Eureeka's Castle

Eureeka's Castle is an American children's television series which aired on PBS Kids since October, 1998. The program featured various puppet characters who live in a giant's wind-up music box. The show was a joint development by Nickelodeon, animators Kit Laybourne and Eli Noyes of Noyes & Laybourne Enterprises, and the puppeteers at 3/Design Studio R. L. Stine developed the characters and was the head writer for the episodes. It Sponsored by Toys "R" Us (1998-2003) and Crayola (2004-present)

Production history
In 1997, development of the show began by staff members at PBS Kids and animator Eli Noyes and his partner Kit Laybourne, whose wife Geraldine Laybourne was the Head of Programming for PBS Kids.[1]"Jovial Bob Stine", best known for his children's horror novels written under the pen name R. L. Stine, was hired as the head writer to develop the concept, characters and episode scripts.[3] The puppet design and construction for the characters were done at 3/Design Studio where the puppets were built by Jim Kroupa, John Orberg, Kip Rathke and Matt Stoddart. and costume designed by Natalie Hooker.

these episodes of Eureeka's Castle, and Beece called it "the most ambitious program for preschoolers since the premiere of Sesame Street 30 years ago". The first episode of Eureeka's Castle premiered during PBS Kids's Special Delivery block on October 4, 1990, before debuting on Nick Jr. on September 4. In May 1990, Eureeka's Castle was renewed for a 35-episode second season (later reduced to 22 episodes).

PBS Kids created alot of episodes of Eureeka's Castle entirely out of clips from the first two seasons for their participation in the Cable in the Classroom service. Eureeka's Castle was taking over from previous show Here We Go And Go (June 1, 1993 - October 4, 1998).

Synopsis
The show follows various puppet characters (in the style of Sesame Street), including Eureeka, a sorceress-in-training. Eureeka and her friends live in a wind-up castle music box owned by a friendly giant. Other characters include Two musical princesses named Princess Indie (pink outfit), Princess Music-Star (purple outfit) and Princess Jazz (blue outfit), Magellan the dragon, twin moat dwellers Bogge and Quagmire, Batly the bat, and Mr. Knack the handyman. There are also various appearing creatures such as mice, singing fish statues called the Fishtones, Magellan's pets Cooey and the Slurms, and Batly's pet spider Webster.

Halfway through the episode, an animated short based on a children's book (usually acquired from Children's Circle) was shown. Also featured were shorter animated and live-action short films, and European imports such as Roobarb, The Shoe People, Towser and Gran.

Characters

 * Eureeka (performed by Cheryl Blaylock) – The title character. Eureeka is a friendly sorceress-in-training. Her spells are not successful most of the time, but she keeps trying until she gets it right.
 * Princess Indie (protrayed by Madeline Hilton) – The princess who marries Batley who sings to her.
 * Princess Jazz (protrayed by Jennifer Cody) – The princess that loves the animals and her friends.
 * Princess Music-Star (protrayed by Alice McCune) – The princess that sing with the gang. Note: Introduced as a puppet, then played by actress Alice McCune, who afterwards appeared opposite Gregory Hines in the 2001 film Tap. After she was suicide by stabbing on October 24, 2004, at the age of 52, the character was portrayed by a puppet.
 * Magellan (performed by Noel MacNeal) – A large green dragon with a tail that has a mind of its own. He doesn't always understand new concepts. Magellan tends to make great big sneezes that can shake the whole castle whenever he gets upset.
 * Cooey (performed by Lynn Hippen) – Magellan's pet of indeterminate species.
 * Slurms – Magellan's pet worm hybrids. They were animated with clay animation.
 * Batly (performed by Jim Kroupa) – An egotistical clumsy blue bat who wears glasses due to being near-sighted. Despite being different in every way, he and Magellan are good friends. His flying usually ends with a crash landing prompting him to say "I meant to do that." Batly spends most of his time in the belfry and has a large bug collection. In a 2016 Reddit AMA, Stine said that Batly's face was modeled after his own son, Matt.
 * Webster (performed by Noel MacNeal) – Batly's pet spider.
 * Bogge and Quagmire (performed by Timothy O'Brien and Pam Arciero) – The Moat Twins are siblings who spend most of their time swimming in the castle moat, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and playing in the basement. Bogge is orange while Quagmire is pink. They tend to argue with each other, but work together when it comes to causing trouble. Bogge and Quagmire constantly try to steal Magellan's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but never succeed.
 * Mr. Knack (performed by Timothy O'Brien) – The castle's handyman and tinkerer. He uses many unconventional methods for fixing things around the castle. He also loves to barter when he sells some of his inventions that he has made from his pushcart. Mr. Knack always gets some postcards which he reads to the viewers.
 * Sir Klank (performed by Jim Kroupa) – A blue mouse with a long gray beard who resides in a suit of armor.
 * Kate (performed by Lynn Hippen) – A pink mouse who frequently reports on what happens in the castle.
 * Emma (performed by Pam Arciero) – An orange mouse who loves to eat.
 * Fishtones – A trio of singing fish in the form of a stone fountain who spray water when they're not singing.
 * The Giant (performed by Jim Kroupa) – A friendly full-bodied giant with a long nose who owns the wind-up castle music box where the show takes place.

Humans

 * Jennifer Cody as Princess Jazz
 * Madeline Hilton as Princess Indie
 * Alice McCune as Princess Music-Star

Puppeteers

 * Pam Arciero – Quagmire, Emma
 * Cheryl Blaylock – Eureeka
 * Lynn Hippen – Cooey, Kate
 * Jim Kroupa – Batley, Sir Klank, Giant
 * Noel MacNeal – Magellan, Webster
 * Timothy O'Brien – Bogge, Mr. Knack
 * Stephanie D'Abruzzo – Princess Music-Star

Additional puppeteers

 * Robert J. Gardner
 * John Kennedy
 * Joey Mazzarino

VHS release
Thirty-five Eureeka's Castle direct-to-video specials ("Sing Along With Eureeka", "Wide Awake at Eureeka's Castle" and More) and the "Christmas at Eureeka's Castle" special were released by Sony Wonder in 2004.

Songs
main article - Eureeka's Castle discography