Last updated on May 11th, 2026
Today’s cartoon review is a look at “Phoebe & Jay,” a PBS Kids series that debuted in February 2026.
Summary
“Phoebe & Jay” focuses on the titular duo, twin siblings who live with their father in Tobsy Towers, an apartment building in the fictional city of Nadatown, California. (The nonexistent-in-real-life zip code “95801” given in the episode “Paint on the Mail” implies Nadatown is in northern California, given the closest real-life zip codes are in Sacramento.) The series focuses on the twins’ daily lives, as they use logic and vocabulary skills to solve problems. I assume the twins’ names are a pun on “PB&J,” or “peanut butter and jelly [sandwich].”
A Trump-caused landmark
Unfortunately, “Phoebe & Jay” is the final new PBS Kids show to receive funding from the Ready to Learn Grant. Funding for said grant and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have been eliminated by the Trump administration, with the CPB having shut down. As Forbes points out, this means there won’t be as many new PBS Kids series in the future, and likely fewer new episodes of existing shows.
Funding for the CPB for fiscal year 2025 was $535 million; that’s not much more than the $400 million projected cost for Trump’s White House ballroom, or a bit over half of the first day’s spending on the war with Iran ($891.4 million). But as a Trump minion implied in his first term, I guess this is what Trump’s voters want, or view as an acceptable sacrifice to get something else (a tax break, discriminatory policies, etc.).
Cast
The core cast of “Phoebe & Jay” includes:
- Phoebe Yarber (voiced by Cleo Annan). Phoebe has a strong interest in singing, dancing, and music.
- Jay Yarber (voiced by Isaiah Ball). Jay has a strong interest in art.
- Pete Yarber (voiced by Jonathan Langdon). The twins’ father. Pete’s wife (and the twins’ mother) passed away some time ago. Pete works as the building’s superintendent.
- Grandma Annie (voiced by Morrissa Nicole). The twins’ grandmother, and Pete’s mother. Annie works as the building’s manager.
Other Tobsy Towers tenants and Yarber family relatives include:
- Mr. Gurley (voiced by Daniel Michael Karpenchuk): A kind elderly neighbor.
- Miss Jean (voiced by Linda Ballantyne): A neighbor with a pet bird named Houdini; the twins babysit for said bird in one episode.
- Yolo and Lupe Armango (voiced by Pamela Estrada and Avery DeWet): A mother and daughter neighbor.
- Craig (voiced by Dwain Murphy): A cousin of Pete and the twins (presumably Pete’s first cousin).
Highlights
- The episode “Tobsy Speaks” has a building resident explain to the twins about reel-to-reel tape. They also play tapes left behind by Tobsy, the musician and inventor the building’s named after.
- The episode “Find Phoebe” has Jay and Lupe learn from Mr. Gurley what a landline phone and phone receiver are. The kids found the building’s still-operational pay phone via a sign, which Jay “fixes” by using a Post-It note to put a drawing of a modern smartphone on the sign. I wonder what Millennial parents (who grew up with landlines) watching with their kids made of this one. Also seen in the episode: the building’s lobby restroom is labeled as “All Gender.”
- The episode “The Barbershop” focuses on Jay getting a haircut. (With his glasses still on—cartoon physics, I guess?) It’s probably one of the few cartoons I’ve seen focusing on Black men/boys getting a haircut at a Black-owned barbershop; the clipper guards (and their different lengths) are the episode’s educational focus. The barbershop has a sign showing different haircut options (Afros, fades, etc.).
Opening credits
Here’s the opening credits to “Phoebe & Jay.”
Conclusion
“Phoebe & Jay” is an enjoyable show for young children. I just wish it wasn’t kneecapped out of the gate funding-wise due to the current political state.
Image: The cast of “Phoebe & Jay.” (PBS Kids)
