AniMoye

How AniMoye looks

AniMoye takes its look from the Indian cartoon and anime site whose name it shares, a bold, busy design built for quick browsing. The page is a deep navy, almost black, and at the top sits a black header with the AniMoye wordmark in the centre: chunky, slanted comic letters in dark brown, lined with gold and wrapped in a warm orange glow. A My List button sits at the right, a menu button appears at the left on phones, and a row of short grey links runs beneath: Home, Series, Classics, Kids comedies, Fantasy and the A2Z Index.

Below the header comes a grey search bar holding a black search field, where the text you type glows bright green, and a red Search button, just as on the original site. A dark notice box with a pale border and yellow lettering welcomes visitors, and under it an A-Z Index bar lays out the alphabet as red letters in small framed squares, each leading to the series that begin with that letter.

The heart of the page is the poster grid. Each series sits in a frame that glows from red at the left to gold at the right. A navy pill at the top right shows the language and the year the series began, a blue badge with a white raised border shows the number of seasons and episodes, such as S8 E249, and a dark strip across the foot of the poster holds a small red TV badge and the title. Each grid sits under a dark heading in white capitals, with a slate Previous button and a green button that opens the full shelf.

At the bottom of the home page, the help guides and all the shelves are laid out as small dark buttons with amber lettering, followed by this guide, and a black footer closes the page with the copyright at the left and the links at the right. On a phone the posters arrange themselves in rows of three or two, the links fold into a menu and the search bar stretches across the screen.

Using the site

There are several ways into the catalogue. The search bar finds any series as you type: try Lassie, Muppets, Robin or Saved. The A-Z Index is perfect when you remember only the first letter of a title, and the header links open the whole catalogue, the classic sitcoms, the kids channel comedies and the fantasy series. On the home page, the Latest updates grid shows the series with the most recent episodes, and the Popular series grid shows the favourites of AniMoye visitors.

Every series page shows the poster, the story, the first year, the number of seasons and episodes, the genres, the main cast where TMDB lists them, and the studio or network. Below, every season is listed with its episodes in order, each with its number and the date it first aired, so a family working through a long series always knows where it left off. The Watch now button sits near the top of every page, and Add to My List keeps the series in your browser for later.

A short history of the family series

The family sitcom grew up with television itself. In the early fifties, American networks began moving popular radio comedies to the small screen, and families who had listened together in the living room now watched together. The formula was simple and lasting: a home, a family, a small problem to solve and a happy ending in half an hour. Over the following decades the families changed, from suburban households in black and white to big blended families, single parents, robot daughters and talking dogs, but the warmth stayed the same.

Children's television followed its own path. Animal adventures such as Lassie and Flipper, educational series such as The Electric Company and anthology shows of fairy tales filled the afternoons, and in the eighties and nineties cable channels for children began to make their own live-action series. By the 2000s, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon had become factories of family comedy, and streaming services have since added their own. AniMoye follows the whole story, from 1952 to today.

The fifties

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which ran on ABC from 1952 to 1966, starred a real family, Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and their sons David and Ricky, playing versions of themselves. Viewers watched the boys grow up over fourteen seasons, and when the teenage Ricky began singing at the end of episodes he became one of the first rock and roll stars made by television. With 435 episodes it is one of the longest-running live-action sitcoms ever made.

Father Knows Best, starring Robert Young as the insurance agent Jim Anderson, and Leave It to Beaver, in which Jerry Mathers plays the curious young Theodore Cleaver, are the classic portraits of fifties family life, full of small lessons gently learned. The Donna Reed Show gave the mother of the house the leading role, and its young stars Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen both scored hit records from songs performed on the show.

Lassie began in 1954 and ran for nineteen seasons, following the brave and clever collie through several families, from the farm boy Jeff Miller and young Timmy Martin to a series of forest rangers. Adventures of Superman, starring George Reeves, brought the Man of Steel to television in 1952, and The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Richard Greene, was made in England for audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

The sixties

The Andy Griffith Show is one of the best-loved American series of all time. Andy Griffith plays Andy Taylor, the widowed sheriff of the little town of Mayberry in North Carolina, raising his son Opie, played by a young Ron Howard, with the help of Aunt Bee, while his excitable deputy Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts, keeps getting into scrapes. The show ran for eight seasons and 249 episodes and kept its gentle charm to the very end.

The writer and producer Paul Henning created two of the decade's biggest hits: The Beverly Hillbillies, about a mountain family who strike oil and move to a Beverly Hills mansion, and Petticoat Junction, about a widow and her three daughters running the Shady Rest Hotel. Gilligan's Island stranded seven castaways on a desert island for three seasons of slapstick, and Mister Ed gave the world a talking horse who would speak only to his owner Wilbur.

The year 1964 brought two delightfully spooky families, The Munsters and The Addams Family, each of whom believed themselves perfectly ordinary. My Three Sons, starring Fred MacMurray as a widowed engineer raising three boys, ran for twelve seasons and 380 episodes, and Family Affair followed a bachelor, his butler Mr. French and the three orphaned children who come to live with them in New York. Dennis the Menace brought the comic-strip boy to life, and The Monkees, about a young band looking for its big break, won the Emmy for outstanding comedy series in 1967 and made its four stars into real pop idols.

The seventies

The Partridge Family, starring Shirley Jones as a widowed mother and David Cassidy as her eldest son, follows a family band touring in a painted school bus, and its song I Think I Love You became a number one hit. The Carol Burnett Show, one of the greatest variety series in television history, brought sketches, songs and the brilliant comic team of Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Vicki Lawrence and Tim Conway into homes for eleven seasons.

The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All in the Family, follows George and Louise Jefferson as they move on up from Queens to a deluxe apartment in Manhattan, and it ran for eleven seasons. Laverne & Shirley, a spin-off of Happy Days, follows two best friends working at a Milwaukee brewery in the late fifties, and Welcome Back, Kotter stars Gabe Kaplan as a teacher returning to his old Brooklyn high school, with a young John Travolta among his class of Sweathogs.

Diff'rent Strokes, which began in 1978, stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as two brothers from Harlem adopted by a wealthy Park Avenue widower, and it became famous for mixing comedy with honest conversations about growing up. In children's television, The Electric Company taught reading with sketches, songs and cartoons, and its cast included Morgan Freeman as the bookish Easy Reader and Rita Moreno, whose cry of Hey, you guys opened every episode. In Canada, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein brought Vincent Price and a cast of friendly monsters to 130 episodes of sketch comedy.

The eighties

The eighties were a golden decade for the family sitcom. Family Ties, which ran from 1982 to 1989, follows Steven and Elyse Keaton, former sixties idealists, raising three children, including the ambitious young Alex, the role that made Michael J. Fox a star. Gimme a Break! stars Nell Carter as a housekeeper who becomes the heart of a police chief's family, 227 stars Marla Gibbs as a neighbour who knows everything happening in her Washington apartment building, and The Hogan Family, with Jason Bateman, follows a busy household in suburban Chicago.

The decade loved a little science fiction in the living room. Small Wonder is about an engineer who secretly builds a robot girl named Vicki and passes her off as the family's adopted daughter, and My Secret Identity, a Canadian series starring a young Jerry O'Connell, follows a teenager who gains superpowers in an accident in his neighbour's laboratory. Head of the Class follows a class of gifted high school students and their easygoing teacher, played by Howard Hesseman.

A Different World, which began in 1987, follows students at the fictional Hillman College, a historically Black college in Virginia, and became loved for its humour, its friendships and its thoughtful stories about student life. Hey Dude, set on a dude ranch in Arizona, was one of Nickelodeon's first original live-action series and a favourite of children at the end of the decade.

