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Go, Diego, Go! is an American animated interactive fourth wall children's television program and children's television series that premiered on Nickelodeon on September 6, 2005 and ended on September 16, 2011 in the United States. Created and executive produced by Chris Gifford and Valerie Walsh Valdes, the series is a spin-off show of Dora the Explorer and follows Dora's cousin Diego, an 8-year-old boy whose adventures frequently involve rescuing animals and protecting their environment. It was created by Chris Gifford and Valerie Walsh Valdes, as well as a spin-off of Dora the Explorer. The show premiered on September 6, 2005 during primetime on Nickelodeon. It also aired as part of the Nick Jr. on CBS block from September 17, 2005, to September 9, 2006. Before this, on August 1, 2005, the show was sneak-peaked on Nick on Demand, a month and five days prior the premiere. Additionally, on August 22-28, 2005, it was sneak-peaked on Noggin. It returned to Noggin on March 23, 2006. On December 20, 2006, Nick Jr. announced that it had ordered twenty new episodes that were in production. Since April 2008, the show has been dubbed into Spanish and has aired alongside Dora the Explorer in the United States on Univision as part of their Planeta U block. The series was finished in 2011. In Dora and Friends: Into the City episode "For the Birds", Diego and Baby Jaguar are featured in the episode and have grown since the end of Go, Diego, Go!, and Baby Jaguar is now called "Jaguar".

Setting

The show features an 8-year-old boy, Diego Márquez (voiced by Jake T. Austin, Seasons 1-3; Matt Hunter, singing voice in Seasons 4-5; Brandon Zambrano, speaking voice in Seasons 4-5), who helps animals in danger, mainly in the rainforest. His cousin is Dora from Dora the Explorer, as revealed in multiple episodes. Diego was first introduced in an episode of Dora the Explorer titled "Meet Diego!" (originally voiced by brothers Andres and Felipe Dieppa in Season 3 and Gabriel Alvarez in "Baseball Boots", "Dora's Pirate Adventure", "Boots' Cuddly Dinosaur" and Season 4). Dora (Kathleen Herles), along with Backpack (Sasha Toro) and Map (Marc Weiner), makes several roles in the series, usually without Boots (Harrison Chad), because he only appeared in Linda the Llama Saves Carnival.

In most episodes, Diego hears an animal's cry for help at his rainforest Animal Rescue Center. With help from his friends, gadgets, and viewers at home, he sets out to rescue the animal. Just like Dora the Explorer, the show teaches preschool-age children the Spanish language. In addition, each episode features several songs and uses of Spanish vocabulary. However, the show takes a lesser approach to this and focuses more on the teaching of various animals.

Diego's big sister, Alicia (voiced by Constanza Sperakis, Seasons 1-2 and Alicia and Whitetail to the Rescue; Serena Kerrigan, Season 3; Gabriela Aisenberg, Seasons 4-5), is a computer whiz and also bilingual; she directs the animal rescue calls that come into the center. She also assists Diego in helping the animals they love. Alicia is responsible and kind-hearted and always kind to her little brother. Though she is described as 11 years old, she is often seen performing tasks (most obviously driving a motor vehicle) that could only be done by a person several years older.

Diego has a jaguar companion named Baby Jaguar (voiced by Thomas Sharkey, Seasons 1-3; and Dylan Clark Marshall, Seasons 4-5) who assists him on adventures. Baby Jaguar also appears in Dora the Explorer but inconsistently; on Go, Diego, Go! he takes a more active role, which includes being able to speak. It's unknown whether or not Diego's parents let him keep Baby Jaguar as a pet.

Diego's parents are described as animal scientists; they appear in several episodes, but their names are yet to be given. Both Dora and Diego's fathers are brothers. There is also one other big sister, Daisy, voiced by Iliana Friedson-Trujillo, who appears in both "Rainforest Rhapsody" (cameo) and "The Bobo's Mother's Day", with Diego stating in the second aforementioned episode that she is visiting from college. At the time of the show's premiere, Daisy had already appeared in four Dora the Explorer episodes, most prominently in "Dora Saves the Game" and "Daisy, La Quinceañera", as well as silent cameos in "Dora's Pirate Adventure" and "Dora's First Trip". This makes Alicia the middle child and Diego the youngest child and the only son to his parents.

Other characters include Click (voiced by actress Rosie Perez), a camera that locates the animal calling for help; Rescue Pack, a messenger bag Diego wears that can transform into any object, and the Bobo Brothers (voiced by Jose Zelaya and Andres Felipe Aristizabal), two troublesome spider monkeys. They can be stopped by shouting "Freeze, Bobos!" and Diego often encourages viewers to help him stop them. While they might be compared to Swiper from Dora, they don't cause trouble for Diego on purpose and they apologize after doing so. And on some occasions, just like Swiper, the Bobos would reveal their "good side" and be nice.

