American live action/CGI-animated television series
Jay Jay the Jet Plane
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Also known as
| Jay Jay
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Genre
| Children's television series
Musical
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Created by
| - David Michel
- Deborah Michel
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Written by
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Starring
| |
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Voices of
| |
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Narrated by
| - John William Galt (pilot series)
- Chuck Morgan (US; TLC era)
- Michael Donovan (US; PBS Kids era)
- Brian Cant
(UK)
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Theme music composer
| Stephen Michael Schwartz
Parachute Express
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Opening theme
| "Gee, How I Love to Fly" (1994?1996); "Jay Jay the Jet Plane Theme Song" (1998?2005)
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Ending theme
| "Gee, How I Love to Fly" (Reprise) (1994?2000);
"Jay Jay the Jet Plane Theme Song" (2002?2005)
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Composers
| |
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Country of origin
| United States
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Original language
| English
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No.
of seasons
| 4
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No.
of episodes
| 62
(
list of episodes
)
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Executive producers
| - David Michel
- Bruce D. Johnson
- William T. Baumann
- Chris Walker
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Producer
| David Michel
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Running time
| 25 minutes
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Production companies
| |
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Network
| Direct-to-video
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Release
| December 13, 1994
(
1994-12-13
)
?
October 29, 1996
(
1996-10-29
)
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Network
| TLC
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Release
| November 2, 1998
(
1998-11-02
)
?
March 14, 2000
(
2000-03-14
)
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Network
| PBS
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Release
| June 11, 2001
(
2001-06-11
)
?
November 25, 2005
(
2005-11-25
)
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Jay Jay the Jet Plane
is an American live-action/CGI-animated musical children's television series created by David and Deborah Michel and first aired on
The Learning Channel
and later moved to
PBS Kids
, with reruns on
Qubo
and TBN's
Smile
.
[1]
The series aired for a total of 4 seasons and has 62 episodes.
Premise
[
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]
The series is centered on a group of anthropomorphic aircraft that live in the city of Tarrytown and takes place at the Tarrytown Airport. The episodes were commonly distributed in 25-minute-long (without commercials) pairs, with one header sequence and one end credit for each pair. Each episode contains one or more songs.
The series was intended to be educational to teach moral and life lessons to young-aged children.
Music
[
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]
The theme song and all of the other songs were written by the famous children's singer/songwriter Stephen Michael Schwartz and sung by his popular musical group,
Parachute Express
.
Production
[
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]
Original Series
[
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]
Early episodes using physical models (as "Pilot Series")
[
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]
In late 1994, a short live-action series was produced at
AMS Production Company
in
Dallas, Texas
, with real model plane characters, and handcrafted human characters; they had the same personalities as in the later series. This original series was narrated similarly to the first twelve seasons of
Thomas & Friends
, or
Theodore Tugboat
.
[2]
Three videos were released:
Jay Jay's First Flight
in December 1994,
Old Oscar Leads the Parade
in February 1995, and
Tracy's Handy Hideout
in October 1996. This original series was narrated by and features the voices of John William Galt. These three were known as the "pilot series".
CGI and live-action-based episodes
[
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]
On November 2, 1998, the CGI-animated/live-action series premiered on
The Learning Channel
as part of the Ready Set Learn block. Voice actress
Mary Kay Bergman
provided the original voice of Jay Jay, Savannah, and Revvin' Evan. After her death,
Debi Derryberry
and
Donna Cherry
replaced her.
In 2005, new episodes were produced featuring additional characters, including the red
Latina
monoplane Lina. Each episode begins with a
Jay Jay's Mysteries
segment in which Jay Jay and Lina explore things that might be mysteries to the intended age group, such as how planes fly, and how the five senses are used. The "Mysteries" segment is followed by a story that comes from the third season episodes of the series, so in effect, the new season's repackages previously broadcast content on two subchannel networks
Qubo
and
Smile
.
Revival
[
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]
A new revival of the series, titled
The New Adventures of Jay Jay the Jet Plane
[3]
(originally titled
The New World of Jay Jay the Jet Plane
) has been confirmed through Trilogy Animation Group's website. The first trailer for the show was released in July 2022. Until the day of launching, it is still currently in development and in production.
[4]
The characters' were fully redesigned, and made to look more cartoony, newer, and like the original series, it will be CGI-animated.
[5]
Characters
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]
The planes and ground vehicles are CGI characters, while the humans are live-action actors.
Relationship words for the airplane characters refer to being
in loco parentis
for purposes of upbringing, and education, not to biological parenthood. The story says that (some of) the airplane characters were made in factories.
Some of the stories describe characters as doing actions off-screen that would need foldaway arms (e.g. Big Jake digging holes), but those arms are never seen on-screen.
Young planes
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]
- Jay Jay (voiced by
Mary Kay Bergman
in the TLC era and
Debi Derryberry
in the PBS Kids era) is a small blue (originally brown in the pilot series)
jet airliner
. He is the titular character and main protagonist of the series.
- Tracy (voiced by Gina Ribisi in the TLC era and
Sandy Fox
in the PBS Kids era) is a small pink jet airliner who is Jay Jay's best friend forever. She has normal hearing, but understands
American Sign Language
.
