JoJo's Circus (partially lost Playhouse Disney stop-motion animated series; 2003-2007)
The show's title card.
Status: Partially Lost
JoJo's Circus was a Canadian-American stop-motion animated children's show that aired on Playhouse Disney from September 28, 2003, to February 14, 2007, continuing in reruns until January 2009.[1]
The show was created by four people - Jim and Lisa Jinkins, David Campbell and Eric Weiner, with the former also being known for creating Doug, PB&J Otter, Stanley and Pinky Dinky Doo!. The show revolves around the titular JoJo, a six-year-old clown girl who lives in the small, happy Circus Town. JoJo invites young viewers to get up and dance, jump, bend and wiggle. All episode storylines have a moral lesson that emphasizes character-building skills such as cooperation, sharing and respect for others.
On February 24, 2006, a spin-off, Feeling Good With JoJo, premiered. It was a series of twenty shorts across two seasons that would teach the audience at home to exercise. The shorts outlasted the original series, with new shorts airing until May 16, 2008.
In 2012, Disney began rerunning the original series on the Disney Junior block and channel, alongside many other Playhouse Disney series that had not been aired in a long time. These reruns would last until around mid-2014, which is the most recent time the show has been aired in the United States.
Availability
Despite the series' popularity at the time of its airing, not all of the show has resurfaced. This is especially odd, as the series aired during a time when nearly everyone in North America had some form of home recording. Most episodes are readily available online, meaning most of the series remains. Two JoJo's Circus DVDs were released in 2005, Take a Bow and Animal-a-Go-Go, with a Playhouse Disney DVD releasing in late 2005 containing the Season 1 episode "A Circus Town Christmas." Altogether, that would make nine episodes. Both DVD releases of Higglytown Heroes also contained one episode of the show, making for a total of twelve episodes released on DVD. Numerous home recordings from the 2003-2009 run still exist, while others from the brief reruns on Disney Junior from 2012-2014 also exist, albiet some are from different countries. Scripts for some episodes have been found; such as the script for The Whatchamadoodle[2], while 56 songs written for certain episodes had been released on two soundtrack albums, Songs from JoJo's Circus, and its 2005 follow up Songs from Under the Big Top!.
Nearly twenty years after the show premiered, on August 3, 2023, Twitter user @WiggleznGigglez made a tweet stating that most of the show was not accessible to the public either through physical media or streaming:
"Just some few episodes posted on YouTube, Dailymotion and the Internet Archive."
The tweet took off with many people remembering the show and with growing interest in finding the lost segments and episodes, the original poster commented under the tweet with screenshots of notes of what segments were available on the internet, what is available but in poor quality and what segments are completely missing.[3]
Episode List
Season 1
| # | Segment Title | Status (45/48) |
|---|---|---|
| 1A | Easy as Pie | Found |
| 1B | Take a Bow | Found |
| 2A | Uncle Flippy's Funny Farm | Found |
| 2B | Up Up & Away | Found |
| 3A | Hide & Go Dinky | Found |
| 3B | Fire Chef Says | Found |
| 4A | Confetti Caper | Found |
| 4B | JoJo on the Tightrope | Found |
| 5A | Try These on for Boing! | Found |
| 5B | Happy Birthday Tater | Found |
| 6A | Cotten Andy | Found |
| 6B | Nighty Night | Found |
| 7A | Seal Fright | Found |
| 7B | Skeebo's Missing Hat Trick | Found |
| 8 | The Legend of Clownfoot | Found |
| 9A | Circus Shh Shh | Found |
| 9B | The Little Big Top Boogie Band | Found |
| 10A | Drum Roll Please | Found |
| 10B | Cannonball JoJo | Found |
| 11A | Flower Shower | Found |
| 11B | The Itchy Ootchy Scratch Patch | Found |
| 12A | Messy Mess | Found |
| 12B | Pop Up | Found |
| 13A | The Whatchamadoodle | Found |
| 13B | What's The Trick? | Found |
| 14A | Zero Heroes | Found |
| 14B | The Spudinki's New Act | Found |
| 15A | JoJo Signs Up | Found |
| 15B | The Un-Average Day | Found |
| 16A | Mirror Mirror | Found |
| 16B | Tina Trips Up | Found |
| 17A | The Clown Family Picnic | Lost |
| 17B | Dinky's Dance | Lost |
| 18 | A Circus Town Christmas | Found |
| 19A | Hamster-cize | Found |
| 19B | Shoo Fly Shoo! | Found |
| 20A | The Lost Roar | Found |
| 20B | Helping Hands | Found |
| 21A | Skeebo's Pet | Found |
| 21B | Follow that Rainbow | Found |
| 22A | A Serious Case of The Sillies | Found |
