Villa Alegre

Hola, Amigos...de Villa Alegre...la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la la-la-la...Villa Alegre! Born in Puerto Rico 37 years ago. In the 1970's, I'd come running home from school to watch "Villa Alegre" on PBS. An only child raised by my grandparents, there weren't other kids around to talk to. I spoke English at school and Spanish at home. "Villa Alegre" helped me make sense of that duality. I adopted Villa Alegre as MY community, MY bilingual neighborhood. I moved to the US at 17. "Villa Alegre" prepared me to understand in my own skin and heart what it means to be a Latina in a multicultural society. Whereas "Sesame Street" gave me the NYC perspective of my own immigrant family, "Villa Alegre" blessed me with something completely new and beyond my litte world. Hussssshh...I still sing the uplifting theme song in the shower and in my car. Thank you, Villa Alegre, gracias! You will always be a part of me. Does anyone know where I can find that beautiful song?

It's always amazing to me to find others have actually seen this show because, like the writer of the above comment, I never found anything on it on the web. Not even YouTube has any clips :( I loved this show and have very fond early childhood memories of the opening credits with the miniature amusement park/fair rides. The theme song still sticks in my head every time I say or type the show's title. I wonder why it's so hard to find footage of this show if other 70's shows were recorded. I just went on YouTube and found clips of every 70's children show I could think of. There are even multiple pages of clips from another favorite of mine, "Vegetable Soup" - also a diversity-themed children's show from that seemingly Utopian time of creativity in that arena.

It was a pleasant surprise to find residual interest in a children's program show that was aired in the 70's. I was involved in the production of the Villa Alegre television programs until the end of production. My father was the executive producer of the shows, and I was the last Line Producer of the Villa Alegre program. I noticed one cast member registered remarks on this web sight, that was nice. It was great to hear the feedback. In reviewing some of the comments, it appears the thematic curriculum, and the music caught the interest of the viewers, most importantly the bilingual programming and also some folks addressed the characters in the shows. It's important to note that some of the characters in the shows were caricatures of real people who lived in real barrios. The creator of the program introduced these folks through vision and characterizations. Many themes were introduced in the shows, i.e. natural environment, nutrition, self and others, etc.

I believe the shows had merit and brought forth issues ever present in multicultural societies and given the current growth of the Latino population such children's programming should be revisited.

The shows still have a viable heartbeat and breath and it will be interesting to evaluate these again if there is an interest in airing them again. Anyone is invited to send comments if they wish. I will make an attempt to reply if possible.

I thought the television series was wonderful; but then again, I was a production team member and may be biased in my opinion.

It was Byron Meyers. Every so often, I would come along with him to the studio where the show was shot and edited. I remember the time they had to complete ten shows (if I recall correctly) in three weeks in summer during a flea invasion of the studio. The Captain was a cool dude, the theme song was the best on PBS, and the animation (which my step-father produced during the last years) was really neat. It is really too bad that this show has not made a reappearance on DVD at least. Though the show was definitely of its' time, the 1970's, it has a lot of positive messages in it that could certainly be helpful during this era. Byron would have been gratified to have known of the positive impact the show he helped to make with those whom have posted here.

I Know I'm Late But up 'til now almost every comment that was made regarding this show (thought I was crazy, thought I was the only one, asked everyone, searched every where...etc) applied to me. I am an African American man from the Lower Eastside of Manhattan and no one in my family nor any of my friends remember this show, not even my Puerto Rican ex-wife. For the past 11 years I've been thinking this and many other shows from my childhood and everything else I've found on the internet (and people remembered) but this show, I was starting to think, was all in my head. It is such a relief to see that this was a real show and I'm not crazy, and for the record, I too thought it was Vi Alerge and all I could remember was the opening theme song, "La lalala lala lala la lala La Vi Alegre" YOU GUYS HAVE KNOW IDEA HOW GREAT IT FEELS TO MAKE THIS CONNECTION, THANX!!!