Clifford the Big Red Dog

Clifford the Big Red Dog is an American-British educational animated children's television series, based upon Norman Bridwell's children's book series of the same name. Produced by Scholastic Productions, it originally aired on PBS Kids from September 4, 2000 to February 25, 2003. The UK version (where it was dubbed with British voice actors replacing the original American soundtrack) originally aired on BBC Two on April 1, 2002.

The show was close captioned by the National Captioning Institute when it was seen on PBS Kids in the United States of America and it kept the same close captioning by the National Captioning Institute when it was seen in Canada on CBC.

John Ritter voiced Clifford in all episodes. This was originally done by Brent Titcomb in the 1988 direct-to-video series. Ritter's schedule dictated the production of Clifford the Big Red Dog. By the time the last of the 68 half-hour episodes and the subsequent film Clifford's Really Big Movie were completed, Ritter was back on ABC's prime time schedule, starring in 8 Simple Rules. Ritter's death from a heart attack on September 11, 2003 came less than a week before PBS debuted Clifford's Puppy Days. While no new Clifford episodes have been released since Ritter's death, voice actors for the main characters have reprised some of their roles for the Ready to Learn PBS Kids PSAs. Clifford's Really Big Movie serves as the series finale due to Ritter's death, as no new episodes were made to continue from where it left off. However, Clifford's Puppy Days still continued to air until its cancellation in 2006.

On May 16, 2018, Scholastic announced a reboot of the series, which is scheduled for a December 2019 premiere on both PBS Kids and Amazon Prime Video.

Overview
Two 15-minute stories made up each half-hour episode. Usually one story featured Clifford and his canine friends, Cleo and T-Bone among them; the other story would focus on Clifford's owner, Emily Elizabeth and her friends. During scenes focusing on the dogs' perspective, human speech would replace barking to show the storyline from the dogs' point of view.

Dogs

 * Clifford the Big Red Dog (voiced by John Ritter; Tom Eastwood in the British version): A giant red Labrador Retriever. The depiction of Clifford's size is inconsistent; he is often shown as being about 30 feet tall (9.1 m) from paws to head, but can appear far larger. The character is based on the imaginary friend of creator Norman Bridwell's wife.
 * Cleo (voiced by Cree Summer; Regine Candler in the British version): A purple female poodle. Her owner is Mrs. Diller.
 * T-Bone (voiced by Kel Mitchell; Benjamin Small in the British version): A yellow and orange, male bulldog. His owner is Sheriff Lewis.
 * T-Bone had a friend named Hamburger (voiced by Kel Mitchell's longtime comedy partner Kenan Thompson) who moved away before Clifford arrived.
 * Mac (voiced by Cameron Clarke): A blue male greyhound. It is revealed in a few episodes that his name is short for Machiavelli. His owner is Jetta Handover.

Humans

 * Emily Elizabeth Howard (voiced by Grey DeLisle; Joanna Ruiz in the British version): Clifford's 8-year-old owner. Emily Elizabeth adopted Clifford when he was a very small puppy, when her parents gave him to her on her 6th birthday. Emily's love apparently caused Clifford to grow enormous, thus starting their new lives on Birdwell Island. Emily was named for creator Norman Bridwell's daughter and based on the imaginary adventures of Bridwell's wife.
 * Caroline Howard (also voiced by Grey DeLisle): Emily Elizabeth's mom. She owns and works at The Sea Shell, which is a small store on Birdwell Island.
 * Mark Howard (voiced by Cameron Clarke): Emily Elizabeth's dad and the spouse of Caroline Howard.
 * Charley (voiced by Gary LeRoi Gray): Emily Elizabeth's friend who is Jamaican American. He lives on a houseboat with his father, who owns a restaurant.
 * Samuel (voiced by Terrence C. Carson): Charley's father and the Jamaican owner of Samuel's Fish and Chips. He runs most of the pier.
 * Jetta Handover (voiced by Kath Soucie): Mac's owner. She is a friend of Emily Elizabeth. Her mother owns one of the island stores.
 * Cosmo Handover (voiced by Debi Derryberry) is the infant brother of Jetta. He is first seen in the episode "And Baby Makes 4".
 * Vaz (voiced by Ulysses Cuadra): A boy who is friends with Emily Elizabeth and Charley.
 * Sheriff Lewis (voiced by Nick Jameson): T-Bone's owner. The island's sheriff and the soccer coach.
 * He had a friend named Deputy Wilson who moved away with T-Bone's friend, Hamburger.
 * Ms. Diller (voiced by Cree Summer): Cleo's owner.
 * Violet Bleakman (voiced by Edie McClurg) is the first neighbor of the Howards to introduce herself.
 * Horace Bleakman (voiced by Earl Boen) Violet's husband.

