.svg){kind=logo}
 (3).jpg)
Transcript: Tinkle, Tinkle
Burps, Butts, and Bones
Descriptive Transcript
[Upbeat music plays]
[Text Reads] T.V.O. Kids Original.
CHILD: Wee!
[Child giggles, pop]
[Energetic music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In an office, Bones, a skeleton, waves. He has bright green eyes and wears eyeglasses, headphones, and a red bowtie. On the desk in front of him are an open laptop, a football, a kettlebell, a water bottle, and a mug with scissors and pens.
BONES: Hey, Bone-iacs! Ever wonder why your ears pop?
[Burp, girl giggles]
DESCRIPTION: On an airplane, a toddler rubs her ears. An adult puts an adhesive bandage over a scab on a child’s knee. A girl with braids covers her mouth and laughs.
BONES: How your scabs heal? Or why you burp so loud?
DESCRIPTION: In the office, Bones sits at his desk.
BONES: I've got oodles of medical know-how and my trusty B squad.
[Whooshes]
DESCRIPTION: In an examination room, Grace turns away from a small mirror and smiles. She has long brown hair and wears a blue T-shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt. In a lab, Ryan has short dark brown hair. He wears a blue T-shirt over an orange shirt. On stage, Nell has curly brown hair pulled into a ponytail. She wears a blue shirt over a grey long-sleeve shirt. In a gym, Jack moves ropes. He has short blond hair and wears a blue T-shirt. All of the children have the “Burps, Butts, and Bones” logo on their T-shirts. In video clips, Nell holds a balloon that leaks liquid over a plastic tub, Ryan flies an airplane, Jack sits in a machine that tilts him to the side, and Grace fires a large slingshot held by two adults in lab coats.
BONES: Grace, Ryan, Nell, and Jack, who dig into the science to unravel the mysteries of our amazing bodies!
[Grace growls]
DESCRIPTION: At a hockey arena, Jack skates across the ice. Grace kneels in front of a dinosaur skull. At a farm, Nell feeds a bottle of milk to a black-and-white cow calf. In a lab, Ryan holds a transparent tube containing brown liquid.
BONES: It's wild. It's weird. And it's all you! Welcome to Burps, Butts, and Bones!
[Energetic music continues]
[Text Reads] T.V.O. Kids Presents.
[Title] Burps, Butts, and Bones.
[Opening Credits] Created by Karen Hawes and Kim Saltarski.
BONES: That's me!
[Guitar riff plays]
DESCRIPTION: In the office, Bones sits at his desk, playing air guitar.
BONES SINGS: Yeah! Tinkle Tinkle! Your little wee! How I wonder how yellow ya be!
BONES: Yeah.
[The music stops]
BONES: Oh, hey, Bone-iacs! Just working on a song for my new album, “Bladder of the Beast.”
[Beast growls, beep]
DESCRIPTION: Bones looks at his computer screen.
BONES: Now, who's got a question today?
DESCRIPTION: On the computer screen, Luana appears. She has long blonde hair and wears a pink-and-white shirt.
LUANA: Hey, Bones, it's your friend Luana. Why is my pee yellow?
[Energetic music plays, liquid splashes, toilet flushes, boing]
DESCRIPTION: Yellow liquid bubbles as it pours. A person takes toilet paper off a roll and then flushes a toilet. In animation, the number one appears.
BONES: So, you want to know about your wee? Your potty juice? Your number one. Or as the med pros like to call it. Urine. A tinkle tastic question, Luana! Your pee is yellow because of a chemical called Urinbillan.
[Pop]
[Text Reads] Urinbillan
[Buzzer blares, pop]
[Text Reads] Urinboblin.
BONES: Yeah- wait. No. Urinboblin.
[Buzzer blares, Bones chuckles]
BONES: Hah. No. That was the visiting professor from my anatomy class. Great Prof. She was from Sweden! Perfect teeth.
[Slide whistles]
DESCRIPTION: Bones’ head spins.
BONES: Sorry, Bone-iacs! My brain and tongue are twisting over this one now. Okay, let's try this again. Urobilin.
[Text Reads] Urobilin.
[Ding, applause, someone cheers, energetic music plays]
BONES: Aha! I got it. Urobilin is produced as the body breaks down old red blood cells. Here's how we make pee.
[Water bubbles, splashes]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, a woman drinks water, and it travels to her stomach. Small drops of water move across her body.
BONES: When you drink water, it travels first to the stomach, and then to the small intestine, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream and sent throughout the body to help cells, tissues, and organs work properly.
[Ding, rumble, beep, urine splashes, toilet flushes]
DESCRIPTION: In the animation, cups and bottles of liquid move on a conveyor belt. A sign above the conveyor reads, “Kidneys, the pee factory.” The items move behind a scanner and reach the kidney. The liquid moves the bladder, which fills and then empties.
BONES: This is where your kidneys kick in. They take charge of all the liquids in our body, filtering out excess water and waste products. What you don't need is sent to your bladder for you to tinkle out.
