Groundling Marsh


Groundling Marsh is a Canadian children's television series featuring puppets. The show was produced by Portfolio Film & Television Inc., and J.A. Delmage Productions. It included songs and animated segments, and enjoyed a certain amount of success and popularity during its time. The only merchandise produced for the show were videos and they are now exceptionally rare and no longer produced. In the United States, it aired on PBS and The Disney Channel. It received funding from the International Production Fund, formerly the Maclean Hunter Television Fund. This series premiered in 1994 on YTV before premiering in the U.S. on The Disney Channel and PBS on October 1, 1995. Groundling Marsh was nominated at the 12th Annual Gemini Awards for Best Preschool Program or Series. John Pattison was also nominated for a Gemini for the episode "Bah Hegdish". The show had its series finale on November 7, 1997. The show is still seen on Bell Media-owned educational station CTV Two Alberta.

Plot synopsis

Groundling Marsh takes place in a magical swamp. Most of the mutant-like characters are "Groundlings" but look very different from each other. They can be described as any combination of animal, human, elf, and plant. One of the characters is a robot named Stacks. Generally, humans never appear in the series except as an alien presence represented by a boot or a voice. Most often, humans come to the marsh to dump trash and disrupt the ecosystem. The show was designed to be educational and so the story of each episode includes morals such as friendship, honesty, caring, and protection of the environment.

Characters

Galileo Swampson

Galileo is a young leader Groundling. Relatively elf-like in appearance, he has yellow-orange skin, dark hair with a slight purplish tinge, a very short braid or ponytail in the back, and a rounded nose. He calls himself an explorer, and is constantly exploring and mapping the marsh. He is also curious about the world beyond the marsh, where the humans live. He built Stacks out of pieces of junk that humans dumped in the marsh. In some ways he is perhaps meant to resemble a Native American person. He is very friendly, but will sometimes lose his patience, particularly with Maggie. In the title sequence of every episode, he is seen looking through a telescope, implying that he is named after Galileo Galilei, the famous astronomer. He wears a natural-looking brown tunic and pants. He has the ability to see in the dark, His love interest is Maggie, He has a little sister named Vilma.
He appears in the show very often. Despite being relatively mature in terms of his personality, he shares the role of protagonist with Maggie and, occasionally, with Crystal. Each character has been the focus of a number of episodes, so the show has more of an ensemble cast.

Maggie Muckswell

Maggie is the youngest tomboyish Groundling and one of the most commonly used characters. She is roughly humanoid but more animal-like in appearance than some of the other Groundlings. She has large eyes, purple eyelids, a red button nose, and darker-pink skin or fur. Her hair sprouts from her head in flower-like petals, and she also wears a large yellow flower in her hair. She wears a brown, sleeveless, natural-looking, buttoned jacket that looks like her vest. She is an extremely rambunctiously energetic sporty female lead character of the marsh, she often gets herself into trouble due to her sometimes immature behavior. However, she is very well-intentioned, tries to help others, and is curious about the world around her. She hangs out with Galileo and Ivy and their friends, Maggie is often seen carrying a small, green, stuffed animal whom she calls Mossy Bear and whom she treats like a friend. In the episode titled "Mossy Bear," Galileo tries to get Maggie to give up Mossy Bear, first by trying to convince her and then through trickery, Her love interest is Galileo.

