Carl the Collector

Carl the Collector
Created by	Zachariah OHora
Written by	Adam Rudman Ava X. Rigelhaupt Joey Mazzarino Jill Cozza-Turner Samantha Berger Lisa Whittick Zachariah OHora Kelly DiPucchio Corey Womack Bob Shea
Directed by	Lisa Whittick
Starring	Kai Barham Peter Laurie Abigail Oliver Beatrice Schneider Antonina Battrick Maddy McIlwain
Theme music composer	Eraserhood Sound
Composer	Eraserhood Sound
Country of origin	Canada United States
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	14 (28 segments) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Zachariah OHora Caroline Bandolik Heather Walker
Running time	23 minutes
Production companies	Spiffy Pictures Yowza! Animation Fuzzytown Productions
Original release
Network	PBS Kids
Release	November 14, 2024 (2024-11-14) – present

Carl the Collector is a children's animated television series created by Zachariah OHora from PBS Kids.

Premise

Set in the fictional and peaceful Fuzzytown, Carl the Collector centers on the life of Carl, an autistic child raccoon with a special interest in creating collections of various items, and his friends. Carl's friends include Sheldon, a compassionate beaver and Carl's best friend; Lotta, a shy and autistic fox with an artistic talent and hypersensitivity to sound; Forrest, a hyperactive squirrel; and Nico and Arugula, identical twin bunny sisters with opposing personalities. Episodes often involve Carl and his friends working together and learning lessons to overcome new situations.

Cast

• Kai Barham as Carl, an autistic gray raccoon with a special interest in collecting.
• Heather Bambrick as Maude (Mama), Carl's mother; Bambrick also voices the plushies.
• Peter Laurie as Sheldon, a compassionate brown beaver and Carl's best friend.
• Abigail Oliver as Nico, a brash pink rabbit and identical twin to Arugula.
• Beatrice Schneider as Arugula, a nice pink rabbit and identical twin to Nico.
• Antonina Battrick as Forrest, a hyperactive and impulsive grey squirrel with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a tree nut allergy ^[1]
• Maddy McIlwain as Lotta, an autistic red fox with an artistic talent.
• Alli Chung as Sheldon's mother, aka Coach Mom.
• Peter Cugno as Harold, Carl's father.
• Duff MacDonald as Mr. Barnaby, a lion who drives the ice cream truck.
• Amanda Martínez as Ms. Huffman, a bear who is a librarian.
• Paulino Nunes as Forrest's father, Fernando.
• Chase Ruigrok as Mimi Toots, a hedgehog who plays the trumpet.
• Elisa Paszt as Skyler, a skunk who gave Lotta the nickname "Headphone Girl."
• Salvatore Scozzari as Mr. Howell, a wolf grocer.
• Milo Toriel-McGibbon as Dylan, a shy armadillo and new kid at Carl's school.
• Claire Poon as Brittany, Sheldon's cousin.
• Zachariah OHora as Yeti, who runs the Pyramid Pizza. Only his arm is shown.
• Claire Whittick as Lilah, Mr. Barnaby's niece and a soccer player.
• Zoe Wheatley as Marble Mabel, an online influencer who likes making marble runs.

Joey Mazzarino provides additional voices for the series as well.

Production

Zachariah OHora is a New York Times bestselling children's author and illustrator known for his picture books featuring bipedal animals such as Wolfie the Bunny, Niblet & Ralph, and My Cousin Momo. ^[2] In c. 2015, during a time when PBS Kids was searching for "creators outside its usual pool of talent", ^[3] Natalie Engel, the Director of Content for Children’s Programming, approached OHora, liking his art style, to create a television series. At the time, OHora had created a raccoon character called "The Collector", based on OHora's own collecting habits, who had not been used in any of OHora's stories at the time. ^[2] OHora's concept for the series was inspired by a school that his two non-autistic sons went to and that centered around the inclusion model. ^{[2] [3]} OHora described his experiences with the school as a "lightbulb moment", as he felt that the stigma surrounding disabilities would diminish if children were exposed to the "spectrum of humanity". ^{[3] [4]}

The series was flash-animated using Toon Boom Harmony. ^[3] Fuzzytown, the fictional setting of Carl the Collector, is modeled after Narberth, Pennsylvania, the residence of the show's creator. ^[5]

