Seasons & episodes

The actor who portrays Captain Brainstorm, the star of Little Bill's favorite TV show, Space Explorers, is making a public appearance at the local mall. Brenda takes Little Bill, Fuschia, Andrew, and Kiku to the shopping mall to meet their idol, and Little Bill is especially excited since he took the time to create a Captain Brainstorm picture book as a gift for the actor. When their turn comes to pose for a photo, the other children rush up to the stage, but Little Bill suddenly becomes shy and doesn't want to go up. Brenda says it's okay to be nervous around strangers and offers to take everyone out for lunch. As they eat their pizza, Kiku tries to cheer Little Bill up by asking him to read his story book to them. Little Bill tells a tale of how Captain Brainstorm landed his spaceship in the Glover's back yard and asked Little Bill to come with him to the planet Yubba to rescue the other Space Explorers. After asking permission from Brenda, Little Bill happily agrees to go along, and his pet hamster Elephant sneaks aboard the ship. When they get to Yubba, Captain Brainstorm explains that the other explorers are trapped in a cave by a giant robot, and he needs assistance to save them. Little Bill suggests they find the key to shut the robot off, and must summon all his courage when they discover he's the only one small enough to fit through a hatch they found in the robot's back. He bravely enters the robot's opening, finds the shutoff key, and the operator of the machine, a small alien named Max. Max states he built the robot to be friendly because he's too shy to approach people due to his small stature, and wanted to be bigger, but he accidentally got the robot's foot stuck in the cave and didn't mean to trap Captain Brainstorm's friends. Little Bill convinces Max he should face up to his fears and learn to make friends, and introduces him to Elephant and Captain Brainstorm. Max suggests that they all use Captain Brainstorm's ship to attempt to pull the robot out of the cave, and the Space Explorers are saved, thanks to Max and Little Bill. When Little Bill finishes his story, Brenda suggests they make a second attempt to approach the actor playing Captain Brainstorm, and tells her son to follow the lessons he wrote in his story. Fortunately, Captain Brainstorm hasn't left yet, and Little Bill shyly goes over to the man and introduces himself; he gives Captain Brainstorm the picture book,and Brenda asks if she can take a photo of him and the children. The performer happily obliges, and puts Little Bill on his shoulder for the shot while Andrew, Kiku and Fuschia stand in front.

Little Bill is in his room playing with his Captain Brainstorm toys when he notices that his spaceship has stopped making noise and blinking its lights. He brings the toy to his father, and Big Bill deduces the toy needs new batteries, but they are out of the kind it needs and they'll have to go to the store. Little Bill offers to go to the store by himself, but Big Bill says he's not old enough to go anywhere alone yet. Disappointed, Little Bill goes outside to watch April and Bobby play basketball; he asks to join in the game, only to have his siblings tell him he's too little to reach the basket. Frustrated at having everyone tell him he's too little to do anything, Little Bill retreats to his room and begins drawing a story. He imagines that his alien friend, Max, has returned to ask Little Bill if he can come with him to another planet to rescue Captain Brainstorm. Little Bill gladly obliges, and when they reach the other planet, they find that the inhabitants, the Purple Burples, are gigantic, and have to be very careful not to get stepped on while locating Captain Brainstorm. When they find the Space Explorer, he explains that he was making a distress call on behalf of the Burples, not himself. It turns out the Burples were attempting to change a power switch for their space station when the battery fell and dropped behind a small grate, and even Captain Brainstorm is too large to fit through the opening and retrieve it. Little Bill thinks he might be small enough to fit, and he reaches in to get the battery. Having saved the day, Bill returns home. Just as he's finishing his story, Big Bill comes back from the store with the battery for the toy and fixes it. Suddenly, they hear Bobby and April yelling outside and rush to see what's happened; their basketball has rolled under the porch steps and they can't fit under to find it. Seeing an opportunity to imitate his story, Little Bill easily goes under the stairs and retrieves the ball, making him realize that sometimes being little isn't a bad thing after all.