Mud/Slinger Bogsmith

Mud/Slinger is the only Two-Headed Groundling in the world and the resident inventor. Mud and Slinger are really two separate individuals who share a body:
Both have troll-like appearances, with large furry ears and bright blue except on their faces and hands. Mud/Slinger is the strongest Groundling in the marsh and is always creating inventions out of the junk that humans throw away. Often, these inventions malfunction. Sometime in the past, Mud and Slinger's Grandcestors named Slide and Mash both lived all alone in a part of the marsh and had no friends. After meeting each other and forming a deep friendship, they wanted to be merged as one, for fear of ever being lonely again. Unseen spirit creatures called the Tree Elders gave them a potion that did just that. Since then they lived happily. This implies that all of Slide/Mash's descendants, including Mud/Slinger, have been conjoined twins. Mud/Slinger occasionally quarrel, but solve their differences easily enough. In the episode "Two Be of Not to Be" after Hegdish causes a major disagreement between Mud and Slinger, they decide to take the same potion, which will give them separate selves. But before they can go through with it, they learn Slide/Mash's story and that the potion only works once on every pair. Thus, they resolve their quarrel and renew their friendship. They share a catchphrase at each other, "Did Not and Did Too!"
The malfunctioning inventions combined with occasional disagreements, makes Mud/Slinger the series' comic relief. But despite causing problems accidentally, Mud/Slinger is generally beneficial to the marsh and a help to his fellow Groundlings.

Stacks

Stacks is a large robot built by Galileo out of junk that humans have brought to the marsh and brought to life by a powerful lightning storm. He eventually becomes a mobile unit when his essential components are placed in a special motorized vehicle and for which he is very grateful. Mostly, he is humble and kind, and tries to answer the Groudling's questions with information from his database. He sometimes feels insignificant being "just a machine".
He has a long neck that looks like a very thick vacuum cleaner tube. His head is a tall metal canister with a handle that forms his nose, a large mouth at the bottom, a pair of eyes farther up and a hairbrush on top. Several cables dangle from his head down to the heap of machinery below him. A computer monitor forms his chest, while farther down a reel of film from a film projector on one side and a mechanical arm on the other side protrude from the heap.

Eco

Eco has lived in the marsh for over two thousand years. She is a teacher and a source of guidance and solace for the Groundlings. Mostly human in appearance, she wears dark red robes and has pale green skin, elderly, slightly wrinkled face, dark twinkling eyes and hair made of dark green leaves with red berries. She is the wisest and most spiritual of the Groundlings, and is kind, with a quirky sense of humor. She is the keeper of the Groundling Mythology, which holds the answers to most of nature's secrets. Her beliefs are similar to that of Gypsies and, to a lesser extent, Buddhists. She can talk to animals, and takes care of the marsh. Sometimes, Eco temporarily gives an important duty or the responsibility of a rare plant or artifact to Maggie or Galileo.

Hegdish Yuckywood

Hegdish is a trickster, a rival, a grouch, and the show's only main antagonist. He was added in the second season. He wears a brown scarf and has shaggy purple fur, large black eyebrows, and heavily ringed yellow eyes. Cynical, pessimistic, sarcastic, and lazy, he sometimes makes the effort to horde the things he likes, trips up the plans of the other Groundlings, give misleading information, and waste resources. His bitterness springs from his back-story, referenced in many episodes, in which they were both given the chance by the Tree Elders to learn how to speak with animals and be granted other powers and responsibilities. Now Hegdish jealously ridicules Eco when he can, though he worries about her when she goes missing in the episode "It's a Wonderful Marsh" and is even moved to tears upon finding her safe and sound, He is Galileo's rival, He has a little brother named Chet.
There is also a part of Hegdish's past, referenced in several episodes, in which he snuck aboard a ship, ate the food in the hold, fell asleep, woke up at out at sea, was thrown overboard by angry sailors, chased by sharks, and swallowed by a giant fish. After that, he started becoming nervous around boats and large bodies of water. Despite generally avoiding his fellow Groundlings, Hegdish will often share knowledge from his travels and sometimes cooperate with them. In the episode "Bah Hegdish," a holiday episode where the groundlings celebrate Twinkle Time and which uses the storyline of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol where he plays the role of Scrooge and so comes to realize how lonely he would be without his fellow Groundlings.

