Sagwa was a huge success for PBS Kids with high ratings.
The last PBS Kids show to premiere before the 9/11 attacks, which occurred just eight days after the first episode aired.
The series ran for one season of 40 episodes and was canceled sometime in 2004.
The idea for Sagwa came to Amy Tan after she found out her 17-year-old Siamese-mix cat (also named Sagwa) had only a month left to live. That night, she had a dream about ancient China, and how Siamese cats received their markings. She wrote a story around her dream and shared it with her nieces and Sagwa. Sagwa would eventually pass away aged 21.
All of the main characters' names are based off real Chinese words. For example:
- Sagwa = "silly melon head"
- Dongwa = "winter melon"
- Sheegwa = "watermelon"
- Fu-Fu = "lucky bat"
- Tai-Tai = "wife"
- Nai-Nai & Yeh-Yeh = "Grandmother" & "Grandfather", respectively
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