S1 · E1Just A Baby / The Campout 1999-11-28 · 30 min＋

Just A Baby: Brenda's sister, Debra, arrives for a visit with her new baby, Jamal. Little Bill accidentally frightens the baby when he sings too loudly, and Big Bill explains how babies like soft music like lullabies. Aunt Debra gives Bill the job of telling her when Jamal has woken from a nap, but when the baby spits up, Little Bill fears ""he broke the baby."" Bobby teached Little Bill that babies sometimes make messes and shows him how to hold Jamal properly. The Campout: Little Bill and his friend, Andrew, decide to have a pretend camp out in the back yard. They set up umbrellas to stand for their tent, and go hiking, imagining Bill's neighbor, Mrs. Shapiro, is a bear. Bobby joins in after he finishes raking the leaves and makes up some sleeping bags from old grocery sacks. When Andrew has to go home for supper, Little Bill and Bobby ask Alice the Great if they can continue the camp out by having dinner outside.

The Treasure Hunt: On a rainy day, Little Bill is bored and not sure what to do; Alice the Great suggests he find out what he likes to do best, and while looking for it to consider it a ""treasure hunt."" Little Bill goes around the house asking the other family members what their favorite thing is-- Big Bill loves listening to Jazz music, Brenda enjoys photography, while Bobby and April like to compete in chess. Later that night, while reviewing everything he learned to Alice the Great, she points out that storytelling must be Little Bill's ""thing."" The Best Way To Play: Little Bill and his friends Andrew, Kiku, and cousin Fuschia are acting out their favorite TV show, Space Explorers, before the show comes on. As they watch the program during lunch, a commercial airs for a ""Space Explorer"" video game. Little Bill asks both Brenda and Big Bill if he can have the game, but they explain that's it's too expensive. Andrew gets the video game for his birthday, but after the kids play it for

Monty's Roar: Alice the Great invites an old friend over and she brings her grandson, Monty, along to play with Little Bill. Little Bill is a little uneasy about how to act around Monty, who uses a wheelchair. The two boys quickly become fast friends after Monty mentions his love of dinosaurs and they begin to play a dinosaur game, pretending to eat the room and stomp around making squawking noises. Natural Root Pals: When Brenda takes Little Bill along on her trip to the hair salon, he becomes bored since he has no one to play with. Several minutes later, his classmate Dorado arrives with his mother, Valencia, and the boys amuse themselves by pretending to go on a ""space walk"" using the hair dryers as helmets. Brenda and Dorado's mother agree to schedule their hair appointments at the same time so the boys can play together.

The Dollar: Little Bill finds a dollar on the street, but Alice the Great insists that Bill find out who owns the money before he can keep it. When no one responds to Bill's questioning ""Who lost a dollar?,"" she lets him have it and tells him they can go to his Uncle Al's store after school. At the store, Little Bill wants to buy many toys for his friends, but Uncle Al explains that the things he wants cost more that one dollar. When Uncle Al points out that four quarters make up a dollar, Bill gets an idea; he trades in the dollar for four quarters and buys his friends toys that cost 25 cents from a vending machine. The Choice: Brenda takes the children to the grocery store and announces that the children can choose what type of cereal she buys, but they can only choose one box. Bobby, April and Little Bill each want a different type of cereal, so they hold contests to see who gets to choose. Little Bill gets the final say and decides to pick a variety box set so everybody can have th

Guppies: Little is Bill is pretending to swim in his daily bath when Brenda suggests he start swimming classes with his cousin Fuschia. At the pool, Little Bill is afraid to get in the water because of its size. Brenda and Fuschia carefully ease Bill into the water by getting in slowly and showing him that he'll be safe while they are with him. By the time the Guppies class is about to start, Little Bill is happily playing in the pool. The Magic Quilt: Little Bill can't sleep one night and asks Alice the Great to help him investigate ""the Thing"" in his closet that is keeping him awake. Alice the Great checks the closet out, and after determining ""the Thing"" must have left because of her, gives Little Bill a special 'magic quilt' with colorful patches that will help him get to sleep. She tells him to think about how the patches remind him of happy times and he won't think about the things that scare him. Little Bill quickly drifts off to sleep, and the next morning, when he mentions how

