For more than half a century, children everywhere have read the tales of the amphibian best friends Frog and Toad. Frog is tall, cheery, and wears a tan jacket. Toad is his short and more serious, green-jacketed pal. The two do everything together, from eating cookies to swimming.
Author Arnold Lobel published his first book about the pair in 1970, and now his characters are debuting on TV with an animated series. And over the years, the companions have also been seen as a celebration of queer love. Lobel’s kids, Adrianne and Adam Lobel, are executive producers on the show.
Adrianne tells KCRW that she was the first to teach her father the difference between a frog and toad — frogs have longer legs and hop around, while toads are bumpy, less slimy, and have shorter legs. At the time, the family was vacationing in Vermont when she had to educate Arnold on the truth.
“I brought a little toad into our house on the lake. He looked at it and said, ‘What a nice frog you have there.’ And I was about 11 and said, ‘This is not a frog. This is a toad.’ And I was very irritated with the fact that people did not know the difference between them.”
Adrianne recalls that the first sketches of the animals were a male and female. “And he ditched that and they became two guys. But I think it was more because he wanted it not to be about romance. He wanted it to be about friendship.”
She says each character reflects Arnold’s traits, but he was more like Toad, and he used funny voices when reading his stories aloud.
Reflecting on the series' staying power, Adam says the key to “Frog and Toad” is its ability to balance its sweetness and angst. “The best children's literature isn't all unicorns and moonbeams. There are tribulations in life.”
Adrianne adds, “He just understood the human condition and was able to put it down in these really simple, simple words. … Stories that were so short, but so complete and so satisfying.”
Lobel died in 1987 at age 54 due to AIDS complications. In his lifetime, he penned hundreds of stories, illustrated other writers’ books, and worked on audiobooks. Like “Frog and Toad,” anthropomorphized animals were part of his other stories, including “A Zoo for Mister Muster,” “Owl at Home,” and “Grasshopper on the Road.”