Fundays

**Fundays** (known as **Funbus** until 1985) was an American pre-school children's television program that ran from 17 October 1969 to 28 March 1992 on CBS, and was aired in reruns until 2006. The show was the successor of *School and the Backyard Gang* and, like its predecessor, was designed as an educational programme. The creator Cynthia Taylor had been executive producer of *School and the Backyard Gang*.

Repeats of the show were axed altogether by CBS in August 2006.[1] In 1985, CBS insisted that the independent production company which made *Funbus* (Taylor Enterprises) change the programme's name, after they had received a complaint from the *National Funbus Association*.

## Characters and Plot

The main characters of *Fundays* were puppets known as Fun Bird, Penny Patch, and Clara, a cat.

They were also accompanied by Mr Jolly, who would usually end each programme with a song (usually a nursery rhyme). There were also a number of human presenters.

The show would begin with an animated title sequence of the Funbus driving along to the theme tune until it reached the bus stop, where characters on the bus were Fun Bird, Penny Patch, Clara, Dot, Humphry, Lizzie, Wobble and Mr. Jolly (From 1969 until 1984, Penny wasn't on the bus, Mr. Jolly didn't appear on the bus until 1982 and Clara didn't appear on the bus until c. 1984). The bus stopped at a different place each day. It was effectively several different television series, under one single branding.

## Theme Tune

The opening titles consisted of the programme's logo transforming into the Funbus, which would depart through a tunnel before stopping at traffic lights. The lights then changed from red & amber to green, and the Funbus drove on a road bypassing all the locations for the episodes - the Playground, the Lost Property Office (the FunTech can be seen in a window), a billboard depicting Dot (1988-1991) and Carrie the Carousel (1992-1997) and the Fun Tent. It lastly pulls up at a lollipop bus stop, which whirs around to depict the day's stop.

There were four versions of the theme tune. The first one was used until mid 1978, followed by the second one, which was used until early 1985, when the third and penultimate one was introduced that year. This version was the best-known version and it was used until the show's cancellation in 1992. There was also a fourth version of the theme tune, used in the 1991 video release *Winter Adventure*.

## Plot

Monday – **The Fun Bird Stop**. Fun Bird lived at the Lost Property Office, where things that were left on the Funbus were filed until someone claimed them. She interacted with the human bus driver - there were several throughout the series. She had a special computer called the Fun-Tech, which had a variety of uses, it could provide music for songs, pictures for stories, instructions for making something in keeping with the programme's theme, or to help sing a song (e.g. paper sugar buns for Five Currant Buns). In later series, the office became more like a warehouse, called "Fun's Supplies".

It also showed videos, usually to show how everyday things were made - socks, toothbrushes etc. Sometimes, either Penny, or Clara, or both visited the Lost Property Office. In a later series, the office installed a telephone, where people, usually Penny or Clara, could phone in asking for particular things, (examples include information about spiders and a night time picture to help someone sleep during the day).

Tuesday – **The Playground Stop**. A variety of different things involved. The programme always opened with the presenter (several, including Colin Benson Chen and Elizabeth Fost), saying, "Girls and boys, come out to play...", followed by the programme's theme, (e.g. we're playing racing games today). The show featured a group of children doing activities, such as pretending to be cooks and making paper meals.

Colin was accompanied by a glove puppet named Chester. Elizabeth was also accompanied by a glove puppet called Ruby. The programme always featured a rhyme accompanied by Makaton sign language and a song performed by a marionette named Lizzie Dreams, who loved to sing and dance. She was occasionally accompanied by another marionette named Nick. There was also a story, often featuring Max and his magical chest of dressing-up clothes.

Wednesday – **The Dot Stop** (1988–1991) replaced with **The Carousel Stop** (1992–1997) - the non-speaking Dot played by Rebecca Higgins, had fun with music or numbers and counting. Later there were 3 Dots: 'The Dot who plays the violin' (Eithne Hannigan), 'The Dot who plays the drums' (Liz Kitchen) and 'The Dot you can count on' (Dyanne White). Sometimes, a puppet called Dash would appear and squirm its way through holes in the set. It had a song: "Not number one, not number two, not number three or four, not number five, not number six, only one Dash can do tricks!" Another pair of puppet friends were Professor Mopp and his blue dog Morgan. The Violinist and Counting Dots had a sidekick called Mr Domino (Peter Gunn, Stephen Cannon). The Dot who plays the drums was accompanied by Domino the Musical Monkey

It was later replaced by the Carousel Stop. Presented by Mr. Jolly. The show featured the musician, Charlie Grindle (Nick Mercer), who also appeared as one of the bus drivers from The Fun Bird Stop, Bitsy Bob (Michele Durler), who played music and made things, and the initially Bella and Baxter the Numbears and then puppets Morris Cog and Milly Sprocket (Nick Mercer and Michele Durler), who presented a segment called "Morris and Milly's Numerical Melodies", where they sang a song glorifying a particular number.