[Whoosh, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In a water filtration plant, Nell peers around a column between water pools. She wears a hard hat and a bright orange-and-yellow safety vest. Dave stands beside control panels and gauges. Dave wears a hard hat over his long brown hair. He has a beard and a moustache, and wears a safety vest, jeans, and a black shirt. In a room, Dr. Bhavleen leans over a urinary tract model. Nell holds the balloon filled with yellow liquid over the plastic tub.
BONES: Nell from the B squad is meeting up with my filtration friend Dave to see how water is filtered on a big scale. Then she'll meet up with my Pee-h.D. scientist friend, Doctor Bhavleen and get to the bottom of this pee-tastic mission. And away we 'wee' go!
[Upbeat guitar music plays, slide whistle, door squeaks]
DESCRIPTION: At the Niagara Falls Water Treatment Plant, Nell runs to the front door and walks inside, where Dave waits, holding the helmets and safety vests.
DAVE: You ready for your tour?
NELL: Totally.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: They put on the helmets and safety vests.
NELL: Okay. Bones said I was going to learn about peeing, but I didn't expect to end up here.
[Text Reads] Dave Haley. Water Operations, Niagara Region.
DAVE: What about a water filtration plant? It's a pretty cool process. That's very similar to how our bodies work. Want to come see?
NELL: Sure!
[Ding, upbeat music plays, camera shutter snaps]
DESCRIPTION: Nell and Dave high-five. She follows him into the plant, and they stop and pose in a hallway. They enter the room with columns and water pools, and pose beside a pool. Nell and Dave stop beside one of the pools. He holds a long pole.
NELL: Ew! This is, like, the dirtiest swimming pool ever.
[Bird chirps, water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: Video footage shows the river. In a large blue machine, water sprays and flows.
DAVE: So, when the water first comes in from the river, it goes into a screening area where we remove the twigs and large debris before it comes on to the rest of the process.
NELL: I don't think I want a glass of that. I'd rather take my chances with the twigs.
[Water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: On a split screen, debris floats in the pool, and a person in a kitchen fills a cup from their kitchen tap.
DAVE: Yeah, it's not too appealing. But believe it or not, this is the first stage in getting safe, clean drinking water to your taps at home. Here, I'll take a sample.
[Water splashes, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Dave dips the pole into the pool and scoops water into a small container attached to the other end.
NELL: Whoa. What's with all this gray goop?
DESCRIPTION: Globs of grey goo float on top of the water in the container.
[Text Reads] Coagulant.
DAVE: That's a chemical called a coagulant.
DESCRIPTION: At his desk, Bones cringes.
BONES: Eugh!
DESCRIPTION: By the water pool, Nell raises her eyebrows.
NELL: Hold up a coagu- What? What?
[Ubpeat music continues]
DAVE: Coagulant is a chemical that helps bind all those teeny tiny particles that got through our screening process and couldn't be filtered out. So, what you're seeing is those teeny tiny particles congealed and connected together.
NELL: Ah, Okay. So, this would be like my kidneys pulling all the waste together to be ready to get peed out.
DAVE: You betcha.
[Water splashes, upbeat music continues]
DESCRIPTION: Water flows through a machine. A screen on a wall is labelled “Filter 2 B.” Nell and Dave wave as they walk down a hallway and then down a staircase. They walk to another pool with black carbon on the bottom.
NELL: The water is a lot cleaner. But what's that black stuff at the bottom?
[Water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: A person pours filtered water out of a jug.
DAVE: It's activated carbon. It's the same thing in your water filter at home. It acts like a sponge to collect teeny tiny particles and contaminants as it passes through the filter.
NELL: So... this is what would come out of my taps at home?
DAVE: Well, we add a little bit of chlorine to make sure it's extra safe, but yeah, pretty much. Thirsty?
NELL: Yes.
[Clink]
DESCRIPTION: Dave gives Nell a container with clear water, and she holds it up to the light. She and Dave tap their containers together and drink. In his office, Bones holds his water bottle.
BONES: Cheers!
[Whoosh, water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: In the water filtration plant, Nell drinks. A flashback shows the dirty water in the blue machine, the pool with grey coagulant floating on the surface, and a person filling their cup at their kitchen tap.
NELL: That's amazing! Water comes in dirty but leaves clean. That's like our kidneys, but in reverse.
DAVE: You got it! You're fast becoming a filtration expert.
NELL: I mean, no one's drinking what I've filtered. That's for sure.
DAVE: True that.
DESCRIPTION: Nell and Dave tap their containers together and drink. In his office, Bones watches Nell run beside the water pools on his laptop screen.
BONES: While Nell heads off to learn more about how our kidneys do their filtration magic, it's time for...
[Slide whistle, bump, squeak]
[Text Reads] Strange but true.
BONES SINGS: Strange... but true!
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In a video clip, a young woman sniffs and furrows her eyebrows. On a grill, coals glow red beneath charred asparagus. The young woman covers her nose.
