Hot Potato, Hot Potato

One thing I discovered when I became a parent was that a whole world existed I was totally unaware of until the kids came along, particularly in children’s entertainment. Sure, in later years my daughter watched the Wizards of Waverly Place, iCarly, Shake It Up, and Drake and Josh (and, even later, High School the Musical), as well as films like Sharkboy and Lava Girl, and Spy Kids.

But before them were the Wiggles. I remember first catching their show with my young children and later telling my wife, “I saw this weird children’s show where four grown men with Australian accents sing songs and do silly skits.”

Often referred to as the Beatles for toddlers, the group originally was made up four lads dressed in different colors to make them easily identifiable—Anthony Field, Jeff Fatt, Greg Page, and Murray Cook. Initially musicians (two of them had performed in a band with a bit of a cult following called The Cockroaches), most of the members had training and backgrounds in child development.

Though they started in their native Australia, on the strength of the popularity of their children's show and the catchiness of signature songs like “Hot Potato,” "Wake Up Jeff“ and Fruit Salad” that entertained parents as much as their pre-school target audience, they soon became an international phenomenon, eventually invading the U.S. Indeed, our household amassed quite a collection of their shows on VHS and then DVD. We even went to one of their concerts at the now-gone Universal Ampitheatre at Universal City, here in L.A. in 2007. (We saw Weird Al Yankovic there!)

As an aside, I remember feeling seen when the tv show 30 Rock did an episode featuring a kids group called “The Woggels,” who a character on the show, Jenna Maroney (played by Jane Krakowski), tries to “Yoko,” i.e., break up the band by hooking up with one of the members.

Anyway, I recently watched a 2023 documentary about the group that dropped on Prime called, Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles, which included their participation in clips and as talking heads. They’re older, of course, and in fact due to both serious illness and age, only one remains active with the group, though there have been periodic reunions of the original quartet. (While some people were understandably upset when cast changes occurred, since their primary audience is children, they have the advantage of finding a fresh audience every 3-5 years.) To their credit, they’ve also pointedly brought more diversity and inclusion to the show, adding members and supporting characters who are women, people of color, and even non-binary—the documentary covers some of the inevitable griping they received from certain quarters when the changes were announced.

Of course, once my kids outgrew them, I lost touch with them as well, but it was wonderful to catch up with them, see that they’ve remained a success, and revisit nice memories connected to my kids’ childhood and early years as a parent—they definitely were a part of that.