Episodes

No.	Title	Written by	Original release date  [6]	Prod. code  [7]
1	"The Autograph Collection"	Storyboarded by : Lisa Whittick Written by : Samantha Berger and Zachariah OHora	December 4, 2024 (2024-12-04)	101
	"The Rope Collection"	Storyboarded by : Kevin Faria Written by : Samantha Berger and Zachariah OHora
When Carl visits Nico and Argula's house to ride bicycles with Argula, Nico calls bicycle riding "for babies" and "boring", frustrating Carl. To prove Nico wrong, Carl goes to a creek with plans to jump it with his bicycle. Despite the pleading of his friends, including Nico and except Forrest, Carl jumps the creek and falls over, breaking his arm in the process. After Carl's arm is medically examined and encased in a cast, Nico apologizes and reveals that her remarks were because she was embarrassed that she did not know how to ride a bicycle. Carl forgives Nico and promises to teach her after his cast is removed. Sheldon obtains left-over wood from his father and decides to build a tree fort with Carl in Carl's backyard, inviting their friends over to help. Carl disregards his friends' attempts at planning and collaboration in favor of building the tree fort exactly how he envisions it. In response, his friends decide to build their own fort on a nearby tree without Carl. After the tree forts are finished, with Carl's being an enclosed structure with a window and the others' being a fenced platform, Carl realizes he forgot to include a door, trapping him inside. After recovering from a panic attack, Carl uses a whistle to alert his friends and uses a makeshift rope ladder to escape, with his friends providing pillows to cushion his fall. Carl realizes he excluded himself from the team out of close-mindedness and that his friends' tree fort was better than his. Nonetheless, Carl and the friends decide to connect the two tree forts using a rope bridge.
2	"The Sticker Collection"	Storyboarded by : Victoria Hinatsu Written by : Samantha Berger	November 28, 2024 (2024-11-28)	102
	"The Baby Stuff Collection"	Storyboarded by : Anthony Labonté Written by : Samantha Berger
Carl's sour pickle scratch and sniff sticker, his favorite from his sticker collection, has lost its smell. Carl, Sheldon, and Forrest work together to try to bring back its smell such as by excessively scratching it and placing it in a pickle jar, causing the sticker to disintegrate. To relieve Carl's frustration, Sheldon gifts Carl his own hot butter popcorn scratch and sniff snicker. After smelling it, Carl realizes that the loss of the sour pickle sticker does not mean his entire sticker collection is ruined, placing the hot butter popcorn sticker in the spot the sour pickle sticker used to be. Lotta has a sleepover at Carl's house. While talking about items they have had since they were babies, Carl notices that his baby blanket, named Knit-Knit, has a tear in it. Carl and Lotta try to find out who the culprit is, initially to no luck. After dawn, Carl and Lotta witness a bird pulling on a thread of Knit-Knit and carrying it to its nest. Lotta recognizes the bird as a Baltimore oriole, a species of bird that create their nests to be warm before laying their eggs. Carl gives the birds his feather collection for their nest. A few weeks later, the oriole's eggs have hatched and Knit-Knit has been repaired, with Carl taking comfort in his feather collection and some of Knit-Knit being in the oriole's nest.
3	"The Plushie Collection"	Storyboarded by : Adam Massicotte Written by : Ava X. Rigelhaupt	November 14, 2024 (2024-11-14)	103
	"The Bouncy Ball Collection"	Storyboarded by : Victoria Hinatsu Written by : Jill Cozza-Turner
Carl's collection of plushies has grown to the point that he cannot reach his other collections. Carl, Sheldon, and Forrest brainstorm ideas on ways to neatly organize Carl's plushies such as placing all of them under Carl's bed, in his tree fort, and on his ceiling, none of which seem satisfactory. When Carl sees Forrest bond with his cheetah plushie, Carl decides to give away plushies he does not play with to his friends, taking a picture of each to put in a scrapbook. Afterward, Carl neatly organizes the remaining plushies in his room. Carl returns from his visit to Harold's house, where he received a sparkly bouncy ball for his collection and learned a new game named "Bounce Like the Ball". As Carl shows Sheldon his bouncy ball collection, he accidentally drops and loses the balls. Carl and his friends search the neighborhood, eventually finding all except for the sparkly ball. Though distraught over its disappearance, upon Sheldon's suggestion, Carl teaches his friends "Bounce Like the Ball". As they play the game using Carl's bouncy balls, Carl finds the sparkly ball under a bush, much to his delight.
4	"The Puffball Collection"	Storyboarded by : Victoria Hinatsu Written by : Joey Mazzarino	December 2, 2024 (2024-12-02)	104
	"The Bottle Cap Collection"	Storyboarded by : Anthony Labonté Written by : Joey Mazzarino