Crystal Clearshine

Crystal is Eco's grandniece. She is a fashionista, She is covered in fuzzy light blue fur. The skin of her face is blue, and she has a whispery voice, very large, white eyes with small black pupils, a small pink nose at the end of her snout, long thin fingers, and extremely long, furry ears that hang down her back. These ears give her the power to hear long distances; she can also see in the dark like Galileo. It was once said that she is a soft fashionable bunny-rabbit, and she lives in a beauty cavern. In her introduction episode, Crystal comes to visit Eco and has to wear glasses to protect her eyes. She soon becomes fast friends with Maggie and the other girls.
While not one of the original characters, Crystal continued to appear on the show, sometimes as the main protagonist of an episode, as in "Crystal and the Ice Wind." A running gag is Hegdish's tendency to annoy her by mispronouncing her name.

Chet Yuckywood

Chet is Hegdish's 2 year old cheerful and rambunctiously playful little brother. He has a high-pitched voice, wears a teal T-shirt and has shaggy purple fur, small thin black eyebrows and heavily ringed yellow eyes like Hegdish's. He was first appeared in the last episode of Season 2, He is more rambunctious than Maggie's, He likes Vilma who hangs out, He likes adventures with Vilma.

Episodes

Season 1
  1. Fungus Amungus
  2. The Featherbeam
  3. Big Dreams
  4. Truth & Consequences
  5. Maggie's Quest
  6. Night and Day
  7. Life Before Stacks
  8. Heat Wave
  9. Pot of Plenty
  10. All for One
  11. Flower Power
  12. Them Dingling Dozy Daisies
  13. Sticks and Stacks
Season 2
  1. Make Way for Hegdish
  2. Butterfly Day
  3. Stinky Pond Mystery
  4. Galileo's Prank
  5. Fence Fiasco
  6. Come Blow Your Horn
  7. Two Be or Not to Be
  8. Tupelo Treat
  9. Tinkletree Trouble
  10. Seahunt
  11. Eggs Over Easy
  12. Slice of Advice
  13. Snow Job
Season 3
  1. Mossy Bear
  2. To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
  3. Reluctant Hero
  4. Over the Rainbow
  5. Mine All Mine
  6. Sproutsmaster
  7. Maggie's Tree
  8. Maggie's Youday
  9. Purple Pullet Fever
  10. Lucky Stick
  11. Megaboo Gonna Get You
  12. Free at Last
  13. Crystal Clear
Season 4
  1. Honey, I Shrunk the Groundlings
  2. The Amulet
  3. Jingle Bellies
  4. Bumble-Bird Blunder
  5. The Hegdish Who Came to Dinner
  6. What a Guy
  7. The Enchanted Music Box
  8. The Other Galileo
  9. My Hero
  10. A Little Bird Told Me
  11. Berries as Big as Your Head
  12. Ooops!
  13. The Imaginary Friend
  14. Catch a Falling Star
  15. Glisten Berries & Friends
  16. Treasure of the Lost Marsh
  17. Coming of Age
  18. The Best Present of All
  19. Five Leaf Clover
  20. Mighty Maggie
  21. Crystal and the Ice Wind
  22. Free Wally
  23. That's Entertainment
  24. Listen Up
  25. It's a Wonderful Marsh
  26. Bah Hegdish

    Broadcast

After its 1994 debut in Canada, the show began airing in the United States on The Disney Channel in 1995, and continued airing on that channel until 1997. The series was also broadcast on TV Tokyo in Japan.
The series was also broadcast on Canal Once in Mexico.
The series was also broadcast in the United Kingdom and Australia. The series was eventually broadcast in 94 territories worldwide. A big-screen "mini-feature" was also created and seen in "interactive theatres in a chain of U.S. family entertainment centres." The show also appeared on an interactive CD-ROM of Canadian Children's television intended for industry and the government. On March 28, 2019, Portfolio Entertainment announced that the show will return to American airwaves on UPtv.

Reception

In a review of the Courageous Adventures VHS release, Publishers Weekly, who also deemed the show "popular", wrote, "Kids will be intrigued by this bizarre-looking world and will likely absorb overtly stated messages about cooperation, kindness and respect."

VHS Releases

Three hour-long VHS tapes were released by Lyrick Studios in 1998: