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Kids Say the Darndest Things
Genre	Comedy
Directed by	Morris Abraham
Presented by	Bill Cosby
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	319
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Original run	September 1996 – 28 April, 2000
Status	Ended

Kids Say the Darndest Things is an American television series hosted by Art Linkletter and co-hosted by Bill Cosby that aired on CBS from September of 1996 to April of 2000. It was based on a popular feature of Art Linkletter's television series, Art Linkletter's House Party, which aired five days a week on CBS for more than 20 years. Cosby also provided some of the humor in the show. The premise of the show is that the host would ask a question to a child (around the age of 3-8) who would usually respond in a "cute" way.

The show sometimes would "flashback" to Linkletter's show, Art Linkletter's House Party. It would show kids (of the time), with their same "cute" reactions of whatever Linkletter would ask or say to them.

British television network ITV produced their own version of the show, renamed Kids Say the Funniest Things. It was presented by Michael Barrymore, and was a production of LWT. There was also an Australian version titled "Kidspeak" hosted by Andrew Daddo on the Seven Network for a number of seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Books

The show's popularity led to a series of Kids Say the Darndest Things books. Two were illustrated by Charles Schulz in a rare non-Peanuts approach. During the 27-year run, Linkletter interviewed more than 23,000 children.

In 2005, Robert Johnson and Albert Evans adapted the show into a full-length musical comedy.

Production

Kids Say The Darndest Things was produced by CBS Productions with the co-production of LMNO Productions and Linkletter's company, Linkletter Productions. Linkletter's production company displayed Sam Berman's caricature of Linkletter (or at least his head), which was originally for NBC's promotional book, published in 1947. Berman's caricature illustrated Linkletter's People Are Funny.

In popular culture

• In 1973, Tammy Wynette had a number one country hit with a song titled, "Kids Say the Darndest Things".
• The show has been featured in adult cartoons Family Guy, Drawn Together, South Park and The Simpsons.

External links

• Kids Say the Darndest Things at the Internet Movie Database