"I just gotta say I wanna spend my day with you!"
Gerbert is a show about a chicken-nugget-shaped puppet child that teaches life lessons for children. In its first season, it was Religious Edutainment, however, its second season was a secular Edutainment Show. It aired on the Freeform (then the Christian Broadcasting Network) from February 15, 1988 to December 25, 1991. The secular version also briefly aired on PBS during the early 1990s.
Gerbert originated as a pitch for a Christian Kids music album, before CBN took interest and decided to make Gerbert become a live-action series. Prior to becoming a TV series, Gerbert's first debuted
in the 1987 direct to video film Gerbert in "The World Around Us" - A Musical Adventure which was originally sold to hospitals across the United States.
Gerbert contains examples of:
- Art Evolution: In the 1987 direct to video film, Gerbert in The World Around Us - A Musical Adventure from 1987. Gerbert's had a notably different design (such as his head not resembling a chicken-nugget) and looked like a generic puppet.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The first Gerbert project Gerbert - The World Around Us featured Gerbert living in a different house which was notably bigger than future Gerbert projects post-1988 alongside having a different format for musical numbers and it's teaching on biblical stories. Gerbert was also less whiny compared to the TV series and future home video projects.
- Companion Cube: Justified. Gerbert, a child, talks to his toy bear, Rory.
- Literal-Minded: Justified with Gerbert being a child. In a segment about friends having to go away for long distances, when asked what biblical figures Jonathan and David were doing in a picture, Gerbert responds "I put them there". It has to be explained to him that he was asked to describe the scene.
- No Antagonist: Gerbert is something of a slice of life show, and has no antagonists.
- No Fourth Wall: In segments without other people, Gerbert talks to the audience.
- Preschool Show: Gerbert is an Edutainment Show example of this.
- Religious Redub: Inverted. Gerbert was a Religious Edutainment show in its original run, but was then turned into a secular Edutainment Show for its second airing.
