Trivia / Caillou

• Adored by the Network:
  • Sprout has taken to airing Caillou's Holiday Movie multiple times throughout non-holiday weekends, even though it is very much a Christmas-themed movie. This usually happens every December and the movie is shown all throughout the month before, on the day of, and even after Christmas. This is done along with mini-marathon airings of regular Caillou episodes.
  • Also adored by Yumurcak TV in Turkey up until its 2016 closure caused by the government's Witch Hunt for "Gülen-affiliated" media organizations following the year's coup d'état attempt. Four air slots (with the first one being a double-bill one hour back to back) seven days a week. Also, commercials for Caillou merchandise can run up to 5 minutes long.
  • As if the half a dozen episodes a day weren't enough, Sprout "celebrated" their airing of the newest season with a four hour marathon, which basically made the entire day nothing but Caillou after its regular hour's worth at noon and the evening showings.
  • Despite the fact that Sprout is no longer a PBS network and pretty much everything else from PBS is gone from it, this show continued to air. The only other survivor is The Berenstain Bears. When Sprout became Universal Kids, Caillou refused to be removed for two years, before its timeslots were replaced by two DreamWorks series: Noddy, Toyland Detective and Dinotrux.
  • Corus Entertainment also loved airing Caillou on the kids' channels they own to fulfill Canadian content quotas until the rights were lost sometime during the mid-2010s.
  • Hulu apparently got enough mileage out of Caillou's Holiday Movie for them to put up a banner ad on smart televisions, etc., trying to entice people to sign up by advertising the fact that they have the movie. Though the film was later nabbed by Amazon Prime.
  • When it started to air on US Cartoonito block, it aired roughly 2 hours a day along with Pocoyo, more than any other show on the block. Despite this, it was later completely removed from the block in 2022 after getting it's second airing removed in November 2021.
• Acting for Two:
  • In seasons one and two, Rosie and Clementine were both voiced by the same actress, Brigid Tierney.
  • In season five, Jason and Jeffrey were both voiced by one person, Camden Angelis.
  • Taken up to eleven in New Adventures. Due to the limited cast, many characters happen to be voiced by one actor/actress. For example, Laurie Hymes not only voices Caillou himself, but also his sister Rosie, and his best friend Leo.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • Caillou canonically gets grounded in the New Adventures episode, "Caillou Plays Videogames". That's right, grounded grounded grounded. He gets grounded again in "Caillou's Prison Break".
  • Andy having autism was a fan theory due to his poor social communication, dislike of loud noises, and ability to notice small details. It was confirmed in the New Adventures episode "Caillou and the Fire Alarm".
• Banned Episode: When the first three seasons of the show were repackaged in 2006, there were a few episodes that weren't included, either due to topics discussed in the episodes or violence shown in episodes. That said, the episodes can still be viewed on Amazon Prime (alongside the puppet segments they were paired with), YouTube, and international broadcasts. As of 2021, some of these now air on Cartoon Network's Cartoonito block after it was removed from the PBS Kids schedule.
  • "Caillou is Getting Older" - Banned because of the subjects of death and fear of getting older, and a dead bird appearing on-screen.
  • "Caillou Makes a New Friend" - Banned because of Jim's bullying being a bit too intense.
  • "Caillou's Quarrel" - Banned because Caillou was too rough with Clementine. When the show moved to Cartoonito, the episode is now unbanned. Although it cuts out most of Caillou's yelling at Clementine, going straight to Caillou telling her he doesn't want to play anymore after Clementine suggests the tea party.
  • "Rosie Bothers Caillou" - Banned because Caillou talks back to his mother, shoves Rosie out of his room, and Rosie hitting a book against a door repeatedly. ^note Contrary to what was posted on TV.com, Caillou didn't actually hit Rosie with the book, otherwise the episode wouldn't have aired in the first place because this would be a depiction of violence. Despite this, the episode was, for unknown reasons, included on the 2018 PBS Kids DVD release Caillou's Kitchen under the misleading title "Recipe for Fun." This was likely a mistake, as no other banned episodes are known to be included in recent PBS Kids Caillou DVD releases.
