Trivia / Between the Lions

• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Pam Arciero (Leona's second performer)'s favorite episodes are "You Can't Catch Me!" and "Ruby Sings the Blues".
  • One of Jennifer Barnhardt (Cleo's performer)'s favorite episodes is "Dreaming Shakespeare".
• The Danza: Dr. Ruth Wordheimer pretty much is Dr. Ruth Westheimer, coming as close to an As Herself role as ratings would allow.
• Descended Creator:
  • Besides being one of the five series creators, Kathryn Mullen was the first puppet captain, coordinating producer and Leona's first performer.
  • Anthony Asbury was the puppet co-captain, a segment director as well as Lionel's first performer.
  • Co-creator Michael K. Frith also served as one of the series' voice actors.
• In Memoriam: "The Fox and the Crow" was dedicated to Jeanne S. Chall, one of curriculum consultants that worked on the show who died a year before the series premiered.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Good luck finding the entire series legally, as various VHS releases exist but are long out of print. There also exists a few DVDs of the show, Vowel Power, Shooting Stars and Fuzzy, Wuzzy, Wuzzy?.
  • You could get Season 1 and 2 fully on DVD from Malaysia and Singapore... About a decade ago. Now they're out of print, too. Season 3 onwards? Well, keep circulating the tapes.
  • For those who live in the United States, ten episodes are available on Hoopla and Kanopy, both of which are free streaming services offered through public libraries.
  • Some episodes are available as part of the Described and Captioned Media Program website, but it requires a membership to access.
  • A number of episodes were released on Playway, a standalone video-player format available at some public libraries.
  • The Japanese and Korean dubs are very hard to find as only a couple episodes of these dubs can be watched online.
• Kids' Meal Toy: The series had a number of promotions from Chick-fil-A over the years, due in part to the chain providing funds for the series. These included books, CDs, and even VHS tapes with full-length episodes.
• Only Barely Renewed: The show nearly didn't survive after its fourth season due to a lack of funding coupled with the expense of producing in New York (a single episode could be as expensive as $500,000). However, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, who were massive fans of the show and found it to be a lifesaver to a state that has historically struggled tremendously with education and literacy, offered to open their studios up to the show for filming. The crew ultimately obliged and this was able to reduce the cost of production so drastically that it lasted six more seasons.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Kathryn Mullen performed Leona for the first two seasons, but left the series due to Mullen retiring from puppeteering. Pam Arciero took for the remainder of the series.
  • Noel MacNeal took over as Lionel from Anthony Asbury for the last two seasons.
  • Tim Lagasse (who also performed Arty Smartypants) briefly filled in as the understudy for Theo during seasons 3-4 whenever Peter Linz wasn't available.
  • Heath the Thesaurus was voiced by Tyler Bunch in the first season, but was replaced by Peter Linz in later appearences. His puppet was radically changed too. Most fans prefer Linz's Heath.
  • The narrator in the Cliff Hanger segments was originally voiced by Michael K. Frith in the first four seasons, but starting in season 6, he was replaced by Tyler Bunch.
• Out of Order: It's possible that both The Lucky Duck and The Fox and The Crow were the first episodes to be made as some of the characters look slightly off (most notably Cleo and Leona Lion), but were aired late in the first season. The first aired episode, Pecos Bill Cleans Up The West, may've been produced later.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • PBS stopped airing reruns of the first four seasons in 2009 for unknown reasons.
  • Screwed royally in Malaysia by government-owned TV2. The show suffered lost scenes due to cutting to commercials without pausing the main tape and suffered an inconsistent schedule, but the worst thing was it was pre-empted halfway through season 1 for a whopping 6 months. TV2 did not renew the license for Season 2, but the entirety of Season 2 did get a direct-to-DVD release in the country (Season 1 was also lucky enough to get a full DVD release in the country). Season 3 onwards completely didn't make it in, though.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment:
  • Majority of season 1 have a 1999 copyright, implying that most of the season was finished by that year. Despite this, the series didn't officially premiere until April 3, 2000.
  • Although season 7 was produced and aired in 2007, season 8 (which also was produced in 2007) didn't wound up airing until 2008.
• Unspecified Role Credit: The show's ending credits lists the voice actors and puppeteers' names but not saying who played which character. This also happened on an older webpage on the PBS Kids website.
• What Could Have Been: An animated spin-off of the show was in the works, but it was quickly cancelled after the company who was going to animate it wound up going under.

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