Storytime (found PBS children's reading series; 1992-1998)

The show's logo.

Status: Found

Date found: 09 Jun 2021

Found by: BETAMAX - VHS - SUPER 8

Storytime also known as Kino's Storytime is a PBS series that premiered on October 11th, 1992, and ran until April 3rd, 1998 with three seasons and 81 episodes in total, including a special episode with flashbacks and new stories told by Charles S. Dutton and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was made by the KCET in Los Angeles, California, the same station who made The Puzzle Place two years later.

Production

The show was originally produced as Storytime on KCET and was later picked up by PBS for national airing in 1994 under the name Kino's Storytime, to avoid possible confusion with other storytime-named shows. Other than that, the national airing was identical as KCET airing.

Content

The show was similar to the 1983 to 2006 PBS series Reading Rainbow as it centred on reading children's books. The show featured a puppet character named Kino (performed by the late Mark Ritts) and two human characters Kino interacts with: Lucy (played by Anne Betancourt) and Mara (played by Marabina Jaimes) It also featured several celebrity guests (owing to KCET's connection to Hollywood) such as Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Wilford Brimley, and many others.

Along with the celebrity or regular narrators telling the stories the stories themselves show illustrations from the books with edits and panning all around so the words of the books couldn't be seen, as well as cutting back to the Story Place at certain points with the narrator, children and characters, specially added music and sound effects were made for the stories told as well depending on the stories.

Availability

The show was released on VHS, but only 3 volumes are known to exist. Each tape had two episodes so only 6 episodes have been officially released on VHS.

Many of the episodes were either lost or partially found but then on May 1st, 2021, the episodes began to resurface on a YouTube channel called BETAMAX - VHS - SUPER 8, including the Tim Allen episode which to skullzproductions was considered a Holy Grail find for him and he began uploading episodes each day starting on May 23rd, 2021 and finishing on June 9th, 2021 with all the episodes of the show available on YouTube.

The Second Season of the show has fully been found as of June 6th, 2021

The Third Season has fully been found as of June 7th, 2021

The First Season has fully been found on June 9th, 2021 as such the Complete Series has fully been found

Episode Status

Episode/Celebrities	Status	Books Read	Released on Home Media
John Goodman	Found	Anna and the Little Green Dragon, Little Polar Bear and Rose Meets Mr. Wintergarten	Yes
Mr. G and Amanda Plummer	Found	Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Chicken Sunday and Any Kind of Dog
Tom Selleck and Valerie Bertinelli	Found	The Relatives Came, Five Bad Boys, Billy Que and the Dustdobbin and Mama, Do You Love Me?	Yes
John Ritter and Kim Karnsrithong	Found	The Old Ladies Who Liked Cats, Alistair's Elephant and Ira Sleeps Over	Yes
Mark Ritts, Tatiana Ali, Shari Belafonte and Zachary Ty Bryan	Found	My Little Red Car, Three Wishes, The Magic House and Monster Mama	Yes
Dave Coulier and Mariel Hemingway	Found	The Gingerbread Man, The Very Quiet Cricket and Whistle for Willie
Hector Elizondo	Found	Mouse's Birthday, Jonathan and his Mommy, The Story of Ferdinand and Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
Elena Epps, Kellie Williams and Patricia Richardson	Found	Owl Babies, Two of Everything and A Mother for Choco	Yes
Madge Sinclair	Found	Timothy Goes to School, Amazing Grace, Rumplestiltskin and My Mom is Excellent
Telma Hopkins and Rene Auberjonois	Found	The Happy Day, Maggie and the Pirate and Cuddly Dudley
Alfre Woodard and Gordon Jump	Found	That's Good! That's Bad! and Horton Hatches the Egg
Christopher Hewett and Carl Weintraub and Family	Found	If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Lady Bugatti and Little Peep
A. Martinez	Found	The Fish Who Could Wish, Green Wilma, Magic Spring and Stina
Jeff Altman and Wes Studi	Found	The Boy with Square Eyes, Franklin in the Dark and The Rough Face Girl
Kathy Najimy and Arte Johnson	Found	Two Badd Babies, Go Away, Big Green Monster! and The Amazing Bone
Mario Lopez and Cindy Williams	Found	Froggy Gets Dressed, Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour and Daley B
Belita Moreno, Ronn Lucas and Scorch and Maria Conchita Alonso	Found	The Trouble with Mom, The Dragon of an Ordinary Family and Borreguita and the Coyote
Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, Paul Rodriguez and Cloris Leachman	Found	Possum Come A-Knockin', Elmer, Abuela and The Hungry Thing
Ellen DeGeneres and Meshach Taylor	Found	Winnie the Witch, The Last Time I Saw Harris, Eddie and Teddy and One of Three	Yes
Patricia Polacco and Reggie Vel Johnson	Found	More, More, More Said the Baby, Babushka's Doll and Grandpa's Face
Bill Martin, Jr. and Edward James Olmos	Found	Jamberry, The Ghost-Eye Tree and Baby Rattlesnake
Alley Mills and Vicki Juditz	Found	Night Tree, Maebelle's Suitcase and Ruby the Copy Cat
Tamlyn Tomita	Found	The Wolf's Chicken Stew, The Emperor's New Clothes and Duckat
Rosana DeSoto and Bob Harrison	Found	The Treasure, Julius, The Baby of the World and The Happy Hedgehog Band
Holly Russell and Bill Cobbs	Found	Greetings from Sandy Beach, Socrates and The Rooster Who Went to his Uncle's Wedding
Barbara Bain and Markus Redmond	Found	Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One, A Porcupine Named Fluffy and Morris's Missing Bag
Raven-Symon and Jamie Farr	Found	Farmer Duck, I Hear a Noise and The Fortune-Tellers
James Eckhouse and Carl Weintraub	Found	Noisy Nora, The Seven Chinese Brothers and Effie
Diane Wolkstein and Rae'Ven Kelly	Found	The Folks in the Valley, The Banza and Rosie's Baby Tooth
Michael Dorn and Tom Paxton	Found	Company's Coming, The Little Red Hen and Engelbert the Elephant
Sunny Walton and Paul Winfield	Found	The Itsy Bitsy Spider, All Pigs are Beautiful, and Do Not Open
Liz Torres and Wilford Brimley	Found	The Woman Who Outshone the Sun, The Art Lesson and Gorilla
Felton Perry and Katherine Thomerson	Found	The Adventures of Taxi Dog, Clean Your Room, Harvey Moon, The Baby Blue Cat Who Said No and Dear Mr. Blueberry
Gedde Watanabe and Lois Williams	Found	Maxi, the Hero, Broderick and The Doorbell Rang
Steve Guttenberg, Fred Savage and Leah Komaiko	Found	The Erie Canal from Sea to Shining Sea, Slither McCreep and his Brother Joe, The Mitten, Earl's Too Cool for Me and Annie Bananie
Kim Karnsrithong and Paula Poundstone	Found	My Little Brother, Dinner at the Panda Palace and Chrysanthemum
Ellaraino and Mayim Bialik	Found	First Pink Light, The Cat Who Lost his Purr and Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Vicki Juditz and Alaina Reed Hall	Found	A Big Fat Enormous Lie, Super Dooper Jezebel and Not So Fast Songololo
Ping Wo and Glynn Turman	Found	Ming Lo Moves the Mountain, The Boy and the Ghost and Life is Fun
Rosalind Chao and Jim Corgan	Found	Princess Smartypants, "Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Gonna Sneeze!" and A Special Trade
SPECIAL: Charles S. Dutton, John Ritter and Jamie Lee Curtis	Found	Mucky Moose, Alistair's Elephant and When I Was Little
Tim Allen	Found	The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs
Robert Guillaume and Annie Potts	Found	Regina's Big Mistake, The Empty Pot and Wind Says Good Night
Little Richard	Found	Knock, Knock, Teremok!, Little Lumpty and The Grasshopper and the Ants
Jamie Walters	Found	Going Home, The Tickleoctopus and The Grumpalump
Marion Ross and Don and Audrey Wood	Found	Subway Sparrow, Ollie Knows Everything and King Bidgood's in the Bathtub
Kirk Douglas	Found	A Hat for Minerva Louise, The Story of a Boy named Will, Who Went Sledding Down the Hill, Dogteam and Prize in the Snow
Teri Garr and Kirsten Dunst	Found	Time Train, Pip's Magic and Cabbage Rose
Joanna Cassidy	Found	Stop That Pickle! and Swamp Angel
Amy Hill	Found	The Whales' Song, The Paper Princess and The Big, Big Sea
Theresa Saldana	Found	Sheila Rae, The Brave, The Rat and the Tiger and A House is a House for Me
Christmas Special: Ruben Blades	Found	Too Many Tamales, La Gallinita Roja and ¿Donde Esta Mi Osito?
Brett Butler	Found	Flower Garden, When the Fly Flew in..., and Nathaniel Willy, Scared Silly
Kathleen Quinlan	Found	Would You Rather..., Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore! and Boodil My Dog
Angela Bassett	Found	Frog Went A'Courtin', Uncle Jed's Barbershop and Stories to Tell from Meet Danitra Brown
Marc Simont and Barry Corbin	Found	Playing Right Field, Pug, Slug and Doug the Thug and Hunting the White Cow
Melissa Joan Hart and Martin Mull	Found	Donna O'Neeshuck Was Chased by Some Cows, Don't Fidget a Feather and Nothing at All
David Keith	Found	Fairy Went A-Marketing, The Man Who Kept his Heart in a Bucket and Mole's Hill
James McDaniel	Found	Bear, The Hunter and It's the Bear!
Laura Dern	Found	Hi!, The Shepard Boy and Amber On the Mountain
Litefoot	Found	Owl Eyes and Tops & Bottoms
Mara Wilson and Joey Lawrence	Found	Miss Spider's Tea Party, Elvira, Wilson Sat Alone and We Could be Friends
Halloween Special: John Astin and Elijah Wood	Found	The House that Drac Built, Big Pumpkin, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything and Halloween Howls: Riddles That are a Scream
Jane Seymour	Found	Is Your Mama a Llama?, Storm Boy and The Monkey and the Crocodile
Victoria Rowell	Found	My Mama Had a Dancing Heart, Mirette on the High Wire and Twist With a Burger, Jitter With a Bug
Tia & Tamera Mowry and Freddy Fender	Found	Suddenly!, Courtney and The Gullywasher
Dennis Haskins	Found	Contrary Mary, The Perfect Orange and This and That
Patricia Polacco, James Avery and Peter Catalanotto	Found	Babushka Baba Yaga, The Old Dog and The Painter
Janeane Garofalo	Found	Jessica, I'm Coming to Get You! and Listen Buddy
Joseph Marcel	Found	Buz, A Flea in the Ear, If..., "Hey Bug" from Sunflakes: Poems for Children and "Song of the Bugs" from Nibble, Nibble: Poems for Children
Michael Horse	Found	The Little Mouse, The Red, Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear, The Leopard's Drum and Honeypaw and Lightfoot
Thanksgiving Special: Patrick Swayze, Hector Elizondo and Joanie Bartels	Found	'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, How Many Days to America? and Over the River and Through the Wood
Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Denise Nicholas	Found	The Old, Old Man and the Very Little Boy, More Than Anything Else and Knoxville, Tennessee
Geena Davis	Found	Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and Once There Was a Bull...(Frog)
Kim Delaney and Janet Hubert	Found	What is the Sun?, Sally and the Limpet, Secret Place and What a Wonderful World
Jason Alexander (Part 1)	Found	Turnip Soup, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and Night in the Barn
Michael Jeter and David Hyde Pierce (Part 2)	Found	Truck Song, The Ghost of Nicholas Greebe and The Wide-Mouthed Frog
Ming-Na Wen and Peri Gilpin	Found	This is Our House, Tacky the Penguin, The Most Beautiful Kid in the World and Yo! Yes?
Salma Hayek and Edward Asner	Found	In the Rain with Baby Duck, Two Mrs. Gibbons and The Butterfly Seeds
Julia Duffy and Gabriel Byrne	Found	When I Was Five, The Paperboy and The Fiddler of the Northern Lights
David Howard and Paul Dooley	Found	Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!, The Lion and the Little Red Bird and Outrageous Bodacious Boliver Boggs
Sharon Lawrence and Tina Majorino	Found	Grandma's Cat, The Old Woman who Named Things and Lost

