CityKids

CityKids is an American television series that aired late Saturday mornings on ABC from 1993 to 1994. The show consists primarily of live action performances, interspersed with Muppet segments, courtesy of Jim Henson Productions. These Muppets were original characters designed specifically for the show, not ones taken from Sesame Street or The Muppet Show. These original characters often served as the Greek chorus for the show, commenting on the situations of the human characters, but not actually interacting with them.

CityKids
GenreComing of age
Created byJeffrey Solomon
Written byJeffrey Solomon
Directed byRick Friedberg, Randall Miller
Starring

Puppeteers:

Voices ofCenophia Mitchell
Elizabeth Regen
Theme music composerRaliegh J Neal II
Opening themeMalik Yoba & Raliegh J Neal II
ComposerRaliegh J Neal II
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes13
Production
Executive producersBrian Henson
Laurie Meadoff-Hill
Running time30 minutes
Production companiesJim Henson Productions
The CityKids Foundation
Release
Original networkABC
Original releaseSeptember 18, 1993 (1993-09-18) –
January 29, 1994 (1994-01-29)

Similar to NBC’s attempt of pushing the adolescent programming for late Saturday mornings with Saved By the Bell since 1989, CityKids was the first and only late Saturday morning series on ABC primarily targeted to a teenage audience, as well as the only one produced by the Jim Henson Company at the time, not to mention an urban one. However, the show failed to generate desirable ratings from any demographic, especially the teenage one, and the show was cancelled by ABC after one season, consequently airing strictly children’s programs on the network the following year.

The show's main theme song was composed by Malik Yoba & Raleigh J. Neal II, both of whom also composed other songs for the series[1] and served as Musical Creative Supervisor for the show.

Plot

Characters

Humans
  • Angelica (portrayed by Cyndi Cartagena)
  • Snoopy/Christian (portrayed by Hassan Elgendi)
  • John (portrayed by Dulé Hill)
  • Susan (portrayed by Anne Ho)
  • Tito (portrayed by Renoly Santiago)
  • Nikki (portrayed by Diana Smith)
  • David (portrayed by Brad Stoll)
  • Frida (portrayed by Audrey Ince)
  • Mr. Lester (portrayed by Don Chastain)
  • Unknown Character (portrayed by Dash Mihok)
  • Unknown Character (portrayed by Michelle Ingkavet)

Puppets
  • Dread (performed by David Rudman) - A Rastafarian philosopher.
  • Bird (performed by Joey Mazzarino) - A pigeon who is Dread's sidekick.
  • Hot Dogs - A bunch of Hot Dogs that would perform songs. Their sketch would begin with a zoom in on the container they are being served in. The sketch ends with a bunch of tongs taking one of the hot dogs.
    • Frankie Frank (performed by David Rudman) - An anthropomorphic hot dog rapper who is the leader of Frankie Frank and the Footers.
  • Captain (performed by Joey Mazzarino) - A character who works "Inside the Head" with Libido and Lieutenant. In newspaper promotions of CityKids, the Captain was shown to have originally been depicted as a red bespectacled monkey before they went with the puppet design that appeared in the show.
  • Libido (performed by John Henson) - A creature-like character that is black who works "Inside the Head" with Captain and Lieutenant.
  • Lieutenant (performed by David Rudman) - A character who works "Inside the Head" with Captain and Libido.
  • Koozebanians (performed by Noel MacNeal and David Rudman) - Three aliens from the planet Koozebane. Two of them have two eyes while one of them has one eye.
  • Dirt Sisters - Trish (performed by Joey Mazzarino, voiced by Elizabeth Regen) and Toya (performed by David Rudman, voiced by Cenophia Mitchell) are two gossipy girls that talk to each other on the phone and talk about the episode's main plot. Trish is from Staten Island while Toya is from Brooklyn.

Episodes
No.TitleOriginal air date
1"Pilot"18 September 1993 (1993-09-18)[2]
2"Becoming a Man"25 September 1993 (1993-09-25)
3"Get a Job"2 October 1993 (1993-10-02)
4"The Curse of Ali Baba"9 October 1993 (1993-10-09)
5"Bye, Bye Reputation"16 October 1993 (1993-10-16)
6"The Mural"23 October 1993 (1993-10-23)
7"Alterations with Attitude"30 October 1993 (1993-10-30)
8"Quality Time"13 November 1993 (1993-11-13)
9"Rooftop Thanksgiving"20 November 1993 (1993-11-20)
10"Pack of Lies"4 December 1993 (1993-12-04)
11"Love Letters on the Hudson"11 December 1993 (1993-12-11)
12"All My Trials"18 December 1993 (1993-12-18)
13"I Am Woman"29 January 1994 (1994-01-29)

Cast
  • Cyndi Cartagena as Angelica
  • Don Chastain as Mr. Lester
  • Hassan Elgendi as Snoopy, Christian
  • Dulé Hill as John
  • Anne Ho as Susan
  • Audrey Ince as Frida
  • Michelle Ingkavet
  • Dash Mihok
  • Cenophia Mitchell as Toya (voice)
  • Elizabeth Regen as Trish (voice)
  • Renoly Santiago as Tito
  • Diana Smith as Nikki
  • Brad Stoll as David

Puppeteers

Later appearances
  • The puppet for Bird later appeared in Muppet Time where he is the straight man for the Three Silly Bears in their segments. This pigeon was also performed by Joey Mazzarino.
  • The puppets for Dread, Captain, Lieutenant, Libido (now purple), the Hot Dogs, the Koozebanians, and the prototype Captain later made appearances in the Puppet Up! shows and other Jim Henson projects.
  • The puppets for the Koozebanians later made appearances in Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time.

References
  1. "Malik Yoba". Yahoo! TV. Retrieved 5 December 2007.
  2. "Kids TV gets a toon up". San Francisco Examiner. 31 August 1993. p. 25. Retrieved 11 September 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
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