Caillou

WARNING: Do not add the "Average Shows" category, or change the "Why It Sucks" and "Redeeming Qualities" head customs to "Bad Qualities" and "Good Qualities" head customs, respectively, as this show is not considered average, despite its fans. Anyone who persists will be dealt with.

Caillou

Thanks a lot for ruining our ears and little kids' behavior with this whining.

Genre:	Slice-of-life Comedy
Running Time:	7 minutes
Country:	Canada
Release Date:	September 15, 1997 - October 3, 2010 (reruns aired on PBS until January 5, 2021)
Network(s):	Télétoon (Quebec) Teletoon (Canada) Treehouse TV (Canada) PBS (US; 2000-2021)
Created by:	Hélène Desputeaux Christine L'Heureux
Distributed by:	Cinar (1997–2004) Cookie Jar (2004–2010) WildBrain (2010-present)
Starring:	Bryn McAuley (1997-2000) Jaclyn Linetsky (2000-2003) Annie Bovaird (2003-2010) Jennifer Seguin Pat Fry
Seasons:	5
Episodes:	144
Next show:	Caillou's New Adventures

Caillou is a Canadian educational children's television series that was first shown on Télétoon and Teletoon, with its first episode airing on the former channel on September 15, 1997; the show later moved to Treehouse TV, with its final episode being shown on that channel on October 3, 2010. The series is based on the books by Hélène Desputeaux. It centers on a 4-year-old boy named Caillou who is fascinated by the world around him.

Plot

Aimed at the toddler and pre-school set, Caillou is an educational show that stars the 4-year-old title character (pronounced KY-YOO), who lives with his mother, father and sister in a blue house on Pine Street. Caillou has invisible friends, learns how to play sports and explores nature. Friendly and curious, Caillou discovers as much fun and wonder as any kid can imagine. In addition to the animated segments featuring Caillou's adventures, the show also features puppet skits and videos of children in real-life situations.

Why It Sucks

Almost all of the characters are poorly written:
- Caillou, the title character, is unlikable. For example, he constantly cries, whines and throws tantrums without being told off, especially in the first season; in the fourth and fifth seasons, Caillou, despite being significantly better-behaved, is very bland and became a huge Gary Stu.
  - As a matter of fact, his whining was reported to have had a negative effect on kids' behavior.
- His parents, Boris and Doris, aren't much better. They rarely punish or scold Caillou for his actions, even when he deserves it.
- The rest of the characters are bland and have little to no depth whatsoever. For example, Leo and Clementine are generic friends, and Ms. Martin is a generic teacher.
The voice acting ranges from bland to just plain annoying.
The animation took a nose-dive in the later seasons as it switched to flash animation from traditional animation, most likely to cut corners and save money. The flash animation itself looks very horrendous, stilted and lazy in comparison to the hand-drawn animation in the first three seasons.
The show introduced interesting characters like Andy and Alan only for them to disappear later on.
Some questionable-at-best morals; in the banned episode "Caillou Goes Around the Block," for example, Caillou, well, goes around the block, unattended, despite his very young age, which is a very bad decision for a parent to do that, considering the dangers of their child (especially a four-year-old) walking alone in the street.
- In later seasons, the morals are often shoved down the viewers' throat.
The plots are extremely clichéd and stale as well in the later seasons.
Slow pacing.
The theme song is both cringy and awful to listen to. Not to mention, it will get on your nerves very quickly.

Redeeming Qualities

The concept about a four-year-old boy who is obsessed with the world around him is pretty good for a children’s show despite being executed poorly here.
Most of the voice acting is passable at the very least.
- Some one-liners are unintentionally funny like "Your mommy's gone!".
Some episodes are decent, such as "Caillou Makes Cookies". The puppet skits for American airings between 2000 and 2003 were also pretty good as well.
Despite some flaws, the animation, at least for the first three seasons, is quite decent.
Seasons 4-5 are a bit of an improvement over the first three, but are still mediocre at best.
Andy and Alan are interesting characters, being a good representation for autistic kids and kids with Down syndrome respectively, but are wasted.
- Gilbert is also a cute pet cat and a likable character.
- Caillou's design is pretty cute as well, but his personality is poorly-executed. Starting in season four, Caillou, despite his Gary-Stuish behavior, is better behaved. His yellow shirt from Season 2 onward makes his design less bland compared to the beige shirt version.

Reception and controversy

Although Caillou actually performed well with viewership and its target preschool demographic, the series was heavily panned by older viewers and critics alike, especially the first season of the show. The titular character's misbehavior throughout the show has made him an infamous character among older viewers and parents, since Caillou's troublemaking and whining was considered to be annoying and his parents accepting his actions rather than disciplining him didn't clearly show that his actions were wrong and as such he didn't learn from his mistakes. Many parents have even claimed that their children became naughtier when watching Caillou and copying the titular character's behavior.

Over the years, the show has been popularly satirized and mocked on social media and in some forms of entertainment, with numerous parodies and memes based on the show. Two notable examples being grounded videos on websites like Vyond and Plotagon and the premiere episode of Season 19 of Family Guy titled "Stewie's First Word".

The series currently holds a 4/10 on IMDb and 4.7/10 on TV.com. On Google, it has a 2.7 audience rating.

Trivia

Jaclyn Linetsky, Caillou's second voice actor, died on September 8, 2003 due to traffic collision at the age of 17. Nicolas Cantu, Gumball Watterson's third voice actor from seasons 5 and 6 of the Cartoon Network series The Amazing World of Gumball was born on the same day that Jaclyn Linetsky, Caillou's second voice actor died.
Bryn McAuley, Caillou's first voice actress, also voiced Mavis Dracula on the Sony Pictures Animation show Hotel Transylvania: The Series (replacing Selena Gomez from the movie), which aired on Disney Channel in 2017.
For some unknown reason, Caillou was extremely popular in Turkey and Portugal.
After its cancellation in 2010, re-runs of Caillou still aired on PBS Kids until January 5, 2021, due to complaints about the main character's misbehavior/horrible example that the show received.