♪ Hey, wow... ♪

♪ Here's how ♪

♪ Come and read ♪

♪ Between the lions ♪

CHORUS: ♪ Come on ♪

♪ Come in ♪

♪ Begin ♪

♪ The world awaits ♪

WOMAN: ♪ Between the lions ♪

♪ Between the covers of a book ♪

♪ It's time to look between the lions ♪

♪ Behold the tales beyond the tails ♪

CHORUS: ♪ Behind the door ♪

♪ Become, explore ♪

♪ Come in between the lions ♪

♪ Begin between the lions ♪

♪ Be here between the lions! ♪

THEO: Watch your step.

LIONEL: Glad you were here.

Good-bye, Pete, thanks again for coming.

We'll see you next week, okay?

We had terrible traffic returning from the Meat Swap.

( gasps )

But look what I got for six pounds of ground round!

Not bad, huh?

Whoa!

Is that Kobe beef?

Mm-hmm.

Cleo, you're amazing.

Thank you.

LEONA: Hey, hey!

Hey, where's Pete Seeger?

Isn't he supposed to be doing

a reading right now?

Oh, the reading's over, Leona, sweetheart.

He had to go.

What?

You mean I missed Pete Seeger

reading "Happy Yo-Yo"?

Oh, Ma!

Abiyoyo.

But you didn't miss him reading it.

I didn't?

You missed me reading it.

Pete Seeger asked me

to come up and read it with him!

Yeah, he did a great job, too!

Very passionate.

"Zoop! Zoop!"

"Zoop! Zoop!"-- what's that?

It's from Abiyoyo.

And you see there's a magician

who has this magic wand

and he can make things disappear

with a "Zoop! Zoop!"

Oh, Lionel, read it to me!

Read it to me!

Well, you know, I don't know.

( hoarsely ): I really should rest my voice, Leona.

Oh, come on, Lionel.

Come on, please!

Yes, and I'd love to hear

your rendition, too, Lionel.

Yeah!

I could listen to it all night, son!

( clears throat )

♪ Mi-mi-mi! ♪

Yeah, okay, I think I could read it.

Yay!

THEO: You are in for a treat.

Sit next to me, Leona, my little cublet!

There are some parts in it

that are a little scary.

Oh, Daddy, I'm fine!

Don't worry about me.

I'm very strong.

Feel my muscle.

Feel my muscle, feel it.

Whoa! Those are some big muscles.

See?

( clears throat )

Oh, right, right, right.

( whispers ): Tiger?

( whispers ): Thank you.

( clears throat )

"Abiyoyo.

"Based on a South African lullaby and folk story.

"Text by Pete Seeger.

Illustrations by Michael Hays."

Read by Lionel Lion.

"Once upon a time

there was a little boy who played the ukulele."

LIONEL ( reading ):

"He'd come up to someone

"about to drink a nice cold glass of something.

Zoop! The glass disappears!"

"Someone doing a hard job of work...

( imitating sawing ): "Zzt, zzt, zzt.

Up comes the father with his magic wand..."

"He'd come up to someone about to sit down

after a hard day's work..."

That means they made them live on the edge of town.

"One day... one day, the sun rose blood red over the hill.

"The first people got up and looked out the window.

"They saw a great big shadow in front of the sun.

They could feel the whole ground shake."

"Women screamed!

Strong men fainted!"

"He comes to the pasture.

He grabs a whole sheep."

"He grabs a whole cow."

"Just then, the boy and his father woke up.

"'Hey, Pa, what's coming over the fields?'

"'Why, son, that's Abiyoyo!

"'Oh, if only I could get him to lie down

"I could make him disappear!'

"The boy says, 'Come with me, Pa.'

"He grabbed his father by one hand.

"The father gets the magic wand and the boy gets his ukulele.

"They run across the fields!

"People yelled, 'Don't go near him!

He'll eat you alive!'"

"He raised up his claws...

Just then, the boy whips out his ukulele!"

BOY ( singing sweetly ):

LIONEL ( continues ): "Well, you know

"the giant had never heard a song about himself before.

"A foolish grin spread over his face.

"And the giant started to dance!

The boy went faster."

BOY: ♪ Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo, Abiyoyo... ♪

LIONEL: "The giant got out of breath.

"He staggered!

"He fell down flat... on the ground!

Up steps the father."

"People looked out their windows.

"'He's gone!

"Abiyoyo's disappeared!'

"The people ran across the fields.

"They lifted the boy and his father up on their shoulders.

"They say, 'Come back to town!

"'Bring your darn ukulele.

"We don't care anymore.'

