Edutainment Show
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"Well, Itchy & Scratchy are gone, but here's a cartoon that tries to make learning fun! ...Sorry about this kids, but stay tuned; we've got some real good toy commercials coming right up, I swear".
—Krusty the Clown, The Simpsons
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As the trope's title implies, the Edutainment Show combines educational content with entertainment. As such, most shows in this genre are aimed at children; of course, some more mature fare may fit this definition, such as Myth Busters. Cooking Shows, Science Shows, Nature Shows, and other TV Documentary formats (especially Docu Drama programs) may also count, if they are entertaining enough. Additionally, the definition has become somewhat blurred - these days networks often pass children's programs in particular as "edutainment," when their only actual educational content is pro-social themes, such as "work together as a team", "Reading Is Cool Aesop" or "be a good friend to others."
Many Edutainment Shows appear on PBS, the most famous example being Sesame Street. Nickelodeon also has had quite a few in their "Nick Jr" block, such as Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer, as do specialized fact-oriented cable networks as The Learning Channel, Noggin, the many Discovery channels, the History Channel, and Animal Planet.
In the United States, since 1990, networks are required to have 3 hours of educational material a week; the tag "E/I" (for "Educational/Informative") was created to denote such shows (though in the case of stations carrying Saved By the Bell, the rules are susceptible to Loophole Abuse if An Aesop is fit into the show in just the right way, and they can count as E/I). Now you know what the And Knowing Is Half the Battle is referring to.
For the Video Game counterpart see Edutainment Game.
Other examples:
- Three Two One Contact
- 321 Penguins
- Adventures From the Book of Virtues
- Amazing Animals
- Angelina Ballerina
- Animal Armageddon
- Arguably, Animaniacs, which featured many educational songs and skits as well as famous historical figures and cultural icons of past eras, all for the Warners to gleefully abuse.
- Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series.
- Anselme Lanturlu (French edutainment comic)
- The Archers was originally conceived as a way to make British farms more productive by teaching good practice; it's long since outgrown this and become a straight Soap Opera, but still takes pride in the accuracy of its farming-related storylines, retaining an "Agricultural Story Editor" for this purpose.
- Arthur - This program also Lampshades this trope with an in-universe example. Buster claims that a program that he's making is going to be "edutainment." The characters respond to this with an "ew." The chapter-book adaptation of that episode goes even further, with Brain stating that edutainment is supposed to be a blend of education and entertainment, but often ends up being the worst of both.
- Axis Powers Hetalia teaches history and a little bit about culture between (often with) all the Ho Yay and gags. (Although the manga's depiction of Korea has sparked controversy in South Korea.)
- Baby Einstein
- The Backyardigans
- Barney and Friends
- Beakmans World
- Bear in The Big Blue House
- Between the Lions
- The Big Comfy Couch
- Bill Nye the Science Guy
- Black Hole High
- Blasters Universe: Based on an Edutainment Game series.
- Blues Clues
- Bob the Builder
- Brain Games: HBO's take on the learning program, and it was even marketed on VHS tapes in a period when television programs on home video was an exception, not a rule.
- Brainiac Science Abuse...sometimes.
- Brain POP
- Bubble Guppies
- The Busy World of Richard Scarry
- Caillou
- Calling All Safety Scouts
- Captain Planet and The Planeteers
- Classic Disney Shorts: Some Donald Duck shorts of the mid-to-late 1950s had an educational bend, one of the most notable of which was Donald in Mathmagicland, in which Donald, assisted by the True Spirit of Adventure, shows how "there's a lot more to mathematics than just two times two."
- Clifford the Big Red Dog
- Conquest
- Cosmic Quantum Ray
- Cyberchase
- Deadliest Warrior gets into the nitty gritty of history: wars, different warriors, how they fought, and their weapons. Controversy or no, they dig up the most brutal aspects of humanity and pit them together in all their bloody glory.
- Destinos: An Introduction To Spanish
- Didou: Step-by-step instructions on drawing various items.
- Dino Dan
- Dinosaur Train
- Doc McStuffins
- Doctor Who: As odd as it seems in retrospect, this show started out as edutainment. The show was originally meant to alternate between stories set in the past that would teach kids history, and those set in the future, or on other planets, that would teach science (hence the first two companions being a history teacher and a science teacher). Then the Daleks showed up, became massively popular, and changed the emphasis of the show to scary monsters rather than education.
- Some of the stories from the first two seasons of the original series illustrate what Doctor Who was intended to be — chiefly most of the historical stories (e.g. "Marco Polo," in which our heroes meet Marco Polo in the Pamirs and travel all the way to Peking with him).
- Verity Lambert fought to get the Dalek story on TV by playing the edutainment card. According to modern accounts, she told her boss, Sydney Newman, that the story could teach us that we must curb our more belligerent tendencies, with the barren, radioactive wasteland of Skaro as their logical conclusion.
