The Big Comfy Couch, a Canadian live-action children’s program that features Loonette the Clown and her puppet friend Molly, has spawned plush versions of its popular characters in Canada.
The stuffed dolls with the signature red noses were created for Big Comfy Corp., the merchandising division of Radical Sheep Productions – the Toronto production company behind the show – by Commonwealth Toys of New York.
The dolls were first made available earlier this year in the u.s., where the program that inspired the characters is running on pbs affiliates.
The Molly doll was recently named one of the top-15 selling non-advertised toys in an October 1996 survey by u.s. toy trade magazine The Toy Book.
The dolls have now come home to Canada while stores in the u.s. market will see an expanded line of Comfy Couch merchandise in January.
Cheryl Wagner, president of Big Comfy Corp. and the creator of The Big Comfy Couch, says she has been working with a number of companies in the u.s. to develop toys and other items based on the show.
She says Commonwealth Toys, Time-Life Kids, Hollywood Ventures and Playmates Canada are all developing Comfy Couch merchandise for the u.s. which will eventually be sold in Canada.
In Canada, Blockbuster Video is selling Big Comfy Couch videos as well as a Molly doll and video set. Malofilm of Toronto is distributing the video in Canada while Time-Life Kids is distributing six videos in the u.s.
Wagner says she is also working on some children’s books and is entertaining the idea of a Big Comfy Couch line of clothing.
Playmates Toys has created an 18-inch talking Loonette doll which will be released in January. Toy versions of other Big Comfy Couch characters like Granny Garbanzo, Major Bedhead and the Dust Bunnies are also in the works. Playmates will support the products through advertising.
Although The Big Comfy Couch has been on the air in Canada for five seasons, it has taken interest from the American market to prompt a merchandising program.
Despite the long-term popularity of homegrown shows like Mr. Dress-Up, Polka-Dot Door and Romper Room, manufacturers have been slow to develop products for the Canadian market.
Andrew Witken, sales and marketing manager at Toronto-based production and distribution company Nelvana, the company behind animated programs Babar, Tin-Tin and Little Bear, among others, agrees that the merchandising concept for children’s programming is not as well ingrained in Canada, but says that’s changing.
‘There’s still the perception that the u.s. is important for this,’ he says. ‘But we’ve also learned that there are properties in Canada that do a lot better in Canada than in the u.s.’
The Japanese action cartoon Sailor Moon is an example, he says. According to Witkin, some Canadian toy manufacturers developed merchandise specifically for Canada which has done very well.
Fran Pappert-Shannon, former host of Romper Room and producer of a new preschool series called Heads and Tales, says she is wary of the merchandising of children’s programming. She says she doesn’t want the Canadian marketplace to begin developing shows for children that rely heavily on future product development.
‘I think we should concentrate on developing quality programming for our children rather than considering how to merchandise them,’ she says.
Wagner agrees that the merchandising issue can be tricky.
‘Toy manufacturers have ideas for your show that you don’t think falls in line with your concept,’ she says. ‘That’s something you have to be careful with because you don’t want to market things that have nothing to do with your program.’
