted Henry", where Henry's line "Stupid bird!" was edited, muting the word "stupid".
- To date, it is unknown why Caillou stayed on Universal Kids as long as it did.
- Having tons of promotion and airtime and airing for more than 10 years, Caillou is one of Sprout’s most profitable and popular shows.
- The episodes "Big Brother Caillou", "Caillou Goes Around the Block", "Caillou Makes a New Friend", "Caillou's Quarrel", "Caillou's Getting Older", "Rosie Bothers Caillou", and "Caillou's Cross Word" were banned from airing on Sprout due to having inappropriate material. The first one was banned in 2006.
- Some Sprout airings of episodes had episode segments that were edited.
- A clip of Caillou sleeping in "Caillou the Road Builder" is shown in Sprout's Snooze-a-Thon as of 2010, as well as "La La Lullaby," which aired at the end of The Good Night Show, and in a promo made by Vault Filmworks.
- Caillou was featured in the Breakfast ident.
- When Caillou (Annie Bovaird reprises her role as Caillou here) greeted Nina and Star before his show played on The Good Night Show, a sound clip was reused from a promo and footage from "Caillou's Halloween Costume" is shown.
- Nina and her Sproutlet friends once did "Sarah's Ready for Sleep Stretch" on The Good Night Show. The segment appeared in "Babysitters," "Lullabies," and "Where We Sleep." Similarly, Caillou and Rosie are mentioned in the craft segment with a homemade birthday card in "Numbers."
- When the show aired on Sprout in later years, a yellow, later purple, background on the sides of the screen was seen. When it aired during The Good Night Show, there was a background with the moon and stars.
- SproutOnline.com has had a section with crafts, recipes, and printables for a Caillou-themed birthday party.
- Footage from the third season episode, "Where I Live" was used for the show's Sprout Diner episode.
- Footage from the second season episode, "Get Well Soon" was used for The Birthday Show's "Happy Birthday" song.
- Both the show and its main character were named after the French word for "pebble" (le cailloux).
- The CGI revival series and five specials are in the works with Peacock.
- Videos in which Caillou gets grounded are often made on Vyond (formerly GoAnimate), a website that allows people to make their own cartoons.
Gallery
See Caillou/Gallery
Videos