  • "Caillou's Cross Word" - Banned because of the excessive use of the word "stupid." and how Caillou and Leo called Clementine "stupid" ^note Oddly enough, a few other preschool shows such as Peppa Pig, Stanley and Franklin have gotten away with the word "stupid." However, those shows only use it once whereas Caillou uses it ten times in one episode, which would probably explain it. This episode was however included on the PBS VHS and DVD, Caillou At His Best oddly enough.
  • "Caillou's Promise" - Banned because of the scene where Caillou throws sand into Rosie's eyes and the scene later on where he acts very rude to Rosie when he bans her from coming to the circus with him and his friends.
  • Then, there are two episodes that have not aired on PBS Kids at all, and are not included in Amazon Prime releases of the show.
    • "Big Brother Caillou" - Banned because Caillou pinches Rosie. ^note This is child's play compared to the book that the episode was based on, however, where Caillou gets even more violent and bites Rosie. Interestingly, there are a few episode compilations that are also called "Big Brother Caillou." Though these don't contain the infamous episode. When the show moved to Cartoonito, the episode is now unbanned. Although, the scene where Caillou pinches Rosie was cut.
    • "Caillou Walks Around the Block" - Banned because Caillou's mom leaves him unattended and Caillou wanders around the neighborhood by himself. ^note Due to an increase in reports of gun violence, many neighborhoods in the US are becoming paranoid and discouraging or even outright barring Free-Range Children, and in certain counties parents could be slapped with a neglect charge for allowing a child out of the house on his/her own.
• Character Outlives Actor: After Caillou's second voice actress, Jaclyn Linetsky, died in a car crash on the way to the taping of an episode of 15/Love, his voice was replaced by Annie Bovaird.
• Channel Hop:
  • In Canada, the first four seasons aired on Teletoon. Sometime around 2008 or 2009, the show moved to Treehouse TV, where it aired the fifth and final season. The show continued in reruns until 2018, when the show was removed from Treehouse's schedule. Reruns of the show are currently airing on Family Jr.
  • In the US, the show originally aired on PBS Kids for the entirety of it's run and continued in reruns for many years until 2021. Reruns of the show later started to air on Cartoon Network's preschool block Cartoonito.
• Children Voicing Children: Many of the child characters in the show were voiced by actual children, with Bryn McAuley being 7 when she first voiced Caillou.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: In January 2021, many news outlets reported that PBS Kids had finally cancelled the show after 20 years. This is false; what really happened is that they took it out of reruns. The series had ended over a decade prior to this, and PBS can't actually cancel the show either way; the show is a Canadian import.
• Creator Backlash: PBS appears to regret having aired the show, and even made fun of it.
• Crossdressing Voices:
  • Voices of Caillou include Annie Bovaird, Jaclyn Linetsky, Bryn McAuley, and Laurie Hymes. Fans of animation / similar series may recognize McAuley as having been the voice of Harriet on Franklin, or Lily on Toot & Puddle, to name just a couple.
  • While most of Jason and Jeffrey's voice actors are males, in season five, they were both voiced by a girl (Camden Angelis). Similarly, Andre was also voiced by a girl (Bailey Stocker) in season five.
• Died During Production:
  • The second voice of Caillou, Jaclyn Linetsky, died in a car accident on the way to the set of one of her other shows, 15/Love, along with her fellow co-star Vadim Schneider. Annie Bovaird took over the role from that point on. This change also resulted in Caillou's in-series personality changing from an often realistic preschooler who often whined when things didn't come his way to a boy who has a big imagination that helps him deal with problems he faces.
  • Barely avoided by Merlee Shapiro, the narrator of the show, who died in 2011, a year after the show ended.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Both the program and the main character are known in Portugal as Ruca.
