Lost Our Tim

***Lost Our Tim*** is an American-Canadian children's fantasy television series that premiered on The Hub cable channel (which was renamed as Discovery Family in late 2014) on October 10, 2010 and concluded on October 12, 2019 after nine seasons, the same as *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic* did. The series was created by Tom Gammill and Max Pross, and based on the event that Tim Harding was involved in a serious motorcycle accident, which left him unable to keep up with the high energy of Hi-5 in 2007. The series stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mila Kunis, Alec Baldwin, Jimmy Fallon, Patton Oswalt, Brenda Song and Ashley Tisdale. Gammill, Pross and Hasbro selected the American cast to play the characters for the show. Gammill and Pross sought to challenge the established nature of the original Australian generation with each theme of the season filmed each year. The show follows Charli Delaney, one of the original Hi-5 members as she solves some puzzles and adventures with Jock, Capper, Captain Parrot and the Parrot Pirates, so she can get Kathleen and Tim to rejoin Hi-5 for the Playtime tour.

## Origin

Prior to production of *Lost Our Tim*, Tim Harding was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in June 2007, which left him unable to keep up with the high energy of the Hi-5 live performances. Just a few days prior to this, Stevie Nicholson had been hired as an understudy, and put straight into work as a temporary replacement for Harding. Harding announced his permanent departure in November after recovering from injuries; Nicholson took his place as a permanent member. Robinson (by then Delaney) announced her exit from the group in February 2008. She expressed an interest in proving herself as a figure for an adult audience, and stated she would help find a replacement member. After leaving, she went on to find success presenting in the Australian media industry. In April, Casey Burgess was announced as Robinson's replacement, and began touring with the group. The Hi-5 brand was purchased by the Nine Network, along with production company Southern Star, in March 2008. The change of ownership saw Helena Harris and Posie Graeme-Evans end their involvement with the franchise, which was placed under the direction of Martin Hersov and Cathy Payne, also Nine and Southern Star executives. It was announced in October 2008 that Kellie Crawford would be leaving the group at the end of the year to explore other options. A month later, last remaining original member Nathan Foley also announced his departure. He expressed interest in focusing on his adult music career. In December, News.com.au's Confidential reporter alleged that Hi-5's production company had asked Crawford and Foley to leave, and that the producers were "opting to recruit younger, cheaper performers." The pair did not respond to these reports. Later in December, Sun Park also announced that she would be leaving the group since she had expected only to be a temporary replacement. Park denied the industry rumours, saying that there had been no pressure for any of them to resign. On August 21, 2009, 10 days before the eleventh series of *Hi-5* aired, Nicholson approached Hasbro in America to see if the production company was interested in starting a children's musical series to get Harding back after all the original members departed from the group by the end of last year.

## Production

The show is filmed and produced in Los Angeles, California from 2010 to 2019. Gammill and Pross rounded up several writers who had worked with them on *The Simpsons* and were approved by Hasbro. The writing process began with Gammill, Pross and story editor David S. Cohen coming up with broad plots for each show. The three then held out a brainstorming session with each episode's writer allowing the writer to script out scenes and dialogue. Gammill, Pross and Cohen then worked with the writer to finalize the scripts and assign some basic storyboard instructions. Hasbro was involved throughout this process and laid down some of the concepts to be incorporated into the show. Gammill and Pross had to write to the E/I (educational and informational) standards that Hasbro required of the show, making the crafting of some of the situations they would have normally done on *The Simpsons* more difficult. Each episode also generally includes a moral or life lesson, but these were chosen to "cross a broad spectrum of personal experiences", and not just to suit children. The series' background music is composed by William Kevin Anderson, and Daniel Ingram composes the songs, which are only included if they make sense in the episode's script. The production team identifies specific parts of the episode where they want music cues, allowing Anderson to create appropriate music for each. Ingram works alongside Anderson's compositions to create vocal songs that mesh with the background music while filling out the show's fantasy setting. The composition of the music and songs far precedes the broadcast of the episode; for example, songs for the show's third season that began airing in November 2012 were composed in 2011. Ingram's songs have "became bigger and more epic, more Broadway and more cinematic over time" with Hasbro blessing the effort to try "something groundbreaking for daytime television", according to Ingram. Lyrics and overall musical themes may be suggested by the writers. Before the show was approved, Hasbro, Gammill and Pross had planned for episodes to be 30 minutes long and even better than *My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic*. The initial production stages were very tight, requiring a schedule twice as fast as the duo had previously experienced.

