Spanish-language claymation on Sesame Street w/brother & sister?

July 18, 2005 5:40 AM

When I was a child, I remember a Spanish-language claymation short consistently airing with one of the English-speaking PBS educational series.

It was almost certainly Sesame Street, but possibly The Electric Company (and an outside chance it was Mr. Rogers or Reading Rainbow, but I doubt it). I was born in 1974, so I'm imagining that this was something that aired in the late 1970s and/or early 1980s.

The shorts featured two characters, a brother and sister. My name wants to say that their names, and the name of the shorts, was something very close to "Sancho and Pokio," but I don't think that's really correct.

My Google-fu has entirely failed on this one. Anyone have an idea what the title was, and whether there's any information on the 'Net about it? I've had the melody of the theme song running through my head for decades now, and decided in a nostalgia kick to see if Ask MeFi could help me uncover this weird little memory locked away in my brain cells.

posted by WCityMike to media & arts (7 comments total)

I'm probably wrong here, but are you perhaps thinking of Villa Alegre? I remember watching it as a kid, but I thought it had live action as well as claymation. And Aztec-style interstitials that kind of freaked me out when I was small.

(That link is not very illuminating -- take a look at the user comments for more recollections of the show.)
posted by Janta at 9:42 AM on July 18, 2005

I'm fairly certain it wasn't this ... the user comments make it sound as if it had a much more upbeat theme song than the one I remember, and I also seem to remember it as being part of 'Sesame Street' (or whatever children's show it was), not its own standalone show. It was also definitely all claymation, too.

The theme song went something like ...

Sancho and Po-key-oh,

(same melody as first line, but in higher key): Sancho and Po-key-oh,

(melody goes down with all 'da's but the last being on higher notes): Da dee, da da-dee da-dee dah.

Can't remember the words of the latter line (thus the "da"s), probably because it was in Spanish; and the "Sancho and Pokio" is just what my brain is substituting in for whatever the real characters' name was. But I'm fairly sure it was a soundalike.

I may have posted my first Ask Mefi stumper. Shame, I was hoping SOMEONE knew this one.
posted by WCityMike at 10:13 AM on July 18, 2005

I think I remember this series, but I think I saw it on "Pinwheel" which aired during the day on early Nickelodeon. If I'm recalling the same thing, there was a red and blue motif. Unfortunately, this is all that I recall, except for the annoying, yet compelling tune to the theme song. I also cannot recall the words.
posted by elderling at 11:10 AM on July 18, 2005

Answer found, thanks to your 'Pinwheel' lead, Elderling: it was French, and it was called Chapi Chapo.
posted by WCityMike at 11:32 AM on July 18, 2005

It also wasn't claymation, now that I take a good look at it. I suppose the memory starts failing at 30 ... :)


posted by WCityMike at 1:56 PM on July 18, 2005

For some reason, I'm really glad you found this. I still get that tune stuck in my head from time to time.
posted by elderling at 6:48 AM on July 20, 2005

I know what you mean, Elderling. For some reason, that theme song was as much of a brainbug to me as 'Copacabana' is. But the good thing for me is that if I can just listen to a copy of whatever the brainbug song is, I can clear it out of my head.

Technique helped me get Dusty Springfield's "Am I the Same Girl?" out of my head, too ... ("yes I am, yes I am")
posted by WCityMike at 8:18 AM on July 22, 2005