CityKids is an American television series that aired late Saturday Mornings on ABC from 1993 to 1994. The show consists primarily of live action performances, interspersed with Muppet segments, courtesy of Jim Henson Productions. These Muppets are composed of original characters designed specifically for the show, not ones taken from Sesame Street or The Muppet Show. These original characters often serve as the Greek chorus for the show, commenting on the situations of the human characters, but not actually interacting with them. Unlike most shows airing on ABC Saturday Mornings and produced by the Jim Henson Company at the time, CityKids was primarily targeted to a teenage audience, not to mention an urban one. However, the show failed to generate desirable ratings from any demographic, especially the teenage one, and the show was cancelled by ABC after one season. The show's main theme song was composed by Malik Yoba & Raleigh J Neal II, both also composed other songs for the series and served as Musical Creative Supervisor for the show.
Hot Dogs - A bunch of Hot Dogs that would perform songs. Their sketch would begin with a zoom in on the container they are being served in. The sketch ends with a bunch of tongs taking one of the hot dogs.
* Frankie Frank - An anthropomorphic hot dog rapper that is the lead singer of the rap group Frankie Frank and the Footers.
Captain - A character who works "Inside the Head" with Libido and Lieutenant. In newspaper promotions of CityKids, the Captain was shown to have originally been depicted as a red bespectacled monkey before they went with the puppet design that appeared in the show.
Libido - A character who works "Inside the Head" with Captain and Lieutenant.
Lieutenant - A character who works "Inside the Head" with Captain and Libido.
Koozebanians - Three aliens from the planet Koozebane. Two of them have two eyes while one of them has one eye.
Dirt Sisters - Trish and Toya are two gossipy girls that talk to each other on the phone and talk about the episode's main plot. Trish is from Staten Island while Toya is from Brooklyn.
The puppet for Bird later appeared in Muppet Time where he is the straight man for the Three Silly Bears in their segments. This pigeon was also performed by Joey Mazzarino.
The puppets for Dread, Captain, Lieutenant, Libido, the Hot Dogs, the Koozebanians, and the prototype Captain later made appearances in the Puppet Up! shows and other Henson Alternative projects.
