The early 2000’s were chock full of amazing children’s shows. Shows like Spongebob, Arthur, Bob the Builder, and Dora, are definately implanted into the minds of today’s teens. But some people remember other shows, shows that have all but disappeared from the brains of those who enjoyed them as children. Hopefully this list might help YOU remember the shows you grew up with. Before you continue, this story is quite packed, so settle in.

Between the Lions is a show that ran on PBS from 2000-2010. Each season of episodes would be shown for the first time in 1-2 months and would be regularly reran after that. It focused around a family of lions who lived in and ran a public library. Some tid-bits that might jog your memory are two recurring segments, one starring a book character named Cliff Hanger, who inexplicably was always hanging from a cliff. The bits would usually be about an event happening around Cliff, his reactions to it, and almost being able to get down from hanging on the cliff, but inevitably, he would always be stuck. Or maybe you remember Gawain’s Word, a spoof of Wayne’s World, SNL, and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, where two nights that represented part of a word jousted and would clash into each other and create the full word.

Fair warning, the next show in the list may be a bit of a stretch. Rimba’s Island was a show that aired on the Fox Clubhouse block beginning in 1994. The show is based around six colorful animals portrayed by people in big costumes. Each episode focused around the leader of the group, Rimba, and her teaching the other animals about growing up healthy, strong and wise.

The Big Comfy Couch premiered in the United States on PBS in 1995 and ran new episodes until 2006. The focus of the show was the main character Loonette and her doll Molly, who sat upon their big, comfy couch. They would explore various activities around the living room, not realizing the trail of destruction they had caused, and at the end of the episode, abruptly exclaim, “Who made this big mess!”, then procede to clean up everything in a speedy manner, called the ‘Ten Second Tidy’.

Its a Big Big World is a show based around Snook, a large puppet three-toed sloth, who lives in a tall tree in the jungle. The show ran on PBS from 2006-2010. In each episode, friends of Snook who also lived in the jungle would ask him a scientific question, about bugs, plants, other animals, or whatever else they could think of, and it would be Snook’s job to investigate. in the end, all of the animals learn something new and close out the episode by singing “Curve the World”. The song would be followed by another episode, that was similar to the previous in theme, but not in story. Snook would close out the show by singing “Try to Touch the Sky” and waving goodbye to the viewer.

The final show on this list (and my personal favorite) is Zoboomafoo. An educational show about animals, hosted by none other than the Kratt Brothers. Zoboomafoo ran on PBS from 1999-2001. It was based around the Kratt Brothers’ building called  Animal Junction and their friend Zoboomafoo (or Zoboo for short), portrayed by a Sifaka lemur named Jovian. The brothers would feed him a snack, usually garbonzo beans, he would burp, politely say “excuse me”, and then would then spin on a turntable and exclaim ‘Zoboomafoo!’. After this, Zoboo was usually portrayed as a puppet, and would ask the brothers about a new animal he had seen recently. They then would investigate the animal and bring it into Animal Junction. At least once an episode, Zoboomafoo would take the viewer on some sort of acid trip to a claymation world called Zobooland, where an odd exchange would be shared between Zoboo and the other claymation characters about the animal featured in that episode. Zoboo would then sing “Animal Friends” to close out the show, just before returning back to the jungle.

Growing up I watched every single one of these shows, and I’m sure many others did too, and I think I can speak for everyone by saying that we might not be the same people we are today without them.