Rainbow (TV series)

Long-running UK kids' show, intended to be the British equivalent of Sesame Street, which, for the bulk of its long-running time, centered around puppets Zippy, a creature with a zipper for a mouth and George, a Camp hippopotamus, as well as a bear named Bungle and their human caretaker Geoffrey. It started airing in 1972, and ended in 1992, followed by two spinoffs.

Many non-European viewers know the show for its infamous "twangers" episode which consisted of a half hour of proceedingly less veiled double entendres about the sexual escapades of the cast. The episode never actually aired as part of the show and was put together at a production party as a private joke, but has since migrated its way to YouTube and other such online video sites. Zippy and George also appeared on The Weakest Link.

Rainbow provides examples of:


 * Ambiguously Gay -- George
 * Anti Role Model -- Zippy is sometimes portrayed as this
 * Bumbling Dad -- Geoffrey
 * Cameo -- The characters have made brief appearances in shows like Ashes to Ashes and Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps.
 * Canon Foreigner -- Cleo the rabbit in one spin-off, Dale in the later 'Rainbow Days'
 * Cartoon Creature -- Zippy. Word of God calls him 'a unique'.
 * Crossover -- Sooty appeared a couple of times
 * Dream Sequence -- too many times to count
 * Edutainment Show
 * Everythings Better With Bunnies -- Cleo in the spinoff.
 * Everything's Better With Rainbows
 * Everything's Worse With Bears - Subverted and sort of played straight with Bungle. He's quite a nice character, but isn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box.
 * Fable Remake -- Plenty of these, even one imagining a backstory for Little Tommy Tucker
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar -- The infamous 'twangers' clip
 * Guilty Pleasure
 * Hey It's That Voice -- Zippy and George are voiced by Roy Skelton, who voiced the Daleks in Doctor Who
 * Kids Are Cruel -- Zippy
 * Long Runners -- Over 1000 episodes - even for a Japanese series, that's long!
 * Muppet
 * Odd Couple -- Zippy and George
 * Pink Girl, Blue Boy -- Inverted somewhat. George is male yet has pink fur (which is actually appropriate). In the first spinoff, Cleo, the female rabbit, had blue fur.
 * Pride -- Zippy has this in spades.
 * Sesame Street Cred
 * Spin-Off -- A series set in a toy shop, and 'Rainbow Days'.
 * Subverted Kids Show -- Undergone this treatment, with the 'twangers' clip and Zippy and George's appearance in Ashes to Ashes.
 * Talking to Himself -- Roy Skelton voices both Zippy and George
 * Uncanny Family Resemblance -- Zippy's cousin Zippo
 * "The Villain Sucks" Song -- Variation; a song is sung about how much of a 'bossy boots' Zippy is