BONES NARRATES: Ever notice the smell of your pee after a delicious meal of asparagus? Your pee... Well, it stinks.
DESCRIPTION: At a dining room table, a child eats asparagus.
BONES NARRATES: When you eat asparagus, your body breaks it down into smelly, sulphur-containing chemicals that give your tinkle that special stink.
[Toilet flushes]
DESCRIPTION: A girl with long, straight black hair plugs her nose and waves her hand in front of her face. A person flushes a toilet. In his office, Bones sits at his desk.
BONES: But not everyone produces smelly chemicals. Here's something else that's surprising.
DESCRIPTION: A woman puts an asparagus spear on a plate as a smiling girl watches. A black-haired woman shrugs.
BONES NARRATES: Not everyone can smell the stink. It depends on how your smell sensors work. Strange, right?
BONES: I guess…
[Chuckles, boing]
BONES: Lucky them.
[Upbeat jazzy music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In the water filtration plant, Nell dances on a walkway over a water pool. At his desk, Bones dances, making a raise-the-roof motion with his hands.
BONES: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah!
[Upbeat jazzy music continues, whoosh]
DESCRIPTION: In the room with the urinary tract model, Dr. Bhavleen smiles. A human anatomy torso model stands on a table. Three jars contain liquid, varying from transparent to dark yellow. The doctor and Nell stand beside a table with two kidneys on a tray. One is intact, and the other has been cut open and laid flat.
[Light music plays]
DR. BHAVLEEN: These are pig kidneys, Nell.
[Pig snorts]
NELL: Oh, a real kidney. But if it's from a pig, it must be much bigger than ours.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Actually, no. A human adult kidney is about the same size as this pig kidney.
[Water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: In a flashback, Nell walks through the water filtration plant, and water flows through the blue machine.
NELL: I just walked through a big plant with all kinds of machines that filter water, and our bodies do it with just two of these little guys?
[Text Reads] Dr. Bhavleen Kaur. Senior Scientist, Ontario Science Centre.
DR. BHAVLEEN: That's right. Our kidneys are amazing. They take the contents from the blood, they filter out what's needed, what's not needed, and they also balance our salt, water, and mineral levels.
NELL: That's so cool.
[Slide whistle]
DESCRIPTION: On the urinary tract model, the ureter connects the kidneys to the bladder.
DR. BHAVLEEN: So now this is a urinary tract model. We have the kidneys, the ureter and the bladder. And you can see the kidney here. Full and opened up.
NELL: So, this is a full kidney. And this is a full kidney cut in half?
DR. BHAVLEEN: That's right.
[Upbeat music plays, slide whistle]
DESCRIPTION: In a video clip, a boy drinks a glass of water. In an animation, red blood cells move through a vein.
NELL: So, if what we drink goes through our blood cells. Then why is our pee not red?
DR. BHAVLEEN: Actually, our body breaks down old red blood cells, and when it breaks them down, it produces a byproduct called urobilin.
[Text Reads] Urobilin.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Which is a yellow-coloured pigment. And that's what gives our urine the yellow colour.
NELL: So urobilin is like a yellow dye that our body makes.
DR. BHAVLEEN: That's right. Did you know that actually, the shape of... of this kidney. Look at that. Have you had kidney beans before?
NELL: Yes.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Does that look like the same thing?
NELL: Ohh.
DESCRIPTION: Nell and Dr. Bhavleen smile at each other. In a video clip, kidney beans fall.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Ohh. There you go. There's that connection. Next time you eat kidney beans, you'll be thinking of real kidneys.
NELL: I might not want to eat kidney beans anymore now.
[Dr. Bhavleen laughs]
NELL: Can I touch it?
DESCRIPTION: The doctor gives Nell surgical gloves, and she puts them on.
DR. BHAVLEEN: You can touch it here. Why don't you wear these gloves?
NELL: All right. There we go.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Excellent. Go ahead.
[Nell laughs nervously]
DESCRIPTION: Nell gently picks up the whole kidney, and it jiggles in her hand. She shakes her head and puts it on the tray.
NELL: No, I don't like it. It's too jiggly.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Yes, you're right…
NELL: It doesn’t feel right.
DESCRIPTION: Arrows point at the pale pink centre of the open kidney, and text reads, “Nephrons.”
DR. BHAVLEEN: It is a bit jiggly. But you know what? The kidneys actually have millions and millions of nephrons, tiny filtration systems all throughout. And they're doing the job of filtering our blood.
NELL: Cool.
DR. BHAVLEEN: And they're basically taking all of our blood at a really fast speed and filtering out all the things they need. And they don't need.
DESCRIPTION: In the animation, the red blood cells move in the vein. A graphic shows the ureters connected to the kidneys.
NELL: Eugh.
NELL: They're at hard work.
DR. BHAVLEEN: That's right.
[Game show music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In his office, Bones sits at his desk.
BONES: It's time for us to play a special pee edition of...
[Slide whistle, boing]
[Text Reads] Legit or Myth.
