Edutainment Show - TV Tropes
- ️Thu Jun 14 2007
A proper balance between education and entertainment.
"Well, Itchy & Scratchy are gone, but here's a cartoon that tries to make learning fun! ...Sorry about this, kids, but stay tuned; we've got some real good toy commercials coming right up, I swear."
As the trope's title implies, the Edutainment Show combines educational content with entertainment. As such, many shows in this genre are aimed at children; of course, other mature fare may fit this definition, such as MythBusters. Cooking Shows, Science Shows, Nature Shows, and other TV Documentary formats (especially Docudrama programs) may also count, if they are entertaining enough. Additionally, the definition has become somewhat blurred — these days networks often pass children's programs in particular as "edutainment," when their only actual educational content is pro-social themes, such as "work together as a team", "Reading Is Cool" or "be a good friend to others" (as seen in the "Life Lessons" folder below).
Many Edutainment Shows appear on PBS, the most famous examples being Sesame Street, Barney & Friends, and Arthur. Nickelodeon also has had quite a few in their Nick Jr. block, such as Wonder Pets!, Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer, as do specialized fact-oriented cable networks such as the many Discovery channels, the History Channel, and Animal Planet. At least until Network Decay sets in.
In the United States, since 1990, networks are required to air at least 3 hours of educational material a week; the tag "E/I" (for "Educational/Informative") was created to denote such shows (though in the case of stations carrying Saved by the Bell, the rules are susceptible to Loophole Abuse if An Aesop is fit into the show in just the right way, and they can count as E/I). Now you know what the And Knowing Is Half the Battle is referring to.
Sister Trope of Experiment Show. Religious Edutainment is a subgenre designed to teach and promote the values of a certain faith as well as every Magazine Show which mixes subjects. For the Video Game counterpart, see Edutainment Game. For the Music counterpart, see Educational Song. See also Propaganda Piece.
Examples by subjects:
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Life Lessons
- 3-2-1 Penguins! teaches life lessons with a Christian touch.
- Ace Lightning was infamously considered this by the DiC Kids Network for having pro-social morals, causing the FCC to file a complaint
.
- Adventures from the Book of Virtues teaches life lessons using stories based on Biblical and mythological fables.
- Allegra's Window teaches life lessons while using music to reinforce those messages.
- Alma's Way teaches social-emotional concepts as well as Puerto-Rican culture.
- Angelina Ballerina
- Angels of Jarm
- Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series teaches kids how to solve problems.
- Arthur is about a 3rd-grader aardvark, his family, and his friends. Common themes taught include getting along with siblings, responsibility, and cooperation.
- This program also Lampshades this trope with an in-universe example. Buster claims that a program that he's making is going to be "edutainment." The characters respond to this with an "ew." The chapter-book adaptation of that episode goes even further, with Brain stating that edutainment is supposed to be a blend of education and entertainment, but often ends up being the worst of both.
- Ask Lara teaches British children aged 9 to 13 about puberty.
- A Walk in Your Shoes was a Noggin show for tweens. It was created to help viewers learn about cultural, religious, and geographical differences.
- The Baby Sitters Club: the 1990 edutainment program, aimed towards pre-teen girls, finds the young girls (led by Kristin Amanda "Kristy" Thomas, the girls' lead babysitter) on a wide array of misadventures while teaching life lessons to kids. First shown on HBO in the 1990s.
- The Backyardigans is about a group of friends who like to use their imaginations, with each episode taking place in a different fantasy setting. Things taught range from Greek mythology to baking pies.
- Bali
- Barney & Friends has its messages directly taught through each episode's plot, as well as having songs to reinforce those messages.
- Bear in the Big Blue House teaches kids how to solve problems and develop social skills.
- Beat Bugs teaches life lessons using songs by The Beatles.
- Big Bag
- The Big Comfy Couch is about solving everyday problems.
- The Big Garage
- Bluey, also teaches Australian lifestyle and culture
- Bob the Builder emphasizes the importance of conflict resolution through co-operation.
- The Book of Pooh, with a secondary focus on themes of reading and language.
- Boonie Cubs
- Bowlopolis, teaches bowling and safety tips
- Boy Meets World: a 1990s sitcom with elements of edutainment. A spin-off series was also introduced as a Disney Channel exclusive (Girl Meets World), but still teaches lessons along the way.
- Bubble Guppies is more-or-less a sketch comedy with each segment relating to whatever is being taught in the episode.
- Burka Avenger, an example involving social issues in Pakistan, namely women's education
- The Busy World of Richard Scarry is another show that teaches conflict resolution.
- Caillou stars a young boy who learns a life lesson in each episode.
- Carl the Collector
- The Chicken Squad teaches kids to help others in their community.
- Clifford the Big Red Dog and spinoff Clifford's Puppy Days
- The Chica Show stars a young chicken puppet as she learns early literacy and interpersonal skills.
- Chip Chilla
- Cool Cat Fights Coronavirus
- Cool Cat Saves the Kids
- Cool Cat vs Dirty Dog: The Virus Wars
- Corn & Peg is meant to encourage kids to go out and help anyone they can to make the world a better place.
- Creative Galaxy with an almost even-split on teaching about arts
- Curious George
- Danger Rangers teaches safety
- Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood primarily teaches emotional intelligence and human respect.
- Detention teaches kids how to stay out of trouble in school.
- Doc McStuffins
- Donkey Hodie teaches viewers about problem-solving skills.
- Dora the Explorer, with a bit of teaching of basic Spanish
- Its spin-off Dora's Explorer Girls, which was expanded into a series called Dora and Friends: Into the City!
- Dragon Tales: Primarily life lessons, though the series did sometimes also teach about things like counting numbers, or recognizing shapes.
- Edebits
- El perro y el gato: Teaches basic Spanish to English speakers.
- Esme & Roy teaches kids how to control their emotions and problem solve.
- Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids: A 1970s cartoon that teaches life lessons to kids.
- The Fimbles: This is apparently the Spiritual Successor to Teletubbies.
- Fireman Sam, if fire safety counts as such.
- Fluffy Gardens also teaches zoological facts.
