Mole Miner

 is an internationally co-produced animated television series currently produced by Jazz Television Media,, Berker Entertainment Group, Latikuu Edacra Entertainment North America, Morkel & Associates, , , and  in association with  member station. The series premiered on November 5, 2001 on PBS as part of the block, and almost immediately garnered attention for being one of the first PBS Kids shows with a TV-Y7 rating.

Mole Miner has received widespread praise from critics throughout its run, proving to be an extremely popular draw for PBS upon its debut. The series received multiple nominations for, Sylvania Television Awards, , , Michael Awards and Jupiter Awards. Currently, the copyrights for the Mole Miner franchise are owned by Mole Miner Partnership L.P. (a partnership of Latikuu Edacra, Berker Entertainment Group, Nexstar Studios and Morkel & Associates).

A feature-length film, Mole Miner: Quartz Madness!, was released on October 2, 2003. A second feature film, The Irish Job - A Mole Miner Movie, was released on February 10, 2019. A third feature film, New York Pity - A Mole Miner Movie, is scheduled to be released in November 2023.

Along with Sesame Street (which now airs first-run on, and second-run on PBS) and Arthur (which ended in February 2022 after 253 episodes), Mole Miner is one of ' longest running series. The show has received a recommendation for viewing from the (NEA).

Synopsis
Darren, an anthropomorphic mole miner, works for the Phelworth Mining Co. in Stone Gap, a town in the Rockies, a fictional mineral-rich mountain region in the state of  (based on the real-life ). He works alongside other animals and at the same time teaches the audience middle school-level knowledge about geology, engineering, history of mining, and industrial uses of different minerals, as well as social and/or moral lessons.

Origin and development
Creator Phelan Morkel was only a 17-year old high schooler when his comic Darren the Mole Miner was featured in the school newspaper of in  in 1993. The comic gained national attention for its teaching of geology and the history of mining and Morkel soon signed deals with Publishers' Syndicate to syndicate the strip to newspapers and with to release collections of the comic. The first collection, Hey, It's Me, Darren! (1995), made Morkel one of the youngest authors to have a title on the. In 1999, Morkel was approached by to produce a television series adapted from the comic. Lear had noticed that one of his grand-nephews had outgrown Arthur and felt there was no educational kids program that could appeal to him or other kids of his age range, and thought Morkel's comic would work great as a TV series. Lear and Morkel produced a pilot and pitched the series to of  in 2000. WNET producer Kristin Laskas Martin thought the show could have appeal since the titular character, Darren, "wasn't as divisive as Barney and wasn't as neurotic as Arthur".

Lear's Act III Productions worked with -based, Latikuu Holdings USA (who also took interest in the original pitch), Berker Entertainment Group (another company that took interest in the pitch) and Jazz Television Media to produce a pilot for the series. Several animation firms from Japan, South Korea and Canada, Linkhouse Animation and being among them, were contracted to animate the pilot, with the -based  providing the voice recording and casting. The pilot was screened to WNET and PBS executives and a test audience of local children at a private event in August 2000. The children "fell in love with the characters", and the executives agreed that a Mole Miner show would be successful for PBS. WNET & PBS immediately greenlit the series for a initial season of 40 episodes, which debuted on November 5, 2001. The aforementioned firms returned to produce the series, being joined by WNET. At age 25, Phelan Morkel was, at the time, the youngest creator of a daytime television series.

As part of the show's development, Dr. Joan Fitzwilliam PhD developed a curriculum for the show, nicknamed the "two-lesson" system, that emphasized teaching not only the history of mining and facts about geology and engineering, but also social values and moral lessons, especially the. Writers consult with a panel of "educators, psychologists, social scientists, humanities scholars, theologians and other experts" on how to incorporate lessons into the story.

For the series' tone, Morkel was inspired by a number of shows, including ', ', ', ', ' and '. Early comedic influences for the writing team included The Tumblers,  and.

The decision to set the show in was the idea of Earl McKee, who had once been in  during layover from a flight.

Casting and voice recording
David A. James was cast as Darren, the main character of the show. At the time he was cast, the comedian-turned-actor was considering quitting show business to return to his native and work on his family's farm, but the surprise success of the show led him to continue his acting and comedy careers.

Most of the voice recording is split between in  and Blue Water Studios, an Ocean subsidiary, in, with additional recording in  and. Due to the cast being split between multiple cities, the Vancouver-based actors record together with fill-in voices for the affected characters, with the rest of the cast recording over the scratch tracks later in production. Martin Berger, the Toronto-based voice of Mango, usually travels to Vancouver to record with the rest of the cast.

