Welcome to Pooh Corner

Welcome to Pooh Corner is an American live-action/puppet educational television series and the first series produced with entirely original footage to air on The Disney Channel in 1983. The series features the characters from the Winnie the Pooh universe portrayed by actors in human-sized puppet suits except Roo, who was usually a traditional puppet.
Each show began with an introduction sequence with narrator Laurie Main speaking to the audience. He would relate what he was talking about to an event that occurred in the Hundred Acre Wood, the home of the Pooh characters, and then he would proceed to read from a book entitled Welcome to Pooh Corner. He would then narrate the episode acted out by the characters. The action was filmed before a blue screen, rather than using traditional sets.
Since the show was designed for The Disney Channel before it began airing commercials, there were no breaks for commercials. As a result, the show lasted a full thirty minutes. The main story ran about twenty minutes followed by two shorter segments. The first segment was a music video featuring one of ten songs, used over and over throughout the show's run. These songs were written by the Academy Award winning Sherman Brothers who had provided the majority of the Winnie the Pooh music over the years. The Sherman Brothers also wrote the show's theme song, using the music from the original Winnie the Pooh theme song from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
The last segment of the show was a presentational arts and crafts demonstration. One of the cast members would speak to the narrator, looking directly into the camera, while they showed the viewers at home how to make something.
In addition to normal episodes, several holiday episodes and educational specials were also produced, such as Too Smart for Strangers in 1985, where Pooh and his friends explain to people what to do when they meet someone they don't know. They also discuss "Not-Okay touching," at a time when cases of child molestation were becoming more frequent, and was used as a guide for victims and their families.
Dumbo's Circus, another Disney Channel live-action/puppet television series, was produced in a similar way, with actors in costumes in front of a blue screen. The show's title derives from the second Winnie the Pooh storybook, The House at Pooh Corner.
Welcome to Pooh Corner began airing on April 18, 1983 only less than a month after the release of the final Winnie the Pooh theatrical short Winnie the Pooh and a Day For Eeyore and after the Good Morning, Mickey! compilation series first aired. The series ran for 3 seasons until May 30, 1986 and concluded with an additional short Think it Through with Winnie the Pooh in 1989. During reruns, the series was removed from Disney Channel when it began airing commercial breaks in 1997. As a result, the show's VHS releases have become hard to find. There are currently no plans to release Welcome to Pooh Corner on DVD from Walt Disney Home Entertainment or Disney+.
==Cast==
Character 	Puppeteers 	Voices
Winnie the Pooh	Joe Giamalva 	Hal Smith
Owl 	Unknown 	Hal Smith
Rabbit 	Unknown 	Will Ryan
Tigger 	Ron Mangham 	Will Ryan
Piglet 	Patty Maloney	Phil Baron
Eeyore 	Sharon Baird 	Ron Gans
Roo 	Peter Risch 	Kim Christianson
Kanga 	Unknown 	Diana Hale
===With===
*Laurie Main - Narrator
===Additional Voices===
*Robin Frederick
*John Walker
===Additional Performers===
*Shelagh Garren
*Clancy Gorewit
*Frank Groby
*Norman Merrill Jr.
*Mark Sawyer
==Songs==
*"Try a Little Something New" (Rabbit's Theme)
*"Just Say, 'Yes I Can'" (Eeyore's Theme)
*"You're the Only You" (Tigger's Theme)
*"I Hum to Myself" (Piglet's Theme)
*"The Right Side" (Winnie the Pooh's Theme)
*The preceding songs had their music and words written by Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman.