- Franklin
- The Fresh Beat Band teaches kids friendship lessons as well as musicology.
- The Friendly Giant teaches its lessons through the stories that told within it, and the music they play.
- Get Fit with Brittas teaches how to keep fit and healthy. Notable for the fact that it is a Spin-Off of a show which isn't an Edutainment Show.
- Goldie & Bear is another show that uses fairy tales to teach its morals.
- Gullah Gullah Island heavily encourages children to make good choices for thenselves.
- Happy Monster Band: The band's music encompasses all the themes of a normal preschool show.
- Happy Ness: The Secret of the Loch teaches its viewers how to overcome emotional problems.
- Here's Humphrey: A long-running Australian TV show that taught social skills with dancing, singing and a big clumsy bear.
- Hey Duggee teaches problem-solving skills.
- Hip Hop Harry uses hip-hop music to convey its lessons.
- Humf
- Holly Hobbie and Friends
- Hopla
- Inai Inai Baa!: The "U-Tan Puppet Show" segments teach children about various life skills such as cleaning up, using the bathroom, eating all of your food and brushing your teeth.
- Jake And The Neverland Pirates
- Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks
- Jane by Design: A edutainment program aimed towards pre-teen girls. Centered on Jane Quimby, a normal girl who leads a double life while attending high school and becoming a full-pledged fashion designer for Donovan Decker. Produced by ABC for ABC Family (now Freeform).
- Jane and the Dragon: The American run includes a segment at the end called "Dragon Talk" in order to earn the E/I rating.
- Jay Jay the Jet Plane was intended to teach life lessons, mainly to children.
- Jelly Jamm: According to the official website, the show is intended to "celebrate music, fun and friendship".
- Jet and the Pet Rangers: According to an article
, the show uses entertainment to instill values such as "empathy, teamwork, and respect".
- JoJo's Circus, about dealing with challenging situations, with a secondary focus on exercise and fitness.
- Julius Jr.
- Justin Time (2011), another show tackling everyday problems.
- The Koala Brothers
- La Catrina
- Lamb Chop's Play-Along was made with the intention of taking advantage of children's short attention spans to help them become more productive members of society.
- LazyTown is meant to teach viewers the benefits of being active.
- The LeBrons: Considered to be a modern day Fat Albert, this show set out to teach its viewers "positive life lessons", in a way meant to be relatable to kids.
- The Lingo Show
- The Lion Guard: The show teaches life issues and features a lot of Swahili, also teaching zoology facts.
- Little Bear
- Little People (Egmont)
- Llama Llama focuses on Llama Llama overcoming anxieties regarding various "firsts" and other situations, such as going to school for the first time, losing a first tooth, missing his Mama Llama at night, or feeling upset after leaving behind a favorite toy when visiting his grandparents.
- Llan-ar-goll-en, a Welsh detective show that teaches problem solving, although it is wackier than most.
- Lou and Lou: Safety Patrol, as the title would suggest, teaches safety tips, such as being safe at the pool / in the water, when crossing the street, fire safety, etc.
- Mack & Moxy teaches children about social and humanitarian causes, such as preserving nature through natural parks, helping the hungry with food banks, or learning about safety preparedness.
- Madeline (on the moral side only, show contains lots of factual mistakes)
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse teaches counting, problem solving, and more.
- Mio Mao
- Mi Perro Chocolo
- Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is dedicated to teaching kids about the ways of life.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Though it lost the E/I mark after the first season, when they dropped Twilight narrating the lesson of the day through a letter to Princess Celestia)
- New Zoo Revue: 1970s children's show.
- Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, with a bit of Chinese teaching. The show also has a specific focus on helping to teach children to identify and deal with their emotions in positive ways.
- Noddy's Toyland Adventures
- The Noddy Shop, the American and Canadian re-packaged version of the show.
- Ojamajo Doremi, known as Magical DoReMi in the United States, Latin America, and most of Europe
- Out of the Box
- The Pajanimals helps children with bedtime routines in its original shorts. The full series still has some of this, but is focused generally on other anxieties children might experience, such as speaking in front of class, or taking an extended trip away from home.
- PB&J Otter
- PBS Kids Preschool Block
- Pee-wee's Playhouse teaches problem solving and life lessons.
- PJ Katie's Farm
- Pinky Dinky Doo
- Pinwheel: The first series to air on Nickelodeon, as well as the first show to appear on the Nick Jr. block. Pinwheel was set in a boarding home called Pinwheel House, which was inhabited by a mix of humans and puppets; the characters taught life lessons and problem-solving without delving into any school subjects.
- Pip Ahoy!
- Play School
- Pocoyo
- Poko teaches how to cope with emotions, handle frustration, and solve everyday problems through imaginative and positive strategies.
- Poppets Town teaches problem-solving.
- Pororo the Little Penguin
- Postman Pat
- Power Rangers, perhaps less so nowadays, was very edutainment back in the Mighty Morphin' days. It still keeps up the social morals; especially that of teamwork. Its 1995 movie, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie was released, despite having a "PG" rating by the MPAA.
- The Puzzle Place
- Pythagora Switch (Pitagora Suichi): A show much like Sesame Street, from Japan, known for its Eye Catches featuring intricate Rube Goldberg devices.
- Queer Kid Stuff is an LGBT-positive children's web series that educates kids about the LGBT+ community and promotes tolerance and acceptance. It also teaches other life lessons such as appreciating differences in culture and religion.
- Razzledazzle
- The Red and the Blue
- Romper Room
- Santiago of the Seas
- Scoop And Doozie
- Shelldon — very much on the "pro-social values" end of the spectrum. The premiere episode, "Crabby's School Daze," actually focuses on Shelldon helping an adult friend, Crabby, to get his G.E.D. (adult diploma)
- Slniečko
- Sofia the First
- Spot the Dog
- Sprout House
- The Sprout Sharing Show
- Super Monsters, usually lessons on common problems faced by preschoolers.