Developing plot lines and scripts
For a time, Phelan Morkel stated that he and the crew had taken to getting inspiration for plots from listening to music or watching television shows. In 2009, Morkel began watching the television show . When he watched some of the skits and noted the use of "awkward situations" as a source of humor, he realized he could tap into plot ideas for the show by "exploring human awkwardness and finding ways to make a joke out of it." Both Morkel and Earl McKee have stated they get plot ideas by listening to music, for example McKee wrote the episode "Hunting High and Low" after "binging" the discography of the band.

In order to achieve the goals for the show's "two-lesson" system, writers consult with the team assembled by Joan Fitzwilliam for incorporating social/moral lessons and with mineralogy and geology consultants for educational lessons, and in recent years have also consulted with Montana historian Kevin Baltes for accurate information about the state.

Animation
Most of the pre-production work is split between Baker Animation in, founded and run by former Disney animator Matthew C. Baker, and various Canadian and American firms. Animation work is handled by Baker Animation in association with multiple studios in and, with Linkhouse being the longest-tenured studio working on the show.

Setting
Mole Miner is set in the fictional town of Stone Gap,. Located in the fictional Rockies region, it is based on several current and historical mining towns across the United States and Canada that creator Phelan Morkel had visited, including (of which Stone Gap is named for),, , ,  and , as well as several localities in Montana, including , , ,  and. In addition to drawing inspiration from mining towns and the small towns of Montana, Morkel has described Stone Gap as being "kind of like or " (two towns in  near, where he grew up). Additional inspiration came from small towns the creators grew up in or lived near, such as (where writer Dennis Shore grew up).

Although Stone Gap is a Montana town, its specific location in Montana is never specified in the series. Similar to the location of in , the location of Stone Gap within Montana is arbitrary based on the needs of a particular episode's plot, and multiple episodes give conflicting information as to Stone Gap's geographic location within the state. For example, one episode indicates that it is located within the near. Other episodes place it near, or , while others feature trips to  and back taking place within a single day.

Most of the miners and mine workers live within company-owned dormitories or houses. The children attend two fictional schools - Stephen Phelworth Elementary School and Middle-High School.

Local businesses in Stone Gap include Gem Land, Darden's (a parody of the Los Angeles area retailer ), and Lucky Star Sandwicheria. National businesses within the show's universe include Byrnes (which Morkel has described as a "blatant hybrid" of, and , three defunct regional department store chains) and TC William's (a parody of ), who's first location was in Stone Gap and still operates (JCPenney also had its first location in a small town, specifically Kemmerer, Wyoming, one of the inspirations for Stone Gap).

Episodes
The following seasons have aired:
 * Season 1 (2001-02) — 40 episodes
 * Season 2 (2002-03) — 25 episodes
 * Season 3 (2003-04) — 30 episodes
 * Season 4 (2004) — 15 episodes
 * Season 5 (2004-06) — 40 episodes
 * Season 6 (2006-07) — 30 episodes
 * Season 7 (2007-08) — 30 episodes
 * Season 8 (2008-09) — 30 episodes
 * Season 9 (2009-10) — 30 episodes
 * Season 10 (2010-11) — 30 episodes
 * Season 11 (2011-12) — 30 episodes
 * Season 12 (2012-13) — 30 episodes
 * Season 13 (2013-14) — 30 episodes
 * Season 14 (2014-15) — 30 episodes
 * Season 15 (2015-16) — 30 episodes
 * Season 16 (2016-17) — 30 episodes
 * Season 17 (2017-18) — 30 episodes
 * Season 18 (2018-19) — 30 episodes
 * Season 19 (2019-20) — 30 episodes
 * Season 20 (2020-21) — 30 episodes
 * Season 21 (2021-22) — 30 episodes
 * Season 22 (2022-23) — 30 episodes
 * Season 23 (2023-24) — 30 episodes
 * Season 24 (2024-25) (upcoming)

Distribution
The series is distributed outside of the US, Canada and Turkey by Sony Pictures Television.

