Eureeka's Castle

Eureeka's Castle
Genre	Children's
Created by	Judy Katschke Bob Stine
Written by	Bob Stine (head writer)
Starring	Cheryl Blaylock Noel MacNeal James Kroupa Pam Arciero Lynn Hippen Brian Muehl
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	147 (total amount of episodes) 87 (hour-long episodes) 52 (half-hour episodes) 3 (half-hour specials)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Kit Laybourne
Producer(s)	Kathleen Minton Michael Holman (1989–1991)
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	50-52 minutes (hour-long episodes) 25-27 minutes (half-hour episodes)
Distributor	MTV Networks
Release
Original network	Nick Jr.
Original release	September 4, 1989 – June 30, 1995

Eureeka's Castle is an American children's television series created by Judy Katschke and Bob Stine. It aired on Nick Jr. from September 4, 1989 to June 30, 1995.

Production

Bob Stine, better known for his children's horror novels written under the pen name R.L. Stine, co-created the show with Judy Katschke and was the head writer.

The puppet design and construction for the characters were done at 3/Design Studio where the puppets were built by James Kroupa, John Orberg, Kip Rathke and Matt Stoddart

Synopsis

The show follows various puppet characters (in the style of Sesame Street), including Eureeka, a sorceress-in-training. She and her friends live in a wind-up castle music box owned by a friendly Giant. Other characters include Magellan the Dragon, Bogge and Quagmire, Batly the Bat and Mr. Knack. There are also various appearing creatures such as mice, singing fish statues called the Fishtones, Magellan's pets Cooey and the Slurms and Batly's pet spider, Webster.

Also featured were animated segments such as the Weston Woods Studios films based on popular children's books, live-action short films, and UK imports such as Roobarb, The Shoe People, and Gran.

The show was originally broadcast on Nick Jr., and several years later, the show was picked up by Noggin, and aired from 1999 to 2002.

Characters

• Eureeka (performed by Cheryl Blaylock) - The title character. Eureeka is a friendly sorceress-in-training. Her spells are not successful most of the time, but she keeps trying until she gets it right.
• Magellan (performed by Noel MacNeal) - A large green dragon with a tail that has a mind of its own. He such doesn't always understand new concepts. Magellan tends to make great big sneezes that can shake the whole castle whenever he gets upset.
  • Cooey (performed by Lynn Hippen) - Magellan's pet of indeterminate species.
  • Slurms - Magellan's pet worm hybrids. They were animated with clay animation.
• Batly (performed by James Kroupa in a New Jersey accent) - An egotistical clumsy blue bat who wears glasses due to being near-sighted. Despite being different in every way, he and Magellan are good friends. His flying usually ends with a crash landing prompting him to say "I meant to do that". Batly spends most of his time in the belfry and has a large bug collection.
  • Webster (performed by Noel MacNeal) - Batly's pet spider.
• Bogge and Quagmire (performed by Brian Muehl and Pam Arciero) - The Moat Twins are siblings who spend most of their time swimming in the castle moat, eating peanut butter sandwiches, and playing in the basement. Bogge is orange and has two arms while Quagmire is pink and has four arms. They tend to argue with each other, but work together when it comes to causing trouble. Bogge and Quagmire constantly try to steal Magellan's peanut butter sandwiches, but never succeed.
• Mr. Knack (performed by Brian Muehl in an Italian accent) - The castle's handyman and tinkerer. He uses many unconventional methods for fixing things around the castle. He also loves to barter when he sells some of his inventions that he has made from his pushcart. Mr. Knack always gets some postcards which he reads to the viewers.
• Sir Klank (performed by James Kroupa) - An old blue mouse with a long gray beard who resides in a suit of armor.
• Kate (performed by Lynn Hippen) - A pink mouse who frequently reports on what happens in the castle.
• Emma (performed by Pam Arciero) - A fat orange mouse who loves to eat.
• Fishtones - A trio of singing fish in the form of a stone fountain who spray water when they're not singing.
• The Giant (performed by James Kroupa) - A friendly, full-bodied giant with a long nose who owns the wind-up castle music box where the show takes place.

Puppeteers

• Pam Arciero – Quagmire, Emma
• Cheryl Blaylock – Eureeka
• Lynn Hippen – Cooey, Kate
• James Kroupa – Batly, Sir Klank, Giant
• Noel MacNeal – Magellan, Webster
• Brian Muehl – Bogge, Mr. Knack

Additional puppeteers

• Robert J. Gardner -
• John Kennedy -
• Joey Mazzarino -

VHS release

Several episodes of Eureeka's Castle were released on VHS first by Sony Wonder from 1995 to 1996 and redistributed by Paramount Home Video in 1997.

• Sing Along With Eureeka (1995)
• Christmas at Eureeka's Castle (1995)
• Wide Awake at Eureeka's Castle (1996)

Awards

In 1990, Eureeka's Castle won an Ace Award for best children's program.^[1][2]

References

1. Hedegaard, Erik (1990-09-07). "Hand-to-Hand Comedy". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2012-04-06.
2. "Eureeka's Castle: Sing Along with Eureeka". Retrieved 2012-04-06.

External links

• Eureeka's Castle at the Internet Movie Database
• Eureeka's Castle at TV.com
• Entertainment Weekly article