Lotta is nervous about competing in the Fuzzytown Music Maker Championship. Lotta's friends attend the championship to cheer her on. Lotta realizes she has forgotten her headphones, as the music and cheering in the championship triggers her hypersensitivity to sound. Her friends notice her stress but are unaware of her hypersensitivity. Using Carl's suggestions, they try to help her such as by cheering her on and providing new cans for her instrument set. After Carl accidentally drops the cans, the resulting sound leading Lotta to flee the championship, Carl realizes that rather than helping Lotta through ways that would help Carl, he should ask what is bothering Lotta. When Lotta tells Carl her problem, Carl makes a makeshift headphone using puffballs and two cans, allowing Lotta play in the championship. The night after returning from a weekend visit to Harold's, Carl realizes he has left behind his bottle cap collection. Unable to sleep, Carl continually interrupts Sheldon's sleep through a walkie-talkie for help, with each idea from Sheldon proving unsatisfactory to Carl. Sheldon helps Carl figure out why he feels bad about the missing bottle cap collection, with Carl realizing that he is worried about the collection's safety. Carl and Maude call Harold, who reassures Carl that he will keep the collection safe and return it in the morning.
5	"The Tool Collection"	Storyboarded by : Adam Massicotte Written by : Samantha Berger	November 20, 2024 (2024-11-20)	105
	"The Stick Collection"	Storyboarded by : Anthony Labonté Written by : Susan M. Clarke
For Carl's birthday, Sheldon gifts him a universal screwdriver. As Carl's parents set up his birthday party, Carl uses the screwdriver around the house to gather a collection of fifteen unique screws, lying to his parents to prevent them from knowing and unaware of the malfunction he is causing. When his parents catch him unscrewing the last screw from the kitchen faucet, Carl is coaxed into confessing his plan. Upon Maude's urging, Carl proceeds to put every screw back into their original place, starting with the faucet. During the party, Carl is gifted a collection containing fifteen unique screws. After a rainstorm subsides, Carl discovers a hole left behind on the walkway in front of his house, much to his distress. As Carl and Maude research how to fix it through watching how-to videos, Carl's friends play with it and the water inside, eventually creating "Stickville"; a miniature set of small boats, fishing rods, and a bridge over the hole using sticks and acorns. Realizing how fun Stickville looks, Carl changes his mind to wanting to keep the hole. Maude allows them to play with it for the day, before fixing it the next day.
6	"The Fake Mustache Collection"	Storyboarded by : Victoria Hinatsu Written by : Joey Mazzarino	November 15, 2024 (2024-11-15)	106
	"The Lint Dinosaur Collection"	Storyboarded by : Tony Tulipano Written by : Joey Mazzarino
The identical twins Nico and Arugula are often confused with each other, frustrating Nico. To prevent this from happening anymore, Nico and Carl, who can tell them apart, team up to convince Arugula to regularly wear a wig or a fake mustache to distinguish between them. After failing to do so, Nico commits to wearing a fake mustache herself. The other friends feel guilty for confusing the twins; they and Carl decide to observe the differences between Nico and Arugula to prevent it from happening again. When Nico finds out, she is delighted. Carl and his friends meet up in the park to create lint dinosaurs for Lint Dino Monday. During the meetup, Nico creates a lint monster, diverging from the planned theme of the day. When Carl voices his opposition, Nico leaves to set up her own Lint Monster Monday meetup. As Carl continually opposes creating lint monsters, Arugula and Forrest join Nico while Lotta and Sheldon stay with Carl. Carl and Nico antagonize each other as they create their lint creations, before they start throwing acorns at each other's creations. When this culminates in Carl throwing mud at the lint monsters, which Nico blocks, the friends decide to resolve the conflict by working together to create rules for playing together. Under these rules, the friends ultimately decide to create lint dinosaurs, with time set aside for making lint monsters.
7	"The Remote Control Collection"	Storyboarded by : Victoria Hinatsu Written by : Joey Mazzarino	November 25, 2024 (2024-11-25)	107
	"The Super Blue Moon Sleepover"	Storyboarded by : Steve Barr Written by : Samantha Berger