The nineties

Saved by the Bell, which began in 1989, follows the schemer Zack Morris and his friends at Bayside High School in California, and its bright colours, catchphrases and lovable principal Mr. Belding made it one of the defining teen comedies of the era. Saved by the Bell: The New Class brought a new group of students to Bayside for seven more seasons. Blossom stars Mayim Bialik as a clever teenager growing up with her musician father and two brothers, one of whom, Joey Lawrence, made Whoa a national catchphrase.

Joey Lawrence and his real brothers Matthew and Andrew star together in Brotherly Love, and the twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, already famous from childhood, star in Two of a Kind and So Little Time. Moesha, starring the singer Brandy, follows a teenager in Los Angeles juggling school, friends and family. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show and Harry and the Hendersons turned popular films into weekly series, with the inventor Wayne Szalinski and the friendly Bigfoot Harry returning every week.

The nineties also brought a wave of excellent children's series from around the world, from the time-travelling Spellbinder and the mermaid adventures that would follow, to The Worst Witch, The Odyssey and My Parents Are Aliens, which are described in the sections below.

Disney Channel comedies

From the mid-2000s, Disney Channel's sitcoms became a whole genre of their own, filmed in front of a studio audience, full of musical numbers and starring young performers who often went on to music and film careers. Sonny with a Chance stars Demi Lovato as a girl from Wisconsin who joins the cast of a television sketch show in Hollywood, and its show within the show became the real series So Random!. A.N.T. Farm follows China Anne McClain as a musical prodigy in a high school programme for gifted students.

Dog with a Blog is about a family whose dog Stan can talk and writes a blog about them, Stuck in the Middle stars Jenna Ortega as an inventive middle child in a family of seven children, and Raven's Home brings back Raven Baxter, now a mother whose son has inherited her visions of the future. Sydney to the Max follows a teenager and her father in two timelines, Bizaardvark follows two friends who make comedy music videos, and Kickin' It and Pair of Kings bring martial arts and a tropical island kingdom to the mix.

Later Disney series include Gabby Duran and the Unsittables, about a girl who babysits alien children, The Villains of Valley View, about a family of supervillains hiding in the suburbs, MECH-X4, in which a teenager controls a giant robot with his mind, Fast Layne, Just Roll with It, whose audience votes on how scenes end, and Electric Bloom, about a pop group looking back on its story.

Nickelodeon and friends

Nickelodeon's live-action comedies are known for their energy and their love of slapstick. Danger Force follows a team of young superhero sidekicks trained by Captain Man, Bella and the Bulldogs stars Brec Bassinger as a cheerleader who becomes her school's quarterback, and 100 Things to Do Before High School follows CJ Martin and her friends working through a list of adventures before they leave middle school.

How to Rock follows a former popular girl who finds her voice in a school band, School of Rock adapts the hit film about a substitute teacher who turns his class into a rock group, The Haunted Hathaways mixes a family bakery with a family of friendly ghosts, and See Dad Run follows a television star who becomes a stay-at-home father. House of Anubis, made by Nickelodeon in Britain, is a mystery series set in a boarding school full of secrets.

Other channels and services have joined the fun. Netflix made Team Kaylie, Malibu Rescue: The Series and Project Mc², about four girls who use science to save the day; Disney's streaming service made Big Shot and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers; and Apple made Me, Life by Ella, Surfside Girls and Circuit Breakers.

Animal friends

Animal series have always been among the most loved family programmes, and the Animal friends shelf gathers 22 of them. Lassie is the most famous of all: over nineteen seasons, the collie rescued children from wells, fires and floods, fetched help, guarded her families and became a symbol of loyalty around the world. The Littlest Hobo, a Canadian series from 1979, follows a German shepherd who wanders from town to town helping people in trouble before moving on, accompanied by the theme song Maybe Tomorrow.

Flipper, which began in 1964, follows a clever bottlenose dolphin and the two sons of a park ranger in the Florida Keys, and Flipper brought the story back in 1995. Skippy the Bush Kangaroo follows a young boy and his remarkably intelligent kangaroo in an Australian national park, and it was shown in dozens of countries. Gentle Ben is the story of a boy and his black bear in the Florida Everglades, and Daktari follows a vet and his daughter at an animal study centre in East Africa, with Clarence the cross-eyed lion and Judy the chimpanzee as its most famous stars.