See Also

Bumpers

• Bookworm Bunch (partially found interstitials from PBS Kids channel block; 2000-2001)
• PBS Kids (partially lost schedule bumpers and interstitial material of TV channel block; 1999-present)
• PBS Kids Vote-A-Rama (lost bumpers of "Arthur" themed marathon; 2002)
• Someday School (partially found PBS Kids channel block; 1998-2000)

PBS

• Adventures with Kanga Roddy (partially found PBS children's series; 1998-2000)
• Backyard Safari (found PBS children's educational series; 1997)
• Barney & Friends "Season 9" (partially found alternative version of PBS children's series; 2004-2005)
• Christmastime with Mister Rogers (found holiday special of PBS children's educational series; 1977)
• Feeling Good (lost PBS health series; 1974-1975)
• Lamb Chop's Play-Along (partially lost PBS children's puppet series; 1992-1995)
• Mister Rogers Talks About Conflict (found episode arc of PBS children's educational series; 1983)
• The Puzzle Place (partially found PBS puppet series; 1994-1998)
• Reading Rainbow (found Johnny Kemp opening sequence for PBS children's educational series; 1999)
• Shining Time Station (found season one intro of PBS series; 1989-1990)
• Springtime with Mister Rogers (found primetime special for PBS children's educational series; 1979)
• Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? "Auld Lang Gone" (non-existent episode of PBS children's game show; 1992)
• Zoom (found pilot of revival of 1972 PBS children's series; 1995)
• Zoom (partially lost revival of PBS children's series; 1999-2005)

PBS Kids

• The Charlie Horse Music Pizza (partially lost PBS Kids "Lamb Chop's Play-Along" spin-off series; 1998-1999)
• Curious George (lost test pilot of PBS Kids animated series based on books; existence unconfirmed; 2004/2005)
• Cyberchase "The Poddleville Case" (found test pilot of PBS Kids educational animated series; 1999)
• Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood (lost pitch pilot of PBS Kids animated musical series; 2006-2008)
• Dragon Tales "One Small Step for Cassie" and "Circle of Friends" (lost pilots of PBS Kids animated series; 1999)
• Dragon Tales Live! (partially found footage of live stage shows; 2001-2006)
• The Good Night Show with Melanie/Leo (partially found PBS Kids Sprout series; 2005-2006)
• The Good Night Show with Nina & Star (partially found PBS Kids Sprout series; 2006-2017)
• Jet Propulsion (partially found pitch pilot of "Ready Jet Go!" PBS Kids CGI-animated series; 2013)
• Kratts' Creatures (found PBS children's educational series; 1996)
• The Let's Go Show (partially found PBS Kids Sprout series; 2007-2008)
• Make Way for Noddy (partially found PBS Kids version of British children's TV series; 2005)
• Molly of Denali (partially found pitch pilot of PBS Kids animated series; 2018)
• Nature Cat (lost pitch pilot of PBS Kids educational animated series; early 2010s)
• Peg + Cat (partially lost pitch pilot of PBS Kids educational animated series; 2011)
• Preschool Musical... On a Stick (partially lost PBS Kids Sprout "High School Musical" parody; 2008)
• Seven Little Monsters (found episodes of PBS Kids animated series; 2000-2004)
• Space Race (partially found PBS Kids web series; 2011)
• The Sunny Side Up Show (partially found PBS Kids Sprout series; 2007-2017)
• Super Why! (partially found British dub of PBS Kids CGI animated series; late 2000s-2010s)
• Super Why! (lost second pitch pilot of PBS Kids CGI-animated series; 2004-2006)
• What's The Big Idea? (non-existent pitch pilot of "Sid The Science Kid" PBS Kids CGI animated series; 2007)
• WordGirl (lost pitch pilot of PBS Kids educational animated series; existence unconfirmed; 2005)
• WordWorld (found test pilot of PBS Kids CGI animated educational series; 2005)