- Swamp Critters
- Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note series is a Children's Literature published on a children's imprint. Its anime adaptation was financed by public broadcaster NHK and aired in its education channel. As expected, there're quite a bit of life lessons, plus a lot of expositions, some of which may go over the head of its tween readership. For example, the twentieth novel The Youkai Computer Knows introduces a large number of computer science terms, ranging from the several flavors of C, to Deep Learning, and to cybersecurity terms such as DDoS. In the same novel, synthetic cannabinoids was also discussed.
- Thomas & Friends has a moral learnt at the end of most episodes, as well as teaching railway functions and safety.
- Shining Time Station
- Britt Allcroft's other show, Magic Adventures of Mumfie, teaches such lessons as how to care for animals, French words, how to brush your teeth, manners and, most importantly, the importance of friendship.
- Special Agent Oso enhances children's ability to follow directions and solve problems.
- Tickety Toc
- Today's Special
- ToddWorld
- Tomes & Talismans
- T.O.T.S.
- The Fresh Beat Band
- Tweenies
- Underdogs United teaches the values of teamwork and good sportsmanship through living foosball figures.
- VeggieTales, albeit with Christian lessons
- The Weird Al Show
- The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss: Particularly in its second season, with the show focusing on social and emotional learning, including managing fears, teamwork, and problem-solving.
- Where's Waldo? (2019), an Continuity Reboot of Where's Waldo? aimed at a preschool audience.
- Wimzie's House
- Winnie the Pooh, in some series.
- Wonder Pets! teaches kids about teamwork, problem-solving and asking for help.
- Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!
- Yo Gabba Gabba!
English/Reading
- Alphablocks
- Between the Lions is a PBS Kids show that uses puppetry, animation, and music to teach kids how to read.
- Caraidean: Scottish Gaelic for young children, particularly those starting out in Gaelic Medium Education who don't speak Gaelic at home.
- Chockablock is a British series which teaches young children about rhyming words.
- Destinos: An Introduction To Spanish
- Before there was Destinos, there was Saludos, a show teaching kids Spanish that was similar to Sesame Street.
- The Electric Company (1971)
- El Jardin de Clarilú
- Ghostwriter: Before its reboot by Apple.
- Here Come the ABCs: A music album made by They Might Be Giants that teaches about the letters of the alphabet. It has music videos that teach this subject.
- Ik Mik Loreland is a Dutch language show that teaches reading
- Jigsaw (1979). Not to be confused with the movie.
- Journey Through the Jungle of Words
- Language Arts Through Imagination: A series of shorts meant to teach kids basic language arts concepts and the role imagination plays in putting said concepts into practice.
- The Letter People: A puppet show that teaches phonics with surprisingly developed characters.
- Letter Land: A book and animated series where the letters of the alphabet are personified and given Alliterative Names like Fireman Fred, Quarrelsome Queen, etc.
- Look and Read, perhaps best known for having a song about "Magic E"
, which became Hilarious in Hindsight thanks to being broadcast at just the right time for kids in its target age range to be young adults during the height of the British rave scene.
- The Magic Key: Teaches grammar as well as a few other things (such as some loosely-defined "elements of storytelling") one might find in an elementary school ELA class.
- Martha Speaks is about a dog who is able to talk after eating alphabet soup. A word and its definition are taught at the end of each episode.
- Mommi Ja Aabits: An Estonian show that teaches ABCs.
- Muzzy in Gondoland: The very simple English language used is meant to teach both young children and foreigners English.
- Pendemoniun
, an obscure Discovery Kids series that taught children grammar.
- Readalong
- Reading Rainbow outright reads a book to the viewer.
- Rocket Saves the Day
- Storylords
- Super Why! teaches reading, with a storybook theme.
- Téléfrançais!, a Canadian live action series meant to teach children French.
- Through the Dragon's Eye
- Wallykazam!
- Wilbur
- Wishbone overlaps with Arts due to focus on classic literature
- WordGirl teaches words and their meanings, along with reading and emotions
- Word Party
- In WordWorld, everything is made out of letters and words; even the locations and characters. Thus, the show places emphasis on learning new words.
- A forgotten, unnamed show that teaches English to Japanese kids
, featuring Ultraman Powered of Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero fame
Mathematics
- Cyberchase: Three kids use math skills to stop the evil Hacker in Cyberspace. Also teaches life lessons.
- Here Come the 123s: A music album made by They Might Be Giants that teaches about numbers. It has music videos that teach this subject.
- Maths Mansion
- Monster Math Squad
- Mouse Math: An educational picture book series that teaches basic math concepts.
- NUMB3RS
- Numberblocks
- The Numtums
- Odd Squad
- Peg + Cat
- Square One TV: A mathematics-themed sketch show.
- Team Umizoomi
Science
See Science Show
General
- 3-2-1 Contact
- 3000 Whys of Blue Cat
- Ada Twist, Scientist
- Anselme Lanturlu is a French edutainment comic.
- AsapSCIENCE
- Beakman's World
- Bill Nye Saves the World
- Bill Nye the Science Guy teaches children about various science-related topics. The popularity of the show caused it to influence many other future edutainment shows, which had similar formats and were similarly quirky.
- Black Hole High
- Brainiac: Science Abuse...sometimes.
- Captain Planet and the Planeteers, with an environmentalist flavor
- Case Closed teaches science through the cases the main character investigates.
- The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! (mainly teaches animal facts, though enough later episodes get into other scientific topics to place this show here)
- Climate Town: Teaches about climate change with a dry sense of humor.
- In a way, DEATH BATTLE!. Not only does it educate the viewers on the combatants in question, but they also frequently discuss real world scientific calculations and feats to help determine the fighters' maximum performance and battle outcome.
- Dude, What Would Happen?: a slacking Mythbusters knock-off.
- Dragons, Wagons & Wax: A 1977 series shown in Ohio classrooms, remembered for its Action-Hogging Opening.
- Dr. STONE has aspects of this, with episodes devoted to everything from how electricity works to the process of making glass. It deals with the importance of technology (and what technology is in the grand scheme of things).
- Elinor Wonders Why: A general focus on exploring nature, the outdoors and community.
- FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman takes the form of an animated game show run by Ruff, while the scenes with the contestants are live-action. Contestants are often instructed to do science or geography-related tasks.
