The Cool Music Band

***The Cool Music Band*** (formerly ***The Grooveroos***) is an American live-action television series. The show was produced by Kids Music Entertainment, with co-founder Jimmy Choi serving as its co-developer, co-writer, and producer.

With the series beginning development and production in 1997, *The Cool Music Band* premiered on CNBC in 1999. Two seasons and 196 episodes of the show were produced, with the show's finale airing in early 2001. Afterwards, it received an animated spin-off, *The Cool Music Band of Spies*.

Upon its premiere, *The Cool Music Band* polarized critics and audiences alike, who noted the songs were catchy and the show taught life lessons but the characters had "weird" personality traits. However, people remember it with affection nowadays, mainly for its writing and highly-prioritized production. It has since gained a popular following and has won several awards.

## Concept

This series conveyed the concepts of cooperation and guidance for living in contemporary society. Each episode dealt with a topic such as moving away, courtesy, bragging, or patience.

The show took place in Hitsboro (a fictional big city created for the show) and focused on a band of best friends - Dylan, Liam, Nina, and Miles - who sang songs and played together, under the guidance of adult characters. Over 600 songs were written for the series.

## Characters

* **Miles** (Shane Steyn) is the leader and guitarist for the Cool Music Band.
* **Nina** (Sarah Richardson) is the bassist for the Cool Music Band.
* **Liam** (Vince Varnado) is the keyboardist for the Cool Music Band.
* **Dylan** (Amy Turner (season 1) and Alexandra Young (season 2)) is the drummer for the Cool Music Band.
* **Ms. Gooney** (Addy Crawford) is the Cool Music's schoolteacher.
* **Mr. Tuneful** (Dave Barnes) is the owner of the local music shop.
* **Ms. Jammington** (J.C. Turner) is the local mail lady.
* **Marvin** (Colleen Anderson) and **May** (Lee Anderson) are a twin brother and sister that live in Hitsboro.
* **Bird** is a blue bird that lives in the city park.
* **Adrian** is Mr. Tuneful's pet cat.

## Development

*The Cool Music Band* was created by Maria Cohen and Jimmy Choi in 1995, though they spent very little time developing the show.

Development of the show began in mid-1995. Due to most children's shows at the time being very dark and dramatic, Choi decided that *The Cool Music Band* would have a socio-emotional curriculum and incorporate music into its theme.

## Reception

### Initial reception

*The Cool Music Band* received a lot of promotion on CNBC Choice, with the show being popular amongst preschool children. When it debuted in April 1999, it became one of NBC's most popular children's shows, with each episode seeing high viewing figures.

The first few episodes of the show polarized critics, with several people criticizing it for how unrealistic the characters were and the plots and songs as being "picture-perfect." However, the show's writing and music received a lot of praise.

### Later reception and cult following

Generally speaking, many critics and audiences agree that *The Cool Music Band* has aged much better than other children's shows at the time. HuffPost noted that "most kids shows from 90s had politically correct writing and boring characters, but not *The Cool Music Band*." In 2018, SheKnows ranked the show number two in its "Top Ten 90s Childhood Shows" list, being outranked only by *Rugrats*, and also ranked it first in both its ranking of CNBC and NBeebies programming, as well as its "Top Ten Best Live-Action Preschool Shows" list.

Since the early 2000s, the show has seen a significant and passionate cult following, with fans showing a lot of interest in its characters and setting and inspecting it for many fan theories online.

## Episodes

1. Little Lies
2. The Sound of Silence
3. Love Machine
4. Peace, Love, and Understanding
5. Courage of Your Convictions
6. Share the Land
7. Golden Slumbers
8. Spring Again
9. Give, Give, Give Me More, More, More
10. Down on the Farm
11. Ain't Too Proud to Beg
12. All Together Now
13. Hungry Eyes
14. I Can See Clearly Now
15. Whatever You Ask
16. The Safety Dance
17. Spasmodic Movements
18. This Little Light of Mine
19. Walking on Sunshine
20. You Make Loving Fun
21. All I Need to Know
22. Tell Me Something Good
23. Unchallenged Hate
24. I'm Still Standing
25. Eat It
26. I Will Survive
27. Big Boss Man
28. Greatest Love of All
29. Manic Monday
30. I Love to Laugh
31. Time After Time
32. Nina in the Sky with Diamonds
33. Autumn of My Life
34. Get Together
35. Think It Over
36. What a Wonderful World
37. Only the Lonely
38. Dream a Little Dream of Me
39. For the Love of Money
40. Break Every Rule
41. Life is a Highway
42. Imagine Me There
43. Stayin' Alive
44. Poems, Prayers, and Promises
45. Chewy Chewy
46. Something to Talk About
47. In My Life
48. I've Been Everywhere
49. In the Good Old Summertime
50. School Days
51. Lean on Me
52. That's What Friends Are For
53. Always on My Mind
54. Another One Bites the Dust
55. Your Time is Gonna Come
56. Trip at the Brain
57. You Can't Hurry Love
58. I'll Make a Man Out of You
59. Right Here Waiting
60. Never Gonna Give You Up
61. Winter Wonderland
62. Please Please Me
63. How Deep is the Ocean?
64. Singin' in the Rain
65. Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
66. What's Going On?
67. Art School
68. Don't Worry, Be Happy
69. People Have the Power
70. Children Will Listen
71. I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing
72. Touch Me in the Morning
73. Make Your Own Kind of Music
74. Celebrate the News

## Home media releases

Five *The Cool Music Band* videos were released in 2001, each with three episodes.

In the United Kingdom, the show saw a six-volume release in 2002, with each volume also containing three episodes.

Further VHS tapes for *The Cool Music Band* were released in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

## International broadcasts

In the United Kingdom, *The Cool Music Band* aired on Milkshake!, Channel 5's preschool block, from 2001 to 2006 and Boomerang from 2005 to 2009 - the former channel would generally air episodes with Amy Turner's Dylan, with the episodes featuring Alexandra Young's portrayal of the character airing on the latter channel.

In Canada, *The Cool Music Band* aired on Get Set for Life (later Kids' CBC) from 2001 to 2003, and also Treehouse TV from 2001 to 2007. The show was later shown in reruns on Disney Junior Canada in 2012.

In the Netherlands, the series aired on Kindernet from 2000 to 2003. In Germany, it aired on Super RTL and Junior. It aired in France on France 5.

*The Cool Music Band* also had a long run on Spacetoon in the Arab World, airing on the channel from 2000 until late 2013.

## Tropes

* Tropes
* Characters
* Trivia
* YMMV