| 22B | Hide & Go-Liath | Found |
| 23A | Funny Bunnies | Found |
| 23B | Ivan the Bearable | Found |
| 24A | JoJo to the Rescue | Found |
| 24B | A Clown Ride | Found |
| 25A | Charlie the Clown Baby | Lost |
| 25B | Fire House Day | Found |
Season 2
| # | Segment Title | Status (35/49) |
|---|---|---|
| 1A | Sleepover Surprises | Found |
| 1B | How does your Garden Grow | Found |
| 2A | Fit as a Tickle | Lost |
| 2B | Pedal Pushers | Found |
| 3A | A New Twist | Found |
| 3B | Lost & Found | Found |
| 4A | The Best Breakfast Ever | Found |
| 4B | Popcorn Panic | Found |
| 5A | Frown Fighters | Found |
| 5B | Goliath the Great | Found |
| 6A | Hi There, Small Fry | Found |
| 6B | My Dinner with the Tightropes | Found |
| 7 | The Thanksgiving Hip-Hooray Parade | Found |
| 8A | Happy Hoopy Day | Found |
| 8B | Brushing Up | Found |
| 9A | Charlie The Clown Baby Returns | Found |
| 9B | The Fishing Trip | Found |
| 10A | My Favorite Frog Sitters | Found |
| 10B | Night of the Teddy Bears Dance | Found |
| 11A | Goliath Gets a Boo Boo | Found |
| 11B | Join the Club | Found |
| 12A | 100 Days in Counting | Found |
| 12B | Hoop Happy | Found |
| 13 | The Mane Event | Partially Found |
| 14A | Circus Town Hoedown | Lost |
| 14B | Time Flies | Lost |
| 15A | The Robot Clown | Found |
| 15B | Mice-Capades | Found |
| 16A | The Octopus Ride | Lost |
| 16B | Hiccup Helper | Lost |
| 17A | Best Pet in Circus Town | Found |
| 17B | Picture Perfect | Found |
| 18A | Get Crabby | Found |
| 18B | Bouncing the Bowling Ball | Found |
| 19A | The Cricketeers | Lost |
| 19B | Tickled Pink | Lost |
| 20A | Practice makes Perfect | Found |
| 20B | Happy Not-Birthday Skeebo | Found |
| 21A | Make it Snappy | Partially Found |
| 21B | Harpo Come Home | Found |
| 22 | A Circus Town Wedding | Found |
| 23A | Follow that Monkey | Found |
| 23B | X Marks the Spot | Found |
| 24A | Quiet Magic | Lost |
| 24B | Too Many Toys | Lost |
| 25 | Ride Em Goliath | Found |
| 26A | A Snow Clown for Dinky | Partially Found |
| 26B | Skating Away | Lost |
Season 3
| # | Segment Title | Status (9/13) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stuck on You | Partially Found |
| 2A | Simply Ear-Resistable | Found |
| 2B | Hula is Cool-a | Found |
| 3 | Silly Silly Putt-Putt | Partially Found |
| 4A | The Giggle Kite | Found |
| 4B | Chores Galore | Found |
| 5 | Princess for a Day | Found (very poor quality) |
| 6 | My Granny's Shoes | Found |
| 7 | JoJo & The Beanstalk | Found (very poor quality) |
| 8 | Pie in the Sky | Found |
| 9 | Circus Town Makeover | Found |
| 10A | My Clowny Valentine | Lost |
| 10B | Hop Hooey | Lost |
Feeling Good With JoJo
| Short Title | Status (7/20) |
|---|---|
| Bears | Found |
| Clown Shoe Stretch | Found (very poor quality) |
| Froggy Jump | Found |
| Reach the Sun Stretch | Found |
| Snakes | Found |
| The Wiggle | Found |
| Windshield Wipers | Found (very poor quality) |
| 13 Other Unknown Named Shorts | Lost |
Gallery
Screenshots
For a long time, this was the only screenshot from the episode "Skating Away" that survived.
Footage
External Links
- Wikipedia page for JoJo's Circus.
- IMDB page for JoJo's Circus.
- Wikipedia page on the Feeling Good With JoJo shorts.
References
- ↑ Rome News-Tribune article that mentions the series. Retrieved 05 Aug '23
- ↑ The Script of the episode "The Whatchamadoodle" Retrieved 29 Aug '23
- ↑ WiggleznGigglez's tweet about the series. Retrieved 04 Aug '23
See also
Playhouse Disney
- Adventures in Nutrition with Captain Carlos (partially found Playhouse Disney animated short series; 2004-2007)
- Bear in the Big Blue House "Water, Water Everywhere" (lost unaired pilot of Disney Channel puppet series; 1997)
- Bear in the Big Blue House (found original English audio of Playhouse Disney puppet series; 1997-2006)
- Breakfast with Bear (partially found episodes of Playhouse Disney spin-off series; 2005-2006)
- Handy Manny (partially found unaired pilot of Playhouse Disney CGI animated series; 2005)
- Jungle Junction (lost pitch pilots of Disney Junior CGI animated series; 2003-2008)
- Little Einsteins (lost second pitch pilot of Playhouse Disney animated series; existence unconfirmed; 2004)
- My Friends Tigger & Pooh (partially found test pilots of Playhouse Disney CGI animated series; 2005/2006)
- Playhouse Disney UK (partially lost interstitial material of children's TV channel; 1999-2006)
- Rolie Polie Olie (lost unaired pilot of Canadian-American animated TV series; 1997)
- Stanley (found unaired pilot episode of Playhouse Disney animated series; 1999)
- The Book of Pooh (found Playhouse Disney puppet series; 2001-2004)