Pinky Dinky Doo

Broadcast

It first premiered on Discovery Kids in Latin-America in April 5, 2005. It premiered in the USA on Noggin (which was rebranded as Nick Jr. on September 28, 2009) on April 10, 2006, but has no longer been airing on the channel as of April 8, 2011 when the show was pulled from the air.

Presently it still airs in Canada in 2016 in French on TFO.

Plot

Pinky is a seven-year-old girl who lives in Great Big City with her parents, her four-year-old little brother, Tyler, and their pet, Mr. Guinea Pig. When a problem arises, Pinky says,"That gives me an idea" and Tyler says, "Pinky, are you going to make up a story?" and Pinky will say, "Yeserooni positooni!" and dances her way to a cardboard box called her Story Box with Tyler and Mr. Guinea Pig and uses a piece of chalk and her imagination to tell a story. During the made-up story, Pinky must Think Big, at which point her head swells up like a balloon and she comes up with an often wacky solution to the problem while singing "If I have a problem and don't know which way to go, I think and think and think and think and suddenly I know!". In "Tyler Dinky Doo to the Rescue," "Two Wheel Dreams", Tyler's Big Idea(Grand Finale)" and "Go to Bed, Tyler!", Tyler does the thinking. In "Shrinky Pinky", it was Mr. Guinea Pig. In the second season, Pinky uses the Story Pad, a notebook in which Pinky draws pictures for her newer made-up stories, whenever the Story Box is not available.

This show helps viewers increase their vocabularies with its Great Big Fancy Word, which is featured several times during the episode. It also addresses problem-solving skills as well as the basics of narrative stories—character, dialogue, plot, details, main idea and sequence of events. After Pinky tells her story and solves the problem of the day, kids are invited to play an interactive game on the Cheese Sandwich toy, where they review details about the story. At the end of each episode, Pinky says, "I love to make up stories. I'll bet you can make up a story too." In each episode, there is also a "Great Big Fancy Word", which varies with each episode, but when somebody is about to say the word, Mr. Guinea Pig will blow a trumpet and then the character says the word.

This series was created by Jim Jinkins, who originally made up Pinky's adventures as bed-time tales for his children. The Executive Producers are Jinkins and David Campbell. It is a production of Children's Television Workshop, Cartoon Pizza, Keyframe Digital Prod. Inc, and Abrams Gentile Entertainment. According to Nick Jr., Pinky Dinky Doo is the network’s second series (first original series) dedicated to enhancing early literacy.

The original American version was initially shown on CBeebies in the UK, but more recently the show has been redubbed and broadcast with British English accents. There is also a Spanish version on Univision.

In 2016 It was rerun on HBO On HBO Family

Characters

It has three main characters: Pinky (India Ennenga), Tyler (Season one: Felix Chrome, Season two: Allison Wachtfogel), and Mr. Guinea Pig (Season one: Juan Van Michaelangelo, Season two: John Rogers). It also has the characters of Pinky's mother (Heather Dilly), and father (Jim Jinkins) and a quintet of school characters: Nicholas Biscuit (Season one: Katherine Rose Riley, Season two: Thomas Sharkey (2008–2011), Bobby Boom, Daffinee Toilette (Carolina Hernandez (Season 1) Anabelle Berrido (Season 2).), Miss McGanza (Anne Stinkley) and Pinky.

Episodes

List of Pinky Dinky Doo episodes

Games

At the end of each 11 minute story, Pinky plays an educational type of game. After that, Mr. Guinea Pig would press the power button to turn off the toy. The toy is a cheese sandwich connected with electrical power buttons. Some of the games include the following:

In What Came First?, Pinky replays certain portions of the story and then asks viewing children to put the portions in the right order.

The game of Eat It or Wear It has Pinky showing objects and asks kids if they would eat it or wear it.

The Great Big Fancy Word Game Pinky helps kids recall the meaning of the fancy word that has been repeated in the story by showing pictures and allows kids to shout the word if the picture matches it.

In Who Is This?, a slice of Swiss cheese appears on the screen and holes pop out of it revealing a character from the story. Kids must try to guess what character is hiding behind the slice of cheese.

In Where is Pinky/Tyler?, a slice of Swiss cheese appears on the screen and holes pop out of it revealing a location and kids would tell Pinky where she and Tyler is.

What is That Sound? has Pinky ask kids to identify the sound from Pinky's made up story from the 3 Radios

In What's the Name of my Story?, Pinky gives us titles for stories, and the viewers think of the best title of the story.

In Which is the Right Pinky/Tyler/Mr. Guinea Pig/Monster?, There are four Pinkys/Tylers/Mr. Guinea Pigs/monsters shown and the viewers guess which one was the Pinky/Tyler/Mr. Guinea Pig/monster seen in the story.

In Who Said This? has three characters from the story say the same line and the viewers think of the right character who really said the line from the story.

In What Was my Big Idea?, Pinky gives us three different big ideas and the viewers guess which was the idea from the story.

In Who Were the Main Characters?, Pinky gives us two characters each and the viewers guess who was in the story.

In Was This a Setting?, Pinky gives us three different settings and the viewers guess which settings were in the story.