The Meanest Thing To Say: Little Bill and his friends are playing a game portraying pirates when their teacher, Miss Murray, introduces a new student, Michael, who has moved to New York from Florida. During recess, Little Bill and the others try to include Michael in their basketball game, but Michael is more interested in playing a ""ranking"" game, where people are supposed to say hurtful things to one another. Although the children say they refuse to participate, Michael doesn't listen and starts saying mean things to Little Bill, who stays silent. Michael threatens that he'll just keep saying insults if Little Bill doesn't ""play"" the game tomorrow, so Little Bill attemps to practice making up mean things to say by pretending to be a pirate. April overhears her brother acting out of character and tells their parents; when Big Bill learns of Michael's games, he explains how ""ranking"" used to be a popular game when he was a boy, too, and that he always won his matches by countering his

The Zoo: Miss Murray takes the class to the zoo, and Little Bill is very excited to see his favorite animals, the elephants. He asks Miss Murray if they can see the elephants first, but his teacher points out that they are going to follow the zoo map, and unfortunately, the elephants are the last exhibit. Bill waits patiently, and when they finally get to the elephant cage, the other children want to leave because the elephants are shy about coming out. Bill does his impersionation of an elephant roar and gets the attention of a baby elephant. My Pet Elephant: After his trip to the zoo, Little Bill decides he wants a pet, and asks Brenda for permission to pick out an animal at the pet store. Brenda relents when the rest of the family, including Big Bill, beg her too. When Little Bill asks if he can have an elephant for his pet, Brenda explains that elephants are too big to live in houses. With some help from Mr. Percy, the pet store owner, Little Bill settles on a hamster and names it

Chicken Pox: Little Bill is recovering from the Chicken Pox and is disappointed that he won't be able to attend a Blue Sox baseball game with the rest of the family. Brenda tries to cheer him up by watching the game on TV, but the cable goes out, so they pretend to play the game themselves. Little Bill perks up after he receives a puzzle in the mail from his cousin Fuschia, and Miss Murray stops by with a get well card from his friends. Shipwreck Saturday: The Glovers have decided to hold a cookout with family and friends, and Little Bill is excited to float the boat he made with Big Bill, the Moby Dick. Unfortunately, while he is sailing the boat with Kiku, an unobservant rower crashes into the toy boat and smashes it. Kiku suggests they try to fix the boat, and using some of Kiku's grandmother's origami paper, they transform the boat into the Moby Kite and join Bobby in his kite sailing.

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Zoopity Zoo: When Little Bill can't find his Captain Brainstorm doll before he's supposed to go to Andrew's house to play, Alice the Great suggests he clean the room up; Little Bill is reluctant to clean because he claims it isn't fun, so Alice the Great makes up a rhyming game using the phrase ""1, 2, Zoopity Zoo"" to make the job seem like playtime. Soon, Little Bill's bedroom is organized, and he even helps Andrew clean up his messy room when he goes over to play. The Neighborhood Park: As Big Bill and Little Bill are walking to the park downtown to play ball, Little Bill asks his father why there isn't a local park closer to their house. Big Bill explains that there aren't too many vacant areas for parks near them, but when they stop at Uncle Al's store for a snack, Little Bill suggests that the vacant garbage cluttered lot across the street from the store would make a perfect park area. Inspired, Uncle Al volunteers that his family, the rest of the Glovers, and some of the nearby ne