- Food Detectives: An attempt to do for foodstuffs what Mythbusters does for high explosives.
- Good Eats: Half Cooking Show, half straight-up Edutainment Show. Alton prefers to educate the viewer on food science and cooking theory, rather than simply giving out recipes as most TV chefs do.
- Grossology, which is unique in that it also combines this with Gross-Out Show, as the show's science is related to gross topics like bodily emissions and excretions, medical issues (like scabs and boils), insects and parasites, etc.
- Hero Elementary
- Hey You! What If...
- Infinity Limited
- The Intertidal Zone
- Kurzgesagt
- The Lets Go Show
- Look Up: A robot and a little pink alien discuss various scientific topics.
- Lyla in the Loop: The show teaches STEM while entertaining with comedy.
- In The Magic School Bus, a class is led by their teacher Ms. Frizzle onto various field trips, all using the titular magic school bus. It can change in size and shapeshift, and it explores topics such as space travel and the human body.
- The Magic School Bus Rides Again: A 2017 sequel/reboot.
- Mecha Builders
- Meet Arnold
- Monster Face Off
- Mujin Wakusei Survive: Financed by NHK.
- The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog teaches about animals, plants, geology, and other natural phenomena.
- Mystery Hunters was a kid's program about two young teens who travel around the world trying to explain mysterious events in the past. They tried to find rational and supernatural explanations for them. Each episode also had segments from Doubting Dave revolving around experiments you could do in your own house.
- MythBusters spells out how the myths are tested, so you can learn quite a bit from that show, in the middle of Stuff Blowing Up.
- MythBusters (2017), a relaunch of the preceding series with a new set of hosts.
- Nature Cat teaches about nature.
- Newton's Apple: an educational show for kids about science that aired in the 1980s on PBS
- Penn & Teller: Bullshit!
- Quantum Kate: teaches children and teenagers about quantum physics.
- Ready Jet Go! teaches both geology and astronomy
- Animated series Sid the Science Kid has the titular character Sid and his friends investigating scientific topics.
- Science Court
- SciGirls: a spin-off of Newton's Apple that is a hybrid animated/live-action edutainment program in which it is aimed towards pre-teen girls.
- SciShow, hosted by HankGreen.
- Time Warp
- Tiny Planets
- V Sauce
- Watch Mr. Wizard: Don Herbert conducting science experiments - often simple ones, easily replicated at home — with various children serving as his assistants.
- What If? (xkcd): A blog rather than a TV show, written by Randall Munroe of xkcd fame.
- The Whiskey Vault: A review show based around whiskies of all types, which can help viewers pick up terminology for odors and flavors and also teach about types of whiskies, histories of brands, distillers, and other aspects, and other related knowledge.
- White Rabbit Project
- Wonder Quest
- Work It Out Wombats! teaches computational thinking.
- Storm Chasers
Biology — Animals (Zoology) See Nature Show
- Amazing Animals
- Animal Alphabet
- Animal Face Off
- Bogleech: A rare example of one of these crossed with a Grossout Show, in website form, with its primary focus being animals typically viewed as unpleasant like insects, parasites, and deep-sea creatures.
- Crocodile Hunter
- Go, Diego, Go! (Spin-Off of Dora the Explorer that teaches about animals)
- It's a Big Big World
- It's Me or the Dog: Teaches dog-training and dog behaviors
- My Cat from Hell does the same thing for cats.
- Ethelbert the Tiger
- Gordon the Garden Gnome
- Heaven's Design Team
- The Jeff Corwin Experience
- Kemono Friends
- Kratts' Creatures
- Log Horizon: Financed by taxpayer-supported NHK and broadcasted on their Educational channel.
- Mama Mirabelle's Home Movies
- The Most Extreme
- Natural Habitat Shorts
- Northern Tails
- The Octonauts teaches about marine animals.
- Its Spin-Off, Octonauts: Above & Beyond teaches about land animals.
- Peep and the Big Wide World is an animated PBS Kids show about birds named Peep and Chirp, and a duck named Quack. Most educational content is animal facts.
- Really Wild Animals
- Splash and Bubbles
- Stanley
- TierZoo
- Too Cute educates us about the different breeds of cats and dogs, as well as entices us with the cuteness of their babies.
- True Facts
- Vízipók-Csodapók: The show's creators intended to educate the young viewers about the life of bugs and show that they are not creepy, but rather interesting.
- Wild Animal Baby Explorers
- Wild Kratts
- Wonderful Pretty Cure!: At least once an episode, Satoru will give facts about that day's featured animal that has turned into a Garugaru to help the Cures purify it.
- Zoboomafoo
- The Zoo
Biology — Human Physiology
- The Adventures of Slim Goodbody
- Body Story, a Miniseries that uses a day in the life of a person (or people) as a Framing Device to talk about a certain biology subject. Uses Medium Blending with both live-action scenes and CGI visuals.
- Calling All Safety Scouts
- Cells at Work!
- The Inspectors teaches viewers about forensics.
- Go Healthy Challenge
- Operation Ouch!: Teaches about medicine and human anatomy and biology.
- Ozzy & Drix, while it didn't carry an E/I mark, contained a number of health-related lessons for children.
- Powerhouse
- A Simple Thinking About Blood Type: Downplayed. While the bulk of the series is a comedic sketch about Personality Blood Type, it occasionally alludes to some educational topics, such as psychology.
Paleontology
- Animal Armageddon
- Dino Dan
- Dinosaur Revolution
- Dinosaur Train
- I'm A Dinosaur
- Jurassic Fight Club
- Pikaia: An anime teaching about animals, particularly species from the Cambrian period.
Chemistry
- Element Hunters: An anime that manages to teach chemistry in a Monster of the Week format.
Astronomy
- Blaster's Universe: Based on an Edutainment Game series.
- Cosmic Quantum Ray
- Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer
- Lunar Jim
- Miles from Tomorrowland
- NASA Sci-Files, NASA Connect, and Destination Tomorrow: Series about astronomy made by Virginia Tech for elementary school, middle school, and high school students, respectively.
- Space Racers is a kids' show about space exploration, and the science and technology involved therein. Facts verified by NASA.
