Villa Alegre

I too, like David am amazed to see the affection for our little show Villa Alegre. I am Joaquin, and played Francisco on the show for 4 years.

After reading all of your posts, I now realize what a big influence our show had at the time. I cannot express to you how great that makes me feel.

I have read so many questions on your posts, and welcome the opportunity to answer them the best that I can (we are talking almost 30 years here!) I too think there is plenty of opportunity for shows like this, especially on newer networks like SiTV and such who really promote our ethnic cultures. I really believe that our show (among others) paved the way for popular "bilingual" shows such as Dora the Explorer, Diego, and Maya & Miguel. (I have a toddler, can you tell?) I actually wish that a show such as Villa Alegre was airing today, because my daughter is growing up bilingual, and this would be a great asset in her learning.

One post mentioned that there was no "actors of prominence" on the show. I can tell you that this statement is simply not true. We were kids then, and all grew up. If you look up all of the actors (including me), you will find many, many credits to their names. Most went on to do many other things, including blockbuster movies, and huge television hits.

Thank you all for remembering this show! Joaquin Garay III "Francisco"

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!!!

My uncle was the guitar player of the show. Most of the songs he played them, and he was the guy that came out with a guitar to teach the kids a song. I watched the show all the time. Living in Brooklyn, NY it helped me learn about my culture. I remember my uncle came one day to visit us and he gave us the LP of Villa Alegre with all the songs. I remember it had the songs written in the back and all my cousins had the same LP too.

My mother still has it, with the songs written in the back. I remember "Mi hogar es en la Tierra..." as one of my favorite songs. My uncle Cheo Montalvo, died in 1995 and is now buried in Sabana Grande, PR. I have difficulties finding the original shows though. Would like to buy the collection. If anyone knows, it would be great to see the show again to see my uncle.

For about 20 years no one I talked to could tell me the name of this spanish show that came on PBS untill I posted the question at The Toonarific Archive.Within a day ,a fellow user gave me a link to Yesterdayland that told about the show and how it was railroaded off the air by THE CHILDRENS TELEVISION WORK SHOP OF ALL COMPANIES!! Turns out,they didnt want ANY competition for the spanish speaking public so they sought to have their funding removed.Eventually they won in 1980 and the show was cancelled.There was also some bickering as to which of the spanish speaking comunities would have the greatest influence(Cuban,Mexican,S.American,Spanish,).It really bothered me to hear about the troubles behind the scenes that the show had.Shame on you Big Bird!

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.