Some animal friends are more unusual. Mister Ed is a talking horse, Dog with a Blog a talking dog, 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd a school bully turned into a dog until he learns kindness, and Phantom Pups three ghostly puppies looking for help. Our Zoo tells the true story of George Mottershead, who founded Chester Zoo in the 1930s, and Man vs Bee stars Rowan Atkinson as a house-sitter at war with a single determined bee.

Horses and riders

Horse lovers have a whole stable of series. The Adventures of Black Beauty, made in Britain in 1972, follows the famous horse and the Gordon family in Victorian England, with one of the most memorable theme tunes in children's television. The Adventures of the Black Stallion continues the story of Walter Farley's books, with Mickey Rooney returning to the role of the trainer Henry Dailey that he had played in the cinema.

The Saddle Club follows three friends at the Pine Hollow stables and ran for three seasons in Australia, Mystic follows a group of horse-mad teenagers at a riding stable in New Zealand, and Ride follows an American girl who joins an elite riding school in England. Heidi, a 1993 miniseries, brings Johanna Spyri's story of a girl in the Swiss Alps to the screen, with mountain meadows, goats and a grandfather whose heart she wins.

Fantasy and magic

The Fantasy and sci-fi shelf is one of the largest on AniMoye, with 45 series. H2O: Just Add Water, made in Australia, follows three teenage girls on the Gold Coast who become mermaids as soon as water touches them after a full moon on the mysterious Mako Island, and it was watched by millions of children in more than a hundred countries. The Worst Witch, based on Jill Murphy's books, follows Mildred Hubble, the clumsiest pupil at Miss Cackle's Academy for witches.

The Other Kingdom follows a fairy princess sent to a human high school, House of Anubis fills a boarding school with ancient Egyptian mysteries, and The 10th Kingdom, a sweeping miniseries from 2000, follows a father and daughter from New York into a world where the fairy tales are true, with a troll king, a charming wolf and the descendants of Snow White and Cinderella. Dinotopia, based on James Gurney's books, takes two brothers to an island where people and dinosaurs live together, and Alice in Wonderland, a 1985 musical miniseries, follows Alice through Wonderland and the looking-glass world.

Jim Henson's The Storyteller, with John Hurt as the teller of tales and a talking dog as his audience, retells European folk tales with puppets and beautiful design, and Faerie Tale Theatre, produced by Shelley Duvall, brought fairy tales such as Rumpelstiltskin and The Princess and the Pea to life with famous guest stars.

Science fiction for young viewers

Science fiction adventures made for children are among the most imaginative series in the catalogue. Spellbinder, an Australian and Polish co-production from 1995, sends a teenager through a force field into a parallel world ruled by powerful Spellbinders, and Thunderstone follows a boy in a future where humanity lives underground. The Odyssey, a Canadian series, follows a boy in a strange world run entirely by children.

The Sparticle Mystery imagines what happens when everyone over the age of fifteen vanishes, Eve follows the world's first fully sentient robot girl as she joins a human family, and The Unlisted, from Australia, follows twins who discover a secret government programme. Tower Prep sends a boy to a mysterious academy far from home, The Astronauts launches five children into space by accident, Silverpoint finds a strange artefact at an adventure camp, and Me follows a boy who can shrink. Chocky, based on John Wyndham's novel, and Under the Mountain, based on Maurice Gee's, are classics of eighties children's television.

Storybook and period series

Many of the finest family series are adaptations of classic children's books. Road to Avonlea, made in Canada between 1990 and 1996, is set in the world of L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables and follows Sara Stanley, a young heiress from Montreal played by Sarah Polley, who comes to live with her aunts on Prince Edward Island. Over seven seasons it became one of the most celebrated Canadian series ever made.

