PBS Kids Go!

Credits

Descriptions by
Hoa, amymina5 and AlekaJ1003

Editions by
Hoa, amymina5 and AlekaJ1003

Background

PBS Kids Go! was a block of programming created by PBS in 2004 to appeal to kids ages 6-13 as opposed to the 2-5 target audience of PBS Kids. In 2013, the block was discontinued.

1st Ident (October 11, 2004-September 3, 2007)

• 
  "Stairs" variant
• 
  "Button" variant
• 
  "Echo" variant
• 
  "Tubes" variant

Visuals: Kids that wear blue shirts do a certain activity to reveal the PBS Kids Go! logo in a certain way.

Variants: Five main variants were made along with a sign-off variant:

• Stairs: A boy jumps on a few colored platforms. As he steps on them, multiple boxes emerge out of a nearby building, with more kids inside of them. At the end, the PBS Kids Go! logo emerges out of the building, as a Boston Terrier comes out of another box and barks at the logo.
  • A variant of the stairs logo which excludes the URL.
• Button: A boy steps on a green button four times, causing a girl in the background to rise up on a blue platform. When she gets to the top, she presses another button on the side of a nearby building, uncovering a screen containing the PBS Kids Go! logo.
  • A variant of the button logo which excludes the URL.
• Echo: A girl yells "Go!" into a blue tube. The camera pans quickly, revealing a boy standing on the other side of the tube. He then yells "Go!" to another tube above, and the camera pans again. As another kid on the other side hears the "Go!", he pulls a lever on the side of a green box, causing a panel containing the PBS Kids Go! logo to slide up. A boy above the platform then yells "Go!".
• Tubes: There is a boy sitting on a platform, in an upside-down view. Two tubes, one green and one white, emerge onto the screen, the former sliding in various different directions, and the latter only sliding up. An orange button then slides out of the green tube, and a boy emerges out of it to press the button. A hammer then slides out of the right side of the green tube, with the circular side containing the PBS Kids Go! logo. A girl then comes out of the white tube and yells "Go!"
• Elevator: A girl and two boys enter a white platform, which is designed like an elevator. As the elevator takes them up to a slide, there is a square inside that shows Arthur, D.W. and their parents. The kids then exit the elevator and go down the slide.
• Sign-Off: Multiple boxes, with kids inside of them, close as the colored platforms and buildings they're on disappear. There are also two kids at the start waving goodbye and a girl in a building, with the titular characters from Maya & Miguel on it, closing the door. A colored box is all that is left at the end, with the PBS Kids Go! logo inside a circle popping out of it. The box then disappears.
• Cropped 16:9 versions for DragonflyTV exist.

Technique: A mix of live stop-motion and stop-motion-styled computer animation. Designed by Head Gear Animation.

Audio: A percussion tune with whistling (along with a sample from the 1999 PBS Kids IDs and system cues) for most of the IDs. The logos feature the same thing, but end with an acoustic guitar and a 4-note whistling tune, which is followed by a group of kids shouting "Go!"

Audio Variants:

• At the end of one episode of DragonflyTV, there's an audio variant of the button logo which uses the music of the stairs logo. This variant can be seen in this video. It is possible, however, that this is an error in the episode print and not intentional.
• The sign-off variant would sometimes feature an announcer saying, "PBS Kids Go! is saying goodbye for today, but join us again next time."

Availability:

• The ident has just about been removed from the air, as most of the shows that used it have either been repackaged to use different logos or removed from PBS entirely. However, four of the five main idents were preserved at the end of Maya & Miguel on the kids subchannel of the PBS station KLCS (located in Los Angeles), which seems to be the only place you'll still see the logos on live TV.
• The idents can also be seen on Prime Video prints of Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman as well as some on-demand prints of Arthur.
• This ident can be found on the Cyberchase DVD "EcoHaven CSE".

2nd Ident (September 3, 2007-Early 2010)

• 
  "Balloon" variant
• 
  "Bicycle" variant
• 
  "Bicycle Cube" variant
• 
  "Bubbles" variant
• 
  "Email" variant
• 
  "Falling Blocks" variant
• 
  "Hopscotch" variant
• 
  "Jumping" variant (lost)
• 
  "Laptop" variant
• 
  "Time Lapse" variant
• 
  "Soccer" variant
• 
  "Wheel" variant
• 
  "Dancing" variant (Version 1)

Visuals: Same as the previous ident, but the kids are now in full-motion, the environment is fully CGI instead of stop-motion, and this time, the URL simply fades in at the corner of the screen.

