3-2-1 Penguins! is the second series created by Big Idea.
History
While the production of Jonah was going on, Big Idea decided to create another series to fill in the space of VeggieTales.
The show was initially created by Jeff Parker, who thought on the concept of flightless birds. He later had help from Nathan Carlson and Phil Lollar, who previously worked with him on "Adventures in Odyssey".
After the success of the first episode, the series followed up five more episodes until 2003 when the production of Big Idea moved from Lombard, Illinois to Franklin, Tennessee.
In 2006, after NBC agreed to air the original six episodes on Qubo, they also offered Big Idea to produce more episodes of the show.
In total, the show has 26 episodes.
The show can be watched on TBN's "Smile of a Child".
Episodes
Direct-to-Video
- Trouble on Planet Wait-Your-Turn
- The Cheating Scales of Bullamanka
- The Amazing Carnival of Complaining
- Runaway Pride at Lightstation Kilowatt
- The Doom Funnel Rescue!
- Moon Menace on Planet Tell-a-Lie!
Season 1
- I Scream, You Scream!
- The Green-Eyed Monster
- Lazy Daze
- More is More
- Give and Let Give
- Practical Hoax
- Comedy of Errors
- Compassion Crashin'
- Wiki Tiki
- Invasion of the Body Swappers!
Season 2
- Git Along Little Doggies!
- Wise Guys
- Hogs and Kisses
- 12 Angry Hens
- Kennel Club Blues
- Oh, Mercy!
- Promises, Promises
- Do Unto Brothers
- Between an Asteroid and a Hard Place
- In the Big House
Fun Facts
- This show was the first for several things:
- The first to mainly use arms and legs as a feature.
- The first that everyone in the main cast appear in every episode.
- The first to be featured in 16:9 when it was brought back (excluding Jonah, as that series prior didn't become widescreen for the episodes until after the Pirates movie)
- For the original episodes, it's rather ambiguous if the adventures the kids had were real or just dreams. What makes this confusing are the Comet Lounge segments, as they show that the adventures are in fact real. Since the show's revival, it states that they are real.
- Some of the original titles that was suggested were "Penguins in Space" and “Jason and the Penguinauts”.
- Some of episode ideas that were never made included Michelle becoming envious of her baby sister, Jason and the Penguins visiting a planet where everyone and everything is lazy, Jason and the Penguins visiting a planet where everyone is able to jump very high except for Jason due to him holding a grudge, and Michelle disobeying a rule which dooms an entire planet. The episodes that deal with envy, laziness, and forgiveness are The Green-Eyed Monster, Lazy Daze, and Oh, Mercy!
- According to Tim Hodge, the concept for the revival was different from the final draft. Originally, the twins were going to be stuck in the Rockhopper when the Metric Magnetic Matter Disperser broke. Cavitus was also the main goal the crew were chasing after as he had the part to repair the Galeezle, so every episode has them trying to get the part. Hence why the twins had a spare bedroom in the ship, and Sol's appearances as the voice of reason, similar to Grandmum (Jason remarked about this in the first episode). They decided to change it more akin to the original videos, as they still wanted Grandmum and the cottage to appear. Though the concepts were still kept in the first and last episodes of the series.
- The show received a TV-PG rating when it was on Hulu, despite the fact that it was a show that anyone can watch.
- Trouble on Planet Wait-Your-Turn cannot have a title card.