Playhouse is a American animated TV series based on the 2003 movie of the same name. It made its debut on February 11, 2005 on Disney Channel, and lasted until June 20, 2008 after 2 seasons.
Premise[]
Season 1[]
Issac Candle after taking down Genny, applies to stay at the playhouse to take care of the kids, while having to defend them against more obstacles. This season ended in February 2006, one year after its debut.
Season 2[]
After the playhouse runs out of money, Issac and the kids have to live in their van, while Issac has to save money and defend the kids against Genny once again. This season made its debut in August 2006.
Development[]
Coming soon!
HD transition[]
A transition to HD was announced in November 2006.
Release[]
Season 1[]
Playhouse aired its first episode on Disney Channel on February 11, 2005. The first season lasted a total of 12 months from February 11, 2005 to February 24, 2006. Disney Channel aired 16 episodes sporadically due to production issues and competing shows such as Cartoon Network's Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants.
Season 2[]
Season 2 of Playhouse started on Disney Channel on August 24, 2006 and lasted until June 20, 2008, for a total of 22 months of airtime. The show was initially planning to end in early 2008 but was moved to mid 2008 due to the HD transition. 26 episodes of this season were aired.
Reruns[]
Reruns aired on Disney Channel started from June 21, 2008 and on Toon Disney until February 13, 2009 when they rebranded to Disney XD, who aired reruns until June 7, 2010. Disney Channel though aired reruns well past 2010 and 2011, though Season 1 and pre-HD episodes started to get less airtime starting late 2010. Disney Channel aired its last rerun of the show on July 20, 2012 and moved it to ClassicTV in October 2012 where it currently airs.
Home media[]
Walt Disney Home Entertainment released 3 DVD sets in 2006, "Taking Back the Playhouse", "Run Don't Walk", and "Playhouse Horror Stories", on January 10, April 25, and August 15, respectively. They each contain 3 episodes each from the series.
In September 2006, Walt Disney Home Entertainment transferred the DVD rights of the Playhouse series to Mosaic Pictures, who released one DVD set, "A Playhouse Christmas" on November 28, 2006 before transferring back to Disney in February 2007.
In 2007, Walt Disney Home Entertainment released 3 more DVD sets, "Forever Friends" on April 10, "Playhouse Blues" on June 12, and "What?" on November 13. They contained 3 episodes from the series, like before. Disney released two final DVD releases of the series in 2008, "Every Playhouse Begins" on March 25, and "Broken Hearts" on July 7.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment transferred the rights back to Mosaic in October 2008, who released Season 1 on DVD on March 10, 2009, and Season 2 on March 9, 2010, before finally compiling the two seasons on September 21, 2010.
Video games[]
3 games based on the series, Playhouse Ep. 1 was released on the GameCube on April 12, 2006 based on the episodes Taking Back the Playhouse, The Special Tour, and Police in the Playhouse. The second game, Playhouse Ep. 2 was released on the Wii and GameCube on April 11, 2007 and featured the episodes This Christmas, Gone Broke, and Grocery Shop. The third and final game, Playhouse HD was released on November 21, 2007 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 before porting it to Wii as Playhouse Ep. 3 in January 2008. The game featured Transition to HD, Step Six, and Every Playhouse Begins.
Reception[]
Playhouse Season 1 received generally favorable reviews from critics and fans. Common Sense Media give it a 3/5 rating, saying that the show is “funny, colorful and has likeable characters, though needs work on the story and background characters”. A negative review from the show says that the show can be plain and bland at times but the characters from the movie make up for the mess. It currently has a 7.6/10 on IMDb, and 8.2/10 on TV.com.