- SolarBalls Educates viewers about space through the lenses of an Astronaut known as 'Astrodude' and various talking celestial bodies.
- Voltes V educates viewers about space travel, either through metaphysical concepts such as Warp Theory or inner workings of Real Life applications such as the Ion thruster. It also has characters discuss physics and technology in various episodes, since the titular robot is a Combining Mecha.
- Zula Patrol
Engineering/Technology
- The 8-Bit Guy: Demonstrates how vintage technologies work and goes in depth on their history.
- Argo's World
- The Ben Heck Show
- Blaze and the Monster Machines, along with overlap with mathematics
- Captain Disillusion: Debunks and explains visual effects in viral videos and other popular media.
- Chico Bon Bon: Monkey with a Tool Belt
- Cro
- Doki
- The Fixies
- Futurescape with James Woods: Speculation on future technologies, and how they might actually be achieved.
- Happy Friends averts this for the most part, but it does have a mini-season called Happy Friends and the Magical Lab where exposition of how certain components in pieces of technology work is given a focus, specifically through Doctor H. giving these explanations in the Once per Episode "Explain This!" segments.
- The Head First books manage to do this in a book form. And they're both entertaining and educational. This being a series that deals with subjects like math and computer programming.
- How It's Made tours factories and details the process of how everyday items or foods are produced.
- I Love Toy Trains
- James May's Man Lab
- Lazy Game Reviews: The "Oddware" series discusses obsolete and obscure computer peripherals and software, while "Tech Tales" goes in depth about the history of once influential technology companies.
- Mighty Machines
- Modern Marvels: A closer look at the history of technology, including its failures.
Social Studies
Geography
- ARIA talks a great deal about aspects of Venetian history and architecture, thanks to the story being set in a near perfect replica of Venice.
- Carmen Sandiego:
- Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, though in a game-show format.
- Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego, the successor to World focusing on time-travel and history, also in game-show format.
- Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, a 90s animated series following A.C.M.E agents Zack and Ivy trying to undo Carmen's global-trotting crimes and arrest her. The adventures take place within a computer game, much like the original games.
- Carmen Sandiego, a 2019 animated Netflix reboot following a younger Carmen out-thieving the forces of V.I.L.E..
- The Country Mouse and City Mouse Adventures
- City Island (2022)
- Dirty Jobs: Mike Rowe travels around the country (and occasionally planet) finding jobs many would find too repulsive, physically strenuous, or both to work.
- Elena of Avalor: Incorporates elements of Spanish culture
- Fancy Nancy: Teaches kids about French culture, with a dash of fashion.
- Fin, Fur, and Feather Bureau of Investigation
- Franny's Feet
- The long-running Honeymoon series of Drama CDs is half a situation CD about various newlyweds enjoying their time together and half a piece talking about trivia from each country the honeymoons are set in.
- Geografens Testamente: An adventure series with four seasons designed to introduce various geographic features of Sweden, the Nordics, Europe and the world respectively to middle school-aged children.
- Geography Now
- Go Jetters: Teaches about geography, particularly the signature landmarks of various countries.
- Let's Go Luna!
- The Magic Map: Explains the geography of the Western Hemisphere, while its sequel Magic Journeys tackles the Eastern Hemisphere.
- The Many Adventures Of Mr Mailman
- Map Men: Teaches about geography with a focus on maps, wrapped in an offbeat sense of humor.
- Maya & Miguel
- Molly of Denali
- Mouk: Two kids travel around the world to learn about different world cultures
- Postcards from Buster is a Spin-Off of Arthur with a focus on geography instead of life lessons; Buster travels around the world and shows off the culture, people, and hobbies of a certain place.
- One of the goals of Residents of Proserpina Park is to teach listeners about creatures from World Mythology and Folklore in a fun and entertaining way.
- Rosie's Rules teaches geography, civics, economics, and history.
- Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat
- Super Wings does shift into teaching morals once in a while, but its premise keeps this topic on-stage
- The early seasons of Upin & Ipin were supposed to teach children about Ramadan.
History
- 1865: The attention to historical detail, plus the bonus episodes exploring the history behind the fiction, mean that is is possible to learn quite a bit about the history of the Johnson Administration and the politics of late 1860s America. Likewise, the bonus episodes also provide quite a bit of information about what goes into the making of an audio drama podcast.
- The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd is about the world's most brilliant scientist, his young protege, and his faithful robot companion, C.H.I.P.S. following the evil Dr. Steve and Fidgert as they travel though time trying to steal historical artifacts. Every few episodes they're in a new time period and meet a new historical figure.
- The Abenteuer in Österreich ("Adventures In Austria") series by Thomas Brezina, where two children explore the history of famous Austrian landmarks and figures.
- Animated Hero Classics
- The Archers was originally conceived as a way to make British farms more productive by teaching good practice; it's long since outgrown this and become a straight Soap Opera, but still takes pride in the accuracy of its farming-related storylines, retaining an "Agricultural Story Editor" for this purpose.
- BBC Historical Farm Series
- Bernadette Banner
- The Bush Baby: The anime chronicles 1960s Kenya and Kenyan independence, alongside the wildlife of the country and conservation efforts. Based on a book written by a white man who actually lived in Kenya, with the titular character being named after (and based on) his own daughter.
- Checkmate, Lincolnites!: Debunks the Lost Cause mythology of American Civil War myths. Also not for kids.
- Confessions d'Histoire is a French YouTube channel which consists in parodic Confession Cam videos with historical characters detailing their life and/or the historical events they went through as if they were in a Reality TV show.
- Conquest
- Cosmology Of Kyoto
- Deadliest Warrior gets into the nitty-gritty of history: wars, different warriors, how they fought, and their weapons. Controversy or no, they dig up the most brutal aspects of humanity and pit them together in all their bloody glory.
- Doctor Who: As odd as it seems in retrospect, this show started out as edutainment back in 1963. The show was originally meant to alternate between stories set in the past that would teach kids history, and those set in the future or on other planets that would teach science (hence two of the first three companions being a history teacher and a science teacher). Then the Daleks showed up in the show's second story, became massively popular, and changed the emphasis of Doctor Who to pure sci-fi with scary monsters and social commentaries rather than education.
