Dragon Tales
The magic rhyme you can still recite by heart. This Sesame Workshop gem brought five dragons to PBS preschool: Cassie, Ord, the squabbling twins Zak and Wheezie, and wise old Quetzal. Three seasons, ninety-four episodes, one eternal earworm.
Dragon Tales was created by Jim Coane and Ron Rodecker and produced by Sesame Workshop (then still called the Children's Television Workshop), Columbia TriStar Television, and Adelaide Productions. It premiered on September 6, 1999, on PBS's newly renamed PBS Kids block and ran for three seasons, concluding on April 11, 2005, with ninety-four episodes total.
The show centered on siblings Emmy and Max, who discover an enchanted dragon scale in their new house. By reciting the rhyme—"I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to fly with dragons in a land apart"—they transport themselves to Dragon Land, where they meet five dragons: Cassie, a shy and sweet-natured dragon; Ord, a large, strong dragon who is easily frightened; the conjoined twins Zak and Wheezie (one a neat freak, one rambunctious); and Quetzal, an elderly, wise dragon who oversees the school. Each episode wove gentle lessons with the children's adventures in their magical world.
For anyone who watched as a child, the magic rhyme proved unforgettable—a cultural touchstone for a generation of preschoolers in the late 1990s and 2000s.
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