When Nickelodeon premiered their "Nick Jr." preschool block in January 1988, a rerun of Pinwheel was the first-ever show to air during the new block. Pinwheel aired during Nick Jr. until July 1990.
For the show's second and third seasons, Nickelodeon added a variety of animated shorts in between the main puppet/actor segments.
Before she created the Pinwheel series, Dr. Vivian Horner was the director of research for The Electric Company (1971) on PBS.