Bod (TV series)

Did You Know?

• Bod is a fictional deity in the BBC Radio 4 science fiction comedy Nebulous, and the Bod theme music is heard in one episode.
• Homestar Runner's titular character dressed up as Bod for the 2020 Halloween special.
• The books reveal the Taoist beliefs of Bod's original creators.

Source books

The four Bod books first appeared in 1965 in the UK, with later releases in the US and France. Their titles are Bod's Apple, Bod's Present, Bod's Dream, and Bod and the Cherry Tree. In French, Bod's Apple became La Pomme de Gus. Before the TV series was made, these stories were read aloud on the BBC children's show Play School. In 1974, thirteen five-minute episodes were produced for the BBC's Watch with Mother strand, and the Australian ABC also bought them. The series later reached New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Poland, and Israel. In the US, it appeared on Nickelodeon as part of the Pinwheel program.

Alberto Frog

Each episode also features Alberto Frog and his Amazing Animal Band, illustrated by Joanne Cole. Maggie Henderson narrates these segments, which weave short excerpts from well-known classical pieces into the story. Typically, Alberto’s reward for solving a problem is picking a new milkshake flavor. The BBC produced these segments separately, and they originally aired alongside Bod episodes. Out of thirteen made, only five survive today, after a large number of 1970s children’s videotaped shows were erased in the early 1990s. Those five are included on the Bod DVD. One additional segment was found on an old VHS tape and is now on YouTube. Another complete episode, Bod and the Grasshopper, surfaced in 2020.