Construction Site

Construction Site is a television series created by The Jim Henson Company in 1999, and consists of 7 construction vehicles. The show was broadcast on ABC Kids for a while, and had a range of videos. It was originally produced for and shown on CITV starting in 1999. In 2003 it was nominated for a Children's BAFTA for the Best Pre-School Live Action. Episodes are packaged as 52 x 10’ or 13 x 26’. The show is somewhat similar to Bob the Builder. Two 13 episode seasons were produced.

The Characters

The main characters consist of a range of different construction equipment. They are as follows:

• Diggs the Backhoe Loader
• Scooch the Front-End Dumper
• Carrie the Forklift
• Bozer the Bulldozer
• Carl the Crane
• Lug the Large Dumptruck
• Maxine the Cement Mixer

There were also mentioned/visiting characters:

• Flatty the Flatbed
• Skatch the Front-End Dumper
• Gertie the Large Dumptruck
• Dumper the Jumper Truck
• Big Rig the "Supertruck"
• Kevin the Crane
• Truckzilla the Monster Truck

There are also other vehicles and also machines:

• The Low Loader
• The Tall Crane
• The Conveyor Belt
• The Wrecking Ball Crane

List of episodes

1. # 101: Who's the Boss / Cool Fuel
2. # Carrie thinks she'd make just as good a boss as Bozer and when he gives her the chance she's determined to prove it; The machines must clear an old dumpsite to make way for a new car park in just one day.
3. # 102: What I Do Best / Carnival Capers
4. # When Diggs starts treating everyday jobs on the construction site as a competition, Bozer decides to introduce a real contest -- the Machine Challenge; On Maxine's mileage day, Bozer enlists the help of the others to organize a party to celebrate.
5. # 103: Big Bozer Is Watching / Big Rig
6. # Scooch is terrified to work on top of a tall building after spilling salt earlier in the day, as he believes it's a bad omen; Lug scoffs when he sees the new machines pretending to be a superhero named Big Rig, but he might need some of those powers.
7. # 104: Listening Troubles / The Way of the Bodger
8. # When Bozer tells Diggs that he's full of good ideas he thinks he'll share them with Scooch and Carrie -- but Carrie has her own ideas, and they bicker; Diggs learns the merits of doing a job properly after he does mediocre work to save time.
9. 105: Look What I've Got / Tread Carefully
10. Diggs is proud of his shiny new attachment. But when Bozer tells him it's needed on an important job, Diggs realizes that he doesn't know what it does; Diggs wears some new, fashionable treads, but his quest for fashion leaves Scooch in a tight spot.
11. 106: A Good Mixer / Almost Famous
12. The new machines have a lot of bricks to move, so many in fact that Diggs thinks they could use a little help from Maxine; When Diggs, Carrie and Scooch dig a trench in the wrong place they think they've struck oil and dream of riches.
13. 107: Sunk / What's the Plan
14. When the younger machines accidentally knock a load of oil drums into the dock they are too scared to own up to their mistake; Diggs and Scooch thing they're saving Bozer some time by digging a pond, but they put it in the wrong place.
15. 108: Idle Time / A Riveting Story
16. When there's cement mix to be moved and Carrie's feeling fired up, nothing can stop her -- nothing except a dead battery that is; Carrie chooses to horse around when the machines are clearing out an old dock, and has to be rescued by Carl.
17. 109: No Place Like Home / Truckmate
18. Preoccupied because he misses his birth site, Carl almost drops a pipe on Diggs, leading the others to try and cheer him up; Diggs is jealous when Scooch chooses to work with Carrie instead of him, so Diggs impersonates Carrie to win back his friend.
19. 110: Grown Up for a Day / Mid-Mileage Crisis
20. When Diggs saves Carl from a nasty accident, the older machines decide it's time he started hanging out with them; After reflecting on his carefree youth, Lug decides that he's not ready for old age and joins Diggs and Scooch for some 'top gear' fun.
21. 111: Loud and Clear / Junkyard
22. Scooch's voice is too quiet to stop Lug from crashing, and Scooch worries that the older truck will never forgive him; Diggs frightens Carrie and Schooch on a junkyard run with tales of a scary monster named "Truckzilla."
23. 112: From Start to Finish / Out with the Old
24. Diggs, Carrie and Scooch are tired of the old machines always telling them what to do, and want to prove to Bozer they can work on their own; Bozer tells the machines that it's "out with the old and in with the new," to Carl and Lug's chagrin.