And they all sang."

( boy and townspeople singing happily )

THEO: Yeah, Lionel!

Well done, son!

The end.

( Leona quavers )

Bravo!

Encore! Encore!

Didn't I tell you?

Passionate!

I'm so proud.

So, Leona, honey

what'd you think, huh?

( quavers )

Abiyoyo! Abiyoyo! Abiyoyo! Mommy!

It's okay.

Leona, it's only a story, honey.

Yeah, the monster was

just make-believe, sweetheart.

Yeah, Abiyoyo isn't real.

He's still scary!

He's got big slobbery teeth

and big stinky feet!

Whoa! She's really scared.

What are we going to do?

Wait! I know!

All I need is paper, glue and some pipe cleaners.

Oh, Leona, darling, go see Mommy.

There you go, okay, good.

Now, everybody, stay right here.

I've got an idea.

( laughs )

Okay, everybody, stay right here.

We've got an idea!

Dad, what's the idea?

( whimpering )

( softly ): Oh, Leona.

Hey, look, everything's going to be okay.

Daddy's going to fix everything.

Actually, it's my real hair.

Oh! Get into the groove

as Martha Reader and the Vowelles croon

the double "o"-- "ooh"-- sound in the word "hoop"!

( rhythm and blues music playing )

( Martha singing "ooh" sound, then Vowelles repeat "ooh" )

( ensemble singing "ooh" )

( singing continues )

GAWAIN: Excellent!

Gawain here once again at Blending Fields

where two brave knights in armor

will charge together at high speed and make a word.

Competing today we have Sir H...

( cheering )

And Sir Oop!

( cheering )

Blend on, dudes!

BOTH: Hoop!

( cheering )

Look, one arm!

Me, too!

Oop! How embarrassing.

"Hoop"-- excellent!

That's Gawain's word for today.

And this is Gawain saying

I hope to whoop it up with you real soon!

See you next time on...

MAN: ♪ Swami Smarmy Marmy ♪

♪ That's this swami's name ♪

♪ And reading what the future writes ♪

♪ Is Swami Marmy's game! ♪

I see...

( quavers )

I see...

Yeah?

Oh! What do you see in the future

O great and wise and sassy Swami Marmy?

"Oops."

Oops?

( eerily ): Yes, "oops..."

With an exclamation point!

That is what the future has written.

( eerily ): So... be on the lookout for "oops"...

with an exclamation point!

Y-y-yeah, I will!

I'll be on the...

( squeaks ): Okay!

( Swami Smarmy Marmy theme music plays )

Oop! Oop!

( crystal ball rolls, then crashes )

Oops!

ANNOUNCER: Flying off the shelf once again

it's the continuing

daring and dangling Adventures of Cliff Hanger!

Today's adventure, number 17--

"Cliff Hanger and the Balloons."

CHORUS ( singing ):

We find Cliff Hanger where we left him last--

hanging from a cliff.

( branch breaking )

All of a sudden, a bunch of balloons floats by.

Balloons?

Ahh, balloons!

Poor, marooned Cliff roots around in his backpack

and soon locates... his trusty survival manual.

Using his expert decoding skills, Cliff begins to read.

Hmm, "baboons"... ahh, here we are, "balloons."

CLIFF ( reading ):

Has Cliff Hanger made his escape at last?

CHORISTER: ♪ And that's why he's called Cliff Hanger. ♪

Good...

We're back!

( Leona whimpering )

Oh, it's only Daddy, sweetie.

LIONEL: And Lionel.

Oh, hi...

Now, Leona, you're not scared

of Daddy or Lionel, are you?

No.

No.

Not even when Daddy goes "boogly"?

Boogly!

No-- boogly-boogly!

( chuckling ): Good, good.

Now, Daddy has just made a mask.

Daddy and Lionel have just made a mask.

W-what kind of a mask?

Oh, a mask that looks like the giant Abiyoyo.

Abiyoyo, no, no, no!

THEO: Oh, but... but...

but it isn't Abiyoyo, Leona

it's just a mask-- just paper and glue

and some old pipe cleaners.

Lots of glue.

I see what you're doing, but...

Now, Daddy is going to put the mask on

and even though he'll look like the monster Abiyoyo

it's just make-believe.

LIONEL: Not real.

Like the story.

So when you see Daddy in the mask and he goes "boogly-boogly"

there will be nothing to be afraid of, okay?

Uh... okay.

Here we go.

Boogly-boogly.

( whimpering )

What... what happened?

Leona... I can't see anything.

It's not working, Theo.

Please take the mask off.