At a picnic, Forrest continually disrupts activities out of hyperactivity. After this leads to Forrest destroying a buggy Sheldon built, Sheldon and Carl admonish him, warning that he will have to leave the picnic if he cannot wait his turn. Initially, his attempts at using coping strategies suggested by his friends fail, discouraging Forrest. Just as Forrest is about to leave, Carl suggests the following coping strategy: whenever Forrest wants to do something, he can pause and consider the consequences of doing the action in haste, motivating him to wait. This strategy works, allowing Forrest to safely drive the newly repaired buggy. Carl has planned a sleepover in his tree fort for his friends to watch a super blue moon, a rare occurrence of a blue moon and a supermoon on the same night. Because of the event's rarity, Carl's has schedule each activity to be followed rigidly, and he becomes increasingly agitated when the events of the day frequently differ from the schedule. After the friends decide to make friendship bracelets instead of Carl's planned trivia game, Carl retreats to his room out of anger. Maude consoles him and suggests that he either choose to miss the super blue moon or participate in the sleepover regardless of how his plan goes. Carl chooses the latter and watches the rise of the super blue moon with his friends.
8	"Lemons!"	Storyboarded by : Jeff White Written by : Adam Rudman	November 18, 2024 (2024-11-18)	108
	"The Butterfly Collection"	Storyboarded by : Anthony Labonté Written by : Kelly Dipucchio
Carl starts a lemonade stand. When Carl asks Sheldon to help him run the stand, Sheldon reveals that he is afraid of lemons, having once sustained an eye injury from one. Carl tries to help Sheldon overcome his fear, eventually giving him a pair of goggles to protect his eyes while running the stand. While serving lemonade, Carl accidentally trips and douses Sheldon in lemonade. Unscathed, Sheldon stays at the stand as Carl makes a new batch of lemonade. Carl prepares a bottle to keep his three black swallowtail butterflies after they complete their metamorphoses. He learns from a book that butterflies need nectar, which he cannot gather, and is angered when Sheldon expresses concern about the butterflies experiencing asphyxiation in the bottle. Maude asks Carl to consider how he would feel if he was trapped in a jar and to consider his choices regarding the butterflies. When the butterflies emerge from their chrysalis, Carl decides to hold a farewell party and set the butterflies free.
9	"The Magic Collection"	Storyboarded by : Victoria Hinatsu Written by : Samantha Berger	November 27, 2024 (2024-11-27)	109
	"Listen Coach"	Storyboarded by : Steve Barr Written by : Joey Mazzarino
Arugula becomes the assistant to both Carl and Nico as they independently start practicing stage magic, tiring Arugula and causing conflict between Carl and Nico. A competition is hosted between the two, with Arugula assisting both at the same time. When Arugula goes missing during the final magic trick, Carl and Nico team up to search for her. She is found home, having fled the competition and swearing off stage magic. Upon Arugula's suggestion, Carl and Nico become partners in magic. Carl is distracted by his megaphone collection and is repeatedly told that he is not listening to others, frustrating him. After telling Sheldon, Carl realizes his difficulty in listening to others when distracted. Sheldon coaches Carl on listening, assisted by his mother and his cousin Brittany. Afterward, Carl demonstrates his listening skills with Arugula and Forrest, both of whom he had ignored previously.
10	"A Collection to Get Rid Of"	Storyboarded by : Jeff White Written by : Monique Moreau and Adam Rudman	December 5, 2024 (2024-12-05)	110
	"The Button Collection"	Storyboarded by : Anthony Labonté Written by : Susan M. Clarke
A music festival the prior day leaves litter in the park, interfering with recreational activities there. Carl and his friends decide to clean up the park. During the process, Forrest treats the cleanup like a contest, Carl becomes fascinated with recycling and upcycling and sorts the trash accordingly, and other residents of Fuzzytown offer to help. After the cleanup is finished, Forrest declares himself the winner, before looking at the clean park and deciding to acknowledge his friends' contributions, giving them golden bottle caps found during the cleanup. For the birthday of Sheldon's mother, Sheldon wants to give her a mug made by Maude. To keep it a surprise, Carl agrees to take of the mug at home until Sheldon visits to retrieve it. While entering his house, Carl accidentally drops and breaks the mug. Carl blames himself, declaring himself a bad friend for his mistake. Although distraught upon being told, Sheldon points out that Carl's remorse makes him a good friend. Heartened by Sheldon's words, Carl helps Sheldon turn the pieces into a mosaic tray to give to Sheldon's mother, contributing yellow buttons from his button collection.
11	"A Forrest of Plans"	Storyboarded by : Steve Barr Written by : Liz Hara	November 26, 2024 (2024-11-26)	111
	"The Marble Collection"	Storyboarded by : Victoria Hinatsu Written by : Jill Cozza-Turner