Production
The series was produced by Mike Young Productions and Scholastic Studios.

Setting
The TV series takes place in the fictional island of Birdwell Island, where Clifford lives. The name is inspired by Norman Bridwell, the author of the books, but the letters I and R are switched. Birdwell Island was inspired by Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, where Bridwell lived.

Emily Elizabeth used to live in an apartment in New York City, but she moved away with her parents and Clifford to Birdwell Island because her mother told her that a small apartment is no place for a big dog like Clifford.

Format
The series has at least 5 segments in the show, which are:


 * 1) Theme Song
 * 2) 1st Story - The opening theme is followed by the first central story, which is about the dogs, and a problem they face.
 * 3) Storytime with Speckle - Between the first and second story, Emily Elizabeth reads Clifford the Speckle Story, a small 60 seconds (approximately) time filler about a fictional dog (Speckle), and his animal friends.
 * 4) 2nd Story - This is followed by another central story, about Emily Elizabeth and her friends.
 * 5) Clifford's Big Ideas - Before the credits, another 30-second short takes place called Clifford's Big Ideas. The short is basically an animation of an etiquette, a proverb, or basic truth such as "Play Fair", "Help Others", etc., with narration by Emily Elizabeth. This segment was cut-out on PBS Kids Channel airings.

On UK airings, only one story is shown with either the Storytime with Speckle or the Clifford's Big Ideas segments at the end, shortening the show to only about 15 Minutes.

International broadcast
Clifford the Big Red Dog was shown on BBC One and Tiny Pop in the United Kingdom. It also aired in Canada on CBC and in Latin America on Discovery Kids.

2019 reboot
A reboot was announced on May 16, 2018 by Scholastic, and will premiere in December 7, 2019 for both Amazon Prime Video and for PBS Kids too. Scholastic, 100 Chickens, 9 Story Media Group, and Brown Bag Films will produce the series.

Direct-to-video
In 1988, before the television series, six direct-to-video episodes based on the Clifford the Big Red Dog children's book series by Norman Bridwell, were released on videocassette by Family Home Entertainment, The Scholastic Learning Library and Nelvana Limited. The animation for direct-to-video series, came from the Peanuts cartoon team of Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez, giving them a look similar to the Peanuts cartoons, in contrast to the later television series which was animated by Mike Young Productions. Brent Titcomb voiced Clifford in the videos, and Alyson Court voiced Emily Elizabeth.

Film
In 2004, Warner Bros. Pictures distributed a feature-length animated film based on the show titled Clifford's Really Big Movie. It was about Clifford, Cleo and T-Bone joining an animal show to win a lifetime supply of dog food to provide for Clifford. This was John Ritter's last film as he died on September 11, 2003, after completing voice work for the film. The film was dedicated to his memory. The movie also stars Wayne Brady as Shackleford the Ferret, Judge Reinhold as Amazing Larry, John Goodman as George Wolfsbottom, and Jenna Elfman as Dorothy the Cow. The film also serves as the series finale.

Original series

 * Clifford's Reading
 * Clifford's Thinking Adventures

Modern series

 * Clifford's Learning Activities
 * Clifford's Musical Memory Games
 * Clifford's Phonics
 * Clifford's Big Puzzle Game (A Wendy's Kids' Meal DVD game, available for a limited time only)