- Snuffy (voiced by Gina Ribisi in the TLC era and Sandy Fox in the PBS Kids era) is a small green propeller-driven
monoplane
who is a good friend of Jay Jay and Tracy. He is equipped for
skywriting
. In episode consistency (which depends on the order), one episode says that he has not flown further away from Tarrytown than Lightning Bug Lake, but other episodes show him flying much further. In "Grumpy O'Malley", Snuffy still has not got rid of his initial
shyness
, but in many other episodes he shows no sign of shyness.
- Herky (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in the TLC era and Julie Renick in the PBS Kids era) is a small fluent Mexican yellow
helicopter
. In the pilot series, he spoke with an Italian accent and a stutter (like famous
Looney Tunes
character
Porky Pig
), provided by John William Galt, who voiced all the other characters. In the CGI series, he speaks in a German accent which
rolls his "R"s
whenever he speaks, and often pronounces stressed "er" as long vocalic "r" (
[
??
]
), e.g. "I'm Herky" as
[a?m
h??ː?k?]
, with a strong high-rising
pitch accent
on the last "-y". He has
skids
instead of
wheels
, and cannot
taxi
on the ground.
Adult planes
[
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]
- Big Jake (voiced by Chuck Morgan in the TLC era and
Michael Donovan
in the PBS Kids era) is a silver propeller-driven
transport plane
.
- Savannah (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in the TLC era and Debi Derryberry in the PBS Kids era) is a silver
supersonic
airliner. She was made at
Savannah, Georgia
, hence her name and Southern accent.
- Old Oscar (voiced by Chuck Morgan in the TLC era and Michael Donovan in the PBS Kids era) is an old green
biplane
(grey in the pilot series).
Ground vehicles
[
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]
- Revvin' Evan (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in the TLC era and Debi Derryberry in the PBS Kids era) is a red
fire engine
and the cousin of Tuffy.
- Tuffy (voiced by Sandy Fox) is a confidential
tow truck
and the cousin of Revvin' Evan. She has a speech impediment.
Humans
[
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]
- Brenda Blue (played by
Eve Whittle
in the US version and
Vanessa Stacey
in the UK version) is a woman in blue clothing and usually wears a red cap or a blue cap. She is in charge of the airport, and is the ace
mechanic
. She does not use the airport's
control tower
but communicates with the planes by a portable two-way radio from the ground.
- Mrs. Blue is Brenda Blue's mother, who sometimes visits Tarrytown Airport.
- Miss Lee is a deaf and silent librarian at Tarrytown Library who knows American Sign Language.
- E.Z. O'Malley (played by Brian Nahas) is the founder of E.Z. Airlines, and his cousins are Grumpy O'Malley (lives at Dewdrop Farm), Pierre O'Malley (lives in
France
), and Tex O'Malley (lives in
Texas
). (Note: here the letter 'Z' is pronounced 'zee', not 'zed'.
Episodes
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]
Season
|
Episodes
|
Originally aired (United States dates)
|
Original network
|
First aired
|
Last aired
|
|
Pilot series
|
12
|
December 13, 1994
(
1994-12-13
)
|
October 31, 1995
(
1995-10-31
)
|
Direct-to-video
|
|
1
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12
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November 2, 1998
(
1998-11-02
)
|
December 21, 1998
(
1998-12-21
)
|
TLC
|
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2
|
14
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January 4, 1999
(
1999-01-04
)
|
March 14, 2000
(
2000-03-14
)
|
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3
|
14
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June 11, 2001
(
2001-06-11
)
|
July 20, 2001
(
2001-07-20
)
|
PBS Kids
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4
|
10
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September 5, 2005
(
2005-09-05
)
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November 25, 2005
(
2005-11-25
)
|
Broadcast and home media
[
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]
Jay Jay the Jet Plane
premiered on
The Learning Channel
as part of the Ready Set Learn block. Later, it aired on
PBS Kids
in 2001, with reruns until 2009. It aired on PBS Kids Sprout (now
Universal Kids
) from September 26, 2005 until September 2, 2008.
In 2012 until 2014, it aired in Spanish on Telemundo as part of "MiTelemundo". In 2021, it also aired on
Qubo
for a short time until Scripps' closure and is currently airing on
Smile
. Outside of the series' home country, It aired on
Channel 5
,
Tiny Pop
and
S4C
's
Cyw
block in the UK, Canal+ and Piwi in France, Discovery Kids in Latin America, TV Cultura in Brazil and Nickelodeon in the Middle East.
In the early-mid 2000s, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the series on both VHS and DVD. Later, it released two of
Jay Jay's Mysteries
episodes by Paramount in 2007 as part of PBS Kids' DVDs.
Religious-based Tommy Nelson also released the series with a new dub on both VHS and DVD.
In 2019,
Yippee TV
became the exclusive streaming service of
Jay Jay the Jet Plane
.
[6]
Reception
[
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]
Common Sense Media
gave the series a four out of five stars, saying, "Parents need to know that this series offers young fans life lessons such as valuing friends, overcoming shyness, and learning to like yourself. Kids will enjoy the often funny antics of 6-year-old Jay Jay and his friends. Don't be surprised if you catch your preschooler singing along with the show's simple songs."
[7]
References
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]
External links
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]