BONES NARRATES: Legit! or Myth?
DESCRIPTION: At a kitchen table, a girl eats a carrot stick. In a bathroom, a person puts a sample jar of urine on the edge of a sink.
BONES NARRATES: What you eat can change the colour of your pee.
DESCRIPTION: In his office, Bones tents his fingers.
BONES: Think about it. Does it sound like I'm trying to trick you or truth you?
[Clock ticks]
DESCRIPTION: A young girl with long blonde hair scratches her head.
[Musical flourish plays]
[Text Reads] Legit. It’s true.
BONES NARRATES: Legit! It's true.
[Orange liquid splashes, carrot crunches, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Thick orange liquid disperses in the water. Crates overflow with pumpkins. In a kitchen, a girl eats a carrot and gives a thumbs-up.
BONES NARRATES: Ever wanted to pee orange like a pumpkin? If you eat a bunch of carrots, your body might give you a surprise.
[Text Over Carrots Reads] Beta Carotene.
BONES NARRATES: Carrots contain beta carotene, a pigment that can tint your pee orange.
DESCRIPTION: In a room, a woman eats blueberries. Another person picks up diced beets.
BONES NARRATES: Munch on enough of these juicy berries or crunchy beets, and your pee might look pink or red.
DESCRIPTION: In his office, Bones sits behind his laptop computer.
BONES: But please don't do this at home. I tried it back in med school, and let me tell you that peeing is not the only side effect you have to worry about.
[Whoosh, energetic music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In Dr. Bhavleen’s room, the urinary tract model sits on a table. She gestures at the kidneys on the model as she speaks to Nell.
[Upbeat music plays]
DR. BHAVLEEN: So, the kidneys actually filter the urine and then send it through the ureters into the bladder.
NELL: So, how do I know when I need to go pee?
[Water splashes, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Bhavleen holds an empty, pale-yellow balloon. In a video, a person fills water balloons and places them in a bucket of water.
DR. BHAVLEEN: I'm glad you asked. Our bladder is like a balloon. And when it's empty, it's quite flat like this. And as it fills up with urine, it expands to accommodate all that extra urine.
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Bhavleen gives Nell the yellow balloon filled with liquid.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Here's a full bladder.
NELL: It's making me want to go pee.
DESCRIPTION: In his office, Bones watches as Nell holds the balloon on his laptop computer.
BONES: Oh. Me too.
DESCRIPTION: In Dr. Bhavleen’s room, Nell holds the filled balloon.
DR. BHAVLEEN: So, our bladder has receptors that actually send signals to the brain to tell it when it's ready to pee.
NELL: So, our bladder is the one telling our brain to go pee in the good parts of movies. I hate that.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Me too. But luckily, you know, once it's full and you get to the bathroom, your brain then sends a signal to the muscles to relax and let it go. Are you ready?
DESCRIPTION: Nell holds the balloon over the plastic tub and smiles broadly.
NELL: Yes.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Here it goes.
[Drum roll plays, water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Bhavleen removes a clip sealing the balloon, and water flows out of the balloon into the plastic tub.
NELL: Whoa! There goes that glass of water I drank.
BONES NARRATES: Slow mo pee replay!
DESCRIPTION: In a slow-motion replay, the yellow water splashes into the tub.
[Upbeat music plays, whoosh, toilet flushes]
DESCRIPTION: In a flashback, the boy drinks a glass of water. In the animation, the red blood cells flow in a vein. A person flushes a toilet.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Think about the amazing journey it took. Through your bloodstream, to your kidneys, that filter out the waste. Down to the bladder and out the other end.
NELL: That's amazing.
DESCRIPTION: In the office, Bones sits at his desk.
[Upbeat music plays, water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: A bearded man opens a toilet lid and looks into the bowl. A second man fills a glass with water.
BONES: Next time you tinkle, take a peek into the bowl. If your pee is light yellow, that's a great sign that you've had just enough water to help your kidneys with their mighty filtration task.
[Electric guitar riff plays]
BONES SINGS: Yeah! Tinkle, tinkle like a lemony drink. So bright. Please don't rock my bladder tonight. Yeah.
[Upbeat music plays]
[End Credits] Executive Producers: Bruno Dubé, Andrea Griffith, Marlo Miazga, Karen Hawer, Kim Saltarski. Producers: Marianne Culbert, Andrea Griffith, Corinna Lehr, Esther Nip. Director: Cheryl Zalameda. Written by Karen Hawes, Kim Saltarski. Cast: B Squad: Nell. Voice of Bones: Jesse Beam. Experts: Dave Haley, Niagara Falls Water Treatment Plant; Dr. Bhavleen Kaur, Ontario Science Centre. Bodcast Caller: Luana. Copyright Sphere Productions 7 Incorporated, 2025.
[Logos] Sick Kids: About Kids Health. Mad Science. T.V.O. Kids. Sphere Media.
Descriptive Transcript
[Upbeat music plays]
[Text Reads] T.V.O. Kids Original.
CHILD: Wee!
