Caillou video release leads preschool crowd
Episode collections from several popular preschool series will be released on video Tuesday. Two charming “Caillou” volumes, “I Want To Grow Up” and “Goodbye Winter, Hello Springtime” feature an engaging variety of animated, puppet, live-action and musical segments from the PBS Kids series.
“Rugrats Easter,” unlike the classic Hanukkah and Passover specials, does not re-enact the story of the holiday but is instead a story of springtime puppy love involving Tommy’s dog Spike.
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Also available on VHS are volumes culled from two top-rated Nickelodeon series, “Little Bill: I Love Animals” and “Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Prince.” Each retails for $13.
TV Land airs ‘African Americans in Television’
“When ‘The Nat King Cole Show’ came on, black families found their way to whoever had the television set in the neighborhood and watched, because everybody took pride in that.” So remarks one observer in “African Americans in Television,” a three-part special airing throughout Black History Month on the TV Land cable network.
Each hour program is a treasure trove of priceless clips and candid interviews that chart the evolution of how the black experience has been portrayed on television and how artists and performers had to struggle with racial bias and stereotypes.
The first installment, “Variety,” will be rebroadcast at 8 p.m. Friday. It features, among others, Harry Belafonte, Flip Wilson, Chris Rock, Dick Gregory, Eartha Kitt, Nat King Cole, Keenan Ivory Wayans and Nancy Wilson.
Part two, “Drama,” will premiere Feb. 15, with “Comedy” to follow on Feb. 22.
‘Malcolm’s’ Muniz stars in ‘Big Fat Liar’
The PG-rated comedy “Big Fat Liar,” opening in theaters on Friday, stars Frankie Muniz, the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated star of “Malcolm in the Middle,” as Jason, whose junior high school essay accidentally falls into the hands of a sleazy hotshot Hollywood producer (Paul Giamatti). Being a sleazy hotshot Hollywood producer, he turns it into a box office blockbuster and takes all the credit.
Amanda Bynes, the star of Nickelodeon’s “The Amanda Show,” co-stars as Jason’s friend Kaylee, who helps Jason takes his increasingly elaborate revenge.