Rainbow (TV series)

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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.

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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