Watch Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle

This 1994 television series is based on a series of children's stories written in 1947 by Betty MacDonald. The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series originally premiered on the Showtime cable channel as a half-hour children's bedtime series. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a little old lady who lives in a neighborhood filled with ill-mannered children. When the parents of these children become desperate for help, they come to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for cures to fix the bad habits of their children. But Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's cures are not just good parenting advice; Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle has a box full of magical potions left to her by her husband. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle uses these potions to cure a variety of ill behaviors that trap the kids of the neighborhood in sticky situations.

For example, in one episode, a neighborhood boy doesn't pick up his toys for months, and his room gets so messy that he becomes trapped inside. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle gives his parents a Won't-Pick-Up-His-Toys potion to help the boy out of the situation. In another episode, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle uses a special potion called the Interrupting Cure to help the parents of a boy who constantly interrupts people while they are speaking. This potion is a powder that the parents can blow on the boy's face when he interrupts someone. The powder makes the boy mute until the other person finishes speaking.

Each episode focuses on one child and one cure, with the cures ranging from the common to the fantastical. New developments in computer animation during the nineties help bring Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's magical cures to life on screen in each episode.

The series stars Jean Stapleton, Cerita Monet Bicklemann, and Christopher Lloyd as three of the neighborhood kids. Shelley Duvall created the series and stars in the show as Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. Shelley Duvall also created Faerie Tale Theatre, Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories, and many other popular children's bedtime series in the nineties.