Between the Lions

Between the Lions is an American animated/live action children's television series designed to promote reading. The show was a co-production between WGBH in Boston and Sirius Thinking, Ltd., in New York City, in association with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, the distributor from seasons 5–10, in Mississippi. The show won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and 2007. The target audience is children 5–8 years old. It has the same puppet style as Sesame Street and ran from April 3, 2000 (replacing The Puzzle Place) to November 22, 2010.

Why the World Awaits

 * 1) The show teaches skills about reading comprehension and vowels to children.
 * 2) The theme song is purely epic.
 * 3) A lot of great segments like Cliff Hanger, Gawain's Word, The Vowelles, Chicken Jane, and Sam Spud.
 * 4) Several memorable characters such as the lions, Click, and Buster to name a few.
 * 5) Great acting for the characters.
 * 6) Talented puppeteering and voice acting for the puppets.
 * 7) It was one of the last very good PBS Kids shows, premiered in the 20th century.
 * 8) Has a lot of funny moments that both kids and adults can laugh at.
 * 9) Great designs for the puppets.
 * 10) Immersive special effects.
 * 11) Has some very good episodes like "Pecos Bill Cleans Up the West", "Tweet! Tweet!", "Art Party", "Stop That Chicken!", "Oh Yes, It Can!", "The Last Cliff Hanger", "Red Hat, Green Hat", "The Popcorn Popper", "The Hopping Hen", "Pandora's Box", and the list goes on.
 * 12) A lot of the songs are enjoyable and fun to listen to.
 * 13) The show has good pop cultural references to other media, including the magical girl anime shows.
 * 14) The show is like a spiritual succeeder to The Funny Company and Sesame Street, even characters from Sesame Street made cameos on this show from time to time.
 * 15) This show looks similar to Sesame Street, but this time as a half-hour show.
 * 16) * Like The Funny Company, it was aimed to tweens.
 * 17) "CAN'T. HOLD. ON. MUCH. LONGER!!!!!!!!"

Bad Qualities

 * 1) It went downhill a little by season 6, as the show almost stopped focusing on vowels and some of the show's earlier segments were removed.
 * 2) Arty Smartypants and Sam Spud are admittedly creepy.
 * 3) A few mature references every now and then.
 * 4) Some bad episodes, like "Something Fishy", "You Can't Catch Me" and "A King and His Hawk", with the latter two episodes containing bad songs that are a waste of the audience's time.
 * 5) The Cliff Hanger segments can be a bit irritating since Cliff fails to get off the cliff once something foils his plans.
 * 6) Barnaby B. Busterfield, Walter, Clay, Heath, and Martha Reader disappeared from the show permanently, despite appearing in the opening theme.