A Curious George Thanksgiving

It's been about three years since I've written about the PBS/WGBH show Curious George, which was then starting its third season, and the show is still going strong and worth revisiting. Obviously the source property has been a favorite for over half a century, but the television version adapts and builds on that in a style all its own. And it's still proving popular: the show won the Outstanding Children's Animated Program Emmy last year, it's the top-ranked preschool show in the U.S., and it's been renewed through its ninth season--which is three seasons away! Building upon that popularity, PBS is airing a new collection of George films this Thanksgiving in what it hopes will become an annual holiday tradition.

In a line-up called the Curious George Holiday Spectacular, PBS will be airing the network/public television premiere of the theatrical Curious George film from 2006, followed immediately by Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey, which had aired in '09, and then, getting in the all-out holiday spirit, Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas (also '09), a kind of mix between O. Henry, Charles Dickens, and of course Hans and Margret Rey. My 7-year-old had the chance to see the original theatrical film at an event hosted by PBS a few days ago, and she was absolutely enchanted. For the subsequent thirty minutes I heard every last plot point from beginning to end, accompanied with a tremendous amount of girlish giggling--in other words she loved it.

The films will air back to back Wednesday the 23rd and then repeat frequently throughout Thanksgiving weekend, when there's plenty of time to curate your own monkey movie marathon.

I got a chance to talk with the executive producer Dorothea Gillim (also the creator of another family favorite, WordGirl) and learned some more about how the books were adapted (a strict "no purple" rule to match the palette of the books, and the fact Margret Rey wrote in her will that George would never be allowed to talk) and what's in store for the property. Besides being slated to pass 200 regular episodes in the next few years, there's more long-form content on the way. Future television films include other seasonal productions--initially for spring and Halloween--that will roll out at least annually. These film ventures could really represent the direction George is going in his third iteration, after books and the television show, in the next decade.

Here's a spot on the Thanksgiving lineup:

And here's the trailer for the original feature film (lower resolution):