[Child giggles, pop]
[Energetic music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In an office, Bones, a skeleton, waves. He has bright green eyes and wears eyeglasses, headphones, and a red bowtie. On the desk in front of him are an open laptop, a football, a kettlebell, a water bottle, and a mug with scissors and pens.
BONES: Hey, Bone-iacs! Ever wonder why your ears pop?
[Burp, girl giggles]
DESCRIPTION: On an airplane, a toddler rubs her ears. An adult puts an adhesive bandage over a scab on a child’s knee. A girl with braids covers her mouth and laughs.
BONES: How your scabs heal? Or why you burp so loud?
DESCRIPTION: In the office, Bones sits at his desk.
BONES: I've got oodles of medical know-how and my trusty B squad.
[Whooshes]
DESCRIPTION: In an examination room, Grace turns away from a small mirror and smiles. She has long brown hair and wears a blue T-shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt. In a lab, Ryan has short dark brown hair. He wears a blue T-shirt over an orange shirt. On stage, Nell has curly brown hair pulled into a ponytail. She wears a blue shirt over a grey long-sleeve shirt. In a gym, Jack moves ropes. He has short blond hair and wears a blue T-shirt. All of the children have the “Burps, Butts, and Bones” logo on their T-shirts. In video clips, Nell holds a balloon that leaks liquid over a plastic tub, Ryan flies an airplane, Jack sits in a machine that tilts him to the side, and Grace fires a large slingshot held by two adults in lab coats.
BONES: Grace, Ryan, Nell, and Jack, who dig into the science to unravel the mysteries of our amazing bodies!
[Grace growls]
DESCRIPTION: At a hockey arena, Jack skates across the ice. Grace kneels in front of a dinosaur skull. At a farm, Nell feeds a bottle of milk to a black-and-white cow calf. In a lab, Ryan holds a transparent tube containing brown liquid.
BONES: It's wild. It's weird. And it's all you! Welcome to Burps, Butts, and Bones!
[Energetic music continues]
[Text Reads] T.V.O. Kids Presents.
[Title] Burps, Butts, and Bones.
[Opening Credits] Created by Karen Hawes and Kim Saltarski.
BONES: That's me!
[Guitar riff plays]
DESCRIPTION: In the office, Bones sits at his desk, playing air guitar.
BONES SINGS: Yeah! Tinkle Tinkle! Your little wee! How I wonder how yellow ya be!
BONES: Yeah.
[The music stops]
BONES: Oh, hey, Bone-iacs! Just working on a song for my new album, “Bladder of the Beast.”
[Beast growls, beep]
DESCRIPTION: Bones looks at his computer screen.
BONES: Now, who's got a question today?
DESCRIPTION: On the computer screen, Luana appears. She has long blonde hair and wears a pink-and-white shirt.
LUANA: Hey, Bones, it's your friend Luana. Why is my pee yellow?
[Energetic music plays, liquid splashes, toilet flushes, boing]
DESCRIPTION: Yellow liquid bubbles as it pours. A person takes toilet paper off a roll and then flushes a toilet. In animation, the number one appears.
BONES: So, you want to know about your wee? Your potty juice? Your number one. Or as the med pros like to call it. Urine. A tinkle tastic question, Luana! Your pee is yellow because of a chemical called Urinbillan.
[Pop]
[Text Reads] Urinbillan
[Buzzer blares, pop]
[Text Reads] Urinboblin.
BONES: Yeah- wait. No. Urinboblin.
[Buzzer blares, Bones chuckles]
BONES: Hah. No. That was the visiting professor from my anatomy class. Great Prof. She was from Sweden! Perfect teeth.
[Slide whistles]
DESCRIPTION: Bones’ head spins.
BONES: Sorry, Bone-iacs! My brain and tongue are twisting over this one now. Okay, let's try this again. Urobilin.
[Text Reads] Urobilin.
[Ding, applause, someone cheers, energetic music plays]
BONES: Aha! I got it. Urobilin is produced as the body breaks down old red blood cells. Here's how we make pee.
[Water bubbles, splashes]
DESCRIPTION: In an animation, a woman drinks water, and it travels to her stomach. Small drops of water move across her body.
BONES: When you drink water, it travels first to the stomach, and then to the small intestine, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream and sent throughout the body to help cells, tissues, and organs work properly.
[Ding, rumble, beep, urine splashes, toilet flushes]
DESCRIPTION: In the animation, cups and bottles of liquid move on a conveyor belt. A sign above the conveyor reads, “Kidneys, the pee factory.” The items move behind a scanner and reach the kidney. The liquid moves the bladder, which fills and then empties.
BONES: This is where your kidneys kick in. They take charge of all the liquids in our body, filtering out excess water and waste products. What you don't need is sent to your bladder for you to tinkle out.