- Some of the stories from the first two seasons of the original series illustrate what Doctor Who was intended to be — chiefly most of the historical stories (e.g. "Marco Polo," in which our heroes meet Marco Polo in the Pamirs and travel all the way to Peking with him).
- Verity Lambert fought to get the Daleks' debut on TV by playing the edutainment card. According to modern accounts, she told her boss Sydney Newman that the story could teach us that we must curb our more belligerent tendencies, with the barren, radioactive wasteland of Skaro as their logical conclusion.
- Edutainment still shows up sporadically. For an science example, "The Moonbase" (1967), written by an actual scientist, contains a scene where Ben lectures Polly (and the audience) in how the design of spray bottles works, and a scene where Polly explains some basic organic chemistry to Ben concerning solvents, plastic and nail varnish. "Demons of the Punjab" (2018) is a modern case of an episode dedicated to teaching history, in which our heroes get tangled in The Partition of India and the monsters are relegated to a brief B-plot where it turns out they're just there to observe history and have no desire to interfere or antagonize.
- Drunk History
- Dungeon Toilet provides some factual information about various matters related to toilets and/or taking a dump, such as the history of toilets or the use of the aloe vera plant for treating constipation. It's not necessarily vital or terribly useful information, but it's information nonetheless.
- Fat, French and Fabulous
- The Gaming Historian: Overlaps with Engineering/Technology and Arts for coverage of video game history.
- The Great War: Week by week coverage of the events of World War I in real time on their centennial anniversary.
- Heritage Minutes
- Hetalia: Axis Powers teaches history (questionably) and a little bit about culture between (often with) all the Ho Yay and gags. (Although the manga's depiction of Korea has sparked controversy in South Korea.)
- Histeria!
- History Buffs
- History Matters
- Horrible Histories
- Jack Rackam
- Karolina Żebrowska
- Liberty's Kids: A surprisingly sophisticated show that teaches about The American Revolution.
- Manga Jinbutsu-den (Biography manga series published by Kadokawa).
- Mentors
- Miniminuteman
- Niji no Kanata e! Shoujo Diana Monogatari is a biopic of Diana, Princess of Wales.
- OverSimplified
- Puppet History is a comedy webseries where a blue muppet called The Professor teaches his frenemy Ryan and a special guest about a bizarre event in world history, quizzing them so they can earn points and win the title of History Master.
- The Rose of Versailles and Riyoko Ikeda's other historical-themed mangas somewhat qualify, as the author was extremely accurate to the historical events (and The Rose of Versailles even earned her the Légion d'honneur for it).
- Rurouni Kenshin qualifies in the same vein as The Rose of Versailles, as the show provides plenty of information on the Meiji Era, and the Bakumatsu War that took place during the final years of the Edo period.
- Sabaton History: A documentary series produced by the team behind The Great War and World War II channels, covering the Horrible History Metal songs of Sabaton.
- Shogakukan Version - Learning Manga Human Museum
- Ten Minute History is essentially a compressed history lecture with very snarky delivery.
- A Thousand and One... Americas revolves around its main character dreaming of pre-Columbian civilizations and learning the culture, costumes, beliefs and daily struggles.
- Time Bokan teaches the viewer about important historical figures and their contributions to society.
- Top Kids: A 1987 Made-for-TV Movie featuring Niki Lauda as he and a teenager named Eric Morgan (played by Rossie Harris of Airplane! fame) travel through various moments in automotive history.
- Truth Or Scare is a kids' program hosted by Michelle Trachtenberg that discussed supernatural-related historical events or pop culture characters. It had a gothic horror tone to it. Most of the show's content was actually taken from previously produced documentaries.
- Unfinished London
- Unnatural History occasionally bases its episodes on history like Sputnik, the Pony Express, and the history of Vikings in America. Unfortunately, the line between fact and fiction gets a bit murky (most likely to encourage kids and teens to do some research themselves).
- The Victorian Way is an edutainment cooking show about cooking in Victorian England, featuring a snarky cook named Mrs. Crocombe.
- The War to End All Wars – The Movie: An Animated Musical adapted from Sabaton's 2021 album of same title, depicting the events and people of the songs in CGI.
- World War II: Week by week history of World War 2, a pseudo-sequel to The Great War.
- Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum
- Yasashiku Yomeru Visual Denki Children's Biography series published in Light Novel format.
- Yo Soy Taíno: A short predominantly exposition about Puerto Rican history and Taíno Mythology.
- The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles: Taught kids about history and people who changed the world through the young eyes of everyone's favorite whip-wielding hero.
- Zinnia Jones
- Zeno Kagiri Naki Ai Ni - history biopic about Zeno Żebrowski and post WW 2 Japan
Music
- Charlie Horse Music Pizza: A follow-up series to Lamb Chop's Play-Along that taught about various concepts of music.
- Classical Baby: Teaches young children about classical music and poetry.
- Classicaloid: Teaches its audiences about seven of the classical composers, and gives bits of trivial about what they were like and the music they made.
- The Ghost Of Faffner Hall
- Jack's Big Music Show
- Jammers, a 2005 BabyTV cartoon that aims to expose children to different instruments and styles of music.
- Jukebox Joyride: Teaches music history with a story about two children who find a magical jukebox which lets them Time Travel to influential concerts & other musical performances.
- JumpStart Music
- Kindergarten: The Musical: The show primarily teaches lessons, but also integrates musical theater terminology into many episodes.
- Little Amadeus: Introduced children to "the classics" via the adventures of a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
- Lomax, the Hound of Music
- Luigi's Baton: Luigi's Baton & The Orchestra Family Reunion explains the different instruments in the orchestra, while Luigi’s Listening Lab introduces viewers to the great orchestral classics.
- Little Einsteins teaches classical music and works of art.
- The Magical Music Box, a series about two children who are sent on great adventures involving different pieces of classical music.
- The Magical Mozart And His Musical Friends book series by Noel Donegan
- Melody Street, an obscure childrens’ TV series, covers different aspects of music.