There are also a few recurring animal friends that are normally rescued by Diego in their first appearance, but appear later to return the favor and help Diego out. The most common of these is Linda the Llama, who has appeared prominently in four episodes and made a cameo appearance in "Three Little Condors."

Whenever a carnivorous predator is featured on the show, its diet is not mentioned, unlike when herbivores are shown (such as marmosets). Two notable exceptions to this is when an octopus helping Diego is explicitly shown and discussed eating live crabs (the crabs, however, are not anthropomorphized in the same way that other creatures typically are in the series) and when a baby river dolphin eats the crabs heading toward a waterfall. Whenever a featured animal is threatened by a predator, the prey is described as being "afraid" of the predator.

In addition to Rosie Perez being in the main cast, several celebrities have appeared throughout the series.

Olga Merediz voiced Diego's mother in "Diego Saves Baby Humpback Whale", but was replaced by Karen June Sanchez in all her other appearances. Kelly Ripa and her son, Michael Consuelos, both guest star as Mommy Maned Wolf and her pup in two episodes: "Diego's Wolf Pup Rescue" and "Diego the Hero". In the episode, "Egyptian Camel Adventure", Italian actor and singer, Adam Alexi-Malle guest stars as Jamal the Camel. Héctor Elizondo (star of Chicago Hope and Last Man Standing) appears in "Diego Rescues Prince Vicuña" as both Victor Vicuña and King Vicuña.

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History

Go, Diego, Go!'s history can be dated back as early as 2004. Helena Giersz started to work on character designs at the time. Then Nickelodeon asked Chris Gifford and Valerie Walsh Valdes if they considered doing a pilot for the show. They didn't pitch the idea, but they always felt that Diego deserved his own show. The character was quite popular already with the audience and viewers when he used to make appearances on Dora (especially with his debut episode Meet Diego!), and they liked the idea of creating a show that was centered on preschool science and animal facts. By March of 2004, 20 episodes (of Season 1) were ordered and the series was in production (this was announced in a press release on March 16, 2004).

Trivia

  • The Travel Song and We Did It! are never featured in this series because they don't fit the plot, as well as Dora and Boots aren't featured very much (Boots only appeared once) because they're not the hosts for the show, Diego and (usually) Baby Jaguar are.
  • Isa, Benny, Tico, Swiper, Grumpy Old Troll, and Big Red Chicken are never featured in this series because the Bobo Brothers are Swiper's replacement of the antagonists as well as Isa, Benny, Tico, Grumpy Old Troll, and Big Red Chicken aren't the right characters to fit for the show.
    • The closest to being a replacement for Tico is Linda the Llama, since they both speak Spanish.
    • However, one episode shows that there is already a green iguana as Diego's friend.
      • Additionally, this also indicated in that episode that there are already foxes mentioned as predators of the iguana, of the flamingoes in another episode, and of the pampas cats in yet another episode.
    • Additionally, another episode shows that there's already a squirrel as Diego's friend, but it's a flying squirrel.
  • This show's first season, along with The Backyardigans, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, LazyTown, and Blue's Room, was announced in March 2004, before it premiered in September 2005. source 1 source 2 source 3
  • The animals in this show were drawn a bit more realistic, and less cartoony and colorful than the animals in Dora the Explorer.
  • Diego was redesigned for the series to appear slightly younger, have slightly lighter skin, and have more blue in his outfit to distinguish him from Dora.
    • Diego's voice is slightly different as well, having a higher-pitched, pre-pubescent voice likely to fit his age of 8. Previously in Dora the Explorer, his voice was more similar to that of either a preteen or teenager.
  • The forest background is more detailed and gradient-like; this carries into newer seasons of Dora the Explorer beginning with Season 5.
    • However, it was teased in three double-length episodes of Season 4.
  • Rescue of the Red-Eyed Tree Frogs! was the first episode to air on Nick Jr. on Nickelodeon, but the first episode to air on Noggin was Diego Saves the Mommy and Baby Sloth.
  • The llama, jaguar, tree frog, sloth, humpback whale and spider monkey were the only animals in the series that were featured more than once.
    • The llama and jaguar were tied for the most featured episodes with four each.
  • This is the only pre-2011 series in the franchise to never transition to HD near the end of its run.

Additional Pages

Videos

Nick_Jr._-_Go,_Diego,_Go!_Promo_2005

Nick Jr. - Go, Diego, Go! Promo 2005

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