Construction Site (TV series)
Construction Site is a British live action children's television series created by The Jim Henson Company in 1999, featuring a group of seven anthropomorphic construction vehicles. It was originally produced for and shown on CITV starting in 1999. In 2003, it was nominated for a Children's BAFTA for the Best Pre-School Live Action. Two, 13-episode seasons were produced. Episodes are packaged as 52 x 10’ or 13 x 26’. The show is similar in concept to Bob the Builder and Jack and the Sodor Construction Company, albeit without any human characters and in a much more realistic, less toylike art style. The show was broadcast on PBS in the United States, and had a range of video releases.
The characters
The main characters consist of a range of different construction equipment. They are as follows:- Diggs the Backhoe loader
- Bozer the Bulldozer
- Scooch the Dumper
- Carrie the Forklift
- Carl the Crane
- Lug the Dump truck
- Maxine the Cement Mixer
- Flatty the Flatbed
- Skatch the Dumper
- Big Rig the Large Dump truck
- Dumper the Jumper Truck
- Big Rig the "Supertruck"
- Kevin the Crane
- Truckzilla the Monster Truck
- The Low Loader
- The Tall Crane
- The Conveyor Belt
- The Wrecking Ball Crane
Episodes
Season 1 (1999–2000)
- "Who's the Boss" – Carrie thinks she'd make just as good a boss as Bozer and when he gives her the chance she's determined to prove it.
- "Cool Fuel" – The machines must clear an old dumpsite to make way for a new car park in just one day.
- "What I Do Best" – When Diggs starts treating everyday jobs on the construction site as a competition, Bozer decides to introduce a real contest—the Machine Challenge
- "Carnival Capers" – On Maxine's mileage day, Bozer enlists the help of the others to organize a party to celebrate.
- "Big Bozer Is Watching" – Scooch is terrified to work on top of a tall building after spilling salt earlier in the day, as he believes it's bad luck.
- "Big Rig" – Lug scoffs when he sees the new machines pretending to be a superhero named Big Rig, but he might need some of those powers.
- "Listening Troubles" – When Bozer tells Diggs that he's full of good ideas he thinks he'll share them with Scooch and Carrie—but Carrie has her own ideas, and they bicker.
- "The Way of the Bodger" – Diggs learns the merits of doing a job properly after he does mediocre work to save time.
- "Look What I've Got" – Diggs is proud of his shiny new attachment. But when Bozer tells him it's needed on an important job, Diggs realizes that he doesn't know what it does.
- "Tread Carefully" – Diggs wears some new, fashionable treads, but his quest for fashion leaves Scooch in a tight spot.
- "A Good Mixer" – The new machines have a lot of bricks to move, so many in fact that Diggs thinks they could use a little help from Maxine.
- "Almost Famous" – When Diggs, Carrie and Scooch dig a trench in the wrong place they think they've struck oil and dream of riches.
- "Sunk" – When the younger machines accidentally knock a load of oil drums into the dock they are too scared to own up to their mistake.
- "What's the Plan" – Diggs and Scooch thing they're saving Bozer some time by digging a pond, but they put it in the wrong place.
- "Idle Time" – When there's cement mix to be moved and Carrie's feeling fired up, nothing can stop her—nothing except a dead battery that is.
- "A Riveting Story" – Carrie chooses to horse around when the machines are clearing out an old dock, and has to be rescued by Carl.
- "No Place Like Home" – Preoccupied because he misses his birth site, Carl almost drops a pipe on Diggs, leading the others to try and cheer him up.
- "Truckmate" – Diggs is jealous when Scooch chooses to work with Carrie instead of him, so Diggs impersonates Carrie to win back his friend.
- "Grown Up for a Day" – When Diggs saves Carl from a nasty accident, the older machines decide it's time he started hanging out with them.
- "Mid-Mileage Crisis" – After reflecting on his carefree youth, Lug decides that he's not ready for old age and joins Diggs and Scooch for some 'top gear' fun.
- "Loud and Clear" – Scooch's voice is too quiet to stop Lug from crashing, and Scooch worries that the older truck will never forgive him.