Variants: There are more idents than the previous ident:

• Balloon: Two girls jump on an enlarged pump, pushing air into a blue balloon with the PBS Kids Go! logo on it. The balloon then comes out of the stand and flies up in the air.
• Bicycle: A girl rides on a bicycle. She rings a bell with the PBS Kids Go! logo, causing the blocks in the area to move out of the girl's way. As she continues riding, the PBS Kids Go! logo is seen on the ground, which then pops out to the music.
• Bicycle Cube: A boy is riding a bike. He gets off, and the bike disintegrates and compresses itself inside a small cube. As the cube gets smaller to the point where the boy picks it up within his hand, the PBS Kids Go! logo is seen on the side.
• Bubbles: A girl is turning a wheel, revealing a water faucet pouring many bubbles into the air. One of the bubbles has the PBS Kids Go! logo. The girl is then seen riding on said bubble.
• Email: A girl comes up to another, saying something in her ear. The second girl then pushes a button on her phone, sending a message to a boy. He pushes a button on his laptop, opening his inbox and revealing a message with the PBS Kids Go! logo on it. The camera zooms up close to the logo.
• Falling Blocks: Large cubes are balancing themselves high above the ground, with segments of the PBS Kids Go! logo on it. The camera moves to the bottom, revealing a partial PBS Kids Go! block structure. As kids on the bottom jump, the other blocks fall in place.
• Hopscotch: A girl plays hopscotch, with the squares lighting up as she steps on them. When she steps on the semicircle, a trapdoor opens up revealing the PBS Kids Go! logo, and two other girls that pop out. Another trapdoor opens in the distance, with a boy jumping out. They all say "Go!"
• Jumping: This ident features numerous walls, one of which contains the PBS Kids Go! logo. Multiple kids are jumping down nearby. It's currently unknown what the beginning of the ident is, as the only known footage starts at the described portion.
• Laptop: A boy presses a button on a laptop, revealing a wire extending out of it. The wire moves throughout a path and eventually extends up a building with a Boston Terrier (the same one from the "Stairs" ident) adjacent to it. Atop the building is an orange block with an outlined PBS Kids Go! logo on it. As the wire reaches the block, the logo turns fully green and pops out.
• Time Lapse: A group of kids build a nine-cube arrangement of the PBS Kids Go! logo, in time-lapse fashion. Once complete, a girl comes out of the left side and shouts "Go!"
• Soccer: A boy runs around to kick a soccer ball. Another boy kicks the ball and it hits a block, turning it into an edge. The boy then kicks the ball, where it bounces off two more blocks, turning them into cylinder objects and then into the goal, upon which the PBS Kids Go! logo appears on the background of green and blue diagonal blocks above, turning them orange.
• Wheel: Two girls turn a wheel, rotating the camera and turning the girls upside-down. In the background, there are many PBS Kids Go! logos floating down to the bottom of the screen.
• Dancing (2008-2010): There were two versions.
  • Version 1: The camera pans through a large block-filled environment, with a large orange block toward the back containing the PBS Kids Go! logo. On the smaller blocks, there are various kids and show characters (such as Arthur Read from Arthur, Ruff Ruffman from Fetch!, and Captain Huggy Face from WordGirl), all dancing.
  • Version 2: Two girls, as well as D.W. Read, do a cartwheel. Then, a group of kids synchronize to a foot stomp. The camera then pans, in a similar fashion to the above variant. The ident ends with a boy pointing at the camera.

Technique: Live-action combined with CGI. Designed by Jeffery Boortz.

Audio: The audio from the 1st ident, but without any samples from the 1999 PBS Kids IDs and system cues.

Audio Variant: On the "Time Lapse" variant, building noises are heard along with some chatter. At the end, percussion music plays with a girl saying "Go!"

Availability:

• All shows that used this ident have either removed it or have stopped airing on PBS entirely. However, certain stations aired their own recordings of episodes instead of prints nationally aired by PBS, which sometimes resulted in this ident being seen, but few stations still air their own recordings. If they did, they were usually from an era before or after this one.
• The last known time this ldent was seen in full live was in late 2018.
• This ident can also be seen on iTunes prints of Arthur and a Prime Video print of one Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman episode. The official PBS Kids website also uploaded one Arthur episode to watch on-demand in late 2021/early 2022, where the email variant appeared.
• PBS station KLCS-DT2 often showed a split second of the soccer or jumping logo variants before Maya & Miguel. The jumping variant is also lost, except for a split second of it recorded from a Maya & Miguel airing.

