Jakers! The Adventures of Piggly Winks

***Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks*** is a CGI-animated children's television show produced by Entara Ltd. and Mike Young Productions which originally ran in the United States on PBS Kids from 2003 to 2008 and on Univision's Planeta U block, dubbed in Spanish, from April 2008 to September 2010. It has been broadcast in Ireland on RTÉ's children's block, *The Den*, and in the UK on CBeebies and CBBC. The series has been dubbed in Spanish, Scottish Gaelic, German, Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Italian.

## Premise

Nostalgic Narrator extraordinaire Piggley Winks lives in the suburban United States note with his daughter, Ciara, and her three children, Meg, Sean, and Seamus. The series tells the tales of Grandpa Piggley's boyhood days in rural Ireland, which Piggley often relates when his grandchildren are in need of a lesson. As Grandpa's stories unfold, the audience travels to Raloo Farm in the village of Tara, where eight-year-old Piggley lives with his parents and little sister Molly. When he's not attending to farm chores or schoolwork, he's busy hatching dragon's eggs, turning donkeys into racehorses, searching for the legendary Salmon of Knowledge, and sneaking a piece of Mammy Winks' apple pie. Grandpa Piggley often reminds his grandkids that the world of his childhood was one in which the hurly-burly of modern conveniences *never* distracted him from a mischievous eight-year-old's call to adventure. Piggley is accompanied on his exploits by his two best buddies, Ferny Torro and Dannan O'Mallard. The three rely on their imaginations and childlike ingenuity to turn an ordinary world into an utterly fantastic one.

Piggley and his friends must occasionally recruit the help of adults, who are willing to step in and give lessons when things go wrong.

The series' subplot involves Wiley, a wisecracking sheep who has been imported from America to join the flock at Raloo Farm. He is considerably more intelligent, aware, and curious than the rest of the sheep, and thus considers himself superior. Wiley tries desperately to coax his flock to participate in "high culture"; singing, dancing, filmmaking, and anything else that might add a little pizzazz to a life of munching grass.

## Trivia

* The show has won *six* Emmy awards, which include Oustanding Children's Animated Program, Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program, Individual Achievement in Production Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition.
* The word "jakers" was originally a euphemism for "Jesus" in much of Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s and was an exclamation of surprise, delight, dismay, or alarm. Piggley and his father use it to express their delight when they discover something on their adventures.
	+ This is the second show to incorporate religious referencesand.
		- The first being 3-2-1 Penguins!
	+ This also marks the first show that incorporated celebrity voices, those celebrities being Mel Brooks and Joan Rivers, who voiced Wiley the Sheep and his wife, Shirley, respectively.
	+ The show was originally going to air on Sprout Kids on May 10, 2021, but it was set to March 29, 2021 instead.