#Gullah Gullah Island

[classycookiexo]

I’m so grateful for her work and artistry

Rest in peace, queen 🕊️

[another-blues-clues-day-hooray]

[bluescluesposting]

Even though this blog is mainly Blue's Clues and Blue's Clues accessories, I want to give a special happy 30th anniversary shout out to two other Nick Jr. shows, I love- Gullah Gullah Island and Allegra's Window!

Both shows were part of a big revitalization for the Nick Jr. block in 1994, with mascot Face introduced about a month before. Blue's Clues also started development around this time, and can easily be considered the start of Nick Jr.'s "golden age".

Gullah Gullah Island was a really important show for so many kids. It was one of the first preschool shows to have a black family front-and-center, and put a strong emphasis on their culture. A big step in representation- and as a white kid growing up in a small town that's more diverse now, but SUPER white in the mid-90s, it was so important for me to see media featuring kids and families of different backgrounds. It was important then and still important today- I REALLY wish the Nick Jr. channel could still show reruns of it (and by that I mean, reruns at times when kids would actually be awake to watch it, not 3 AM), but at least it's on Paramount+ (knock on wood...if they took Allegra off who knows what classics are next). I bought all the DVDs of it a few years ago before they were discontinued and I'm proud to own the soundtrack album. The songs in this show are great, by the way- I think my favorites are "Friends and Family", "P-L-A-Y", and "Move Your Body". And the theme song might be the biggest ear worm theme in Nickelodeon history (rivaling only CatDog). You can find the entire series on the Internet Archive for free!

Allegra's Window might not have been as influential or important as Gullah Gullah Island- there were a LOT of puppet-based musical shows on in the 90s- but it was still a great show. It emphasized getting used to new situations (such as starting daycare), which can be hard for very young kids, and put a heavy emphasis on music in general- which actually was pretty important as this was right around the time a lot of elementary schools were starting to cut music programs as a cost-cutting maneuver. This show had SUCH a fun aesthetic and I loved the puppet and costume designs (I've cosplayed as Lindi before and I'm pretty sure Encora was an influence on my own personal fashion style). Every Jumbo Pictures show has always had such a fun but calming feel to it. Not just Allegra, but Doug, PB&J Otter, and 101 Dalmatians: The Series as well. The songs are also really good and feature a lot of Broadway-based talent writing them (as well as the human actors performing some of them!). Sadly this one slipped into obscurity; it wasn't reran as often as Gullah Gullah Island and ended abruptly during production on S3 thanks to Jumbo Pictures getting bought by Disney. Paramount+ also took it down last year for unknown reasons (among all the Nick content taken off, it was the only one over 15-20 years old- most of the removals were from the late 2000s to now), but the entire show is on the Internet Archive.

So happy 30 years to two great shows! And once again, I miss Nickelodeon Studios a lot. The shows from the Florida studio just had such a specific feel to them no matter the show or target audience (I get the same feel I get from AW and GGI that I do from Clarissa Explains It All or Legends of the Hidden Temple). I'm so glad to have grown up with this era of Nick.

[mikyapixie]

30 years ago today Gullah Gullah Island premiered on Nickelodeon!!!

I love this show even as a baby!!!😁🥹🤩

[kemetic-dreams]

Historians from Southern Illinois University in the Africana Studies Department documented about 20 title words from the Kikongo language are in the Gullah language. These title words indicate continued African traditions in Hoodoo and conjure. The title words are spiritual in meaning. In Central Africa, spiritual priests and spiritual healers are called Nganga. 

