Pinwheel is an American children's television series. It is the first series to have been broadcast on the then-rebranded Nickelodeon, and then the first on its Nick Jr. block as reruns until 1990. The target audience is preschoolers aged 2–5. It was created by Vivian Horner, an educator who spent her earlier career at the Children's Television Workshop, the company behind PBS's Sesame Street. The show was geared to the "short attention span of preschoolers", with each episode divided into short, self-contained segments including songs, skits, and animations from all over the world.

The series is set in a boarding house called Pinwheel House, which is powered by a pinwheel on the roof. The house's residents are a mix of live-action humans and puppets. Most songs are in the style of a wind-up music box.

Pinwheel premiered on December 1, 1977, on Channel C-3 of QUBE's local cable system in Columbus, Ohio. In April 1979, Channel C-3 expanded into a national television network, now rebranded Nickelodeon. Pinwheel continued to air on the network until 1990, and exclusively during the new Nick Jr. block starting in 1988. It was gradually phased out in favor of another preschool series, Eureeka's Castle.