- Dora the Explorer
- Its spin-off Go Diego Go
- Dragon Tales
- The Electric Company: Both the 1971 version and the 2009 version, though the 1970s version is more well-liked/remembered. Given that the 70s version managed to license Spider-Man and features Morgan Freeman, and managed to make both of them Narmy, being remembered is guaranteed.
- Element Hunters: An anime that manages to teach chemistry in a Monster of the Week format.
- Fat Albert and The Cosby Kids: A 1970s cartoon that does a good job teaching life lessons to kids.
- Fetch With Ruff Ruffman
- Fireman Sam.
- Food Detectives: An attempt to do for foodstuffs what Myth Busters does for high explosives.
- Franklin
- Frannys Feet
- The Fresh Beat Band
- The Funny Company
- GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class has definite elements of this; there are whole episodes spent on explaining various graphic techniques.
- Good Eats: Half Cooking Show, half straight-up Edutainment Show. Alton prefers to educate the viewer on food science and cooking theory, rather than simply giving out recipes as most TV chefs do.
- Gordon The Garden Gnome
- The Head First books manage to do this in a book form. And they're both entertaining and educational. This being a series that deals with subjects like math and computer programming.
- Histeria
- Horrible Histories
- How Its Made
- Humf
- Infinity Limited
- Its a Big Big World
- Jake and The Neverland Pirates
- Jakers the Adventures of Piggley Winks
- James Mays Man Lab
- Jay Jay the Jet Plane
- Jelly Jamm
- Jurassic Fight Club: Because Everythings Better With Dinosaurs
- Kratts Creatures
- Lamb Chops Play Along
- Leap Frog Learning DVDs.
- The Lebrons: A modern day Fat Albert.
- The Letter People: A puppet show that teaches phonics with surprisingly developed characters.
- Liberty's Kids: A surprisingly sophisticated show that teaches about The American Revolution.
- Lift Off
- Little Bear
- Little People
- Little Einsteins
- Look and Read
- Lunar Jim
- Madeline (on the moral side only, show contains lots of factual mistakes)
- The Magic School Bus
- Mama Mirabelles Home Movies
- Martha Speaks
- Maya and Miguel
- Mentors
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
- Mister Rogers Neighborhood
- Mr. Wizard's World
- My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic is of the pro-social type - although occasionally larger words or terms that the younger audience probably won't understand, such as "tardy" or "hibernation", are defined (in-context). Interesitngly, the first season carried an E/I rating, but the second season has dropped it.
- Myth Busters spells out how the myths are tested, so you can learn quite a bit from that show, in the middle of Stuff Blowing Up.
- New Zoo Revue: 1970s children's show.
- Newtons Apple
- Ni Hao Kai Lan
- Numb3rs
- Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure and Drink to Britain aim to give the curious adult the basic tools for appreciating wine and other drink while following an Odd Couple of middle-aged blokes around on thinly-veiled drinking holidays.
- The Pajanimals
- PB and J Otter
- Penn and Teller Bullshit
- Penn and Teller Tell A Lie
- PJ Katies Farm
- Pororo the Little Penguin
- Postman Pat
- Power Rangers, perhaps less so nowadays, was very edutainment back in the Mighty Morphin days.
- Pinwheel: The Sesame Street-esque program that launched Nickelodeon into the limelight; the channel itself was known as "Pinwheel" until 1979.
- The Puzzle Place
- Pythagoras Switch (Pitagora Suichi): A show much like Sesame Street, from Japan, known for its Eye Catches featuring intricate Rube Goldberg Devices.
- Readalong
- Reading Rainbow
- Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat
- Schoolhouse Rock: Animated shorts, set to music, that would play between Saturday morning cartoons on ABC.
- Science Court
- The newly started Sci Show, hosted by Hank Green.
- Screenwipe, and its spin-off, Newswipe.
- Die Sendung Mit Der Maus: The most notable German language example.
- Sesame Street: It's probably the longest Edutainment Show that's still currently running.
- Sid the Science Kid
- Spot the Dog
- Square One TV
- Storm Chasers
- Storylords
- Super Why
- Time Warp
- Todays Special
- Team Umizoomi
- Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales is an early example of this trope, being created in response to the "TV is a vast wasteland" speech.
- Thomas the Tank Engine became this after Series 7, sadly for some veteran fans.
- Through the Dragons Eye
- Unnatural History occasionally bases its episodes on history like Sputnik, the Pony Express, and the history of vikings in America. Unfortunately, the line between fact and fiction gets a bit murky (most likely to encourage kids and teens to do some research themselves).
- Veggie Tales
- Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego (based on the series of Edutainment Games)
- Wilbur
- Wild Kratts
- Wimzies House
- Wishbone
- Word Girl
- Young Indiana Jones: Taught kids about history and people who changed the world through the young eyes of everyone's favorite whip-wielding hero.
- Zinnia Jones
- Zoboomafoo
- Zoom
- Zula Patrol
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