Scoop and Doozie
Scoop and Doozie is a late 1990s television show about the everyday lives of Doozie, an orange toy bulldozer, Scoop, a yellow toy excavator, and Axel, a blue and red dumptruck, aimed at preschoolers and kindergarteners. It uses skillful puppetry and live videos to teach about construction and machinery to children. It aired for a short time on CBC Television's children block called CBC Playground (now Kids' CBC) in 1999 and 2000.
Characters
- Scoop----a yellow (sometimes green) closed-bucket excavator. She is smart and witty, but she is also a bit vain and prone to argue with Doozie. Scoop normally hangs out with Axel.
- Doozie----an orange bulldozer. He is a lover of mischief, dirt, and excitement. Doozie is very excitable, and is smart and witty like all of the featured toys. However, Doozie can be quite obnoxious, and (as part of his rivalry with Scoop and Spritz) he often enjoys causing trouble.
- Axel----a red and blue dump truck. Axel is the one member of the cast that is sensible and orderly. He loves to rest and vedge, but most of his time is spent settling the arguments between Scoop, Doozie, and Spritz. Axel rarely gets into trouble.
- Spritz----a silver and black troublemaking, argument starting, provoking garden hose. Spritz is considered somewhat of a villainous character, as she is pessimistic and enjoys causing arguments.
Scoop and Doozie was produced by Queen Bee Productions. Romney Grant was executive producer. Vicki Grant was creative producer and story editor. Edward Peghin was the producer.
Program Format
The show starts out with the three machines, Axel, Scoop, and Doozie, doing something together when they encounter a problem. Upon this problem, they sometimes go the basement window of the house of the yard where the machines live, and watch the owner of the house doing something to solve a similar problem. Other times the machines will go over to the fence posts to watch Fence TV (a video of real machines screened through a knothole). When the basement/Fence TV segment is done, the machines use what they've seen and heard to apply to the problem they've encountered.
Trivia
- During the run of the show, Scoop had three different designs.
Romney Grant and Vicki Grant are sisters. Romney is a lawyer who produced the cooking show "The Urban Peasant". Vicki is a television writer and novelist.
Christine Lippa who played Scoop, Spritz and Mrs. Glover is an actor and stand-up comedian. This was her first job as a puppeteer.
Norman Foote who played Axel and Long John wrote the music for the series. He is a popular children's entertainer.
Jim Rankin who played Doozie, Jacques and Cal also starred in The Comedy Network adult series, "Puppets Who Kill". He is currently developing his own preschool puppet show, "Go to Bed, Jimmy". Jim won a Gemini for his work on Scoop and Doozie.
Vicki Grant, who wrote most of the episodes, now writes Young Adult novels. Her first book, "The Puppet Wrangler", was inspired by Scoop and Doozie. She has also written two comic legal thrillers for teens, "Quid pro Quo" and "Res Judicata", as well as four shorter novels - "Dead-End Job", "Pigboy", "I.D." and "Nine Doors".
Scoop and Doozie won a Gemini for Best Writing in a Children or Youth Program for the episode "What Rubbish!" (by Vicki Grant) and a Bronze at the Columbus International Film and Video Festival for the episode "Some Bunny Like Me" (by Vicki Grant). It was also nominated for a Gemini for Best Children's or Youth Program and Best Writing in a Children's or Youth Program for the episode "Au Revoir, Underpants!" (by Vicki Grant).