25. 113: Feeling Flat / One Roll at a Time
26. Scooch wants to find something he can do that Diggs can't. But when he tries to max out his load all he ends up with is a flat tire; Diggs discovers Bozer is scared of water, but in an effort to help Bozer conquer his fear, Diggs ends up in trouble.
27. 201: Changing Vrooms
28. Jealous when the bigger machines get to landscape a new park, Carrie decides to invent her own forklifting style; Carl's inventions are legendary...for being a disaster. And when he unveils his new Carl Wash, the young machines are his test dummies.
29. 202: Finding the Funny
30. Bozer gives Scooch the morning off so he'll be rested for a big job in the afternoon, but the other machines ask for his help and he doesn't get much rest; It's time for the CCT (Construction Certificate Test) and Carrie's convinced she won't pass.
31. 203: Warm Up
32. When Diggs discovers that Bozer has accidentally dozed a load of gravel over some important bridge roads he faces a dilemma; Bozer goes off site and leaves Carl in charge -- which always leads to total chaos. So Maxine steps in to help.
33. 204: Dream Machine
34. When Lug tells Scooch that grading a road on your own is what every dumper dreams of, the little truck decides to do a bit of solo grading; When a daredevil dump truck comes to town, Scooch is thrilled to find out that Lug used to be one himself.
35. 205: Warble While You Work
36. Carrie teaches Diggs that even his boring job of moving stones can be fun when she turns it into a game; A site scattered with materials inspires Diggs to turn it into an obstacle course, and Scooch wonders if he's up to the challenge.
37. 206: Good Hiding
38. Diggs gets himself trapped in a collapsed mine when Bozer puts him in charge, and needs Scooch's help to get free; Working in the snowy mountains, Diggs chooses to engage in some dangerous thrills rather than put safety first.
39. 207: Secrets
40. When Carl and Lug have a falling out, Diggs can't help but try to bring them back together, despite Bozer's warnings; Diggs plays a prank on Scooch, encouraging him to pursue the mysterious "call of the forest."
41. 208: There's No Bossiness Like Show Bossiness
42. Scooch would like a bit more space in the idle house but Diggs and Carrie aren't giving an inch; When the young machines decide to tell stories, Scooch shows that sometimes the smallest truck has the biggest imagination.
43. 209: Thought for the Day
44. With Bozer off-site, Diggs mistakenly thinks Maxine has told him it's OK to do a job on his own; Carrie doesn't understand how to work her flashy new recharger -- so Diggs takes charge, despite the fact he has no idea what he's doing.
45. 210: Diggs Should Be So Lucky
46. Carl has to knock a chimney down on the site today, giving him a chance to show why he is nominated for Crane of the Year; Due to a wall of ice that Carl can't even shift, the machines get stuck on a slippery mountain road.
47. 211: We Can Be Heroes
48. When Diggs overhears Bozer talking to himself, it seems that their beloved boss is going to be leaving; The machines are shocked to find that during the night the new multistory parking garage they were building has been destroyed.
49. 212: Catch That Phrase
50. A new dump truck has come to the site -- Skatch. He's so exciting and fun that Diggs and Carrie seem to be ignoring their old pal, Scooch; Bozer returns from a servicing only to find that his deep voice has changed and is now high and squeaky.
51. 213: A Gloopy Mess
52. On a cold day, Bozer reminds the machines to put in their antifreeze. Trouble is, he's so busy reminding everyone else that he forgets to put some in himself; The young machines procrastinate on a job, and pay the price when a thick fog rolls in.

Setting

The series was set around a huge construction site, and we rarely see them come out of it. There were no humans, as this would be awkward with the puppet-like vehicles. The site consists of factories, a battery charge bay, a park, a Dock, a few Sheds, a Tall Bridge, a Scrapyard, a Mountain, a Forest, and many more.

Voice Talents

Many of the characters were voiced by one same person the voices are as follows:

• Mark Jefferis - Bozer & Carl
• Brian Herring - Diggs
• Mak Wilson - Scooch & Lug
• Charlotte Bellamy - Carrie
• Angie Greaves - Maxine

The Models

• The vehicle models are used by live-action animatronic puppet models. This is the first time The Jim Henson Company have used these, as these type of puppets were restricted to movies like Babe and Labyrinth.

External links

• Construction Site at IMDb
• Construction Site at Muppet Wiki