Between the Lions

Between the Lions was an American children's TV show that taught reading through a mix of live-action, puppetry, animation, and sketch comedy. It was created by WGBH in Boston, Sirius Thinking, Ltd. in New York City, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting, which co-produced from 2005 to 2010 and distributed the first ten seasons. The program earned ten Daytime Emmy Awards between 2001 and 2007. It first aired on PBS Kids on April 3, 2000, replacing *The Puzzle Place* in that time slot, and its final episode aired on November 22, 2010. Although Sesame Workshop did not produce it, the show was made by former staff of *Sesame Street*, another PBS children’s program, and occasionally featured guest appearances from that show’s characters. It was designed as a companion to *Sesame Street* for slightly older viewers.

The series centered on a family of talking lions who lived and worked in the Barnaby B. Busterfield III Memorial Public Library. Other characters included Click, a computer mouse shaped like the animal; the Information Hen, who handled library phone calls; and Heath, a dinosaur who served as the library’s thesaurus. Each episode promoted literacy by having the lions introduce and read a picture book. Some episodes adapted well-known folktales, myths, or fables, while others used popular storybooks or showed the lions learning from the story’s lessons.

The show included many educational segments, such as parodies of famous media redesigned for young audiences and simple animations. A recurring subplot featured two pigeons named Walter and Clay, who annoyed a living bust of the library’s deceased founder, Barnaby B. Busterfield III, located in the library’s dome. This subplot was mainly used for comic relief and wordplay.

After the fourth season, the show’s format changed noticeably. Episodes became two ten-minute shorts, each a condensed version of an earlier episode, tied together by a theme. The library set was reduced to a small section. Older segments like “Magic Time,” “Sam Spud,” and “The Monkey Pop-Up Theater” were replaced with new animated ones such as “Joy Learno” and “The Trampolini Brothers.” Later episodes shifted away from focusing on reading, using stories mainly to support the episode’s theme. Major characters like Busterfield, Walter and Clay, Heath, and Martha Reader disappeared from the show, though they still appeared in the opening credits.

The main characters included Theo Lion, the co-owner and librarian with a loud voice, big appetite, and love of meat; his wife Cleo, also a co-owner and librarian, who loved reading to their cubs and had strong hunting instincts; their seven-year-old son Lionel, a first-grader who loved “Cliff Hanger” books; and their four-year-old daughter Leona, who was curious and often practiced pouncing on her brother or father. Click the Mouse was a female computer mouse who could drag and drop objects and characters into and out of books and websites, but had to stay connected to a computer and was vulnerable to viruses. She disappeared after season four but returned later. Barnaby B. Busterfield III was a grumpy rock bust who could not move and was annoyed by the pigeons Walter and Clay, as well as by anyone calling him “Buster.” He was absent after season four. Walter and Clay were two pigeons living in the library’s dome.