Big Kids

Big Kids is a 13-episode children's comedy television series created by Lucy Daniel-Raby. The series was a British-American co-production of the BBC and the US network Noggin. It premiered on CBBC on BBC One on 27 September 2000 and on the Noggin channel on 29 January 2001. All 13 episodes were aired on Noggin's sister channel, Nickelodeon, from 9 to 30 March 2001. History According to the show's developer, Elaine Sperber, the writers "had to tread carefully" to make sure that the content was relevant to both UK and U.S. children. She said, "We had a great relationship with Noggin ... but when you co-produce with North Americans, you always run into problems over British accents and language. We couldn’t use terms like 'snogging' in Big Kids because no one in the U.S. would have understood it." The magazine Kidscreen wrote that "children start drinking far earlier in Britain than they do in North America, so a sequence showing booze being consumed at a school dance had to be watered down." On Noggin, the show was aired as part of a primetime programming block called "The Hubbub," which allowed viewers to submit comments through Noggin's website and see them live on-air. Noggin grouped the final two episodes as an hour-long special, and they aired on 25 March 2001. Leading up to them, Noggin reran a marathon of the entire series, promoted as the Big Kids Big Marathon. From April 2002 to January 2004, Noggin aired reruns of Big Kids during its overnight programming block, The N. Plot The show follows the lives of the Spiller family: Simon, Kate, and their parents, Sarah, a piano teacher, and Geoff, a doctor. When the family attends a school charity event, a hypnotist and entertainer named Ming the Mind Master uses Sarah and Geoff in a performance. After the show is over, Kate and Simon realize that their parents have never been properly unhypnotized. At seemingly random moments, they black out and begin to act like children.