Here's why the titular young boy in animated series Caillou remained totally bald throughout the show's run. Pre-school series like Sesame Street are a great way to introduce infants to some educational material, such as learning the alphabet or how to count. The fact it's wrapped up in such a heartwarming, colorful package with Sesame Street's likable cast of characters makes the educational elements all the easier for younger viewers to absorb. Caillou is a pre-school series in much the same vein and follows the adventures of a four-year-old boy with a vivid imagination.

Caillou is based on a series of books by Canadian writer Hélène Desputeaux, which began in 1989. Caillou the animated series later arrived in 1997 on Teletoon, and typical episodes followed Caillou, his parents, younger sister Rosie and his friends as he learned things about the world around him. Earlier seasons mixed in some live-action elements too like puppets, though these sections were later dropped in favor of keeping the focus on Caillou.

News that Caillou was being dropped from PBS Kids in 2021 was met with mixed emotion, but while some parents argued for the show's educational merits, others found the character himself incredibly obnoxious. One thing about Caillou that remained consistent throughout the show's run was that he remained entirely hairless. The titular "Prince of Imagination" remained bald for a very simple reason, which was explained on Chouette Publishing's website: Caillou was first drawn as a baby, but as he started to grow, adding hair to his head made him unrecognizable.

So, despite there being little reason for the four-year-old Caillou to remain bald, it was decided to maintain that look for consistency. Caillou himself is intended to be a more accurate representation of a young child, right down to the temper tantrums and crying when he doesn't get his own way. It was this element that gave the hit pre-school show something of a love-hate response, as some parents felt it was a bad message that Caillou's bad behavior was often rewarded when adults gave him the things he wanted.

The original series of Caillou actually stopped producing new episodes following the fifth season in 2010. Those parents who wish to pass the show onto their children need not worry about Caillou's future, as it was confirmed in late 2021 that a series of five, 45-minute long CG specials were being produced that featured the imaginative young boy. It's also unlikely the animators will start giving Caillou hair at this stage in the franchise either.

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Padraig Cotter (3633 Articles Published)

It's pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that's out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he'd like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site. A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU - where Hawkeye is clearly the best character - to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle. He's super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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