[3] Originally called Lach- und Sachgeschichten für Fernsehanfänger, it was controversial because West German law prohibited television for children under six years of age.

[4][5] Today, the show is beloved and easily recognized among Germans for its theme, its mascots and the introduction as "Lach- und Sachgeschichten" (Funny and Documentary Stories).

[10] Aimed at young children, the program has a magazine format, with several segments, some humorous, others educational presented in a simple, straightforward manner.

[6] The introduction consists of a few bars of the theme and a German voice-over describing three topics in that week's show, ending with introducing the mouse, the elephant and the duck.

The animated interludes serve to separate the segments, offering young viewers a moment to relax, avoiding sensory overload from too rapid a succession of input.

"[5] Some 400 letters a week arrive at the production office, and a large part of each show is used for such features, often answering questions asked by viewers.

[27] The mouse is often visually included as drawing, print or stuffed toy in documentary segments where a familiar focus point would serve an otherwise overwhelming experience.

A number of the educational segments have also dealt with difficult topics, such as life in Germany in the aftermath of World War II,[6] the Chernobyl nuclear disaster[7][28] and death.

Wanting to convey how large a force that was, the program purchased 16,500 Playmobil toy figures and dressed them up as Roman soldiers, lining them up into columns as they would have appeared in real life.

[32] A segment on the internet shows messengers running through the hallways of a large building, delivering messages in envelopes (data packets) from the user to servers and back.

Some are old classics, like the adventures of Zdeněk Miler's Mole[17] or newer cartoons, like Charlie and Lola or Trudes Tier ("Trudy's animal") (in German).

[38] This educational film short, broken up into segments because of its complexity and length, showed the various stages of production and the amount of work required to create a single episode of Shaun.

Die Sendung mit der Maus and its creators continue to receive high praise from both television critics and pedagogic experts.

[42] In countries outside of Germany that carry the English-dubbed version of the show, Die Sendung mit der Maus airs under the title of Mouse TV.

The English version was created in Australia and aired in the United States as part of the Nickelodeon series Pinwheel, on Astro TVIQ in Malaysia and Brunei, ABC TV in Australia, TVRI in Indonesia, Kuwait Television in United Arab Emirates and State of Palestine, TVE1, TVE2, ETB 1, TV3 and Clan TVE in Spain, Rai 1 in Italy, France 3 in France, RTP1, RTP2 and Canal Panda in Portugal, Thai PBS in Thailand and TV Cultura in Glub Glub on Brazil[citation needed] To encourage French children to learn German and vice versa, the program began airing on Arte, a Franco-German television channel, on Sunday mornings, beginning October 2005.

[45] Die Sendung mit dem Elefanten (The show with the elephant) is a spin-off aimed at pre-school children, which started in 2007 and consists mainly of little stories, songs and games.