The Paz Show

The Paz Show
Created by	Mary Murphy
Starring	Tim Lagasse Rebecca Nagan Anton Rodgers Margot Caroni Charlotte Bellamy Liam McMahon
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	80
Production
Running time	8 minutes (regular; North America) 5 minutes (without live-action segments; international)
Production companies	King Rollo Films Egmont Imagination (season 1) Telescreen BV (season 2)
Original release
Network	ITV (CITV)
Release	February 24, 2003 (2003-02-24) – November 25, 2006 (2006-11-25)
Related
Wilbur Maisy

The Paz Show (also known as Paz the Penguin stylized PAZ) is a British-American live action/animated preschool television series that debuted on February 24, 2003 on Discovery Kids and TLC in the United States. It also aired on ITV in the United Kingdom. The series is a co-production between British studio King Rollo Films and Egmont Imagination (Season 1)/Telescreen BV (Season 2) in association with Discovery Kids. The series was based on a series of books written and illustrated by Mary Murphy.

Between the series' cancellation and October 8, 2010, the series continued to rerun on the Ready Set Learn! block.

Cast and characters

Main cast

• Tim Lagasse as Paz, a playful little penguin with an American accent who is the main character of the series. He is a fuzzy five-year-old penguin, is as optimistic as he is curious, it is not unusual for Paz, in his enthusiasm, to encounter a few roadblocks on his way to adventure, but he sometimes has his mother, Big Penguin, his grandfather, Pappy, and his friends to encourage him on the way. He is occasionally seen playing his trumpeter in a few episodes, his trumpetar is an orange kazoo-like instrument with sitar strings, when played, it plays a similar tune matching the series instrumentals. Starting from 2003, he starred as the mascot of the Ready Set Learn! block until 2010 when the Discovery Kids channel relaunched as the Hub Network. He has a black coat and feet, a white face and a belly, and a yellow chest and a beak.
• Rebecca Nagan as Big Penguin, Paz's loving single mother who works as an architect. She seems to speak in a British accent in a few episodes. Paz's father is never shown in the series. She has a similar appearance as Paz, only to have a yellow lining around her stomach. Starting from Locket, she has been shown wearing a bronze locket that she had inherited from her own mother with a photo of her son in it.
• Anton Rodgers as Pappy, a macaroni penguin as Paz's grandfather and Big Penguin's possible father who is a retired explorer. Pappy lives alone in colorful house that resembles a Mediterranean house which was revealed to have location-themed rooms in Senses besides his bedroom and guest room which were only shown in I Can't Sleep. The episode, Fun With Pappy reveals that Pappy resembled Paz when he was his age while currently resembling his own grandfather. Pappy is somewhat pretty talented at playing the tuba, and occasionally plays songs for Paz and his friends. He is an elder penguin with a pair of yellow crests that matches the big spot on his chest and sometimes appears with a red vest jacket and a blue and red explorer helmet.
• Margot Caroni as Pig, a sassy pig with an Italian accent. She is shown to be very talented at playing the violin in Band Wagon and great at tap-dancing in Right Moves.
• Charlotte Bellamy as Rabbit, an outgoing rabbit with a British accent. She is highly energetic and likes to drum on trash can lids. She has a little sister named Carrot. She is white with an orange right ear and a tail.
• Liam McMahon as Dog, a shy dog with an Irish accent and yellow orange fur. Despite appearing in a few initial episodes, Dog seems to be Paz's new neighbor in New Dog on the Block. He wears a magenta collar and is often seen playing a maraca on his tail.

One-time appearing characters

• Maria Darling as Adelie, Paz's imaginary Antarctic friend who appears in Here We Go!. She lives in Paz's South Pole fantasy world. Her role was to help Paz find his sled in the snow. When they have found the lost sled which was found on top of a whale's blowhole, they go for a little swim in the whale's frozen lake before retrieving it from the whale. Adelie was last seen riding on the sled with Paz, before saying goodbye to him as he concludes his fantasy.
• Colin McFarlane as the frog, a boastful amphibian who appears in The Great Race. Paz challenges him to a race, which he is certain that he can win because he is the fastest racer in the world. He ends up losing after stopping to pose for a painting, proving that being the fastest does not always guarantee victory.
• Tabitha St. Germain as the ostrich, a neighbor who appears in Memory Jewel.

