On vacation in Northern Ontario, Canada recently, a song came into my head. What in the world was it? It kept bugging me, but I couldn't figure out just what it was. Then it dawned on me. It was Wag and Wiggle, from the RAGGS Kids Club Band DVD "Pawsuuup! Tour".† While some of you are shuttering with fear, not wanting to experience the same fate, don't. Unlike many shows, namely one with a purple dinosaur in it, most songs in the "Pawsuuup! Tour" are really, really good kid's fare. So what is this DVD anyway? The RAGGS Kids Club Band started out as a costumed character touring band, heading around from shopping mall to country fair across the United States. The RAGGS Kids Club Band now have proven to be such a success, that they perform daily this summer at The Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a fantastic looking venue. The "Pawsuuup! Tour" DVD is a compilation of this performance, plus music videos on location (at a beach, a park, etc.) and backstage joking. The concept of rockers as the stars has been tackled a bunch of other times, take The Archies, Josie and the Pussycats, The Banana Splits, and Alvin and the Chipmunks, all but the rodent three have left the scene completely. There are three reasons that these television bands are much different than the RAGGS Kids Club Band. One, RAGGS is much more educationally founded, with three experience professors, and the President of the American Music Center on its Educational Advisory Board. Two, Raggs et al are bone-a fide (pun intended), real life stars, touring towns and cities across the US of A. Three, and maybe most interesting the format. The production is a college of performances, backstage scenes, music videos, even a red carpet, and so is indistinguishable from any other bandís tour DVD. Except Mick Jagger isnít blue, and his Keith Richardsí doesnít have rainbow coloured hair. Raggs and his band, consisting of Trilby, Pido, B. Maxwell Oliver, and Razzles play a fairly wide variety songs, ranging from soulful to rock anthems, hip-hop, funk, and pop-opera. All modified for younger music aficionados, of course.† The production qualities are absolutely outstanding. The choreography is provided by Hardin Minor, who has taught for the National Dance Institute. The lighting design is by triple-Emmy Award winner Alan Adelman, whose credits include 75 episodes of **PBS'** "Great Performances", the "Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards", "The NBC 60th Anniversary Special" and Nathan Lane's "The Man who Came to Dinner". The screenwriter is Mark Valenti, whose credits include Rugrats, Catdog, Hey Arnold!, Rocket Power, Totally Spies, and four telefilms/specials. Once VP of Development at Universal Studios, he has a feature in development with DreamWorks.† Executive producer Carole Rosen was VP of Family Programming at HBO for eight years, during which time her division won a Peabody and two Emmys. She was even senior producer on "King Gimp", the winner of the 2000 Academy Award for Best Documentary Subject. While credits don't always mean a good production, Raggs' and the band have used them to come out with a stellar performance. Like anything really, there are elements of the DVD that need to be ironed out. For example, the "rap-ballad" TNT, which seems convoluted in getting to the intended message. But the clouds donít shadow out the fact that this is a neat musical anthology, and interesting concept. Raggs and crew are great singers, whose songs carry great messages, all while having a ton of fun. It's really an unbeatable combination. A second title in the series, Unleashed, will be available October 12, and the seasonal Holiday Jam, will be released November 2.
New television stars in Australia, the RAGGS Kids Club Band started as simply a mall touring promotion.

Airing on Australia's Seven Network weekdays at 9:00 am, the series features new songs, animated segments, and "letters from friends", as well as the music videos and concert scenes that the DVD releases focused on. Another noticeable change is the design of the costumed characters that star in the series, which now have larger heads, besides many other modifications.

Characters in the series include original members RAGGS, Trilby, Fido, B. Max (B. Maxwell Oliver) and Razzles. New to the series is Dumpster, an opinionated cat. The stars live together in a home, and learn to develop positive relationships with each other.

More concerts for the show will be filmed in September 2006. Producers are inviting fans to contact them, to be notified when the open tapings happen.

Created by RAGGS LLC Production, the series is co-produced with Southern Star Entertainment Pty Limited. RAGGS was created by former advertising executive Toni Steedman, who now manages RAGGS LLC full-time. Beginning as a promotional company managing mall's kids clubs, RAGGS expanded to a touring show, released CDS, a DVD, and a line of merchandise. The series' creator plans to have the show on the air in the United States, within the next few months. Sixty-five episodes were produced.

This certainly isn't the first time a fictional band has had a television series. The Archies, Josie and the Pussycats, The Banana Splits, and Alvin and the Chipmunks are all notable examples.