Elephant On The Loose: Little Bill's pet hamster, Elephant, sneaks out of his cage while Little Bill is trying to return him from Elephant's toy rolling ball so Bill can go shopping with Brenda and Bobby. Realizing his pet is missing, Little Bill won't let anyone leave the house until Elephant is found, for fear the hamster will crawl out the front door if it's opened. The entire family scours the house trying to find Elephant, but Little Bill finally coaxes the hamster to come out of hiding by offering a hamster treat and singing a song he made up about how much he loves his pet. If A Bird Rings, Answer It: While Brenda and the kids are walking home from shopping, they stop to answer a ringing pay telephone. Brenda finds it unusual to find nobody on the other end, until Little Bill notices the phone isn't ringing-- there's a parrot sitting on top of the booth imitating the phone's ring. The parrot, whom Brenda christens ""Phone Dog"" because the bird likes to mimic phones ringing and a

Big Kid: While watching his favorite TV show, Space Exporers, with Alice the Great, Little Bill tells her about the story, since Alice the Great fell asleep during the program. He points out that the show was all about how Captain Brainstorm's dog, Sparky, felt like he wasn't being treated like a 'big dog' and ran away; Little Bill says that sometimes he feels like the family treats him the same way and wants to do things like a ""Big Kid"" does. Alice the Great allows him to pour his own juice, and is very impressed when Little Bill cleans up his glass afterwards, because ""that's what big kids do."" When he goes upstairs to his room to play, Little Bill notices some of April's toys have fallen off her bed and volunteers to pick them up so April won't trip on them when she comes home. Alice the Great praises Little Bill for trying to act more grown up, but tells him there is plenty of time for him to be a big kid and to enjoy the time he still has as a ""little kid"" too. The Bills Go To Wo

The Promise: When Little Bill runs out of his own belongings to bring to Show and Tell, he asks his sister April if he can borrow her basketball trophy to show. Bobby points out that the trophy is April's most prized possession, but April gives her permission and makes Little Bill promise to take care of the trophy. Unfortunately, despite Little Bill telling his friends that they couldn't touch the trophy after he showed it to them, somehow it gets misplaced during recess and the little basketball on the player's hand gets broken off. Little Bill is afraid April will be angry with him for breaking his promise, but Bobby suggests they try to fix the trophy. Little Bill sacrifices his most prized possession, a tiger's eye marble, to replace the missing basketball on the trophy, and his sister forgives him. The Practice: One morning, Brenda explains to Little Bill that after school he will have to attend April's basketball practice instead of coming straight home because Alice the Great h

S2 · E5Are We There Yet? / Super Family Fun Land! 2000-09-08 · 30 min＋

Are We There Yet?: The Glover family plans to spend the day at their favorite amusement park, Super Family Fun Land. Little Bill is put in charge of the maps since it's going to be a long drive before they reach the park. Bobby worries that their day will be ruined when it begins to rain while they're driving along, but Little Bill says that they should follow Alice the Great's advice about bad weather-- Keep your chin up high, smile at the sky, and wish those rain clouds bye, bye, bye. Little Bill tries her method and gets the rest of the family to join in; sure enough, shortly the storm lets up and the Glovers are on their way again. Super Family Fun Land: The family arrives at the amusement park, which has a bug theme about all its rides. Although everyone wants to go on different rides, Little Bill wants to go on as many rides as they can together-- as a family. They start off the day riding the spinning Spider ride, but Big Bill says it made him all 'wobbly' and has to sit down. A

The Ring Bear: Miss Murray, Little Bill's teacher, announces to the class that she will be getting married and would like two of the children to be attendants in her wedding. To be fair, she selects names from a hat, and picks Kiku to be the flower girl and Little Bill to be the ring bearer. Little Bill mishears the teacher and thinks his job will the ""Ring Bear,"" meaning he will dress up in a bear costume. He's very disappointed when Brenda corrects him and tells him he'll have to wear a tuxedo, but she also makes him understand that he made a promise to Miss Murray to do his job at the wedding, even if it means he can't be a bear. Miss Murray's Wedding: Brenda, Big Bill, and Little Bill go to the church so Little Bill can be the Ring Bearer in Miss Murray's wedding. He meets up with Kiku and her grandmother, and they are all greeted by the nervous groom, Dr. Winthrop Clinkscales, who presents Kiku with a corsage and gives Little Bill a special boutenniere with a little bear on it so