Legacy: This tends to be the set of idents people remember the most from PBS Kids Go!, along with the next logo.

3rd Ident (Early 2010-October 7, 2013)

• 
  "Balance" variant
• 
  "Binoculars" variant
• 
  "Block Dam" variant
• 
  "Compass" variant
• 
  "Elevator Up" variant
• 
  "Not All Blocks" variant
• 
  "Peephole" variant
• 
  "Rock Climber" variant
• 
  "Rubiks Cube" variant
• 
  "Wall" variant

Visuals: Same as the previous ident, but in a brighter environment with the URL integrated into the logo's elements.

Variants:

• Balance: A girl jumps onto a green platform, lowering it while also causing another one to rise up, with another kid emerging from the bottom. Seeing the kid is not high enough, she motions the other girl on the side to come to the platform. As she does that, the other white platform rises up extremely high, causing the other kid to go off screen. The PBS Kids Go! logo is seen on the side of the white platform.
• Binoculars: There is a boy looking into a pair of binoculars. He then moves his sight towards a girl, who points somewhere below. As the boy moves downward, his field of vision is completely blocked by another boy's eyes. They then laugh, as the PBS Kids Go! logo is seen in the background.
• Block Dam: A boy and a girl are standing across from each other, with a rectangular object preventing green cubes from coming down a chute. The girl then releases the object, making the cubes fall down, move toward another section with two more boys standing on the sides, and finally onto a large reservoir shaped like the PBS Kids Go! logo, with a girl watching from above.
• Compass: A boy and a girl run onto an empty space. The girl then pulls out a compass, with the north sign reading "GO!". Ahead in the distance, pieces of the PBS Kids Go! logo rotate together towards the boy and girl.
• Elevator Up: A girl sees an orange lever on the side of a blue building. The girl pulls it down, causing an elevator to slide up from the ground, with a boy sitting on it. The PBS Kids Go! logo is seen embedded on the door, with the "GO!" text popping out to the music.
• Not All Blocks: A boy and a girl run in front of a large blue door. The boy then steps on a button on the ground, causing the door to turn. As the boy runs inside, he peeks outside, as the girl is looking at him. The PBS Kids Go! logo is seen on the door.
• Peephole: A boy waves out of a peephole. As a girl runs towards him, she also looks through it. On the other side, a boy is also waving to the kids. The camera then moves to the other side to reveal the peephole is part of the PBS Kids Go! logo. "GO!" then pops out of it.
• Rock Climber: A boy pushes a green speech bubble button, revealing multiple climbing walls, with a climber already on it. The PBS Kids Go! logo then forms on the left side of the screen. Two girls then run on a nearby platform.
• Rubiks Cube: A boy walks up to a giant Rubik's cube, but he notices there is a slanted green button. He then rotates it into place and presses it, causing multiple blocks to move and form the PBS Kids Go! logo in a mosaic pattern. Another boy, atop an orange cube, waves at the boy on the ground.
• Wall: A boy slips, but is stopped by a cube behind him. He turns around and pushes it toward the other side, revealing that the PBS Kids Go! logo is printed on the cube. Two girls stand on the opposite end of the wall, as the cube jumps.

Technique: Live-action combined with CGI. Designed by Primal Screen.

Audio: The audio from the 2nd ident.

Audio Variants: The "Binoculars", "Rubiks Cube", "Block Dam" and "Elevator Up" idents all have alternate audio tracks on the Primal Screen website, two of which are essentially just the PBS Kids Go! bumper music without any sound effects.

Availability:

• It's almost gone on live TV, as all shows that used this ident either no longer air or have been plastered with PBS Kids logos. However, certain episodes of Arthur and WordGirl use promos that include variants of this ident.
• The PBS station WSBE airs old prints of SciGirls that still includes this ident, making it your only chance to see the ident on TV.
• PBS still has broadcasting rights to Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, which wasn't edited to exclude the ident outside of the PBS Kids 24/7 channel, so it is possible that some stations could air it again and the ident would be seen, though no stations currently air it.