  • Both are called "Kaapo" in Finland, as the name "Caillou" would be out of place in Finland
  • For similar reasons, Caillou in the Polish dub is Kajtuś (sometimes also "Kajtek", which is another form of that name). However, in the earlier Polish translations of the books the character is known as "Kamyczek".
  • Caillou is known as "Oblutak" in Croatia.
• Edited for Syndication:
  • You can either get the show with the shorts strung together with extras (such as films narrated by kids and music videos tying into the theme of that day's show, performed by a children's group known as the "Caillettes"; we're not joking about the name of the group) and puppets in one long 30-minute episode, or as five-minute (later 10-minute) shorts. In Canadian markets where both are available, the 30-minute episodes are marketed as Caillou and Friends while the five/ten-minute episodes are marketed as just Caillou.
  • The opening sequence to the two versions are also different: the first variant's intro is longer and shows clips of Caillou from the later episodes and tacks on the puppets yelling "And me!" at the end of the song, while the last one is shorter. It begins with a image of a book cover with Caillou and Gilbert on it, which cuts to an animation of Caillou's mom talking to him followed by clips of Caillou from the earlier episodes.
  • Airings of the show on Sprout's The Goodnight Show had only two episode segments.
  • In 2006, the first three seasons were repackaged. The puppet and real kids segments were removed and only the animated Caillou segments remained. The theme song was the season four intro and so were the credits. The "Caillettes" songs were still there, but the live-action visuals were replaced with scenes from the animated segments. And, lastly, there were a few episodes not included in the repackaged episodes (see Banned Episode above).
• International Coproduction: Season 5 was this between Canada and South Africa.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Good luck finding the UK dub of the show that aired on Cartoonito, because you definitely won't find it on Tiny Pop or any streaming or On-Demand service in the UK that has Caillou on it.
• Late Export for You: For unknown reasons, the fifth season didn't air in the U.S. until 2013, after the season had already aired in many international countries (like Spain, Turkey, Portugal, and Italy).
• Licensed Game: There were a bunch made for PC and Mac, such as Caillou: Four Seasons of Fun. There's also several mobile phone games as well, with many being made by Budge.
• Only So Many Canadian Actors: Many of the actors in this show have appeared in many different Montreal-produced productions, such as Arthur, Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, and What's with Andy?.
• Recursive Adaptation: It was only natural for it to happen, considering that the series started with books.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • Caillou is one of NTV7 Malaysia's victims, and it was only the first 65 shorts. After about 20 episodes were aired, the 40 episodes in the middle were dropped and then once the final five episodes had aired, it was quickly replaced by Rocky and Bullwinkle. NTV7 had not bothered with the subsequent seasons.
  • On Cartoonito in the UK, they only aired the first season and didn't even bothered with the subsequent seasons, which weren't released in the UK until they were released on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. It was also only aired in the wee hours of the morning, usually around 6:00 A.M. One of it's slots got replaced by Cartoonito Karaoke in late 2011. The show later got removed from the schedule in February 2012.
  • Despite Cartoonito US initially adoring the show, they removed the show completely in 2022 along with several other shows.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Caillou was first voiced by Bryn McAuley from 1997 through 2000, then Jaclyn Linetsky in 2000 through 2003, and then, due to Linetsky's death, Annie Bovaird from 2003 through 2010.
  • Rosie was first voiced by Brigid Tierney, then by Jesse Vinet.
• Trend Killer: Because of the negative reception of the eponymous show it attempted to bring into the US, the PBS Kids version of Caillou killed off framing devices to sandwich foreign shows together in order to make them more marketable to Americans, as no show of this sort as been attempted since.
• What Could Have Been: When Bryn McAuley got on the show, she originally auditioned for Rosie. When it was time for her to do recording for the series, she instead got the role of Caillou.
• Word of God: According to the official Caillou website, Caillou's parents do have actual names, with their names being Boris (Daddy) and Doris (Mommy).

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