Enid Blyton's adventures appear three times as The Famous Five from 1978, The Famous Five from 1995 and The Famous Five from 2023, each following Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog on mysteries in the English countryside, and Malory Towers follows Darrell Rivers through her years at a boarding school on the Cornish cliffs. Hetty Feather, based on Jacqueline Wilson's novels, follows a spirited girl raised in the Foundling Hospital in Victorian London, and Hank Zipzer is based on the books by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver about a clever boy with dyslexia.

The Durrells follows the widow Louisa Durrell and her four children, including the young naturalist Gerald, after they move from England to the Greek island of Corfu in 1935, with sunshine, animals and family chaos in every episode. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries retells Pride and Prejudice as the video diary of a modern graduate student and won an Emmy for its storytelling, and My Brilliant Career adapts Miles Franklin's Australian classic about a young woman determined to write.

Legends have their place too. The Adventures of Robin Hood, The New Adventures of Robin Hood and Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, a comic retelling written by Tony Robinson in which Marian leads the outlaws, all visit Sherwood Forest. The Letter for the King adapts Tonke Dragt's Dutch classic about a young squire on a quest, Theodosia follows a girl with a gift for Egyptology in 1906 London, The Spiderwick Chronicles and The Mysterious Benedict Society adapt popular modern novels, and The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson retells the famous shipwreck story.

British favourites

British children's television has a long and proud history, and the British and Australian shelf holds 52 series. ChuckleVision, starring the Chuckle Brothers, ran for 21 series from 1987 to 2009 with its slapstick and its famous call of To me, to you, and Super Gran follows a grandmother who gains super powers after being struck by a magic ray. My Parents Are Aliens follows three foster children whose new parents turn out to be aliens trying to pass as humans.

Horrible Histories, based on Terry Deary's books, has been making children laugh about the past since 2009 with sketches, songs and spoof adverts, and it has won a shelf of awards for its comedy. M.I. High follows a team of teenage spies working undercover for a secret agency, Outnumbered follows a family with three children in partly improvised scenes, and Geek Girl, based on Holly Smale's novels, follows an awkward teenager who is unexpectedly scouted as a model.

Australia and New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand have produced some of the most popular children's series in the world. Alongside H2O: Just Add Water, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and The Saddle Club, Australian producers made Thunderstone, The Unlisted and Spellbinder, each a favourite in many countries. From New Zealand come Under the Mountain, about twins who discover ancient creatures sleeping under Auckland's volcanoes, Maddigan's Quest, written by Margaret Mahy, about a travelling circus in a far future, and Mystic.

Canadian series

Canada has a remarkable record in family television, and the Canadian series shelf holds 27 titles. Alongside Road to Avonlea and The Littlest Hobo, there is The Kids of Degrassi Street, the first of the long-running Degrassi series, which began in 1979, Life with Derek, about a blended family in which two stepsiblings clash daily, and Lost & Found Music Studios and Backstage, about teenage musicians and performers at arts schools in Toronto.

The Other Kingdom, Phantom Pups, My Perfect Landing, ReBoot: The Guardian Code and Holly Hobbie are more recent Canadian productions, and The Way Home, a time-travel family drama from 2023, follows three generations of women in a small Canadian town.

The Muppets

Jim Henson's Muppets have entertained families for half a century, and AniMoye holds five of their series. The Jim Henson Hour, from 1989, was hosted by Henson himself and combined Muppet comedy with fairy tales and puppet experiments. Muppets Tonight, from 1996, made Clifford the host of a television show full of guest stars, and The Muppets, from 2015, followed Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang behind the scenes of a late-night talk show in the style of a documentary.

Muppets Now, from 2020, is a fast-moving collection of sketches and games, and The Muppets Mayhem, from 2023, finally sends the Electric Mayhem band, Dr. Teeth, Floyd, Janice, Zoot, Animal and Lips, into the studio to record their first album. Together they are a wonderful way to introduce younger viewers to characters their parents and grandparents love.

