Melanie (TV series)

Melanie is a Kuboian traditionally animated children's television series produced by Twinkle. The show focuses on the titular character, a spoilt and badly behaved seven year-old girl, and what she gets up to in her day-to-day life.

A total of two series consisting of thirty one 17-minute episodes were produced for the series. Production began in 2003, and the show premiered on KT in 2005, with the final episode airing in 2006. Reruns continued to air on KT until its closure on 16th November, 2008. Initially, Melanie faced criticism due to the misbehaviour caused by the titular character throughout the series, but has, in more recent years, gained a cult following.

Premise
Melanie is a seven year-old girl who lives with her mother, Vivienne, and her stepfather, Edward. She attends the fictional Heathryoak Approach-Novice School, currently in her final year of Approach School. Melanie is not fond of school, and finds more fun misbehaving rather than learning. In each episode, Melanie is often faced with a problem, and often uses either wits or sneakiness in order to solve it.

Every episode has the name of a character in its title - that episode is told almost entirely in that character's perspective. This only applies to Melanie in the first series, but other characters begin to have their own episodes in the second series.

Characters

 * Main article: List of Melanie characters

Most of the prominent characters on the show are either teachers or students from Melanie's school - these include her friends; Gabrielle, Ussuf and Ny, her teacher; Mr. Fleece, and Heathryoak's amoral principal teacher; Mr. Crook. Other characters seen in Heathryoak include Julia, a classmate of Melanie who she has a rivalry with, and Yoshi, an older student who sometimes plays with Melanie.

Series two introduces more characters outside of Melanie's schools, such as Dorothy, Ny's embarrassing grandmother, and Sleazy Tom, a theif whose plans get foiled by Melanie on two occasions.

Production
Melanie was conceived in late 2002, with production beginning in March 2003. Like most Kuboian animated series, a lot of time was spent on the show's animation, and not much time was spent elsewhere. In an interview on Bubblegum Radio in September 2006, Alpha Ipsum, the show's creator, mentioned that the premise of the show was finalised in under four days.

Original reaction
During its initial airing, Melanie was criticised in the media and by several parents of children who were fans of the show. Criticism mostly drew to the fact that the titular character would get overly spoilt by her mother and stepfather, would always get away with her bad behaviour, and often did not learn any lessons.

Kuboian author and media personality Fyp Housin in particular criticised the show for having very little educational value, and mentioned how Melanie typically solved her problems by using manipulation or sneakiness. Common Sense Media gave the series a 2/5 rating, noting "The characters, typically the titular character, behave badly, and are rarely held responsible for their actions.". In contrast, in his review of the show, comedian Brud McCrew gave Melanie a 7.5/10 rating, calling it "hilarious stuff".

Graduate popularity
Due to being scrutinised in the media, Melanie eventually gained widespread recognition, as well as a fanbase consisting of mostly children and preteens. The show notably spawned a cult following in Internet, where it became the basis for Interniot social networking site MelanieWeb. Alpha Ipsum, the show's creator, was reportedly shocked at the show's popularity, as Twinkle's previous television series generally failed to achieve mainstream status.

During the mid 2010s, the show started to become the subject of several internet memes.

Home media
A total of eight DVDs, each featuring six episodes of the series, were released in Region 2 throughout 2006 and 2007.

YouTube
On 29th June, 2019, episodes of Melanie began to be uploaded on a YouTube channel titled ScampTV. Prior to this, episodes were uploaded onto different channels on the website, but were usually in bad quality.

Other internet services
As of 2019, all 31 episodes of Melanie are available on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

In other media
Sandoval Group Ltd. produced one kiddie ride based on the show in 2006.

Kuboia

 * KT (2005-2008)
 * Boomerang (2010-2011)
 * Tooncast (March-August 2019)
 * Kiddioka (2019-present)

Australia

 * ABC for Kids (2007-2011)

Canada

 * TVOKids (2007-2010)
 * Toon-A-Vision (2019-present)

CalicoValdezland

 * CVT Kids (2006-present)

Central and Eastern Europe

 * JimJam (2006-2011)
 * KidsCo (2007-2013)

Charlesland Republic

 * CHT (2007-2010)

Circlia

 * Cartoonito (20??-present)

Conlandia

 * CBC Kids (2006-2010, 2016-present)

El Kadsre

 * Banushen Television (20??-?)

Floweria

 * Kidzone (2007-2010)

France

 * France 5 (2006-2008)

Gau

 * GBC Kids (2006-2009)
 * GBC Kids Jr. (2009-present)

Germany

 * Toggolino (2006-2009)

Indosa

 * Further information: Melanie (Indosan dub)


 * Disney XD (2020-present)
 * IBN Kids (2019-present)

Internet

 * Nickelodeon (2007-2019)
 * VCR (2019-present)

Ireland

 * TG4 (2006-2010)
 * Cúla 4 (2007-2009)

Israel

 * Hop! (2006-2017)

Italy

 * JimJam (2007-2011)

Japan

 * Tokyo MX (2006-2011)
 * Fuji TV (2008-2012)
 * TV Tokyo (2008-2009)

Jetania

 * TBC

Latin America

 * Discovery Kids (2007-2013)

Mahri

 * MBC (20??-?)

Marvatia

 * Little Pluto (2006-2011)

Narthernee

 * N9 (20??-?)

Netherlands

 * Z@ppelin (2006-present)

Qualicia

 * Tresai (20??-?)
 * KidsQ (20??-?)

Philippines

 * GSTV (2008-2010)
 * GS Kids (20??-?)

Sakaria

 * TV5 (20??-?)

Schelipoerys

 * TV3 (20??-?)

Stevia

 * Treehouse (2006-2015)
 * Family Jr. (2015-present)

United Kingdom

 * Milkshake! (2005-2008)
 * CITV (2006-2009)
 * Tiny Pop (2009-2011)

United States

 * Further information: Melanie (American dub)

Tickle-U aired an Americanised version of the show. However, all other channels broadcast the original Kuboian version.
 * Tickle-U (2006-2007)
 * Discovery Kids (2007-2010)
 * Sprout (2010-2017)
 * Universal Kids (2020-present)

Theatrical film

 * Main article: Melanie's Mega Movie