History YMMV / BetweenTheLions

* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Most programs that teach reading just assume that the letters "EA" always make the "long E" sound. This show followed suit with its first two "EA" episodes, but the third show had Dr. Nitwhite appear on an in-universe talk show and tell the host about his "discovery" that "EA" always made the "long E" sound. The host's response? "That's really [[BrokenAesop great]]."

** The "freebee" virus in "The Good Seed" for all the random chaos that happens because of it. Taken UpToEleven if you're a small child who just came here from ''WesternAnimation/TrappedInHyperspace''.

* SeasonalRot: Seasons 5-10 were radically different from the earlier seasons, focusing on consonants rather than vowels and showing two fifteen-minute episodes at a time instead of one thirty-minute episode. The theme of literacy even eventually became TheArtifact. Worse, old sketches were replaced with new ones and other fan favorites such as Heath, Walter, Clay and Busterfield [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter were retired for no good reason]]. One wonders if the show would've become more popular and not suffer from the seasonal rot if Season 5 kept the show's original format.

* SeasonalRot: Seasons 5-10 were radically different from the earlier seasons, focusing on consonants rather than vowels and showing two fifteen-minute episodes at a time instead of one thirty-minute episode. The theme of literacy even eventually became TheArtifact. Worse, old sketches were replaced with new ones and other fan favorites such as Heath, Walter, Clay and Busterfield [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter were retired for no good reason]].

* OlderThanTheyThink: WesternAnimation/SuperWhy isn't the first kids' show to have superheroes fixing the story--that honor goes to the Little Wendy Tales segment.

* TheScrappy: The singers from Cliff Hanger, who instead of aiding Cliff with their ''helicopter'' simply show up to sing his theme song before tuning out and leaving every time he tries to beg for help. Also in-universe: in the episode where he finally ''does'' get off the cliff (Temporarily), they proceed to annoy the entire library with their singing as they are now out of a job.
** Amusingly, these same singers appear in the only Justin Time sketch to appear in the series, and when they are done singing his theme song, he promptly tells them to go away.

* AngstWhatAngst: In one episode, Leona spends an entire episode hiding beneath a covered table in the library's cafe area and refuses to come out or to even speak to anybody outside, leaving the entire library wondering as to what is bothering her. After reading a story to her in the hopes of somehow coaxing her out, she eventually does come out....but chooses not to explain what was bothering her until "later". Lionel is justifiably aghast when they get no answers as to what was going the whole day.

* UncannyValley:
** Arty Smartypants. That one messed-up swirly eye and that the other one (which he sometimes pulls out) is cold, dead, unblinking and fixed on the viewer is already a bit unnerving, but his overall strange anatomy and his ''human hands'' can make his appearance downright harrowing to some viewers.
** Heath the Thesaurus might also count. It's not so bad when we just see his head and neck, but when they show his whole body, he's downright creepy.

** Busterfield’s song, "Must I Just Be a Bust", where he sings about how he has been stuck in a dome since 1892 and wishes to be free to see the world.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Series/{{The Electric Company|1971}}''; both shows teach phonics and grammar skills using SketchComedy. Oddly enough, the [[Series/TheElectricCompany2009 2009 reboot]] of ''The Electric Company'' started the year before ''Between the Lions'' ended.

%%* EnsembleDarkhorse: Click.
* FridgeHorror: During "Silent E", we see the titular villain turn a twin into a twine. When one stops to realize he turned an innocent kid into an inanimate object, it's suddenly a lot less amusing and cements Silent E as the monster he's portrayed as.

* AccidentalAesop:

* OlderThanTheyThink: WesternAnimation/SuperWhy isn't the first kids' show to have superheroes fixing the story, the segment Little Wendy Tales was.

* SeasonalRot: Seasons 5-10 were radically different from the earlier seasons, focusing on consonants rather than vowels and showing two fifteen-minute episodes at a time instead of one thirty-minute episode. The theme of literacy even eventually became TheArtifact. Worse, old sketches were replaced with new ones and other fan favorites such as Heath, Walter, Clay and Busterfield were retired for no good reason.

*** The story itself is not bowdlerized: the whole tragedy is shown, including the hawk's death, and we see the body next to the king. All the king can do is sit beside his friend and cry TearsOfRemorse until he realizes where his castle is. "Slowly he walked down the hill to his home, his feet as heavy as his heart. [[DownerEnding The End]].

*** The story itself is not bowdlerized: the whole tragedy is shown, including the hawk's death, and we see the body next to the king. All the king can do is sit beside his friend and cry TearsOfRemorse until he realizes where his castle is. "Slowly he walked down the hill to his home, his feet as heavy as his heart. [[DownerEnding The End]].}

*** Leona angrily asks Lionel why he decided to read a sad story to her. He apologetically says he should have read it ahead of time, though to be fair she just asked him to read to him so he obiged.

