A Little Curious

"*I'm a little curious!*" ~ Line from the intro.

***A Little Curious*** is an animated television series created by Steve Oakes and produced by Curious Pictures. The series originally aired from February 1, 1999 to May 1, 2000, although reruns (of half of the episodes) still air today on HBO Kids, and formerly on Jam.

The show is rated TV-Y.

## Synopsis

Each episode of the series focuses on three simple actions adjectives, verbs and actions, such as "top, smooth, picture", "first, last, step", etc., with typically one minute or less short subjects starring a family of anthropomorphic characters that appear to be everyday objects and live together in the same house. These shorts are presented in a wide variety of animation styles, such as 3D-CGI, stop motion, 2D cel animation, among others. Aside from animation, live action segments starring kids or no people at all are also seen, narrated by the character, Bob the Ball.

Each episode ends with quick recaps of the "highlights" of the segments.

## Characters

* **Bob the Ball** (voiced by Cameron Bowen) - A hyperactive joyful, excited red rubber bounce ball who is always eager to play with anything.
* **Little Cup** (voiced by Bob Kaliban) - A miniature confetti-decorated cup filled up with fruit punch who is the youngest of the group, and is the most curious.
* **Mop** (voiced by Amanda Kaplan) - A yellow mop with blue cloth who is seen to like styling her hair and dancing to music. She sometimes babysits the kids.
* **Doris the Door** (voiced by Marilyn Pasekoff) - An orange door with a pink frame who appears to be at an gracie, as she occasionally reminisces about her younger days as a child back in Brooklyn.
* **Mr. String** (voiced by Gary Yudman) - A thin, blue rope who can transform into anything, and is also constantly worrying about little mishaps and mistakes that he thinks that could somehow affect the whole world.
* **Plush** (voiced by Bob Kaliban) - A multi-colored stuffed dog who can't speak that much, but is shown to be a fun character.
* **Pad and Pencil** (voiced by Gerrianne Raphael and Rafael Ferrer respectively) - A drawing pad and pencil married couple who are always seen loving on each other, and they appear to live in a artist-like setting.
* **The Shoe Family** - A nuclear family of footwear who mostly appear together. The family consists of Mary Jane (voiced by Amanda Kaplan), a pair of Mary Janes, Lacey (voiced by Sandy Correia), a pair of sneakers with laces, Chuck Shoe (voiced by Gary Yudman), a pair of brown dress shoes, and Mrs. Shoe (also voiced by Sandy Correia), a pair of red high heels. In "A Little Curious About Life", the family has a new baby named "Booties".

## Episodes

### Season 1 (1999)

*"\*" represents an episode removed during the 2004 HBO schedule change.*

1. Loud, Soft, Shake\* (February 1, 1999)
2. Light, Dark, Bubble (February 8, 1999)
3. Near, Far, Swing\* (February 15, 1999)
4. Slippery, Sticky, Mirror (February 22, 1999)
5. Above, Below, Cover (March 1, 1999)
6. Front, Back, Side\* (March 8, 1999)
7. Swing, Cover, Shake (March 15, 1999)
8. Rough, Smooth, Picture (March 22, 1999)
9. Open, Close, Ring (March 29, 1999)
10. Bubble, Picture, Mirror (April 5, 1999)
11. Thick, Thin, Twist\* (April 12, 1999)
12. First, Last, Step (April 19, 1999)
13. Ring, Twist, Step\* (April 26, 1999)
14. Empty, Full, Pop\* (May 3, 1999)
15. Same, Different, Beat\* (May 10, 1999)
16. Fast, Slow, Spin\* (May 17, 1999)
17. Long, Short, Roll (May 24, 1999)
18. Bob the Ball (Character Show; also known as "The Bob Show" and "Compilation Bob Show") (May 31, 1999)
19. Roll, Spin, Pop\* (June 7, 1999)
20. Warm, Cool, Heart\* (June 14, 1999)
21. Plush\* (Character Show; also known as "The Plush Show" and "Compilation Plush Show") (June 21, 1999)
22. Still, Move, Train\* (June 28, 1999)
23. Spring, Fall, Turn\* (July 5, 1999)
24. High, Low, Stretch (July 12, 1999)
25. Side, Turn, Twist/Side, Stretch, Turn\* (July 19, 1999)

### Season 2 (2000)

*"\*" represents an episode removed in 2017.*

1. Top, Bottom, Jump (January 3, 2000)
2. Over, Under, Balance\* (January 10, 2000)
3. Drop, Lift, Flat\* (January 17, 2000)
4. Tight, Loose, Squeeze (January 24, 2000)
5. Hit, Miss, Bump (January 31, 2000)
6. Work, Play, Skip (February 7, 2000)
7. Hard, Easy, Change (February 14, 2000)
8. New, Old, Dance\* (February 21, 2000)
9. Lead, Follow, Act\* (February 28, 2000)
10. Win, Lose, Tie (March 6, 2000)
11. Push, Pull, Rock\* (March 13, 2000)
12. A Little Curious About Life\* (March 20, 2000)
13. Jump, Flat, Squeeze (March 27, 2000)
14. Hard, Work, Bump (April 3, 2000)
15. Mop\* (Character Show; also known as "The Mop Show" and "Compilation Mop Show ") (April 10, 2000)
16. Balance, Skip, Rock\* (April 17, 2000)
17. Push, Over, Top (April 24, 2000)
18. Drop, Loose, Change (May 1, 2000)

