Bob the Builder

The show's logo

***Bob the Builder*** was a 1998-2011 British-American animated children's television show created by Keith Chapman, the man behind PAW Patrol. The show is centered around a building contractor named Bob, his wife Wendy, and a host of anthropomorphic work-vehicles. It was shown in many nations, but originated in Britain. It spawned two canonical spin-off series and a 2014 reboot. The series originally used stop-motion animation, but starting with the spinoff *Ready, Steady, Build!*, it used CGI.

It was originally created by HiT Entertainment, the company behind some other Nick Jr. series such as Thomas & Friends and Kipper, but in 2011, HiT sold *Bob the* *Builder* and *Thomas and Friends* to Mattel for $680 million. Viacom actually put in a bid to buy HiT, along with Disney, Chorion, Hasbro, Saban Brands, and Tomy.

In each episode, Bob was challenged with a building task, so he asks his equipment "Can we fix it?" to which they all reply (except for Lofty) "Yes we can!" (Lofty would then say "Uh, yeah, I think so.") "Can We Fix It?" is also the name of its theme song, a million-selling number one hit single in the UK.

In 2014, Mattel rebooted the series for the *Milkshake!* block on Channel 5. This was poorly received by fans, because the cast was replaced, the characters' personalities and appearances were revamped, and the gang had moved from Bobsville/Fixham to the modern Spring City.

## Plot

A man named Bob works with his wife and several anthropomorphic work-machines to fix buildings around Bobsville.

## Characters

The main characters are Bob, a middle-aged contractor, Wendy, a business woman, Spud, a mischievous scarecrow, Bird, a bird, Pilchard, a cat, Farmer Pickles, and several work-machines:

* Scoop, a yellow JCB 3CX backhoe loader, is the leader of the machines. He is mature, yet fun-loving, the straight-man of the group.
* Muck, a red Shantui SD22 bulldozer with a fitted dump bed, is charismatic, care-free, and does not typically consider the results of her actions
* Dizzy, an orange tilting-drum cement mixer, is optimistic and easily excitable. She is best friends with Muck and occasionally appears to be crushing on Roley.
* Roley, a green Zettelmeyer Diesel Road Roller, loves rock-and-roll, frequently makes up songs, spins his eyes on an axis when he is excited, and is best friends with Bird.
* Lofty, a Liebherr LTM 1200-5.1 Blue Mobile Crane, is the careful one. He is scared of heights, mice, lound noises, and Spud, among other things, and is reluctant to help out on potentially dangerous jobs.
* Scratch, a small, blue skid-steer loader, is the youngest of the group. He is annoyed when he is denied the opportunity to help out.
* Scrambler, a metallic blue quad-bike ATV, was won by Bob in a contest to design the new houses being built into Sunflower Valley. He tends to use surfer slang.
* Benny, a small magenta compact tracked digger with a rear-end backhoe arm and bucket, is best friends with Scoop. He tends to say rhyming things like "Unreal, banana peel!"
* Travis, a tractor, belongs to Farmer Pickles. He is friends with Spud, who always gets him into trouble.

## Presence on Nick Jr./Noggin

*Bob the Builder*was a staple on Nick Jr. from January 15, 2001 to September 22, 2004.  The show was also shown on Noggin under the *Nick Jr. On Noggin*block from April 7, 2003 to December 19, 2004. It was on *Nick Jr. on CBS*from September 22, 2001 to September 7, 2002.

In the UK, *Bob the Builder* stayed much longer. It ran on Nick Jr. from 1999 to 2013, on Noggin from 2004 to 2013, and on Nick Jr. Too from 2006 to 2013. In Australia, it ran from 2003 to 2013. Some *Bob the Builder*books had the Nick Jr. logo printed on the cover.