Moose A. Moose

Moose A. Moose is a fictional animated moose, voiced by New York City-based advertising voice actor Paul Christie, which served as the mascot for the cable television channel Nick Jr, and its predecessor Noggin from 2003 until 2012, and currently as the mascot for Noggin's app subscription service.^[1]

Noggin launched on February 2, 1999 after years of collaborations with Nickelodeon and Children's Television Workshop. The original channel was aimed at kids and teenagers. During this time, Noggin's first mascot, Phred, debuted. The channel was restructured as CTW withdrew their involvement, and Phred was also withdrawn from the network. From April 1, 2002 until April 6, 2003, Noggin had its second mascot, Feetface.

On April 7, 2003, Moose A. Moose and Zee first appeared and became very popular among the other Noggin mascots. Until March 1, 2012, Moose and his silent sidekick, Zee D. Bird, served as the continuity "hosts" for all of Noggin's programming.^[2]

Moose and Zee were conceived as part of a rebranding effort at Noggin. The new concept underlying all Noggin programming was "connected learning," in which all programs were to connect in an effort to reinforce the educational quality of the programs; in other words, connected learning "aims to cram every second of air time with learning experiences."^[3] Moose A. Moose (and Zee) was to "guide kids from one show to the next while reinforcing key educational messages though interstitials,"^[3] thus functioning as an "on-air 'teacher.'"^[4][2] Besides introducing the new animated hosts, the channel also added three new shows: Oobi, Miffy and Friends, and Tweenies.^[2] Moose and Zee continued to be the figureheads of Noggin; when the channel went back to 24/7 programming on December 31, 2007, they were the hosts of a five-hour primetime movie marathon.^[5]

The character is available as, for instance, a stuffed toy, and is marketed on T-shirts; Moose seems to have struck an emotional chord with children and parents alike, who hail him as the king of "the guardian of (nature) bizarre, chimerical mascots" who signifies the "child-appropriate Laissez-faire" of Noggin.

On March 1, 2012 at 6AM, the Moose & Zee mascots and programs were removed from Nick Jr. due to the network ramping up against competition from the new Disney Junior network, along with a building audience for competitor Sprout. The "It's Like Preschool On TV" slogan was replaced with " The Smart Place To Play", along with more generic outside continuity clips and some limited advertising. The Moose & Zee continuity was also removed, to the disappointment of some parents and network fans, who campaigned via social media to return them to air, without success, though Viacom retained all trademark rights to the characters in dormancy.

Return of Noggin and Moose & Zee as online archive service (2015-present)

On February 25, 2015, Viacom announced the return of the Noggin brand and the Moose & Zee continuity, this time as the name for a new online service launching March 5, 2015 as an iOS mobile app under the Noggin branding which will require a monthly subscription fee and offer access to selected episodes from the Nick Jr. archive of several shows, including Dora, Blue's Clues and Little Bear, along with the mentioned new Moose & Zee clips and continuity. Nick Jr.'s mobile app will continue to exist separately with TV Everywhere requirements, which the subscription Noggin service will not require; no on-air changes will occur on the linear Nick Jr. cable channel outside of promotions for the Noggin app and subscription service.^[6]

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