Episodes

• Season 1: 52 episodes - 24 February 2003 - 23 February 2004
• Season 2: 28 episodes - 13 May - 25 November 2006

Season 1 (2003-2004)

• 1. The Right Moves - 24 February 2003
• 2. Big Top - 3 March 2003
• 3. Seesaw - 10 March 2003
• 4. Kite Flight - 17 March 2003
• 5. On Ice - 24 March 2003
• 6. Too Little - 31 March 2003
• 7. Here We Go - 7 April 2003
• 8. Paz Gets A Job - 14 April 2003
• 9. Not Tired - 21 April 2003
• 10. Little Penguin’s Treasure Map - 28 April 2003
• 11. Paz’s Red Scooter - 5 May 2003
• 12. Our Fine’s Feathered Friend - 12 May 2003
• 13. Spiders - 19 May 2003
• 14. Spring Has Sprung - 26 May 2003
• 15. Memory Jeweler - 2 June 2003
• 16. Seaworthy - 9 June 2003
• 17. The Big Egg - 16 June 2003
• 18. Hopping Mad - 23 June 2003
• 19. The Big Box - 30 June 2003
• 20. Brave Old World - 7 July 2003
• 21. Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off - 14 July 2003
• 22. One’s Company - 21 July 2003
• 23. The Play’s The Thing - 28 July 2003
• 24. The Case Of The Missing Voice - 4 August 2003
• 25. In The Dark - 11 August 2003
• 26. Food For Thought - 18 August 2003
• 27. Band Wagon - 25 August 2003
• 28. Am I Blue? - 1 September 2003
• 29. My Senses - 8 September 2003
• 30. Sick In Bed - 15 September 2003

Production

Paz was announced on May 25, 2001, when Danish production division Egmont Imagination was developing its animated production state and had partnered with British animation studio King Rollo Films to produce a pre-school television series Little Penguin based on the book series by Irish author Mary Murphy with Egmont Imagination would handle distribution to the series. ^[1]

One year later on September 9, 2002, Egmont Imagination and British animation studio King Rollo Films had commsionned the series to Discovery's children television network Discovery Kids and fellow channel TLC to broadcast the adaptation of Mary Murphy's book series now entitled The Paz Show for the latter's Ready to Learn block. ^[2]

In March 2003, Dutch children's production & distribution outfit Telescreen acquired Egmont Imagination's programming catalouge from Egmont Group including the upcoming television series Little Penguin with Telescreen taking over production & development for the series including distribution rights. ^[3]

Awards and nominations

• Silver Honor - 2005 Parents' Choice Award ^[4]
• Nominee - 2005 Humanitas Prize for Children's Television (episode Things Change by James Still) ^[5]
• Nominee - 32nd Daytime Emmy Awards (2005) for Pre-school Children's Series ^[6]
• Nominee - 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards (2006) for Pre-school Children's Series ^[7]
• Nominee - 34th Daytime Emmy Awards (2007) for Outstanding Pre-school Children's Series ^[8]

References

1. "Egmont to adapt Help! I'm a Fish for TV". C21Media. 25 May 2001.
2. Waller, Ed (9 September 2002). "Discovery lines up Egmont and Rollo toon for 2003". C21Media.
3. Ball, Ryal (10 March 2003). "Dutch Telescreen/PPM Nabs Egmont Imagination's Catalog". Animation Magazine.
4. "PAZ" . Retrieved 7 May 2016.
5. Daniels, Charley (7 June 2005). "2005 Humanitas Prize Finalists Announced" (PDF). TV Week. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
6. THE NATIONAL TELEVISION ACADEMY ANNOUNCES 32nd ANNUAL DAYTIME EMMY AWARD NOMINATIONS (PDF), 2 March 2005, retrieved 7 May 2016
7. "THE NATIONAL TELEVISION ACADEMY ANNOUNCES 33rd ANNUAL DAYTIME EMMY AWARD NOMINATIONS". 8 February 2006. Retrieved 7 May 2016.
8. "NOMINEES FOR THE CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING EMMY® AWARDS ANNOUNCED AT KIDSCREEN SUMMIT". 7 February 2007. Retrieved 7 May 2016.

External links

• The Paz Show at IMDb