Rainbow (TV series)

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Long-running UK kids' show, intended to be the British equivalent of Sesame Street, which, for the bulk of its long-running time, centered around puppets Zippy, a creature with a zipper for a mouth and George, a Camp hippopotamus, as well as a bear named Bungle and their human caretaker Geoffrey. It started airing in 1972, and ended in 1992, followed by two spinoffs.

Many non-European viewers know the show for its infamous "twangers" episode which consisted of a half hour of proceedingly less veiled double entendres about the sexual escapades of the cast. The episode never actually aired as part of the show and was put together at a production party as a private joke, but has since migrated its way to YouTube and other such online video sites. Zippy and George also appeared on The Weakest Link.

Tropes used in Rainbow (TV series) include:

• Ambiguously Gay -- George
• Anti Role Model -- Zippy is sometimes portrayed as this
• Bumbling Dad -- Geoffrey
• Cameo -- The characters have made brief appearances in shows like Ashes to Ashes and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
• Canon Foreigner -- Cleo the rabbit in one spin-off, Dale in the later 'Rainbow Days'
• Cartoon Creature -- Zippy. Word of God calls him 'a unique'.
• Crossover -- Sooty appeared a couple of times
• Dream Sequence -- too many times to count
• Edutainment Show
• Everythings Better With Bunnies -- Cleo in the spinoff.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows
• Everything's Worse with Bears - Subverted and sort of played straight with Bungle. He's quite a nice character, but isn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box.
• Fable Remake -- Plenty of these, even one imagining a backstory for Little Tommy Tucker
• Getting Crap Past the Radar -- The infamous 'twangers' clip
• Guilty Pleasure
• Hey, It's That Voice! -- Zippy and George are voiced by Roy Skelton, who voiced the Daleks in Doctor Who
• Kids Are Cruel -- Zippy
• Long Runners -- Over 1000 episodes - even for a Japanese series, that's long!
• Muppet
• Odd Couple -- Zippy and George
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy -- Inverted somewhat. George is male yet has pink fur (which is actually appropriate). In the first spinoff, Cleo, the female rabbit, had blue fur.
• Pride -- Zippy has this in spades.
• Sesame Street Cred
• Spin-Off -- A series set in a toy shop, and 'Rainbow Days'.
• Subverted Kids Show -- Undergone this treatment, with the 'twangers' clip and Zippy and George's appearance in Ashes to Ashes.
• Talking to Himself -- Roy Skelton voices both Zippy and George
• Uncanny Family Resemblance -- Zippy's cousin Zippo
• "The Villain Sucks" Song -- Variation; a song is sung about how much of a 'bossy boots' Zippy is