MacDonald's Farm
MacDonald's Farm is a children's pre-school puppet series which aired on GMTV in the early 2000's and it was produced by Jo Pullen Programming Ltd with Abbey Home Entertainment (under license to Just Entertainment Ltd).
Created and developed by Sesame Street and Wizadora writer Don Arioli, it is set on a farmyard where seven anthropomorphic and brightly coloured animals all live, learn and play as the day goes on with the episode's topic (eg. recycling, shapes, numbers, tidying up etc.).
Each episode features social and early learning themes which all young children will identify and they have been endorsed by the Pre-School Learning Alliance to reflect the focus on the fast developing pre-school concept.
The show was made with using full-sized costumes with animatronic eyes/mouths and puppets which were all built and designed by Sally Preisig of Mimics Productions who also worked on Playdays and Tweenies for Children's BBC.
The music score and songs were composed by Tony Gibber who was best known for the 1990-1994 theme tune from Top of the Pops, while other songs for different episodes were composed by Keith Hopwood of Pluto Music.
There were only 26 episodes filmed and produced in between 2000 to 2001 and were first broadcast at around that time.
It became a popular hit when it first aired with a 35% audience share and several DVDs, videos, books, audio cassettes and TOMY toys were made.
Repeats were shown on Fox Kids in the UK and on GMTV until early 2007.
Characters
All characters
- Moo Moo — an adult Cow who cares for all the young animals and always cheers them up, in case things go wrong on the farm.
- Neigh Neigh — an old Shire Horse who is the eldest of the animals who's been with Farmer MacDonald for many years and always likes telling stories about the old days.
- Baa Baa — a Lamb who wears a dress and has blue hair. She enjoys knitting woolly scarfs and likes learning about the world around her with the others.
- Quack Quack — a Duckling who wears a blue bow on her hair. She's always busy and takes care of her unhatched brothers and sisters on her cart.
- Woof Woof — a Sheepdog who is the youngest of the animals and is more than eager to join their fun and games. He loves playing as his hero, Sheepdog Shep and likes herding Baa Baa.
- Oink & Oinky — Two twin Pigs who love each other very much. Both of them love eating apples and one of them likes reading books.
- Billy, Tilly, Willy, Jilly, Milly, Dilly — Quack Quack's unhatched eggs.
- Chugg Chugg — Farmer MacDonald's red and yellow tractor with a face whose name was never mentioned in the TV series, but on the official website.
- Farmer MacDonald — The owner of the farm who was only ever mentioned by some of the characters. He was never seen in person.
- Mrs MacDonald — Farmer MacDonald's wife who was only mentioned by Quack Quack in the episode "Shapes Are Everywhere".
Credits
- Writers: Jan Page, Diane Redmond, Nigel Crowle, Jo Noble, Julie Strassman-Cohn, Don Arioli, Tony Reed
- Musical directors: Tony Gibber, Keith Hopwood
- Series concept format: Don Arioli
- Script editors: Jo Noble, Julie Strassman-Cohn
- Voices: Judy Bennett, Gary Martin, Rhonda Millar, Richard Pearce, Jill Shilling
- Costume artists: Sally Elsden, Holli Hoffman
- Puppeteers: Michael Bayliss, Sue Eves, Damian Farrell, Garry Rutter, Mandy Travis
- Minders: Vicky Kempton, Melissa Stanton
- Puppet riggers: Fiona Brown, Hether Morrell
- Directors of photography: Pete Rowe, Ed Wild
- Camera: Mark Barrett, Greg Duffield, Roy Esterbrook
- Sound: Sean Poe
- Set: Red Rhino
- Art department: Sue Nelson, Jane Cecchi, Lerryn Korda, Tony Bandy
- Puppets and costumes: Sally Preisig, Jonathan Saville
- A.F.M.: Jane H. Pickworth
- Production assistants: Kamil Tchorek, John Harman
- Offline editors: Andi Sloss, Paul Swinburn
- Online editor: Andy Lloyd
- Sound editors: Phitz Hearne, Greg Walsh
- Animation: Seven Pictures
- Title music: Tony Gibber
- Production manager: Juliette Page
- Director: Tony Reed
- Producer: Jo Noble
- Executive producer for GMTV: Gillian Carr
- Executive producers: Anne and Ian Miles
- Produced by Jo Pullen Programming Ltd for Abbey Home Entertainment and GMTV