Learning shows

Several series on AniMoye were made to teach as well as entertain. The Electric Company is described above, and Shining Time Station, from 1989, introduced American children to Thomas the Tank Engine, with Ringo Starr and later George Carlin as the tiny Mr. Conductor. Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is a geography game show in which young contestants chase the master thief across the world, with the a cappella group Rockapella singing the theme.

The Joy of Painting, hosted by Bob Ross for 31 seasons and 403 episodes, teaches landscape painting in a soft, kind voice, and generations of viewers have found it the most relaxing half hour on television. Button Moon, a British puppet series about Mr Spoon and his family travelling in a tin-can spaceship, and Imagination Movers, a series by a real New Orleans band, are made for the very youngest viewers, and Figure It Out is a Nickelodeon panel game full of slime and surprises.

Music shows

Music has been part of the family series from the beginning, and the Music shows shelf holds 17 titles. The Partridge Family and The Monkees were so popular that their fictional bands sold millions of real records, and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet made Ricky Nelson a star. In the modern era, School of Rock and How to Rock follow school bands, Sonny with a Chance, So Random!, A.N.T. Farm and Bizaardvark are packed with songs, and Electric Bloom follows a pop group looking back on its rise.

Lost & Found Music Studios and Backstage follow young songwriters and performers learning their craft, Holly Hobbie follows a thirteen-year-old singer-songwriter dreaming of a career, Country Comfort stars Katharine McPhee as a country singer who becomes the nanny of a musical family, and Erin & Aaron brings two stepsiblings together through music. For the youngest viewers, Imagination Movers and The Muppets Mayhem keep the beat.

Sports series

The Sports series shelf brings together 13 series about young athletes. The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, starring Lauren Graham and Emilio Estevez, returns to the world of the famous ice hockey films, with a new team of misfits who play for the love of the game. Big Shot stars John Stamos as a college basketball coach who finds new purpose coaching a girls' team at an elite private school, and Bella and the Bulldogs follows a cheerleader who becomes her school's quarterback.

The Kicks, based on the books by the American soccer star Alex Morgan, follows a girl who helps turn around a struggling school team, Zero Chill follows a family that moves to England for their son's ice hockey career while his twin sister keeps skating, and My Perfect Landing follows a family opening a gymnastics club in Toronto. Kickin' It is set in a martial arts dojo, MaveriX follows a team of young motocross riders in Australia, Zeke and Luther dream of skateboarding fame, and Malibu Rescue: The Series follows a team of junior lifeguards on the beach.

Series for every age

Most family series were made for the whole household, but some suit particular ages especially well. For the youngest viewers, Button Moon, Imagination Movers, Shining Time Station, Lassie and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo are gentle, cheerful and easy to follow, and The Joy of Painting is a calm way to end the day.

Children from about seven to twelve are the natural audience for the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon comedies, for H2O: Just Add Water, The Worst Witch, The Famous Five and Horrible Histories, and for the animal series. Teenagers often enjoy Saved by the Bell, House of Anubis, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Geek Girl, and grown-ups who remember the originals will love sharing The Andy Griffith Show, Family Ties or The Partridge Family with their children.

A few series handle growing-up subjects with care, such as the honest conversations of Diff'rent Strokes and A Different World or the loss of a parent in Life by Ella, and they are best watched together. Every series page lists the genres, and the official services show age ratings and offer kids profiles.

Planning a family series night

A family series night is a lovely weekly ritual. Choose a series everyone can enjoy, agree on a number of episodes and make the evening an event: a classic double bill of The Andy Griffith Show and The Munsters, a sing-along with The Partridge Family and The Monkees, or a fantasy night with The Storyteller followed by an episode of The Worst Witch.

Long series are perfect for working through together, a season at a time, and the episode lists on every page make it easy to keep track. Many families let each person choose in turn, so grandparents can share their favourites from the sixties and children can introduce the grown-ups to Dog with a Blog or Danger Force. Miniseries such as The 10th Kingdom, Dinotopia and Heidi are perfect for a long weekend or a holiday.

