The Wiggles were a big part of my childhood! It's one of my favorite preschool shows I grew up with, alongside Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, The Teletubbies, Wow Wow Wubbzy, Dragon Tales, and Curious George. I only like the episodes starring the original lineup (Murray, Jeff, Anthony, and Greg). I'm far from being the target audience (ages 1-8, as mentioned on the VHS and DVD covers), but I don't care. For the longest time, I thought The Wiggles were fictional characters played by actors, but now I know they're a real, true band, and most of the direct to video episodes are based on their albums. They play fictional versions of themselves, so they technically are characters. Greg, Murray, and Anthony studied early childhood education in college and wanted to be preschool teachers at first, so they clearly know what they're doing. If you're wondering, no, Jeff didn't study early childhood education. Some of the songs and scenes can be cheesy and repetitive, but not a whole lot of them. That's why I give this a 9/10 instead of a 10/10.
The songs and dances are a couple of the best and most easily remembered things about the show and band! Thank goodness there are shows like The Wiggles that get kids and kids at heart off the couch and dancing along, and I do the dances a lot. The songs are catchy, groovy, simple, and easy and fun to dance along to! I once grew out of The Wiggles for a while, and even back then a Wiggles song would get stuck in my head once in a while. My favorite one is Fruit Salad. When I was in high school, my friends and I would sing it a lot. I finished high school last spring, and I miss singing it there. The dances and gestures are very expressive and give the characters opportunities to express body language! For example, The Wiggles and Wags the Dog do some dog-like dance moves (e.g., shaking their hips like a dog, moving their hands up and down like they're digging, moving their knees up and down in a dog-like fashion) while singing various different songs about Wags. The Wiggles and Henry the Octopus sway their arms all over the place like an octopus during various different songs about Henry himself. While the line "Fruit salad, yummy yummy" in Fruit Salad is sung, The Wiggles spin their fists in circles like they're putting the ingredients of a fruit salad together, and then put their hands on their bellies and move them in circles like they ate something yummy. A lot of the songs encourage doing certain dances or gestures, and they also express body language. For example, while singing Can You Point Your Fingers and Do the Twist?, our four main characters point their fingers and twist, and later stand on one foot and shake their hands like the song says. That song has a similar but slightly different melody and title to the Beatles song Twist and Shout. Coincidentally, the musical foursome is also known as "The Beatles of children's music," and I can see why. Some of the songs tell great educational messages and life lessons. Just to name a few examples, Fruit Salad gives step by step instructions on how to make a fruit salad, Ooey, Ooey, Ooey Allergies says to beware of allergies, Look Both Ways says to look both ways before crossing the street (hence the title), and We're All Friends explains the value of friendship.
This is one of the funniest and most colorful childhood shows ever! The Wiggles tell jokes and encourage kids to move around, follow rhythms, and be silly in an age-appropriate way, which makes this one of the funniest preschool shows I've ever seen, alongside Sesame Street and Bear in the Big Blue House! Those three shows are some of the very few preschool shows I can think of that use humor all the time. Some of the songs can be funny too. For example, Hot Potato is a funny, nonsense song, especially when the main foursome sings the lines "Woo wiggy wiggy wiggy!" in squeaky voices and "Gimme that food" in deep voices. The characters make animal puns a lot (e.g., "How do sheep get clean? By taking a baaath."), which are funny as can be! Greg wears yellow, Murray wears red, Jeff wears purple, and Anthony wears blue; I must say that their skivvies are bright, colorful, eye-catching, and look good on them! Same story with the backgrounds and other characters, especially Henry the Octopus, Dorothy the dinosaur, and Wags the dog! I love bright colors, even though I'm not a young child.
Some preschool show cliches are absent here, which gives the show some originality and makes it more fun for older audiences to watch. It is one of many musical preschool shows I've seen, but it's one of the only ones with no songs that are sung episode after episode and no formula that always repeats. The only action that is constantly repeated is Jeff's sleeping routine. Some people may get bored or annoyed with seeing the same formula or hearing the same songs in every episode of various other preschool shows, and those people are less likely to get bored of The Wiggles. As for me, I think just because a show is formulaic or repeats a song or two episode after episode doesn't mean it sucks. It's good to have at least one musical preschool show that has different songs in each episode and isn't formulaic. Unlike a number of other musical preschool shows, this is a literal MUSIC show, and the characters don't sing to tell us their daily routine. The Wiggles teach their audience some facts about music and how to sing and dance, which makes perfect sense to me because they are a band after all. Unlike some other fourth wall breaking preschool show characters, they and their friends surprisingly don't talk down to the audience, underestimate the intelligence of children, nor break the fourth wall every minute. They just explain what's going on, give lectures like a parent or teacher would, introduce the songs and segments, and most of the time they talk to the audience like they're just watching the show. Sometimes they ask rhetorical questions that they probably wouldn't ask if the audience was a part of the show (e.g., "Do you have your family with you?"). They have a colorful vocabulary and use words that a lot of little kids probably never use, like "constructing" instead "building," "improve" instead of "get better," and "interested in" instead of "want." This is likely a sign that this is a family show.
Another one of the best things about the show/band is there are references to a number of other famous, nostalgic musicians (e.g., The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and most of all Elvis Presley), especially by Captain Feathersword. I heard a lot of parents have fallen in love with him because of that. A lot of the time, the titular four imitate Elvis and repeat some of his quotes, like "Uh huh" and "Thank you, thank you very much!" A few of the DVD covers are parodies of the aforementioned music groups' album covers. In a number of the songs, Greg sings lyrics that are often sung in songs by numerous other artists ("Uh huh," "Whoa ho ho ho," "Scooby Doo Ah," etc.), which also strengthens The Wiggles being a music show and "the Beatles of children's music." Parents and grandparents are more likely to understand the references than kids, and they're likely another sign this is a family show. Including them makes perfect sense because this is a music show.
Greg is my favorite character. He's the wisest, kindest, sweetest, and most serious wiggle, he's a very talented magician, and has the kindest smile! Best of all, he has a soft, sweet, calming, beautiful, and heartwarming singing voice like no other I've heard before! His voice relaxes me so easily and sometimes makes me cry (in a good way), most notably when he sings Georgia's Song and I Love It When It Rains. Greg and his voice are a couple of the main reasons I still watch and love The Wiggles to this day. The show wasn't the same without him when he left and got replaced by Sam. I consider the versions of the Wiggles songs by Greg, Murray, Anthony, and Jeff (Hot Potato, Fruit Salad, Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car, Rock-a-Bye Your Bear, We're Dancing With Wags the Dog, etc.) the definitive versions not only because the original lineup is the lineup I've watched the most and the one I'm the most familiar with, but also because they're likely the most well-known versions, I've had little to no exposure to the Sam versions (I've heard more nursery rhyme covers and original songs by Sam), and I never watched nor listened to the new Wiggles.
I highly recommend The Wiggles (again, only the original era). I'm aware it is popular with children and parents alike, and I can see why!
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