10 Best Animated Children’s Shows That Won a Daytime Emmy

The Emmy Awards are the equivalent of the Oscars for television, highlighting some of the industry’s best talents. From 1985 to 2021, one of these awards included the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Animated Programs. Since 2022, the award has folded into the much larger Children’s and Family Emmy Awards.

While the award might be gone, the shows that claimed the Emmy are still available through numerous streaming services. Their quality has not diminished over the years, and their brilliant writing, memorable characters, and strong morals can leave a strong impact on today’s youth.

10 ‘Curious George’ (2006-2022)

Daytime Emmy Award 2008 and 2010

While on an expedition to Africa, a Man with a Yellow Hat (Jeff Bennet) meets a tailess monkey who follows him back home. The Man decides to keep him and names him George (Frank Welker). The big city has many new challenges for George, and his endless curiosity means he has to discover them all.

Curious George is the perfect show for very young children to get introduced to the wonderful world of cartoons. Aside from Welker’s fantastic animal sounds, George doesn’t speak, making it easy for children to imagine themselves in his position as he tackles situations they will have to face. These include going to the dentist and what to do when you’re scared.

Watch on Hulu

9 ‘The Dragon Prince’ (2018-)

Daytime Emmy Award 2020

Following the death of the Dragon King and his only egg, a team of elf assassins prepare to kill the human king, Harrow (Luc Roderique) and his son, Prince Ezran (Sasha Rojen). However, Ezran, his brother Callum (Jack DeSena) and the elf Rayla (Paula Burrows) find the egg alive and well. With this new information, the three flee into the wilds to return the egg to the Dragon Queen and stop a war between humans, elves, and dragons.

The Dragon Prince comes from the mind of Avatar: The Last Airbender writer, Aaron Ehasz, and contains much of the same creative world building and dramatic storytelling. The show is not afraid to get dark with themes of trauma, the horrors of war, and bigotry, while still maintaining a ray of hope that things can change. The characters are also pretty memorable and diverse, with the best being its complex antagonists.

Watch on Netflix

8 ‘Hilda’ (2018-)

Daytime Emmy Award 2021

Hilda (Bella Ramsey) is a young girl living in the wilds and getting into adventures with all manner of mystical creatures. That is, until her mother, Johanna (Daisy Haggard), moves them to the city of Trollberg, so Hilda can make human friends. Fortunately, magic can still be found in the city if you know where to look.

The show perfectly captures the sense of wonder and discovery that comes from children going on adventures. Hilda is a great character, bursting with a spirit of adventure and a kind heart to human and creature alike. The various magic creatures are bursting with creativity and draw their origins from European mythology, ensuring that there’s always something weird and wonderful to discover.

Watch on Netflix

7 ‘Tiny Toon Adventures’ (1990-1995)

Daytime Emmy Award 1991 and 1993

Within the town of Acme Acres is Acme Looniversity. There, the classic Loonie Tunes characters teach a new generation of toons how to be funny. The teachers certainly have their hands full, as many of their students are as loonie as they are.

Tiny Toons Adventures was the first cartoon produced by Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros., and its success paved the way for several other amazing cartoons. The new characters all take inspiration from the classic Tunes characters but are modernized in the right ways to make themselves feel like their own characters. Its popularity with modern audiences has resulted in a reboot in September 2023.

Buy on Apply TV+

6 ‘Animaniacs’ (1993-1998)

Daytime Emmy Award 1996 and 1997

Within the Warner Bros. Water Tower live a trio of siblings named Yallo (Rob Paulsem), Wakko (Jesse Harnell) and Dot (Tress MacNeille). Every now and again they break out and cause all manner of trouble with their silly antics. Over time, they accumulated a supporting cast of similarly eccentric characters and created their own sketch comedy series.

Animaniacs built upon Tiny Toon’s foundation and added satirical social commentary and innuendos for older audiences. It had a massive cast of characters, each of whom brought their own flavor of comedy to the show. The most successful are the mouse duo of Pinkey (Rob Paulsen) and the Brain (Maurice LaMarche).

Watch on Hulu

5 ‘Rugrats’ (1991-2006)

Daytime Emmy Award 1992, 1994 and 2003

When a group of new parents get together, it gives their infants a chance to socialize and develop a friendship. Being babies, the world around them seems confusing, and the most mundane items become fascinating treasures. This leads them to all sorts of misadventures as they try to make sense of everything.

Rugrats is the show that made NIckelodeon one of the major networks for cartoons in the 1990s. The writing is brilliant and does a great job of showing the world from an infant’s perspective without feeling like it’s talking down to the audience. Several episodes were also notable for their maturity and respect, such as dealing with the death of a parent or explaining Jewish holidays.

Watch on Paramount+

4 ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ (1999-)

Daytime Emmy Award 2018

Living in a pineapple in the town of Bikini Bottom is SpongeBob SquarePants (Tom Kenny). With his best friend, Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke) and his cynical neighbor, Squidward Tenticles (Roger Bumpass), he gets up to all sorts of silly misadventures. These include working as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, catching jellyfish, or trying in vain to get his driver’s license.

SpongeBob SquarePants is Nickelodeon’s longest-running show for a reason. Its early seasons combined surreal humor with unforgettable characters to create jokes and stories that are still beloved today. Even its newer seasons, while not as good as the first, retain some of the original’s charm.

Watch on Paramount+

3 ‘The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’ (1988-1991)

Daytime Emmy Award 1989 and 1990

Deep in the hundred-acre wood lives a bear with very little brains named Winnie the Pooh (Jim Cummings). He prefers to spend his time eating honey and going on adventures with his friends, the human Christopher Robin (Tim Hoskins) and other stuffed animals like Piglet (John Fiedler) and Tigger (Paul Winchell). These adventures include going to faraway places, facing terrifying monsters, and learning valuable life lessons.

This show is a major reason why Winnie the Pooh became the franchise it is today. It didn’t focus on overarching storylines, but rather episodic stories that saw Pooh and his friends tackling a new lesson applicable to the lives of young children. These ranged from overcoming misunderstandings to more mature subjects like giving up someone you love.

Watch on Disney+

2 ‘Muppet Babies’ (1984-1991)

Daytime Emmy Award 1985-1988

In this addition to Jim Henson’s Muppets franchise, the Muppets are imagined as toddlers living in a nursery run by a Nanny (Barbara Billingsley). Every day, they use their imagination to transport themselves into new, fantastical adventures. Sometimes their imagination can get a bit wild, but there’s always a valuable lesson to be learned.

Muppet Babies delighted adults and children alike with its imaginative storytelling. It encouraged the characters and by extension the audience, to use creative thinking as a way to build problem-solving skills. The fantasies were also depicted with live-action footage and photographs, which helped the show stand out compared to its peers.

Buy DVD on Amazon

1 ‘Arthur’ (1996-2022)

Daytime Emmy Award 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2007

In a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, Arthur Reed lives in the city of Elwood. He goes through the trials and tribulations of every child, from trying to succeed in school, maintaining his friend groups, and clashing with his younger sister. Each day brings a new challenge, especially as he gets older and has to make sense of complex themes.

Arthur lasted twenty-five seasons thanks to its universal themes and characters. Its cast was made up of characters from all walks of life, which played into one of its major themes regarding the benefit of different points of view. It also wasn’t afraid to tackle complex topics, such as autism, dyslexia, and loss.

Watch on Hoopla

NEXT: 10 Fantastic Cartoons Produced in or With Canada