## Trivia

* This is one of HBO Family's first original shows (alongside *Crashbox*).
	+ On top of that, this is the first HBO Family show made for preschoolers.
* The show's final episode aired on the same day George and Martha also aired its final episode.
* Going by airing order, the episode *Above, Below, Cover* is the first episode to used recycled segments from previous episodes of the show.
	+ Production-wise, *Light, Dark, Bubble* is the first episode to reuse segments.
	+ Speaking of that, the episode *Push, Pull, Rock* is the last episode to have a new segment, not counting the special *A Little Curious About Life*.
* Despite not being available on most streaming services (except for HBO-related services and Hulu via HBO subscription) right now, as well as not having any home video or online releases, the show used to be available to watch on Amazon Prime Video (only Season 1), and Google Play (only Season 2). This similarly happened to other HBO Family programs such as *El Perro y El Gato.*, *I Spy*, and *Harold and the Purple Crayon*.
* Early in its HBO run, a "HSP" VHS tape was made for the show at one point (which wasn't publicly released, as it was presumably used for the "Cable in the Classroom" program).
	+ The same company that made the VHS tape also taped episodes for the HBO Family interstitial, *My Favorite Book*.
* The show's company, Curious Pictures, made a logo cameo in the *Rock Around the Clock* segment in *Push, Pull, Rock*, where the drum is where the logo's question mark is seen It also cameos in *Play Pinball* segment in *Work, Play, Skip*.
* Occasionally, the characters will perform covers of licensed songs such as, "Under the Boardwalk" or "We Got the Beat." The episodes with these song covers were removed from syndication over time due to copyright issues.
* Because the show was never released on home video (except for HBO-related services like *HBO Max* and at one point, Amazon Prime (Season 1) and Google Play (Season 2)), and only around half of the episodes air today on HBO Kids, it is considered a partially lost series because half of the episodes were missing. As such, a Discord server has been created to find the lost episodes.
	+ Only 20 of the 43 episodes rerun on HBO Kids as of today. The lost Season 1 episodes were removed in 2004 after the HBO schedule change, and the Season 2 episodes were removed in December 2016 following the HBO Kids Switch (however, they still aired until December of that year).
	+ As of the service's launch, the show only has **5 episodes** on HBO Max with the episodes changing each month, akin to its **On Demand** service and other streaming services.
	+ HBO Now and HBO Go had more episodes of the show, until both of them were shut down in favor of HBO Max. The episodes that were present on those services reflected the episodes that aired on TV at that time.
	+ The reason why certain episodes of *A Little Curious* were removed over time was because of rights issues involving certain song covers featured in said episodes (Around 23 of the episodes have these song covers).
	+ As of now, 9 out of the 23 lost episodes have surfaced, all of which are from Season 2, mostly thanks to Brilokuloj. You can view the lost Season 2 episodes on Archive.org via this link.
	+ As of September 2023, the entire series was released on Indian streaming service JioCinema, although the service is not available in the United States.
* An ID of the show would occasionally play preceding an episode*.* It features the characters near the HBO Family logo, presumably playing hide and seek. As most of the cast walk away, Plush then leaps on the logo's letters, causing them to rise and Bob bounces off of it (just like in the intro).
* On Sunday, March 5, 2006, a marathon of the show was aired from 9:00am to 7:00pm. Along with the episodes that were removed from syndication in 2004 (aka, the Lost Season 1 episodes), episodes 27-32, 36 and 37 were skipped (probably due to time constraints).
* Fred Schneider of The B-52’s helped write songs for the series in Season 2, as the series composer, Pat Irwin, was a member of the group at the time.

## Schedule times over the years

* 7:30am and 12:30pm (February-December 1999)
* 7:00am and 12:30pm (January 2000-June 2004)
* 7:00am, 11:00am, and 12:30pm (July 2004-December 2004)
* Monday-Fridays only at 7:00am (January 2005-December 2006)
* 9:00am (January 2007-December 2008)
* 7:00am (January-June 2009)
* 6:00am and 9:00am (July 2009-July 2011)
* 6:00am, 6:30am, and 7:00am (August 2011-January 16, 2016)
* Alternating: 6:00am and 9:00am/6:30am and 7:00am (January 17, 2016-April 2020)
* 6:00am and 8:30am (April-October 2020)
* 6:55am (November 2020-present)