[Whoosh, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In a water filtration plant, Nell peers around a column between water pools. She wears a hard hat and a bright orange-and-yellow safety vest. Dave stands beside control panels and gauges. Dave wears a hard hat over his long brown hair. He has a beard and a moustache, and wears a safety vest, jeans, and a black shirt. In a room, Dr. Bhavleen leans over a urinary tract model. Nell holds the balloon filled with yellow liquid over the plastic tub.
BONES: Nell from the B squad is meeting up with my filtration friend Dave to see how water is filtered on a big scale. Then she'll meet up with my Pee-h.D. scientist friend, Doctor Bhavleen and get to the bottom of this pee-tastic mission. And away we 'wee' go!
[Upbeat guitar music plays, slide whistle, door squeaks]
DESCRIPTION: At the Niagara Falls Water Treatment Plant, Nell runs to the front door and walks inside, where Dave waits, holding the helmets and safety vests.
DAVE: You ready for your tour?
NELL: Totally.
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: They put on the helmets and safety vests.
NELL: Okay. Bones said I was going to learn about peeing, but I didn't expect to end up here.
[Text Reads] Dave Haley. Water Operations, Niagara Region.
DAVE: What about a water filtration plant? It's a pretty cool process. That's very similar to how our bodies work. Want to come see?
NELL: Sure!
[Ding, upbeat music plays, camera shutter snaps]
DESCRIPTION: Nell and Dave high-five. She follows him into the plant, and they stop and pose in a hallway. They enter the room with columns and water pools, and pose beside a pool. Nell and Dave stop beside one of the pools. He holds a long pole.
NELL: Ew! This is, like, the dirtiest swimming pool ever.
[Bird chirps, water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: Video footage shows the river. In a large blue machine, water sprays and flows.
DAVE: So, when the water first comes in from the river, it goes into a screening area where we remove the twigs and large debris before it comes on to the rest of the process.
NELL: I don't think I want a glass of that. I'd rather take my chances with the twigs.
[Water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: On a split screen, debris floats in the pool, and a person in a kitchen fills a cup from their kitchen tap.
DAVE: Yeah, it's not too appealing. But believe it or not, this is the first stage in getting safe, clean drinking water to your taps at home. Here, I'll take a sample.
[Water splashes, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Dave dips the pole into the pool and scoops water into a small container attached to the other end.
NELL: Whoa. What's with all this gray goop?
DESCRIPTION: Globs of grey goo float on top of the water in the container.
[Text Reads] Coagulant.
DAVE: That's a chemical called a coagulant.
DESCRIPTION: At his desk, Bones cringes.
BONES: Eugh!
DESCRIPTION: By the water pool, Nell raises her eyebrows.
NELL: Hold up a coagu- What? What?
[Ubpeat music continues]
DAVE: Coagulant is a chemical that helps bind all those teeny tiny particles that got through our screening process and couldn't be filtered out. So, what you're seeing is those teeny tiny particles congealed and connected together.
NELL: Ah, Okay. So, this would be like my kidneys pulling all the waste together to be ready to get peed out.
DAVE: You betcha.
[Water splashes, upbeat music continues]
DESCRIPTION: Water flows through a machine. A screen on a wall is labelled “Filter 2 B.” Nell and Dave wave as they walk down a hallway and then down a staircase. They walk to another pool with black carbon on the bottom.
NELL: The water is a lot cleaner. But what's that black stuff at the bottom?
[Water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: A person pours filtered water out of a jug.
DAVE: It's activated carbon. It's the same thing in your water filter at home. It acts like a sponge to collect teeny tiny particles and contaminants as it passes through the filter.
NELL: So... this is what would come out of my taps at home?
DAVE: Well, we add a little bit of chlorine to make sure it's extra safe, but yeah, pretty much. Thirsty?
NELL: Yes.
[Clink]
DESCRIPTION: Dave gives Nell a container with clear water, and she holds it up to the light. She and Dave tap their containers together and drink. In his office, Bones holds his water bottle.
BONES: Cheers!
[Whoosh, water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: In the water filtration plant, Nell drinks. A flashback shows the dirty water in the blue machine, the pool with grey coagulant floating on the surface, and a person filling their cup at their kitchen tap.
NELL: That's amazing! Water comes in dirty but leaves clean. That's like our kidneys, but in reverse.
DAVE: You got it! You're fast becoming a filtration expert.
NELL: I mean, no one's drinking what I've filtered. That's for sure.
DAVE: True that.
DESCRIPTION: Nell and Dave tap their containers together and drink. In his office, Bones watches Nell run beside the water pools on his laptop screen.
BONES: While Nell heads off to learn more about how our kidneys do their filtration magic, it's time for...
[Slide whistle, bump, squeak]
[Text Reads] Strange but true.
BONES SINGS: Strange... but true!
[Upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In a video clip, a young woman sniffs and furrows her eyebrows. On a grill, coals glow red beneath charred asparagus. The young woman covers her nose.
BONES NARRATES: Ever notice the smell of your pee after a delicious meal of asparagus? Your pee... Well, it stinks.
DESCRIPTION: At a dining room table, a child eats asparagus.