Charlie often sang songs for them as well. The main body of the episode featured the characters finding different shaped pictures, which came together to form the title of a nursery rhyme or song, which was performed by the entire cast at the end of the episode. In later episodes (1995 to 1997) presented by Andy Hockley, the show featured Penny, Clara and Fun Bird, who rode on the Carousel and went off on adventures (but on some episodes only Penny and Fun went on adventures so on the 3rd shape they would both go together).

At the end of each adventure, a picture associated with it appeared in their shaped ticket (purple circle, red square, pink triangle, yellow diamond, green arch or blue rectangle), and these would combine to make the song, which ended the episode.

Thursday – **The Patch Stop**. Featuring Penny Patch, a small rag doll who was very kind natured. Penny would often travel places. From 1982 onwards Penny would leave clues for children to find her and she would also be joined by Apricot (a brown rabbit), Clara and/or Fun Bird later in the episode. She was originally non-speaking, but gained a voice (Kevin Preisig) in 1979. Presenters included Emily Clark, Jun Li, Neil Bett and Peter Quilter.

Friday – **The Tent Stop** (1988–1995) replaced with **The Clara Stop** (1995–1997). A group of actors including: Trish Goddard, Ricky Diamond, Yellow O'Connell, Alyssa Sandusky & Sarah Davison would dress up, and with the help of some children, perform a play or show. Humphry, a unicyclist puppet, and Wobble, a roly-poly clown also took part in the stories and they sometimes accompanied Lizzie for her songs (see **The Playground Stop** above).

When the stop became the Clara Stop, the setting was at Clara the cat's house, typically presented by David Velez. Fun Bird, Penny Patch and other characters would often also appear in episodes at Clara's house.

At Christmas time, the Funbus would stop at **The Christmas Tree Stop**. These special episodes featured characters from all the usual stops.

## Presenters

* Colin Benson Chen
* Yellow O'Connell
* Emily Clark
* Jun Li
* Abbie Ball
* Bradley Coogan
* Trish Goodard
* Sheila Hyde
* Sarah Davison (Patch Stop)
* Ricky Diamond (Tent Stop)
* Robert Hopkins
* Joe Greco
* Nick Mercer: Charlie Grindle & Morris Cog (Carousel Stop)
* Michele Durler: Bitsy Bob & Milly Sprocket (Carousel Stop)
* Dave Rubin: Rhythm Man (Carousel Stop)
* Carolene Hinds: Leaping Lindy (Carousel Stop)
* Jeremy Taylor: Sargeant Bandstand
* Andrew Lynford: presenter
* Fiona Beynon Brown: Fun Bird (1988-1989)
* Peter Quilter: guest presenter
* Simon Harbrow: presenter
* Elizabeth Watts – Lizzie: presenter from 1988-91 (Playground Stop)
* Elizabeth Fost (Playground Stop)
* Frances Dodge
* Robin Fritz: Mr Jolly #1
* Clive Duncan: Mr Jolly #2
* Andy Hockley: Mr Jolly #3
* Patsy Byrne: Betsy the Tea Party Woman and story narrator
* Catherine Terry: presenter
* Rebecca Higgins: Dot
* Liz Kitchen: Dot who plays the drums
* Eithne Hannigan: Dot who plays the violin
* Dyanne White: Dot who you can count on
* Kristina Stephenson: Dot (only seen on the videos *Days on the Move* and *Days by the Sea*)
* Peter Gunn: Mr Domino
* Stephen Cannon: Mr Domino
* Neil Bett: presenter

## Live Shows

*Fundays* also went on various tours during its run. The shows often saw all of the puppet characters coming together and having fun. It also saw Penny Patch be played by a person, because the puppet was too small to see.