Some families like to watch with themed snacks, popcorn for a sitcom marathon or a picnic on the living-room floor for Lassie, and to keep a list of favourite episodes to rewatch. Save your choices to My List, export the list to the family television, and settle in.

Seasons and episodes

Because AniMoye is a guide to series, every page lists the full run of seasons and episodes. Some of the series are enormous: The Electric Company has 780 episodes, Lassie 591, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet 435, The Joy of Painting 403 and My Three Sons 380. Others are short and complete, such as the miniseries The 10th Kingdom, Dinotopia, Alice in Wonderland and Heidi, or single seasons such as The Muppets and Muppets Now.

The badges on the poster grid make this easy to see at a glance. The blue badge shows the number of seasons and episodes, and the navy pill shows the year the series began, so a family looking for a short series for the holidays or a long one to last the whole year can choose in seconds. The Seasons and episodes guide explains the layout of the series pages.

How Watch now works

AniMoye is a guide, and every series page has a Watch now button that opens the series on JustWatch for the country you choose. JustWatch is a widely used service that lists where a series can be streamed on subscription, rented, bought or watched free with advertising. The country menu covers fifteen countries, including India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, the Philippines and South Africa, and your choice is remembered in this browser.

Family series travel between services as rights change, and the JustWatch page always shows the latest options. The Disney Channel series and the Muppets are often found on Disney's own service, the Nickelodeon series on Paramount's, the classic sitcoms on services that specialise in older television and on free channels with advertising, and many British series on the services that partner with the BBC and ITV. All the series in the catalogue were made in English, and the official services often add subtitles and dubbed tracks, including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu on some services in India.

The help pages

Fifteen short guides are linked from the foot of the home page and the footer. How to watch with AniMoye follows a series from the poster grid to its official service, Seasons and episodes explains the series pages, Finding a series gives search tips, and My List explains how to save series and carry the list to another device.

The theme guides open the shelves one by one: Classic sitcoms, Eighties and nineties comedies, Kids channel comedies, Animal friends, Fantasy and sci-fi, Storybook and period, Muppets and learning, Music and sports series and Series from around the world, each with a few recommendations and a link to the full shelf.

The practical pages cover Where AniMoye series stream and The official AniMoye site, which describes how the real address looks.

Theme songs and catchphrases

Part of the magic of a family series is the theme song that calls everyone to the sofa. Many of the series on AniMoye have themes that generations can still sing: the whistled tune of The Andy Griffith Show, the banjo ballad that tells the story of The Beverly Hillbillies, the shipwreck song of Gilligan's Island, the finger-snapping theme of The Addams Family, the sunny Come On, Get Happy of The Partridge Family and the Movin' On Up of The Jeffersons.

Later decades added their own. The bouncy theme of Saved by the Bell, the gentle Maybe Tomorrow of The Littlest Hobo, the galloping music of The Adventures of Black Beauty and the pop anthem of H2O: Just Add Water all stay in the memory for years. Catchphrases travel just as far, from Hey, you guys in The Electric Company to To me, to you in ChuckleVision and Whoa in Blossom. A theme-song quiz, in which family members hum the first bars and the others guess the series, is a fun way to start a series night.

Where the stars began

Many famous performers began their careers in family series. Ron Howard, who plays Opie in The Andy Griffith Show, went on to direct films that won the Academy Award. Michael J. Fox became a star as Alex in Family Ties, John Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino in Welcome Back, Kotter, and Jason Bateman in The Hogan Family. Morgan Freeman spent six seasons on The Electric Company before becoming one of the most admired actors in cinema.

The children's channels have launched dozens of careers. Demi Lovato starred in Sonny with a Chance, Jenna Ortega in Stuck in the Middle, China Anne McClain in A.N.T. Farm, and Brec Bassinger in Bella and the Bulldogs. Claire Holt and Phoebe Tonkin began in H2O: Just Add Water, Sarah Polley grew up on screen in Road to Avonlea, and Mayim Bialik, the star of Blossom, went on to earn a doctorate in neuroscience before returning to acting. Spotting a future star in an early role is one of the small pleasures of watching older series.