Forrest makes plans with different friends to participate with each other their activities at the same time, including constructing a racetrack with Carl, eating pizza with Nico and Arugula, and playing instruments with Lotta. His attempts at keeping his promises fall short, leading each of his friends to become disappointed and eventually abandon their activities. Later, Forrest wins second place at a race. He finds that his friends had attended to cheer him on like they had promised. Forrest apologizes for his own inability to keep his promises and spends the rest of the day hanging out with them in Carl's room. In a hot summer day, Carl and Arugula build a marble run together. Frustrated at their frequent failed attempts at building one, they decide to instead join Forrest at his water slide. After Forrest reveals that he had successfully built the water slide by learning from his own failed attempts, Carl and Arugula return to continue building their marble run, eventually succeeding in building a functional one that they show Forrest.
12	"Wiggle Waggle Wories"	Storyboarded by : Jeff White Written by : Joey Mazzarino	December 3, 2024 (2024-12-03)	112
	"The Pine Cone Collection"	Storyboarded by : Anthony Labonté Written by : Kelly DiPucchio
Sheldon invites Carl to a beach sport with their friends, which he reluctantly attends despite his general dislike of sports. Upon finding out that it involves hitting a beach ball with their tails, Carl, insecure about his own tail, attempts to leave the game several times by claiming he is collecting various beach items. His friends catch on and, upon learning about his insecurity, comfort him and convince him to continue playing the game. During their round, Carl discovers that he can use the tail to spin the ball while hitting it, much to everyone's delight. Lotta has lost her blanket on her and her friends' way to a soccer game but initially downplays her worries. While her friends celebrate Forrest's victory in the soccer game at Pizza Pyramid, Lotta starts crying and confesses that she is worried her blanket will never be found. The friends retrace their path to the soccer game and find Lotta's blanket in a tree, which Forrest knocks off by hitting it with a soccer ball. Lotta thanks her friends and apologizes for not confessing her feelings sooner.
13	"The Fall"	Storyboarded by : Victoria Hinatsu Written by : Ava X. Rigelhaupt	November 21, 2024 (2024-11-21)	113
	"The Word Collection"	Storyboarded by : Steve Barr Written by : Bob Shea
Carl, Nico, and Arugula are flying kites at the park, during which Nico trips and scrapes her knee. Not sure what to do, Carl idles, angering Nico, who refuses to talk to Carl after he visits her back at home. Carl talks about his predicament with Maude, who suggests that Carl's uncertainty was due to his autism, which made it more difficult to react in this new situation. After working out a script with Maude, Carl apologizes to Nico at the park and confesses his autism to his friends, and Nico in turn forgives Carl and apologizes for refusing to listen to him earlier. Afterward, his friends all fly kites at the park, with Nico and Carl sharing one. While at a street fare parade with Harold, Carl learns a new word: shindig, which Harold defines as a "joyful party or celebration" and consisting of a crowd, music, and food. Taking a liking to the word, Carl and his friends look for another shindig in town, but fail to find one. Carl decides to make a shindig of his own, with ice cream provided by Mr. Barnaby's ice cream truck and music provided by Lotta.
14	"Whole Lotta Lotta"	Storyboarded by : Jeff White Written by : Joey Mazzarino	November 19, 2024 (2024-11-19)	114
	"Leaf it to Carl"	Storyboarded by : Anthony Labonté Written by : Corey Womack
Lotta is bothered due to being called "Headphone Girl" by Skyler, a popular girl at her after-school club, who appear to only know Lotta for wearing headphones. Carl reveals that when he was known primarily as "The Autistic Kid" back at school, he created the "Carl collection", consisting of items that represent different interests of Carl for others to know him, and helps Lotta make similar collection for her. As she gathers her items for the collection, Lotta decides to include a rainbow-colored model brain, personally disclosing to Carl that she is autistic as well. The next day, Lotta and Skyler bond over the items in the Lotta collection, before proceeding to play four square together. After school, Carl spots the last ginkgo leaf of the fall season, which he wants for his leaf collection, high up on a tree, which at the base has the new armadillo student Dylan drawing on his notepad. Due to Carl and his friends' uncertainty about Dylan due to an incident at school and rumors told by Nico, they attempt to retrieve the leaf without Dylan noticing. Eventually, Dylan retreats to his home. When Carl and Lotta visit, Dylan reveals that he wanted to hang out with them and was nervous due to being in a bigger school. Carl retrieves the gingko leaf as Dylan teaches his friends how to roll.
15	"Rhythm Blues"	N/A	March 31, 2025 (2025-03-31) [8]	TBA
	"Giving Up the Ship"	N/A