BONES NARRATES: When you eat asparagus, your body breaks it down into smelly, sulphur-containing chemicals that give your tinkle that special stink.
[Toilet flushes]
DESCRIPTION: A girl with long, straight black hair plugs her nose and waves her hand in front of her face. A person flushes a toilet. In his office, Bones sits at his desk.
BONES: But not everyone produces smelly chemicals. Here's something else that's surprising.
DESCRIPTION: A woman puts an asparagus spear on a plate as a smiling girl watches. A black-haired woman shrugs.
BONES NARRATES: Not everyone can smell the stink. It depends on how your smell sensors work. Strange, right?
BONES: I guess…
[Chuckles, boing]
BONES: Lucky them.
[Upbeat jazzy music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In the water filtration plant, Nell dances on a walkway over a water pool. At his desk, Bones dances, making a raise-the-roof motion with his hands.
BONES: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah!
[Upbeat jazzy music continues, whoosh]
DESCRIPTION: In the room with the urinary tract model, Dr. Bhavleen smiles. A human anatomy torso model stands on a table. Three jars contain liquid, varying from transparent to dark yellow. The doctor and Nell stand beside a table with two kidneys on a tray. One is intact, and the other has been cut open and laid flat.
[Light music plays]
DR. BHAVLEEN: These are pig kidneys, Nell.
[Pig snorts]
NELL: Oh, a real kidney. But if it's from a pig, it must be much bigger than ours.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Actually, no. A human adult kidney is about the same size as this pig kidney.
[Water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: In a flashback, Nell walks through the water filtration plant, and water flows through the blue machine.
NELL: I just walked through a big plant with all kinds of machines that filter water, and our bodies do it with just two of these little guys?
[Text Reads] Dr. Bhavleen Kaur. Senior Scientist, Ontario Science Centre.
DR. BHAVLEEN: That's right. Our kidneys are amazing. They take the contents from the blood, they filter out what's needed, what's not needed, and they also balance our salt, water, and mineral levels.
NELL: That's so cool.
[Slide whistle]
DESCRIPTION: On the urinary tract model, the ureter connects the kidneys to the bladder.
DR. BHAVLEEN: So now this is a urinary tract model. We have the kidneys, the ureter and the bladder. And you can see the kidney here. Full and opened up.
NELL: So, this is a full kidney. And this is a full kidney cut in half?
DR. BHAVLEEN: That's right.
[Upbeat music plays, slide whistle]
DESCRIPTION: In a video clip, a boy drinks a glass of water. In an animation, red blood cells move through a vein.
NELL: So, if what we drink goes through our blood cells. Then why is our pee not red?
DR. BHAVLEEN: Actually, our body breaks down old red blood cells, and when it breaks them down, it produces a byproduct called urobilin.
[Text Reads] Urobilin.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Which is a yellow-coloured pigment. And that's what gives our urine the yellow colour.
NELL: So urobilin is like a yellow dye that our body makes.
DR. BHAVLEEN: That's right. Did you know that actually, the shape of... of this kidney. Look at that. Have you had kidney beans before?
NELL: Yes.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Does that look like the same thing?
NELL: Ohh.
DESCRIPTION: Nell and Dr. Bhavleen smile at each other. In a video clip, kidney beans fall.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Ohh. There you go. There's that connection. Next time you eat kidney beans, you'll be thinking of real kidneys.
NELL: I might not want to eat kidney beans anymore now.
[Dr. Bhavleen laughs]
NELL: Can I touch it?
DESCRIPTION: The doctor gives Nell surgical gloves, and she puts them on.
DR. BHAVLEEN: You can touch it here. Why don't you wear these gloves?
NELL: All right. There we go.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Excellent. Go ahead.
[Nell laughs nervously]
DESCRIPTION: Nell gently picks up the whole kidney, and it jiggles in her hand. She shakes her head and puts it on the tray.
NELL: No, I don't like it. It's too jiggly.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Yes, you're right…
NELL: It doesn’t feel right.
DESCRIPTION: Arrows point at the pale pink centre of the open kidney, and text reads, “Nephrons.”
DR. BHAVLEEN: It is a bit jiggly. But you know what? The kidneys actually have millions and millions of nephrons, tiny filtration systems all throughout. And they're doing the job of filtering our blood.
NELL: Cool.
DR. BHAVLEEN: And they're basically taking all of our blood at a really fast speed and filtering out all the things they need. And they don't need.
DESCRIPTION: In the animation, the red blood cells move in the vein. A graphic shows the ureters connected to the kidneys.
NELL: Eugh.
NELL: They're at hard work.
DR. BHAVLEEN: That's right.
[Game show music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In his office, Bones sits at his desk.
BONES: It's time for us to play a special pee edition of...
[Slide whistle, boing]
[Text Reads] Legit or Myth.
BONES NARRATES: Legit! or Myth?
DESCRIPTION: At a kitchen table, a girl eats a carrot stick. In a bathroom, a person puts a sample jar of urine on the edge of a sink.