The Birthday Present: Little Bill and Brenda go shopping for a birthday present for Bill's cousin, Fuschia. Bill decides upon a toy robot called a ""Gooey-Bot"" that has a liquid goo in its stomach that wiggles around when you push a button on its head. Trying to prove he's grown up, Little Bill attempts to wrap Fuschia's present by himself, but he accidentally knocks it off the table while arranging the wrapping paper. When he picks it up, he notices the button the make the ""gloop"" move doesn't work anymore, and when he tries to fix it himself he just makes it worse, getting glue all over the toy. Little Bill hides when he hears Brenda coming, but she explains that she isn't angry if he broke the toy by accident, and there's still time before Fuschia's party to buy a replacement gift. The Birthday Party: Little Bill goes to his cousin Fuschia's birthday party pleased that his present is most likely the best gift. When he gets to the party, he tells his friend Andrew that he bought Fusch

S2 · E8A Trip To The Hospital / The Wrong Thing To Do 2000-09-14 · 30 min＋

A Trip To The Hospital: Little Bill is playing Cowboy in the back yard with his cousin Fuschia when he suddenly trips and falls on his arm. Crying out in pain, Little Bill fears he hurt himself, and Alice the Great determines that he has to go to the hospital to see if he broke anything. Brenda rushes over from work to assure Little Bill he'll be fine. At the hospital, Little Bill's doctor turns out to be Miss Murray's husband, Dr. Clinkscales, so Little Bill isn't as afraid since he knows Winthrop. Dr. Clinkscales takes x-rays of Bill's arm and diagnoses he broke his wrist, so Little Bill will have to wear a cast. As they leave the hospital, the doctor tells Brenda to give Bill a dish of ice cream as medicine. The Wrong Thing To Do: Cooped up inside the house because of his broken wrist, Little Bill becomes bored and frustrated since he's stuck inside while April, Bobby, and all his friends can play outside. Brenda suggests that he do something relaxing so as not to hurt his arm furth

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Rolling Along: As Miss Murray teaches the class gymnastics for physical education in the class, Little Bill becomes frustrated when it comes time for the students to practice forward rolls since he hasn't been able to do one successfully. Miss Murray suggests that Bill shouldn't give up and work on the exercise at home. In the back yard, Little Bill asks Alice the Great for help, but she recommends April help her brother because she's younger.

The Snack Helper: At school, Little Bill is pleased to note on Miss Murray's assignment board that he has been chosen Snack Helper for the day; this means he gets to set up the table during snack time and choose who goes first when it's time to seat everybody. He soon realizes a problem in the job when all his friends want him to pick them to go first. Little Bill wants to be fair to his friends, but he doesn't want to choose one over the others for fear of angering the kids who weren't chosen.

Copy Cat: At school, Little Bill and Andrew are pretending to be firemen when Andrew accuses Little Bill of not letting him have a turn driving the fire truck; Little Bill argues that he was just about to let Andrew drive, but he only wanted to finish taking his turn. They end the argument when they see Kiku and Fuschia playing Farmer.

Ready, Set, Read!: Little Bill decides he wants to learn to read after watching Bobby enjoy reading a joke book. At school, he asks Miss Murray for assistance, so she devises a word game of looking up things in the room that start with the same letter and writing the words on the board so the children can see how they're spelled. During story time, Miss Murray talks Bill through reading one of his favorite stories, Harry the Helpful Horse; Little Bill recognizes some of the words thanks to the game they played earlier. When he gets home, Little Bill shows Bobby how well he can read the story, and Bobby offers to help him learn the jokes in his book. I Got A Letter: When Little Bill helps Big Bill bring in the mail one afternoon, he asks how people get mail addressed to them. His father points out that in most cases, if you write a letter, you receive letters, so Little Bill chooses to write a letter to one of his friends. He draws apicture for Andrew, and Big Bill helps him address the