In the South Carolina Lowcountry among Gullah people a male conjurer is called Nganga. Some Kikongo words have a "N" or "M" in the beginning of the word. However, when Bantu-Kongo people were enslaved in South Carolina the letters N and M were dropped from some of the title names. For example, in Central Africa the word to refer to spiritual mothers is Mama Mbondo. In the South Carolina Lowcountry in African American communities the word for a spiritual mother is Mama Bondo. In addition during slavery, it was documented there was a Kikongo speaking slave community in Charleston, South Carolina

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[itsa90skidthing]

[gloriabomfim]

Here is a list of some popular preschool shows that aired in the 1990s:

"Barney & Friends" (1992-2009)

"Blue's Clues" (1996-2006)

"Teletubbies" (1997-2001)

"Arthur" (1996-present)

"Bob the Builder" (1998-2011)

"Bear in the Big Blue House" (1997-2006)

"The Magic School Bus" (1994-1997)

"Sesame Street" (1969-present, but with episodes airing in the 90s)

"The Wiggles" (1991-present)

"Rugrats" (1991-2004)

"Bananas in Pyjamas" (1992-2001)

"The Busy World of Richard Scarry" (1994-1997)

"The Little Mermaid: The Animated Series" (1992-1994)

"Gullah Gullah Island" (1994-1998)

"Allegra's Window" (1994-1996)

"Franklin" (1997-2004)

"Little Bear" (1995-2003)

"The Big Comfy Couch" (1992-2006)

"Muppet Babies" (1984-1991, but with reruns in the 90s)

"PB&J Otter" (1998-2000)

Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and there might be other preschool shows from the 90s that were popular during that time.

[sirwillow]

☀🐸 Gullah Gullah Island

[splatchatblog]

We send our condolences to the family and friends of Nickelodeon legend Janice Burgess. Not only was she the creator of Nick Jr. hit ‘The Backyardigans’ but also oversaw production of countless Nick favorites including ’Gullah Gullah Island’, ‘Blue’s Clues’ & ‘Allegra’s Window’. 🕊️

[yen-sids-tournament]

Darwin v Binyah Binyah v Cerberus

Darwin

Animal: Chimpanzee

Person: Eliza Thornberry

Media: The Wild Thornberrys

Binyah Binyah

Animal: Frog

Person: The Alston Family

Media: Gullah Gullah Island

Cerberus

Animal: Hellhound

Person: Hades/Zagreus

Media: Hades

[tithsokphanny31]

Who remembers Gullah Gullah Island?

[melanatedmedia2]

🌟✨ Get ready for a stroll down memory lane! Gullah Gullah - The Portal is coming, bringing back the magic of Gullah Gullah Island! 🎉💚 With original cast member Simeon Daise and beloved Binyah Binyah returning, it’s nostalgia at its best! 🌴🎶

Join us in celebrating culture, community, and those carefree childhood days. Stay tuned for updates, and let the adventures begin! 🥳 #GullahGullahIsland #Nostalgia #ChildhoodMemories

[sanyu-thewitch05]

Someone made a reimagining of Gullah Gullah Island

@queen-shiba

[calomitchell]

what was your favorite preschool show growing up?

Gullah Gullah Island, TELETUBBIES!!! And Blues Clues was my sister’s favorite so I always watched it with her..

[kemetic-dreams]

A story from a former slave, Mary Middleton, a Gullah woman from the South Carolina Sea Islands, told of an incident of a slaveholder who was physically weakened from conjure. A slaveholder beat one his slaves badly. The slave he beat went to a conjurer and the conjurer made the slaveholder weak by sunset. Middleton said, "As soon as the sun was down, he was down too, he down yet. De witch done dat." Bishop Jamison was born enslaved in Georgia in 1848 and wrote an autobiographical account of his life. On a plantation in Georgia there was an enslaved Hoodoo man named Uncle Charles Hall who prescribed herbs and charms for slaves to protect themselves from European people.

Hall instructed the slaves to anoint roots three times daily and chew and spit roots towards their enslavers for their protection. Another slave story talked about an enslaved woman named Old Julie who was a conjure woman and was known among the slaves on the plantation to conjure death. Old Julie conjured so much death, her slaveholder sold her away to stop her from killing people on the plantation with conjure. Her enslaver put her on a steamboat to take her to her new slaveholder in the Deep South. According to the stories of freedmen after the Civil War, Old Julie used her conjure powers to turn the steamboat around back to where the boat was docked, which forced her slaveholder who tried to sell her away to keep her.