United States

 * November 5, 2001 – present
 * Original version: November 7, 2001 – September 26, 2005
 * 2017 version: 2017 – present
 * (PBS Kids Go! Channel / Go Time / Go block): September 26, 2005 – October 26, 2018, September 26, 2022 – present
 * (PBS Kids Go! Channel / Go Time / Go block): September 26, 2005 – October 26, 2018, September 26, 2022 – present

Japan
A Japanese dub titled モル鉱夫 (moru kōfu) airs in Japan.
 * (November 8, 2001 – present)
 * (2003 - 2009)
 * (September – October 9, 2011; April 2021 - present)

South Korea
A Korean dub titled 두더지 광부 (dudeoji gwangbu) airs in South Korea.
 * (November 2001 - present)

Canada

 * (November 18, 2001 – present)
 * (November 8, 2001 – present)
 * New episodes: November 11, 2001 – 2007)
 * Reruns: 2001 – June 2013
 * As SCN: November 12, 2001 – reruns until May 2010
 * As Citytv Saskatchewan: Reruns: June 2015 – May 2017
 * (November 8, 2001 – August 15, 2008)
 * (November 8, 2001 – present) (dubbed in French as Le mineur taupe)
 * (November 2001 – December 2009) (dubbed in French as Le mineur taupe)
 * (November 8, 2001 – present) (dubbed in French as Le mineur taupe)
 * (November 2001 – December 2009) (dubbed in French as Le mineur taupe)

Streaming
Free streaming of show clips and certain full episodes is available on the PBS Kids Video app.

In January 2015, became the exclusive paid online streaming home of Mole Miner.

In October 2019, Netflix announced their rights for Mole Miner were set to expire, leading to industry rumors of a bidding war for the show's paid streaming rights. Parties interested in acquiring the paid streaming rights included (for ),  (for ) and  (for ). In January 2020,, PBS Kids and Morkel & Associates announced that HBO had secured a multi-year deal for the exclusive paid streaming rights for Mole Miner on their then-upcoming service, with the show being announced as one of the service's launch titles on May 27, 2020. Beginning with season 22 in 2022, HBO Max posts new episodes a day after their PBS premiere.

Critical reception
Mole Miner has received widespread praise from critics throughout its run and proved to be an extremely popular draw for PBS when it debuted. Most of this praise was aimed at its animation, voice acting, educational value, and themes of diversity and tolerance. Season 1 holds a score of 95 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim"; subsequent seasons saw very similar ratings on the website. Lookbook users gave Mole Miner an overall score of 98%, indicating an "A+" grade and making it the site's second highest-rated animated series behind Richie Skinny.

In the 2005 book Everything I Know I Learned from PBS, author Drake Benitez calls it "simply marvelous" and "the best way to teach me what the hell a mineral is" (p. 26). Ian Connors provided similar praise in his 2011 book Kiddie Cartoons and Everything in Between, writing "PBS's Mole Miner is a fantastic example of a kiddie [preschool] cartoon that manages to educate children while at the same time feeling real. Even with its cast consisting of animal characters, it still feels much more real than much of PBS's live-action children's programming." (p. 43)

The show was named the fifth greatest PBS Kids show of all time by The Worcester Beacon in 2016. In 2010, it was ranked no. 2 on MoonJump's "Top 10 Kids' Cartoons of the 2000s". Teletele's 2022 list "Top 25 Cartoons of the 2000s" ranks it no. 1 and says, "Doing an outstanding job at teaching kids about nature, science, and diversity, this early pioneer of TV-Y7 PBS Kids shows has managed to please both parents and their youngsters." In 2010, the show and main character Darren were inducted into the National Animation and Children's Media Hall of Fame.

PBS Is Dead, a 2021 book written by Felix and Logan Cortez, both praises and criticizes the show, as it calls the show's first ten seasons "some of [Phelan] Morkel's best work yet", but goes on to say, "However—and that's a big however—its later seasons feel like a cheap attempt at keeping an otherwise dead show alive by cramming diversity down the audience's collective throat instead of employing the delightful subtlety of seasons prior." (p. 57) In response, Phelan Morkel made the decision to rely less on meme references in season 19 and decided to make the content of that season match the TV-Y7 rating more, along with using more subtle morals. Fan reception towards more recent seasons is also notably more divisive (although they arguably accept said seasons more warmly than critics).

Trivia

 * The series was originally cel-animated for the first season, but switched to digital ink-and-paint in the second season.
 * It was the third most watched program on the Eruowoodian children's television channel TechEruo Kids in 2002, behind House of Mouse (2nd) and SpongeBob SquarePants (1st).
 * The series has aired in more than 108 countries.