Join Piggley and His Friends in a Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm

Four years ago, I was delighted to discover the television show Jakers!: The Adventures of Piggley Winks. This charming computer-animated show with a rollicking theme song airs on PBS and features a cast of anthropomorphized farm animals living out a series of simple adventures in rural Ireland in the 1950s. The main characters are Piggley (Maile Flanagan), an imaginative pig, and his best friends Ferny (Russi Taylor), a timid bull, and Dannan (Tara Strong), a strong-willed duck.

Each tale is framed by present-day Piggley (Peadar Lamb), now a grandfather in America, using memories of his youth to impart entertaining lessons to the youngsters in his life. Grandpa Piggley is a mischievous storyteller fond of embellishments, so there is often a sense that these tales are a shade removed from reality. Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm, one of several collections of thematically linked episodes, has an especially fantastical bent.

Treasure Hunt - Piggley’s grandsons Sean and Seamus (Nikka Futterman) are hiding from their mom, who wants them to clean their room, but Piggley tells a story to convince them to get on with the job. He recalls a time when he too wanted to avoid his chores, only to be tricked into doing them by his father (Charles Adler), who concocted a clever plan that allowed the work to get done while still letting Piggley and his friends have a good time. A cute episode with a bit of mystery mixed in, it also presents a neat idea that industrious parents might be inspired to try sometime.

Our Dragon’s Egg - The twins have found a baby bird, and they want to keep it as a pet. Piggley is sympathetic, but his own experience tells him that some animals are not meant for captivity. He recounts one long-ago day when he, Ferny and Dannan found what they believed to be a dragon egg. There’s both suspense and humor as we see the children try to find a suitable sitter for this misplaced egg, all the while fearing that it will gobble them up once it hatches, and a bit of a lesson once the occupant‘s true species is revealed. As a bonus, we get to hear Ferny sing and watch wisecracking sheep Wiley (Mel Brooks) get thrown into a tizzy as he comes to believe that he has miraculously become a mother.

Dannan Does a Jig - The twins are quarreling because they’re supposed to do a karate demonstration together, but one is much better at it than the other. What fun is it to perform in public when your skills are inferior? Piggley intends to demonstrate that it can be lots of fun no matter how talented you are. He remembers a time when Dannan’s grandmother, an accomplished Irish dancer, decided to give lessons to the schoolchildren. Dannan loved to dance, but her coordination was not up to speed with her exuberance, leading to embarrassment. A nice lesson in the joy of self-expression. Also, the music here is especially good, as there are several stretches of schoolteacher Mr. Hornsby playing a jig on the fiddle, and classroom bully Hector (Pamela Adlon) is surprised to discover that he has an aptitude for dance.

Growing Pains - Sean and Seamus resent the fact that their older sister is now allowed to stay up later than they are. Piggley lets them know that they shouldn’t be in any hurry to grow up. He reminisces about the time he was in charge of the farm for the day when his mother was out of town and his dad twisted his ankle. Dannan and Ferny are only minimally involved in this episode; we mostly see Piggley trying to hold down the fort all by himself while the mishaps pile up. Taking care of the farm turns out to be a lot more complicated than he thought, and on top of the chickens on the loose and water flooding the house, he has to deal with an extremely pregnant sheep. The most slapsticky of the four episodes, with a cascade of comical disasters.

Unfortunately, it seems that Jakers! is no longer in the regular lineup on our PBS station, but it’s nice to know that I can count on Netflix to deliver a quartet of engaging episodes whenever I get a longing for Piggley and his pals. Go searching for Treasure Hunt on Raloo Farm, and you’ll find a pot of gold.