## Cast and characters

The show revolves around the adventures and daily life of original Hi-5 member Charli Delaney (played by Sarah Michelle Gellar), her mother Kerry (played by Bette Midler), her father Peter (played by Stan Lee), his husband Brent Delaney (played by Seth Green), her dog friend Jock (voiced by Ricky Gervais), and her friends, colloquially referred to as the "Super Sky Heroes":

* Captain Parrot (voiced by Zoe Saldana), a parrot who is a jaded pirate captain.
* Capper (voiced by Taye Diggs), a Western alley cat who is a cunning yet good-hearted con artist.

Other characters include the Alley Cats (Chummer (Capper's younger brother voiced by Steve Coogan), Sour (voiced by Bob Bergen) and Scooter (voiced by Bill Farmer)), Captain Parrot's parrot-like crew (Boyle (voiced by Curtis Armstrong), First Mate Mullet (voiced by Dave Foley) and Lix Spittle (voiced by Paget Brewster)) and Stevie Nicholson, the antagonist (played by Patton Oswalt). Other Hi-5 members include Nathan Foley (played by Jimmy Fallon), Sun Park (played by Brenda Song), Kellie Crawford (played by Ashley Tisdale), Kathleen de Leon Jones (Park's predecessor played by Mila Kunis), Tim Harding (Nicholson's predecessor played by Alec Baldwin), Courtney Clarke (played by Anna Kendrick), Shay Clifford (played by Samaire Armstrong), Lachie Dearing (played by Michael Cera), Joe Kalou (played by Weird Al Yankovic) and Bailey Spalding (played by Anna Camp). Casey Burgess (played by Jenny Slate) appears as an antagonist, replacing Robinson, but subsequently becomes her pupil in the season five finale, "Charli and Casey".

Many friends, family members and other residents appear frequently including Capper's older brother Mac (voiced by Clancy Brown) and grandmother Granny Smith (voiced by Lori Alan); the Alley Cats' teacher Fishman (voiced by Tim Conway) and nemeses Ernie and Bert (voiced by Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum). Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele play Mayor Steve and Super Strong respectively. Notable characters outside include the self-proclaimed "great and powerful" traveling movie magician Dr. Magic (played by John Kassir), the eccentric Zebra Monster (voiced by Kevin Hart), who lives in the Taronga Zoo Lab and dabbles in herbal medicine; the Boats Marco and Polo (voiced by Tom Kenny and Rob Paulsen); and Robinson's older sister Mud (played by Ginnifer Goodwin), who rarely expresses emotion and is obsessed with rocks. The Super Sky Heroes also face several antagonists; one of them, the zombie monster Root (voiced by Tom Kenny), is introduced in the season two premiere "Zombie Monster!" and subsequently becomes a recurring character of the show.

## Charli's Themed Single House

Charli has her very own themed single house with a television, a laptop, pictures and a box of originally recorded Hi-5 episodes (except for the originally recorded *Mornings with Kerri-Anne* episode, which featured the song "Around the World"), videos and DVDs, which varies depending on the year.

* **The Game House (2010)**: This house has beach flags on the roof with the first half of the painted nighttime rainforest wall with an owl and the second half of the painted underwater wall with a fish and a jellyfish on the inside. Inside the house were a beach bag, beach towels, a beach ball, a backpack, flippers and a parachute. The floor is a sand texture for the props desk combined with a water texture for the television stand with a VCR that's farthest away from the second half of the painted underwater wall. This house includes the addition of originally recorded Playtime week episodes. It was first seen on "Remembering Tim: Part 1", and was last seen on "Winter Wrap Up".
* **The Imagination House (2011)**: This house has the first half of the painted forest wall with a castle and the second half of the painted underwater wall with an octopus and a mermaid on the inside. Inside the house were a broom, a hat stand, a robot, a music machine, a trombone, a Rapunzel storybook, a dress up box, flippers and a train. The floor is a wooden stage texture for the props desk combined with a water texture for the television stand with a VCR that's farthest away from the second half of the painted underwater wall. This house includes the addition of originally recorded Family week episodes from the previous house for the second season. It was first seen on "The Alley Cats", and was last seen on "Secret of My Excess".
* **The Underwater House (2012)**: This house has the first half of the painted underwater wall with sea creatures and the second half of the painted beach wall on the inside. Inside the house were a submarine, a fish tank, flippers, blocks, a glass of water with a straw and castanets. The floor is a water texture for the television stand with a VCR that's farthest away from the first half of the painted underwater wall combined with a sand texture for the props desk. This house includes the addition of originally recorded Planet Earth week episodes from the previous house for the third season. It was first seen on "Charli's Babies", and was last seen on "Silly Movie".