- "Junkyard" – Diggs frightens Carrie and Schooch on a junkyard run with tales of a scary monster named "Truckzilla."
- "From Start to Finish" – Diggs, Carrie and Scooch are tired of the old machines always telling them what to do, and want to prove to Bozer they can work on their own
- "Out with the Old" – Bozer tells the machines that it's "out with the old and in with the new," to Carl and Lug's chagrin.
- "Feeling Flat" – Scooch wants to find something he can do that Diggs can't. But when he tries to max out his load all he ends up with is a flat tire.
- "One Roll at the Time" – Diggs discovers Bozer is scared of water, but in an effort to help Bozer conquer his fear, Diggs ends up in trouble.
Season 2 (2001)
- "Carrie's Pallets" – Jealous when the bigger machines get to landscape a new park, Carrie decides to invent her own forklifting style.
- "Carl Wash" – Carl's inventions are legendary...for being a disaster. And when he unveils his new Carl Wash, the young machines are his test dummies.
- "One Little Word" – Bozer gives Scooch the morning off so he'll be rested for a big job in the afternoon, but the other machines ask for his help and he doesn't get much rest.
- "Testing Behaviour" – It's time for the CCT and Carrie's convinced she won't pass.
- "Bozer's Boo Boo" – When Diggs discovers that Bozer has accidentally dozed a load of gravel over some important bridge roads he faces a dilemma.
- "Don't Panic" – Bozer goes off site and leaves Carl in charge—which always leads to total chaos. So Maxine steps in to help.
- "Every Dumper's Dream" – When Lug tells Scooch that grading a road on your own is what every dumper dreams of, the little truck decides to do a bit of solo grading.
- "If Trucks Could Fly" – When a daredevil dump truck comes to town, Scooch is thrilled to find out that Lug used to be one himself.
- "I'm Having Fun Today" – Carrie teaches Diggs that even his boring job of moving stones can be fun when she turns it into a game.
- "Days of Blunder" – A site scattered with materials inspires Diggs to turn it into an obstacle course, and Scooch wonders if he's up to the challenge.
- "Mine All Mine" – Diggs, Scooch and Carrie gets themselves trapped in a collapsed mine.
- "Safe and Sound" – Working in the snowy mountains, Diggs chooses to engage in some dangerous thrills rather than put safety first.
- "Silencers Are Golden" – When Carl and Lug have a falling out, Diggs can't help but try to bring them back together.
Season 3 (2002–2003)
- "The Call of the Forest" – Despite Bozer's warnings; Diggs plays a prank on Scooch, encouraging him to pursue the mysterious "the call of the forest.
- "Space Invaders" – Scooch would like a bit more space in the idle house but Diggs and Carrie aren't giving an inch.
- "Star Truck" – When the young machines decide to tell stories, Scooch shows that sometimes the smallest truck has the biggest imagination.
- "Going Solo" – With Bozer off-site, Diggs mistakenly thinks Maxine has told him it's OK to do a job on his own.
- "Magno Carrie" – Carrie doesn't understand how to work her flashy new recharger—so Diggs takes charge, despite the fact he has no idea what he's doing.
- "Crane of the Year" – Carl has to knock a chimney down on the site today, giving him a chance to show why he is nominated for Crane of the Year.
- "Parp Idle!" – Due to a wall of ice that Carl can't even shift, the machines get stuck on a slippery mountain road.
- "Building Bozer" – When Diggs overhears Bozer talking to himself, it seems that their beloved boss is going to be leaving.
- "Whodunnit" – The machines are shocked to find that during the night the new multistory parking garage they were building has been destroyed.
- "Emission Impossible" – A new dump truck has come to the site—Skatch. He's so exciting and fun that Diggs and Carrie seem to be ignoring their old pal, Scooch.
- "Hi Pitched Bozer" – Bozer returns from a servicing only to find that his deep voice has changed and is now high and squeaky.
- "Frozen Bozer" – On a cold day, Bozer reminds the machines to put in their antifreeze. Trouble is, he's so busy reminding everyone else that he forgets to put some in himself.
- "Fog" – The young machines procrastinate on a job, and pay the price when a thick fog rolls in.
Setting