Copyright: martha speaks

What would happen if your dog were suddenly able to speak? Follow the adventures of Martha, whose appetite for alphabet soup gives her the power of human speech. Using her newfound abilities, Martha gets jobs, wears disguises, foils bad guys, wins contests, and orders lots of steaks. Martha Speaks is a children’s animated PBS Kids television series based on the best-selling books by Susan Meddaugh.

Premise

The series revolves around a talking dog named Martha (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain), who is owned by 11-year-old Helen Lorraine (known in the books as Helen Finney). When Helen fed Martha alphabet soup, the pasta letters somehow traveled to her brain rather than her stomach, giving her the ability to speak human words. The show takes place in the fictional town of Wagstaff City.

Characters

Animals
Children
Adults

Recurring

Children
Adults

Production

The series was executive-produced by WGBH employee Carol Greenwald (who first contacted Meddaugh during production of the PBS series Arthur) and developed for television by Emmy Award-winning writer Kenneth "Ken" Scarborough (the head writer for shows such as Arthur and Doug). Among other writers and screenwriters were Joe Fallon, Peter Hirsch, Kathy Waugh, Raye Lankford, Pippin Parker, Ron Holsey, Jessica Carleton, Matt Steinglass and Dietrich Smith. Canadian composers Daniel Ingram and Harold Foxton Beckett composed the music for both the series and the theme song, while Ken Scarborough wrote the lyrics for and Robert Wilson performed the latter.

The series was produced in Vancouver by DHX Media Vancouver (formerly Studio B Productions) using Flash. Meddaugh, the author of the book, was involved in the series and oversaw the production: despite some concerns over what would the way word definitions be incorporated into a television series, she was satisfied they didn't interrupt the plot's flowing concept.

Actor Jon Hamm along with then-girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt and their German Shepherd mix Cora were animated into cartoon versions of themselves for an episode as guest stars.

Format

In each episode, short animated segments related to the main parts are presented in three occasions: one between the opening theme and the first part; another one between two parts; and the other between the second part and the closing credits. However, those short segments are excluded from versions outside the United States and Canada.

The following tags implicate this tag: alice_boxwood, helen_lorraine, martha_lorraine, skits_lorraine, t.d._kennelly, truman_oatley (learn more).

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