Broadcast and reception

Carl the Collector was first announced on November 2023 as the first PBS Kids series to be led by an autistic character. ^[9] Targeted toward children ages 4–8, ^[4] Carl the Collector premiered on November 14, 2024, on PBS Kids. ^[10] The series' premiere in Canada and second season have not been announced. Heather Bambrick, voice actress of Maude, has expressed hope for a second season, saying she thinks "we need a show like this." ^[11] On Common Sense Media, Ashley Moulton gave Carl the Collector four stars, commending the series' characterization and sensitivity in handling autism. Moulton described the characters as relatable and praised the series' representation of the autism spectrum by demonstrating how the characters of Carl and Lotta experience autism differently and how autistic traits manifest without othering the characters. ^[12] Carrie Gillispie of New America considered the character of Carl "a hopeful sign that perhaps disability inclusion could become the norm for the next generation." ^[13]

References

1. Starks, Tiara (November 4, 2024). "Creative team of PBS KIDS' Carl the Collector talk autism representation, illustrations, and authenticity". The Parent Watch. Retrieved December 18, 2024.
2. Davis, Victoria (December 11, 2024). "Carl the Collector: A Lovely Walk Inside the Mind of Autism". Animation World Network . Retrieved December 17, 2024.
3. Zahed, Ramin (November 11, 2024). "'Carl the Collector' Celebrates Friendship & Fun Across the Spectrum on PBS Kids". Animation Magazine . Retrieved December 17, 2024.
4. Graeber, Laurel (November 22, 2024). "Carl the Collector Puts an Autistic Child (Well, Raccoon) in the Lead". The New York Times . Retrieved December 17, 2024.
5. Giordano, Rita (November 13, 2024). "In PBS Kids' first show with major characters on the autism spectrum, a Philly-area town has a major role". Philadelphia Inquirer . Retrieved December 11, 2024.
6. "Carl the Collector". TV Insider . Retrieved December 17, 2024.
7. "Carl the Collector by Episode". PBS . Retrieved December 17, 2024.
8. "Carl the Collector: Rhythm Blues/Giving Up The Ship". WTTW . January 27, 2025.
9. White, Abbey (November 9, 2023). "Carl the Collector, PBS Kids' First Series Led by an Autistic Character, to Premiere in Fall 2024 (Exclusive)". Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved December 17, 2024.
10. Pederson, Erik (December 16, 2024). "2024 Premiere Dates For New & Returning Series On Broadcast, Cable & Streaming". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved December 17, 2024.
11. Cole, Abby (January 5, 2025). "Newfoundland voice actress lands role in new PBS cartoon featuring autistic character". CBC News . Retrieved January 11, 2025.
12. Moulton, Ashley. "Parents' Guide to Carl the Collector: Is It Any Good?". Common Sense Media . Retrieved December 16, 2024.
13. Gillispe, Carrie (December 3, 2024). "Carl the Raccoon and the Power of Inclusive Education for the Next Generation". New America . Retrieved January 2, 2025.

External links

• Official Website
• Carl the Collector at IMDb