BONES NARRATES: What you eat can change the colour of your pee.
DESCRIPTION: In his office, Bones tents his fingers.
BONES: Think about it. Does it sound like I'm trying to trick you or truth you?
[Clock ticks]
DESCRIPTION: A young girl with long blonde hair scratches her head.
[Musical flourish plays]
[Text Reads] Legit. It’s true.
BONES NARRATES: Legit! It's true.
[Orange liquid splashes, carrot crunches, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Thick orange liquid disperses in the water. Crates overflow with pumpkins. In a kitchen, a girl eats a carrot and gives a thumbs-up.
BONES NARRATES: Ever wanted to pee orange like a pumpkin? If you eat a bunch of carrots, your body might give you a surprise.
[Text Over Carrots Reads] Beta Carotene.
BONES NARRATES: Carrots contain beta carotene, a pigment that can tint your pee orange.
DESCRIPTION: In a room, a woman eats blueberries. Another person picks up diced beets.
BONES NARRATES: Munch on enough of these juicy berries or crunchy beets, and your pee might look pink or red.
DESCRIPTION: In his office, Bones sits behind his laptop computer.
BONES: But please don't do this at home. I tried it back in med school, and let me tell you that peeing is not the only side effect you have to worry about.
[Whoosh, energetic music plays]
DESCRIPTION: In Dr. Bhavleen’s room, the urinary tract model sits on a table. She gestures at the kidneys on the model as she speaks to Nell.
[Upbeat music plays]
DR. BHAVLEEN: So, the kidneys actually filter the urine and then send it through the ureters into the bladder.
NELL: So, how do I know when I need to go pee?
[Water splashes, upbeat music plays]
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Bhavleen holds an empty, pale-yellow balloon. In a video, a person fills water balloons and places them in a bucket of water.
DR. BHAVLEEN: I'm glad you asked. Our bladder is like a balloon. And when it's empty, it's quite flat like this. And as it fills up with urine, it expands to accommodate all that extra urine.
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Bhavleen gives Nell the yellow balloon filled with liquid.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Here's a full bladder.
NELL: It's making me want to go pee.
DESCRIPTION: In his office, Bones watches as Nell holds the balloon on his laptop computer.
BONES: Oh. Me too.
DESCRIPTION: In Dr. Bhavleen’s room, Nell holds the filled balloon.
DR. BHAVLEEN: So, our bladder has receptors that actually send signals to the brain to tell it when it's ready to pee.
NELL: So, our bladder is the one telling our brain to go pee in the good parts of movies. I hate that.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Me too. But luckily, you know, once it's full and you get to the bathroom, your brain then sends a signal to the muscles to relax and let it go. Are you ready?
DESCRIPTION: Nell holds the balloon over the plastic tub and smiles broadly.
NELL: Yes.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Here it goes.
[Drum roll plays, water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: Dr. Bhavleen removes a clip sealing the balloon, and water flows out of the balloon into the plastic tub.
NELL: Whoa! There goes that glass of water I drank.
BONES NARRATES: Slow mo pee replay!
DESCRIPTION: In a slow-motion replay, the yellow water splashes into the tub.
[Upbeat music plays, whoosh, toilet flushes]
DESCRIPTION: In a flashback, the boy drinks a glass of water. In the animation, the red blood cells flow in a vein. A person flushes a toilet.
DR. BHAVLEEN: Think about the amazing journey it took. Through your bloodstream, to your kidneys, that filter out the waste. Down to the bladder and out the other end.
NELL: That's amazing.
DESCRIPTION: In the office, Bones sits at his desk.
[Upbeat music plays, water splashes]
DESCRIPTION: A bearded man opens a toilet lid and looks into the bowl. A second man fills a glass with water.
BONES: Next time you tinkle, take a peek into the bowl. If your pee is light yellow, that's a great sign that you've had just enough water to help your kidneys with their mighty filtration task.
[Electric guitar riff plays]
BONES SINGS: Yeah! Tinkle, tinkle like a lemony drink. So bright. Please don't rock my bladder tonight. Yeah.
[Upbeat music plays]
[End Credits] Executive Producers: Bruno Dubé, Andrea Griffith, Marlo Miazga, Karen Hawer, Kim Saltarski. Producers: Marianne Culbert, Andrea Griffith, Corinna Lehr, Esther Nip. Director: Cheryl Zalameda. Written by Karen Hawes, Kim Saltarski. Cast: B Squad: Nell. Voice of Bones: Jesse Beam. Experts: Dave Haley, Niagara Falls Water Treatment Plant; Dr. Bhavleen Kaur, Ontario Science Centre. Bodcast Caller: Luana. Copyright Sphere Productions 7 Incorporated, 2025.
[Logos] Sick Kids: About Kids Health. Mad Science. T.V.O. Kids. Sphere Media.
You are now leaving TVOKids.com
TVOKids doesn't have control over the new place you're about to visit, so please make sure you get your Parent or Guardian's permission first!
Do you have permission from your Parents / Guardian to go to other websites?