Melanie (TV series)

Melanie is a Kuboian traditionally animated preschool television series created by Hollis Davies. Produced by Twinkle, the show premiered on KT in April 2005.

Premise
The show centres around Melanie, a blonde seven year-old girl who often causes trouble due to her impulsive and mischievous behaviour. Episodes normally involve Melanie being faced with a problem or conflict and having to use wit and other problem solving skills to overcome it.

Development
Production on Melanie began in early 2003 shortly after production on Olly, another show created by Davies, ended. Although the show was initially produced by Red Grape Studios, production was put to a temporary hault when the studio was closed after its founder Ruth Tucker decided to partially retire. Davies ended up setting up his own studio, Twinkle, in order to complete production on the first series. Melanie's voice actress, Suzie Hersham, was chosen through auditions that took place in the spring of 2003.

Davies wanted production of episodes to be fun, and admitted in an interview he was "not above" poking fun of people and trends he did not like. Originally, episodes would run in a half-hour format and feature two stories each, although Davies decide to make it a "quarter-hour" show in order to reduce production time and cost, as well as favouring a "quality over quantity" approach. Most episodes run for approximately thirteen minutes, though some of the "special" episodes run for up to fifteen minutes.

Melanie is the third television show part of the "Heatherwood" series, and as such, takes place in the same timeline as Ouraine and Olly. Melanie herself draws similarities to an unnamed baby character who makes a non-speaking cameo in an episode of Olly sleeping. In 2020, Davies confirmed that the two were the same character. Both Ouraine and Olly make appearances in a series three episodd, with Emily Merletta and Jack Carole reprising their roles as the respective characters. Ouraine also makes a cameo in the first series, appearing on a poster in an episode.

Despite the show's popularity, Davies decided to end production of Melanie after the fourth series was completed, wanting to end on a high note and to avoid the show entering a "filler era".

Episodes
Episodes of Melanie were typically broadcast on KT on Wednesday mornings, though the first episode of the third and fourth series were instead aired on Tuesday evenings as part of the Children's Appeal Day telethons of 2006 and 2007.

Reception
Ericka Streets claimed in 2006 that Melanie was amongst KT's most popular programmes at the time, stating "the kids love it. It's really funny but it's also very heartwarming too." In spite of this, the show also draw criticism for the misbehaviour caused by the titular character and the lack of consequences given by the adult characters. American organisation Common Sense Media awarded the series a 2/5 rating, criticising the show for glamorisig bad behaviour and lacking educational value. Another common complaint came from the supposed sexualisation of the child characters, who some sources claimed often wore short and skimpy clothing. Davies responded by stating those who criticised Melanie were "missing the point of the show" and that criticism towards the titular character's antics were "hugely exaggerated".

In the spring of 2019, Davies uploaded all of the show's episodes onto his personal YouTube channel, which resulted in it gaining another wave in popularity.

Broadcast history
Melanie premiered on KT on 13th April 2005, and continued airing until the channel closed in 2008. The show also aired on Nick Jr. Kuboia from 2006 to 2010, airing in a half-hour block featuring two episodes. Reruns were aired on Little Disney from 2013 until 2020.

In the United Kingdom, the show aired on Milkshake! from June 2005, whilst pay TV broadcasting rights were handled by Tiny Pop. It was still airing on the latter channel as late as October 2013. In Canada, the show aired on Treehouse TV.

In the United States, an Americanised version of the first two series of Melanie aired on Cartoon Network as part of its short-lived Tickle-U block. PBS later acquired rights to the original Kuboian version of the show, airing it on its PBS Kids Sprout channel from 2006 to 2010.

The show also aired on Z@ppelin and Jetix Play in the Netherlands, France 5 in France, Super RTL in Germany and Playhouse Disney in several European countries.