Hidden gems

Beyond the famous titles, the catalogue rewards curious viewers. The Hilarious House of Frightenstein is a wonderfully odd Canadian sketch show with Vincent Price reading spooky poems, The Kids of Degrassi Street is a gentle portrait of children in a Toronto neighbourhood, and Maid Marian and Her Merry Men is one of the funniest British children's comedies ever made. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a clever modern retelling told in short video diaries, perfect for teenagers who love Jane Austen.

Our Zoo tells a heart-warming true story of a family who built a zoo, Prehistoric Park sends the wildlife presenter Nigel Marven back in time to rescue extinct animals and bring them to a modern sanctuary, and Maddigan's Quest is a moving fantasy about a travelling circus in a strange future. For younger viewers, Button Moon and Shining Time Station are charming time capsules, and for grown-ups, The Carol Burnett Show is still one of the funniest hours in television.

Happy viewing

Family series are made to be shared: stories of kindness, friendship, mischief and home, told a half hour at a time and enjoyed together on the sofa. AniMoye gathers 181 of them, with every season and episode listed and a button that leads to the official services, so the next family series night is only a few clicks away. Choose a series, gather the family and enjoy the show.

Spin-offs, revivals and remakes

Successful family series often have children of their own. The Jeffersons began as a spin-off of All in the Family, and Laverne & Shirley grew out of Happy Days. Saved by the Bell: The New Class carried Bayside High School into a second generation of students, So Random! turned the sketch show inside Sonny with a Chance into a real series, and Raven's Home brought back the psychic heroine of That's So Raven as a mother with children of her own. Danger Force continues the superhero world of Henry Danger with a new team of sidekicks.

Revivals bring beloved characters back for a new audience. Flipper returned to the Florida Keys three decades after Flipper, The New Addams Family revived the spooky household in 1998, and The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers brings back the coach from the hockey films of the nineties. The Muppets have returned again and again, from The Jim Henson Hour to The Muppets Mayhem, and Enid Blyton's Famous Five have been filmed for three different generations of children.

Many series began life as films. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Harry and the Hendersons and School of Rock all turned hit movies into weekly adventures, and The Adventures of the Black Stallion continued the story told in the cinema. Watching an original and its spin-off or revival together is a fun way to see how family television has changed over the years.

Watching across generations

One of the special pleasures of family series is that they connect generations. Grandparents who watched Leave It to Beaver, Lassie or The Monkees when they were young can share them with grandchildren, and parents who grew up with Saved by the Bell, Blossom or Hey Dude can show their children what Saturday mornings and Friday nights looked like in their day. Children, in turn, can introduce the grown-ups to Stuck in the Middle, Danger Force or Geek Girl.

The older series are a window into the past, with telephones on the wall, black-and-white pictures and fashions that make teenagers laugh, and they can spark conversations about how family life has changed and how much has stayed the same. The worries in Father Knows Best and Family Ties are surprisingly close to those in Raven's Home or Run the Burbs: school, friendship, first jobs, siblings and the comfort of coming home.

A good way to begin is a series night where each generation brings one episode: a grandparent's pick from the sixties, a parent's from the nineties and a child's from today. Many families find that the old favourites win new fans, and that the new series charm the grown-ups too.

How family series are made

Many of the sitcoms on AniMoye were filmed in front of a live studio audience, which is why the laughter sounds so warm and real. The format, with three cameras filming each scene at once, was developed in the fifties and is still used for Disney Channel and Nickelodeon comedies today. Some series, such as Outnumbered and Just Roll with It, add improvisation, letting the young actors or the audience shape the scenes.

The adventure and fantasy series were usually filmed on location, often in the beautiful landscapes of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Britain, from the beaches of the Gold Coast in H2O: Just Add Water to the Ontario farmland that stands in for Prince Edward Island in Road to Avonlea and the Greek island scenery of The Durrells. Animal series needed trainers and patient crews, and several animals, including the dogs who played Lassie, became stars in their own right.

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