- Monty The Maestro is another book series about the instruments of the orchestra.
- The Mozart Band, a Spanish cartoon which introduced audiences to classical music and composer trivia by re-imagining famous composers as modern-day schoolboys.
- Musicalia is another Spanish cartoon which covers the fundamentals of music (pitch, rhythm, notes and rests…)
- The Music Box, NPR music education podcast.
- Music Box (1981): Not to be confused with the above entry, this is a 1981 TV miniseries about the building blocks of music (pitch, rhythm, tempo, etc.)
- The Music Show: A spinoff of the above-mentioned Luigi’s Baton, this series explained concepts like pitch, rhythm, and meter.
- The Notekins, a BabyFirstTV series that teaches fundamentals of music.
- Orchestra!, a 1991 mini-series by Dudley Moore explaining the constituents of the symphony orchestra. In 1993, it received a Spiritual Successor in Concerto!, which explained the works of the great masters.
- Oscar's Orchestra, while definitely falling more towards the “tainment” end of the spectrum, did attempt to introduce children to the great works of classical music.
- Piccolo, Saxo et Compagnie, a French audio story produced by Andre Popp that educated kids about the instruments of the symphony orchestra. Its sequels, Passeport pour Piccolo Saxo et Compagnie and Piccolo et Saxo à Music City did a similar thing but for folk and electronic instruments. (The other two sequels Which are… and the 2008 Animated Adaptation are… decidedly less educational.)
- Razzberry Jazzberry Jam
- Seeing Music, a Russian short animated film about the instruments of the orchestra.
- Sparky's Magic Piano
- Symfollies
- Taratabong
- The Tuneables
- Tune Buddies
, a series of short films which explores the different families of instruments.
Arts
- Ba Da Bean
- The Cartoon Show
- Creative Galaxy
- Didou: Step-by-step instructions on drawing various items.
- Short-lived cartoon Doodle
sought to teach children drawing and painting skills.
- GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class has definite elements of this; there are whole episodes spent on explaining various graphic techniques.
- Life Hacks For Kids
- Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games: Specifically video game design, development and tropes.
- Mr. Dressup
- Pinkalicious & Peterrific
- Pirates: Adventures in Art
- Walulis Sieht Fern
Economics
- The Centsables
- Looney Tunes: Three shorts, By Word of Mouse, Heir Conditioned and Yankee Dood It, were financed by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and provided lessons on how the American economy works (mass production/consumption, investing, etc.), with bits of comedy in between.
- Parking Wars: A show about people with traffic enforcement jobs. It partially teaches about parking regulations.
- Secret Millionaires Club
Vexillology
Mixed Subjects
- Adam Ruins Everything
- Animaniacs occasionally had musical segments about geography, history, and science.
- Animator vs. Animation doesn't apply as a whole, though the Animator vs. Education sub-series does cover various math and science topics.
- Baby Einstein
- Baby Songs covers a range of subjects for very young children
- Barbapapa: A Dutch-Japanese animated series based on the book series of the same name that teaches life lessons as well as how to protect the environment. The Spin-Off Barbapapa: One Big Happy Family! is even moreso an edutainment show, and the 1999 anime that came before it literally aired on NHK Educational TV.
- Blue's Clues: Play along with a human host as he tries to figure out what his dog wants to do today and learn a few things along the way.
- Brain Games: HBO's take on the learning program, and it was even marketed on VHS tapes in a period when television programs on home video was just a few select episodes, not a rule.
- Brain POP holds educational animated videos variety of subjects, such as math, history, and computers.
- The Brain Scoop
- Bugs Bunny Builders has several Looney Tunes characters forming a construction crew, allowing the show to cover topics ranging from creativity and imagination to teamwork and cooperation.
- Can (2015), in addition to having pro-social morals, teaches about animal and plant care in some episodes.
- Castelo Rá-Tim-Bum
- Channel Umptee-3
- Cocomelon: Mostly life lessons including stuff like getting ready for school and toilet-training, but also the Alphabet song and such.
- Coffee & Cat: A story about a high school student who failed to get into university and his cat who end up living and working at a coffee shop in Hokkaido. Between the Slice of Life comedic skits, it also goes in-depth about the history of coffee in Japan, the different varieties of coffee, and the methodology, physics, and chemistry that go into coffee preparation.
- Crashbox: a HBO family show with various art styles. It featured different short segments about vocabulary (Revolting Slob), homonyms (Think Tank), history (Dirty Pictures, Haunted House Party), math (Psycho Math), biology (Poop or Scoop, Eddie Bull), and other subjects
- Crash Course, hosted by the VlogBrothers, Hank and John Green
- Classic Disney Shorts: Some Donald Duck shorts of the mid-to-late 1950s had an educational bend, one of the most notable of which was Donald in Mathmagicland, in which Donald, assisted by the True Spirit of Adventure, shows how "there's a lot more to mathematics than just two times two." There was also Scrooge Mcduck and Money, in which Scrooge gives Huey, Dewey, and Louie a lesson in capitalism and the history of money, from the barter system to modern banking.
- Daimos teaches viewers about theorteical particles (such as Tachyons), construction of space craft and philosophy, having Kyoushiro quote many famous philosophers and authors including Nietszche, Marx, Goethe and Shakespeare.
- Die Sendung mit der Maus: The most notable German language example.
- Doraemon sometimes teaches viewers about things such as global warming, how to help homeless animals, the flat Earth theory and the history of Japan. Unfortunately, most of the educational bits are thrown away in the Bang Zoom! Entertainment dub because most episodes dubbed are of the fun adventure type, but sometimes you'll get an explanation of a fairy tale not known by Americans such as "The Honest Woodcutter" or an episode set in a historical time period.
- Flying Rhino Junior High
- The Funny Company
- Fem Myror Arfler An Fyra Elefanter
- Fox Clubhouse
- Garfield and Friends: Like Animaniacs, had several segments teaching kids about classic literature (which were surprisingly faithful to the source material), scientific principles and even medical information. In addition, the first three seasons' U.S. Acres shorts also had An Aesop and songs that would get the lesson across to the viewers, such as not spreading rumors.