** Leona receiving "The Gingerbread Man" as a birthday gift, only to be heartbroken when the story ends with him being eaten. Part of the party ends up playing out like a ''funeral'' in the gingerbread man's memory, with the lions even ''singing a song'' to say goodbye to him. Silly as the whole thing is, it evokes the very real pain that is characteristic of such a moment. As for the song itself, even when listened to without context, is a massive tearjerker on its own.

** The entire cast and the library patrons getting trapped inside a storybook after having been sent there by Click, who makes the ill-timed choice of going into ''sleep mode'' while everyone is screaming to be returned to reality. [[FromBadToWorse And then a seafaring captain comes to check said book out for his two-year voyaged across the globe]]. Luckily everyone is fine by the next episode, but everyone is rightly horrified at how their situation nearly played out.

** In some of the Dr. Ruth sketches, a sentient word with a negative meaning gives up its first letter and replaces it with a new first letter, giving it a positive meaning. This can be seen as a message that changing your appearance will solve all your problems.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped:
** A variation involving a spelling lesson rather than a moral lesson: one Dr. Nitwhite sketch has him appear on a talk show, discussing his discovery that the letters "EA" always make the "long E" sound, which is what kids are usually taught in schools. The host's response? "That's really [[BrokenAesop great]]."
** The story "The Queen who Wanted to Touch the Moon" is a complete inversion of the usual aesop about determination. Because of her determination to touch the moon, [[spoiler: the queen ended up falling to her death.]] It just goes to show that there is a difference between giving up and knowing when to turn back.
** Gus’ introductory episode has him struggling with reading and writing because of an unidentified learning difference. The lions teach him that learning to read takes time and if you work at it harder, you’ll get there. With many schools having special classes for dyslexia, it has aged pretty well.
** "You Can’t Catch Me" has Leona not wanting to say goodbye to the Gingerbread Man because of him getting eaten and on her birthday. Her parents sing her a song about how saying goodbye to someone we love is inevitable, but it doesn’t mean that person has to truly leave, because we can still remember all the great things we learned from them and the times we’ve had together.
** The song, "A Good Sad Book" features Theo teaching us how even the saddest things can make us feel better. It may be hard to handle emotional material in books, movies or television shows, but it can help us appreciate what we have.

** "The Emperor's Seed", which tells the story of how a young Chinese boy named Ping, whose entire passion was flowers, is unable to grow a single seed provided to him by the emperor in his search for an heir to the throne. Ping is forced to present an empty pot in the presence of hundreds of other young children who had grown impressive flowers, and admits that his best simply was not enough. Becomes a SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoment as the emperor praises Ping for his honesty, revealing that the seeds he had given everyone were ''[[SecretTestOfCharacter cooked]]'' and thus unable to grow. For his noble act, Ping is crowned the new emperor of China.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXOFny8WaV4 The Mighty Star Lion]]," the closing song from "Shooting Stars," is ''gorgeous''.

** The closing song from "Shooting Stars" is rather good, too.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Look up Peter Linz, the voice of Theo. You'll find that he's Tutter from ''Series/BearInTheBigBlueHouse'', Snook from ''Series/ItsABigBigWorld'' and ''Franchise/TheMuppets'''s Walter! Recently, he also became the performers of [[Series/SesameStreet Ernie, Herry Monster,]] [[Franchise/TheMuppets Robin, Statler, Lips and Link Hogthrob]].

** "What's Cooking with Theo and Cleo" features a lot of rhyming titles like "Slammed and Rammed Ham", "Squished Fish in a Dish", "Beef in a Sheet", and "Tackled and Paddled Hamburger". Considering the two openly flirt on the show and sometimes seem to be close to [[UnusualEuphemism killing the Y-rating]], [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar it could be intentional.]]

* SignatureSong: "Cliff Hanger," "Sven Said Ten Tents," "Rocket-Doodle-Doo," "Silent E," "Grubby Pup," "Sloppy Pop," "If You Can Read AT," "When Two Vowels Go Walking," "Dance in Smarty Pants," "Get Your Mouth Moving," "Ten Small Words," and "Grow, Mane, Grow!"

** Buster’s song, “Must I Just Be a Bust”, where he sings about how he has been stuck in a dome since 1892 and wishes to be free to see the world.

* AccidentalAesop: In some of the Dr. Ruth sketches, a sentient word with a negative meaning gives up its first letter and replaces it with a new first letter, giving it a positive meaning. This can be seen as a message that changing your appearance will solve all your problems.