64 Zoo Lane is a British/French children's TV series created by An Vrombaut that ran for 2 seasons from 1999 to 2003 on CBeebies in the United Kingdom. Produced by Millimages and Zoo Lane Productions, the series follows seven-year-old girl Lucy, who lives right next door to the zoo. After her mum calls her for bedtime, Lucy climbs on her giraffe mother figure's back to visit the zoo. There, she listens to her animal friends Nelson the elephant, Molly the hippo, Boris the bear, and the monkeys Giggles and Tickles telling stories to help her fall asleep.
In the U.S., the series received an American English dub and aired as part of the Fox Family Channel'snote short lived "It's Itsy Bitsy Time!" series in 1999. It later premiered on Noggin in 2005. The series would later air on Sprout in 2012, and lasted for one more year before it ceased airing.
The series got Un-Canceled in 2010, and the third season aired on February 6. One last season of the show aired between 2012 and 2013, and the series ended.
This show contains examples of the following tropes:
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: For example, Nelson the Elephant is green and Alan the Aardvark is orange.
- Annoyingly Repetitive Child: In "Nelson the Elephant", a younger Nelson jumps off a ledge several times (calling it the "umpa-jumpa game"), but it inconveniences his neighbors, especially since his immense weight causes great tremors. He refuses to stop because it's too fun for him, so they trick him into jumping on a trampoline to break him of the habit.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Done in "Joey the Kangaroo" where Lucy is listing what was bad about her school day, and ends off by saying she can't skip, much to the zoo animals' surprise.
- Beary Friendly: Despite his forgetfulness, Boris is still a kindly bear.
- Connected All Along: All of the main animals barring Boris used to live in Africa.
- Genial Giraffe: Georgina seems to be Lucy's secondary parental figure, and it shows.
- Green Gators:
- Kevin the crocodile has bright green skin.
- Victor the crocodile has dark green skin and spikes on his back.
- Honorable Elephant: Nelson, while rough around the edges, is still an amiable fellow.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode begins with the pattern "The Story Of..."
- Known by the Postal Address: 64 Zoo Lane is named after the titular house, which is situated next door to a zoo.
- Mischief-Making Monkey: Giggles and Tickles love to play pranks on the other animals.
- Parental Substitute: Georgina is commonly seen as Lucy's secondary parental figure.
- The Place: The series is set at 64 Zoo Lane, where Lucy lives, and titled after it.
- Title Theme Tune: 64, 64, 64 Zoo Lane...
- Those Two Guys: Giggles and Tickles, the monkey brothers, are almost always seen together.
- Three Shorts: In the US airings on Noggin, two episodes would play back to back.
