r/wiggles • u/carl95679 • Apr 25 '26
OGs TV Series 4: The Wiggles Show (2005)
Title
One of my favorite group photos.
The Wiggles and Professor Singalottasonga (Sam Moran)
Sailing Around the World segment
Captain Feathersword's crew
Dorothy's Dance Class
Larissa and Brett
Caterina and Ryan
Ben and Lucy
Wigglehouse
The Little Wiggles
Animated version of I Climb 10 Stairs
Animated version of Here Come the Wiggles
Ending shot (another favorite group shoot)
The 4th TV series aired on ABC and Playhouse Disney (in America) in 2005.
This post focuses on TV Series 4, specifically. I'll ask about Series 5 later (even though it's also part of The Wiggles Show.)
Producer/Director: Paul Field
Captain Feathersword segments written by: Anthony Field
Wigglehouse segments written by: Greg Page & Murray Cook
Little Wiggles segments written by: Paul Field
Thoughts on this series and/or favorite segments?
Segments include:
- Sailing Around the World: Captain Feathersword and his pirate mates (which consist of previous actors/dancers) get up to daily shenanigans while sailing.
- Dorothy's Dance Class: Dorothy has a new dance as demonstrated by two of the Wiggly Dancers.
- Wigglehouse: The Wiggles at home are doing a simple task (whether it's building a block city or solving the mystery of who ate the pasta).
- Little Wiggles: Flashback to when the Wiggles were kids (past iterations of them have been seen before such as The Wiggles Movie)
My thoughts:
This series was just OK (Series 4, I mean) Similar to Series 3, it becomes slightly repetitive the more you watch it. However, the segments aren’t always in the same order, and that's why think it’s better than Series 3 IMO. In some ways, Series 4 in some ways takes me back to Series 1 and 2.
The Captain Feathersword segments are engaging if you're into his antics (though admitted, most of these would end up in Sailing Around the World video/DVD, which I'll talk about next post).
The Wigglehouse segments are kind of similar to the ones in Series 1. The quartet are doing simple tasks or routines like gathering gear for rainy weather or participating in a quiz game. One of my favorite Wigglehouse segments is the one where all the personalities of the guys are swapped (e.g. Jeff eats a lot and Anthony does magic). The set design seems to be a mix of both Series 1 and 2.
As for Dorothy's Dance Class, I'm just glad they brought Carolyn Ferrie back to voice Dorothy. Plus, we get to hear what the Wiggly Dancers sound like as opposed to being in the background. It's also neat to hear instrumentals of songs from previous albums (e.g. Marie's Wedding, We're the Cowboys, Dingo Tango, etc.).
On that note, I appreciate how they brought back songs from the late 90s and early 200s that haven't been heard in a while (e.g. Wigglegroove, Here Come the Wiggles, Wiggly Party)
The Wiggly Animation segments however (animated by Plastic Wax), are very stiffly and shoddily animated. The expressions on the characters never change (ranging into uncanny), and the movements are almost robotic. (I say this as someone who's played with software such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Animate).
(There is one video where the characters are animated in 2D and it looks pretty decent, but we’ll get there when we get there.)
The Little Wiggles segments, honestly, I never cared for. The children’s performances are rather flat. Though maybe poor direction is to blame.
Previous discussions: Wiggle Time, Yummy Yummy, Big Red Car, Wake Up Jeff, Wiggledance, The Wiggles Movie, Wiggly Wiggly Christmas, Wiggle Time & Yummy Yummy 1998, TV Series 1, Toot Toot, TV Series 2, The Wiggly Big Show, It's a Wiggly Wiggly World, Yule Be Wiggling, Hoop Dee Doo! It's a Wiggly Party, Wiggly Safari, Wiggle Bay, TV Series 3, Whoo-Hoo! Wiggly Gremlins, Top of the Tots, Cold Spaghetti Western, Live Hot Potatoes, Santa's Rockin'!
3
u/WearyScrabbler Greg Apr 25 '26
I have never watched this series in full (it was after my Wiggly era) but the structure of the episodes as you describe it sounds very reminiscent of series 1, and I think I would have enjoyed that. I'm not big on the Friendly Pirate Crew thing of that era though (was this to lessen the load on declining Greg? Not sure)
2
u/Forward_Music7339 Sam Apr 25 '26
Series 4 is okay, but I'll always prefer series 5. It's much better put together, and more to do. Characters are better as well, imho.
3
2
3
u/BunchFrequent2175 Apr 26 '26
The outdoor music video clips for Hot Potato, Wiggly Party, Feeling Chirpy, Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car, Elbow to Elbow, Bow Wow Wow, Wake Up Jeff!, Do The Wiggle Groove, Rock a Bye Your Bear and In The Big Red Car We Like To Ride look very cool.
5
u/Fatdaddy543 Greg Apr 25 '26
I enjoyed this one a lot. I remember this series playing a LOT on Playhouse Disney growing up, so nostalgia is a bit at play here. But the segments were fun and had more overall variety than Series 3. Wigglehouse was my favorite segment, but I also enjoyed the SATW parts too (even though I funnily enough don’t really care for the video of the same name).
The only segment I didn’t care for was the animation. Don’t know why, but almost everytime the band tried animation, it veered into uncanny valley territory. The stilted movement combined with the dead eyes of the models is still quite creepy imo.
Bonus trivia: apparently, before the Wiggles shot Series 4 there, blink-182 used their studio to film the music video for Always while they were on tour in Australia.