**"Responsible Persons" (Owl's Theme)
**"Be a Buddy, Be a Pal" (Tigger and Roo's theme)
**"Please and Thank You" (Pooh and Piglet's theme)
*Sometimes, if an episode ended a few minutes early, a certain character would sing a song entitled "A Part of Me", which was written by one of the voice actors, Phil Baron. The song depicts the importance of a certain body part that each character was singing about:
**"Eyes" (Owl)
**"Ears" (Winnie the Pooh)
**"Feet" (Piglet)
**"Nose" (Tigger)
**"Mouth" (Eeyore)
**"Hands" (Rabbit)
*"Tiggers Go Up and Down"
==Episode list==
*"Pooh Shows Tigger a Bright Side"
*"Eeyore Solves a Problem"
*"Owl Has a Party for his Auntiversary"
*"Kanga and Roo Learn Where Home Is"
*"Pooh Takes Pot Luck"
*"Big Little Piglet"
*"There's No Place Like Owl's Place"
*"Piglet Sings Out"
*"Pooh Corner Singing Society"
*"Pooh Gets a Turn"
*"A House is Blown Down"
*"Singing Helps the Work Along"
*"Be of Good Cheer"
*"Pooh and his Friends Play Follow the Leader"
*"A House of a Different Color"
*"Feelings"
*"You Need a Friend"
*"Doing What I Do Best"
*"The Pooh Scouts"
*"Brighten Your Corner"
*"Safety First"
*"Rabbit Learns to Share"
*"The Great Outdoors"
*"Surprise, Surprise"
*"Piglet Pride"
*"Roo's Great Adventure"
*"Eeyore Talks to Himself"
*"Snow Falls on Pooh Corner"
*"Hello, Hello There"
*"Practice Makes Perfect"
*"The Old Swimming Hole"
*"Pooh Makes a Trade"
*"A Bicycle Built for Five"
*"My Echo and I"
*"Pooh Learns to Remember"
*"Wishing"
*"Don't Quit"
*"Holiday for Pooh Bear"
*"Pooh Builds a Bee House"
*"Piglet Lends a Helping Hand"
*"Pooh Borrows Trouble"
*"Clouds"
*"The Fastest Rabbit in the Wood"
*"When I Was Younger"
*"Eeyore Joins the Band"
*"Eeyore's Costume Party"
*"A Swing for Eeyore"
*"Do it Now"
*"Carrots, Carrots, and More Carrots"
*"Hi Neighbor"
*"Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti"
*"Rabbit's Cousin"
*"The Great Kite Race"
*"Fine Feathered Friend"
*"Piglet's Slumber Party"
*"Piglet Learns to Swing"
*"Handyman Tigger"
*"Piglet Cares for a Carrot"
*"Tigger Finds a Hobby"
*"Almost Perfect Picnic"
*"The Iceboat Cometh"
*"It Must Be Spring"
*"It Must Be Summer"
*"It Must Be Fall"
*"Song of Eeyore"
*"Tale of a Tail"
*"Pooh Goes Boom"
*"Tigger's Day Off"
*"A Brand New Sign"
*"Rabbit's Treasure Hunt"
*"Strawberry Time"
*"Sleepytime Tigger"
*"Eeyore's Tea Party"
*"Rules of the Game"
*"Eeyore's Island"
*"Let's Pretend"
*"Pooh Corner Carnival"
*"Many Things: Lost and Found"
*"Roo Gets Lost"
*"Happy Birthday, Roo"
*"All Fall Down"
*"Rabbit Wins One For Tigger"
*"Eeyore Goes Exploring"
*"Pooh Corner On Parade"
*"Tigger Takes a Fall"
*"Dress Up Day"
*"Bright Idea"
*"Piglet's Secret Place is Safe"
*"Pooh Forgets to Remember"
*"Stay at Home Adventure"
*"Look Around, Look Around"
*"To Be a Friend"
*"Butterflies Tigger"
*"Piglet Sees Spots"
*"Pooh Scouts Campout"
*"The Man in the Moon is a Tigger"
*"Heat Wave"
*"The Long, Long Walk"
*"Mystery of the Missing Tail"
*"Now You See it"
*"Pooh Corner School"
*"Poor Eeyore"
*"Piglet Finds Out Who Friends Are"
*"A Mysterious Noise Keeps Piglet Awake"
*"When I was Younger"
*"Very Beautiful Day"
*"There's a Party Going Round"
*"Home is Better"
*"Day for Knights"
*"The Fastest Does Not Win the Race"
*"Pooh and his Friends Switch Places"
*"Pooh Cleans Up"
===​Specials===
*"Because it's Halloween"
*"Pooh Corner Thanksgiving"
*"Christmas at Pooh Corner"
*"Pooh's Funny Valentine's Day"
*"Christmas is For Sharing"
*"Too Smart for Strangers"
*"Pooh's Great School Bus Adventure"
*"One and Only You"
*"Responsible Persons"
==Home media release==
==Trivia==
*Welcome to Pooh Corner differs on many things from its other incarnations:
**Pooh is a little smarter than usual (despite being a bear of very little brain) and his eyes are different.
**Piglet always has on a scarf, or a muffler as the narrator calls it.
**Tigger's nose is black (like in the parks) and he has a talent for art.
**Rabbit is a talented magician aside from being a gardener and also more friendlier and patient and less uptight.
**Eeyore has a talent for dancing. His house is made of wooden planks, complete with a door and weather vane and rarely knocked over.
**Owl always has on glasses. He wears a pilot's cap and scarf when flying. When Owl flies and lands the sound of a plane's engine can be heard. When Owl jumps off the branch of his tree to take off a slide whistle is heard. He also loves to cook.
**Roo's character originally was a toddler and would most often be sitting on something like Eeyore or Tigger's back, Kanga's pouch, or his high chair. In later episodes, his character was portrayed as being a preschooler; he was then able to walk around in more scenes and was never in his mother's pouch. He also always wore a red shirt, but later changed to a white collared shirt. (However, at least one storybook published around the time did have him wearing one).
*It is also notable that very few of the actors who played the characters in the original Disney Pooh short films reprised their roles here, nor are the parts played by any of the characters' current voice actors such as Jim Cummings. 
*In this show, Hal Smith voices both Pooh and Owl. However, in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Smith would reprise his role as Owl, while Pooh would be more famously voiced by Jim Cummings.
*Christopher Robin and Gopher never make any appearance in all the episodes, though Christopher Robin is mentioned in the 1986 educational special Pooh's Great School Bus Adventure.
*Pooh's theme song, "The Right Side", was originally used in Mary Poppins (although the song was cut out in the movie's release).
*The animatronic costumes used for the characters were created by Alchemy II, Inc. headed by Ken Forsse, who later created the toy sensation Teddy Ruxpin.
*For the French version of the show, the narrator sequences were changed to suit the French audience. The host was played by French actor Jean Rochefort from 1985 to 1987, and then Vincent Perrot in 1988.
**The French intro sequences show Rabbit is as a drawing, rather than a stuffed animal, like the rest of the characters. The fourth and final opening does this to Piglet's appearance as well, though he is also still shown as a doll during Pooh's shot.
**Additionally, whereas the dolls in the live-action segments were made exclusively for the original version of the series, the French live-action sequences actually used store-bought plushies of Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, and Kanga & Roo, which were sold exclusively at the Disney theme parks during the 1970s.
*This is the only Winnie the Pooh TV series to use the classic Winnie the Pooh theme song as the opening theme song; four other shows (such as The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Book of Pooh, My Friends Tigger & Pooh, and Playdate with Winnie the Pooh) have a different opening theme song.
*Kim Christianson was the voice of Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, here they provide the voice of Roo.
*This would be the first time where Winnie the Pooh is depicted with corneas, the second being the 2023 series Playdate with Winnie the Pooh (as well as its spin-off Me & Winnie the Pooh.)
*About half of the series’ episodes are currently lost media.
==Gallery==
===Promotional===
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===Behind the scenes===
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===Screenshots===
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Category:Disney Channel shows
Category:Winnie the Pooh
Category:Disney shows
Category:Shows featuring puppetry
Category:Spin-offs
Category:Winnie the Pooh television series
Category:Shows based on films
Category:1980s television series