Shark Bytes

I loved this show as a child; I would have watched the syndicated episodes in '88, '89, thereabouts. I remember having a crush on Van Gogh Lion. Funnily enough, my mom and I were in NYC one day probably around 2003, catching a show and we split up for awhile so I could do some shopping. She ran into Ben Vereen (Mayor Ben) outisde Fosse, and relayed how much I loved Zoobilee Zoo going up. He walked away from the convo singing the theme song, and that weekend while he was on a talk show told the interviewer someone on the street mentioned Zoobilee Zoo to him and how it was one of his favourite roles.

I remember this show! I barely remember watching the episodes when they originally aired, but my mother showed me the series when it was in syndication in the mid-90's on cable. She told me I had to watch it every day that it was on and it took her forever to get me to stop saying "Wazzat" in response to any question. This show and Punky Brewster are the two first shows I remember watching, besides Sesame Street. Awesome show!

I watched this show when I was a kid, when it was in syndication on PBS in the late '80s and early 1990s. I didn't really like it. I'm not sure I'd say it scared me, but the costumes and dialog made me feel very uncomfortable and embarrassed. Maybe I realized I was being shown a boring morality play by a bunch of people in animal noses. Yet I still watched it now and then. Shows I didn't watch regularly were usually watched because they were on, not because they were good.

If you want a good kids' show, get some DVDs of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Mr. Rogers gives it to you straight and keeps patronizing to a minimum.

I hadn't seen this show since about 1987 and I was 4 or 5 at the time. I recently saw a clip of it on youtube and noticed a few things I didn't when I was younger. I wonder if Mayor Ben's last name was McGreevy...

this show was good but i am saying this because i grew up in the 90s and sometimes zoobilee zoo would also be on the 90s televesion

My sister and I loved this show! None of are other friends growing up had ever seen it though, so I glad to see there are many people who did appreciate it. I would love to buy the whole series on DVD just to relive my childhood every once in a while, but sadly, I don't know if they will ever release it. Whazzat was my favorite =D

i love love love zoobilee zoo. it was my favorite show as a kid and i found clips on youtube and i was singing all the lyrics. i love it. i wish they had a dvd box set so i could share it with my kids.

this was my favorite show of all times. and i wish they had a dvd set! i saw on there website that they have a tape that you can buy..which i just might buy

Zoobilee Zoo was my first memory of watching television. It must have been when I was three or four at the latest--around '87 or 88. I remember it came on KCPQ 13 in Seattle, which was the only station my parents could pick up, so I grew up with all of the *wonderful* early FOX programming from a very young age, including the Simpsons from 1988 on (which would be my second earliest TV memory besides Zoobilee) lol.

As many of the comments below suggest, there was something surreal about this program that has stuck with me to this day, and even though I am 23, the theme song and Everyone Makes Mistakes *still* kicks into my head sometimes for no apparent reason--and KCPQ stopped airing the show by 1989-90.

My mom used to tape it for me and I would watch it a couple times a week. I still have some of the tapes back in a closet somewhere, but they are BetaMax and every few years when I've had the urge to refresh my childhood, the effort to find a Beta player has always outweighed it--so I guess that's why they invented YouTube

This is a very special program, and something I will definitely show my kids. It's hard to say, but now that I'm thinking about it, it could have actually had a positive influence on how I react to things and my overall attitude since I watched it so often at such a critical time as a kid. Also as mentioned below, the color and costumes are wonderful, and I can't think of anything else from when I was 3 that I can still sing a theme song to, remember the characters vividly (especially the cockatoo), pop randomly into my mind every couple months like it was yesterday, and, most importantly, write about 20 years later online.

Ohh yeah, and although I never felt that way as a kid, looking back at some of the screenshots for the first time since then does kind of freak me out--something about Bravo Fox seems disturbing now. I'd still show it to my kids though--this beats all the tripe they feed kids on TV these days.

I had always remembered this show, but could never remember the name of it. When I discovered it on Odessey, I started watching it again, taped a couple of episodes for my nephew. I also met the man who played the bear, Mike Monayhan, and he's a real sweetheart!

This show was great when I was a kid, it taught great lessons. My favorite character was Wazzat and I liked the Lion too. Too bad they didn't have shows like this anymore for little kids. It was definately creative.

Like everyone else I vaguely remember this show. I remember the Lion (my favorite probably out of the ones I can remember) and Mayor Ben. And I also remember how it was always so colorful, like being inside a dream. The whole show always seemed like a watercolor painting in that aspect, so many colors and imaginary creatures. Plus it taught children lessons. Like it's okay to screw up, we all do. "People Make Mistakes". This show was where it's at. When I was a kid my mom told me I had to watch it every single week or I'd cry. I recently found some old episodes of it on YouTube and the characters look soooo creepy to me now. But it wasn't as a child. I loved it. Never jumped!

The show did "Jump The Shark" at one point. I remember when they introduced another animal to one episode, it was a Raven I believe. Talkatoo happened upon it outside the Zoobilee Zoo. Also, they replaced Sandy Grinn as Bill Der Beaver, too.

I loved that show!! I remember having a crush on the lion painter guy when I was little.
I miss it so much!!!

I don't think that this show ever quite jumped the shark...but it had a particularly frightening moment in every episode. This was back when I lived on Guam, mind you, and I could only received the PBS station on my antenna-fed TV. Each time Zoobilee Zoo would come on and they would introduce the characters, they'd show Ben Vereen in costume, nodding his head with that manic grin on this face. I swear, it was like an acid flashback! A good kid's show, but that was SCARY!