If you were a young kid in Australia during the late '90s or early '00s, or alternatively you were a kid who took too many sickies from school around that time, you might remember this show.
I think this show was supposed to be Channel Ten's answer to Play School, but it never really worked. I'd posit to you that it didn't really work for two reasons.
First, it was on the wrong channel. Most kids in the target audience were still over on the ABC channel because that's where most of the shows for preschoolers were being aired during the morning.
While Channel Ten did have kids shows that aired at around this time, they were mostly for primary school aged kids, most of whom were already at school or on their way there during the time slot this show was on.
Secondly, it didn't do enough to compete with Play School. Remember, Play School was always going to be the show this would be compared to in retrospect. I mean, the premise was literally two adults playing with a puppet. Sometimes they'd read a story during the episode, which is also a thing that would happen on Play School. Intentionally or not, this was bound to be seen as a Play School knockoff.
But really, there kind of needed to be other main puppets involved. It needed to move more in the direction of, like, the actual Muppets instead of just being this. There needed to be a whole family of grotesque Bops for this to work. (Personally, I was always hoping Bop would get an older brother who'd whack him over the back of the head.)
Ultimately, this was probably one of the more forgettable shows Australian television ever produced. God help anyone who discovers it now.
