Sheira and Loli's Dittydoodle Works is an American half-hour weekly children's television series for preschoolers that aired in the mid-2000s. The series is produced by Rogar Studios, in association with WLIWinNew York City.
Originating in a magical musical factory, rag dolltwinsisters Sheira and Loli are the hosts in the world they share with their friends: resident visual artist Miss Molly, Doodles the wise-cracking talking purplecrayon, eccentric but brilliant Professor named Professor Eeky Eeky Kronk, the troublemaking but good-natured yellow reptile-like creature named Zippy the Kwirk, and the childlike factory helpers, Professor Squeeky Squeeky Kronk (introduced in season 2) and two little furball characters known as the Funkins (Bluedles and Pink-a-Dink).
Celebrity guests for the first season include pianist/composer Marvin Hamlisch, who helps a discouraged Loli with her piano lessons in "Practice, Patience and Persistence" (episode #104), and R&B singer Chaka Khan as Mother Nature in "4 Leaf Clover" (episode #115).
Sheira and Loli's Dittydoodle Works features music written and performed by the real-life inspiration for the series' main characters, twins Sheira and Loli Brayer. The sisters' performances on Sheira and Loli's Ditties for Little Kiddies-Volume #1, and Dittydoodle Works Celebrates the Holidays garnered two iParenting Media Awards.[1] The show was approved by Common Sense Media.
The characters' diverse personalities are designed to provide opportunities to teach positive emotional, social, and educational lessons as young viewers learn, along with the characters, about self-esteem, cooperation, relationships, fitness, and concepts about nature, the physical world, and literacy.
The characters were introduced to public television audiences on WLIW as a series of music video shorts, bumpers, and segments in between children's programs, which were nominated for a New York Emmy and received a New York State Broadcasters Award in 2001. The creative team includes veterans of some of the most notable and award-winning productions to come out of Broadway, dance, film, and public and cable television. The team includes Mark Saltzman, a former writer at Sesame Street for nearly a decade; Alan Adelman, lighting designer of numerous television and stage productions, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Great Performances, Live from Lincoln Center, and more; and Dean Gordon of the popular PBS children's series Between the Lions. Joseph Baker, one of Broadway's most sought-after composers and arrangers, oversees the series' music with Sheira Brayer and her identical twin sister, Leora Brayer. Baker has worked on such Broadway hits as Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Lion King.
Merchandise has been released for the show, including t-shirts, plush dolls of Sheira and Loli and The Funkins, tattoos, DVDs, CDs, paperback books, and activity books. Prior to the series start, in late 2000, when the duo was first featured on WLIW, a VHS was released based on all the music videos that were shown in between the children's programs.