- The Good Night Show, which focused on a different preschool theme each show.
- Hola Sproutitos, which teaches words and phrases in both English and Spanish.
- The Great Space Coaster
- Gudrun The Viking Princess, a CBeebies series in which a Friend to All Living Things learns about the animals of 10th century Northern Europe, combines history and zoology.
- Helpsters
- Hi-5
- The Hoobs
- Ibi (mathematics, science and general problem-solving]]
- Il Était Une Fois...
- I Spy
- In The Know was a series of interstitials on CBS's Saturday morning lineup in the 1970-71 season. Josie and the Pussycats hosted and described certain facets on how things work. It became In The News a year later and focused on notable events over the past week. This ran to 1987.
- Iris, The Happy Professor
- Jollitown
- Kidsongs
- Leap Frog Learning DVDs.
- Make the Grade
- Matthew Santoro
- Mister K's Clubhouse explores a wide variety of subjects including creativity, transportation, numbers, colours and social skills aimed at ages 2-7.
- Moose and Zee: A series of short bumpers aired on Noggin and later Nick Jr.. Moose and his friend Zee teach preschoolers various topics such as grammar and colors.
- Odd Squad: Mobile Unit has STEM lessons (science, technology, engineering, and math).
- Odd Squad UK has STEM lessons (science, technology, engineering, and math).
- Odisea Burbujas teaches classic literature, history, astronomy, and environmentalism
- Overly Sarcastic Productions: Predominantly about classic literature, mythology, ancient history.
- Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure and Drink to Britain aim to give the curious adult the basic tools for appreciating wine and other drink while following an Odd Couple of middle-aged blokes around on thinly-veiled drinking holidays.
- Peppermint Park: An obscure, almost blatant Sesame Street rip-off VHS series from The '80s.
- Pleasant Goat Fun Class, a spin-off of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf where the characters are aged down and learn all about the world around them.
- Pokémon Learning League had the characters from Pokémon the Series asking for help from the Mission Guides on topics related to life skills, math, language arts, and science. It also had interactive quizzes accompanying the videos.
- The Polka Dot Door
- Schoolhouse Rock!: Animated shorts, set to music, that would play between Saturday morning cartoons on ABC. Topics discussed include parts of speech, multiplication, science, American history, and economics.
- Señor Wooly educational music videos, his best-known creation being Billy la Bufanda.
- Sesame Street is probably the longest Edutainment Show that's still currently running.
- Elmo's World
- My Sesame Street Home Video
- Sesame Street Songs Home Video
- Big Bird in Japan, which is focused on Japanese culture, a few important Japanese words, and even a bit of mythology.
- Shrapnel: Not the main series itself, but the figure review series, Moonshine Reviews, hosted by various characters from Shrapnel set in it’s own version of the continuity with no fourth wall. To help bring viewers up to speed on why some aspects of certain figures are good or not, the figure review series will often explain the technical aspects of how the figures were made and how it affects the end product, as well as explaining the history and background for certain figures/toys as well. Unlike most of the other examples, it’s definitely not made for kids.
- StoryBots: A variety of educational songs about various topics.
- Superman Vs. Meshi: The manga is a viewer's guide to Japanese delicacy and foods. It also features some oft-unheard aspects of Japanese culture, like convenience stores doubling as restaurants.
- The Sunny Side Up Show, which would focus on a different theme each week.
- Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales is an early example of this trope, being created in response to the "TV is a vast wasteland" speech.
- Toot & Puddle presents basic sciences and geographical facts, as well as moral issues, in a Slice of Life manner.
- This Is Bob is a Science Fiction program where, using the titular character and a bit of Black Comedy, various cruel experiments are conducted on him, that usually result in him dying. The show also involves a Myth Arc that blends in pretty well with the show.
- Vivi is mostly about the titular character going across the world to find Whirlyworld, but also gives lessons about learning how to befriend someone, even if their differences in personality and culture clashes with yours.
- What The F 101: The Black Comedy take on the The Magic School Bus alternates between teaching history, science, or both within an episode.
- Why? is a long running series of educational manhwa aimed at children, each series published into label that cover wide variety of topics such as:
- Why? Science: Focusing different science topics and its aspects.
- Why? Korean History: Teaches about Korean history.
- Why? World History: Focuses on world history from prehistoric to post-Cold War era.
- Why? Humanities and Social Sciences: Focusing on aspects of social studies and human behavior
- Why? People: Essentially biography of Historical Domain Character (And occasionally mainstream figures as well) in comic format, following from early life to adulthood.
- Why? Humanities Classic: Quite similar to the beforementioned Why? Humanities and Social Sciences but focusing on philosophy and historical aspects.
- Why? English: Teaches about English language.
- Why? Math: Separated into 2 different parts, each set in different universe. This one teaches about math.
- The World Of Jonathan Singh
- Zoom: Especially arts.
News Magzine See Magazine Show
- Kikiriki: It is a news show parody similar to Chilean series 31 Minutos, but is more oriented towards a theme and elaborates towards it through the episode.
- Nick News with Linda Ellerbee
- Screenwipe, and its spin-off, Newswipe.
Other
- Canticos is mainly intended to help children become bilingual in English and Spanish, though also occasionally teaches stuff like the alphabet, names of colors (in English and Spanish of course) or pro-social values.
- The Inside Man teaches lessons on IT security, including topics such as recognizing phishing attempts and password security.
- Isabelle of Paris is set in France during the 1870s, through the eyes of a French girl watching the Prussians take over her country.
- Lucy-May of the Southern Rainbow is set in 1800s Australia and has many lessons about how to raise and herd farm animals, as well as animal trivia.
- Peepoodo & the Super Fuck Friends Is more a parody of this type of shows but it teaches lessons about sexuality and tolerance.
- Spynet: Sam, the host, goes out to fight crime and, when she returns to her van, she reviews her own performance to explain which espionage and military tactics she employed. She also adds some of their historical applications to make it more informative to kids.
Statler: Say, Waldorf, do you think this show counts as edutainment?
Waldorf: Don't see why not. After all, it encourages people to quit watching and read books!
Both: Doh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!