Pinwheel is an American children's television series that was the first show to air on the then-rebranded Nickelodeon, as well as the first to appear on its Nick Jr. block along reruns until 1990.

[1] It was created by Vivian Horner,[2] an educator who spent her earlier career at the Children's Television Workshop, the company behind PBS's Sesame Street.

[6] Pinwheel was created by Vivian Horner and produced by Sandy Kavanaugh, two educators who had previously worked at the Children's Television Workshop.

Pinwheel was reformatted as a series of hour-long episodes shown in three- to five-hour blocks, a format which eventually became the model for Nickelodeon's Nick Jr.

[5] In an article titled "Nickelodeon's New Lineup for Preschoolers," the Los Angeles Times called Eureeka's Castle the successor to Pinwheel.

Live action casting interact with puppets, discussing several concepts familiar to children's programming like sharing, being considerate, the environment, and colors.

Nickelodeon secured the rights to a number of international short segments (usually acquired from Coe Film Associates), including those that were already written in English, such as the Franco-British children's show The Magic Roundabout.

The New York Times wrote that Pinwheel had "attracted praise from critics,"[16] and The Chicago Tribune called the show a "highly acclaimed Nickelodeon cable series for preschoolers.

"[17] Writing for The New York Times in 1982, Alexis Greene commended Pinwheel for catering specifically to preschoolers and called the show "a colorful, well-written mix of songs and skits, puppets and 'real people.