Oobi (TV series)

Oobi is an American children's television series created by Josh Selig for the Noggin channel. The show's concept is based on a training method used by puppeteers, in which they use their hands and a pair of glass eyes instead of a full puppet. The main character is a bare hand puppet named Oobi. The show's first season was a series of two-minute shorts. For its second and third seasons, it became a long-form series, with episodes lasting 13 minutes each. The show premiered in 2000, and the last new episode aired on February 11, 2005.
Selig was a longtime writer and performer for Sesame Street, and he came up with the idea for Oobi while watching bare-handed puppeteers audition for Sesame Street. The show was filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios, where Sesame Street is also taped. All of the show's puppeteers were veteran Muppet performers. The main characters were played by Tim Lagasse, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Noel MacNeal, and Tyler Bunch.
The puppets' designs include glass eyes and accessories like hats and hairpieces. The puppeteers' thumbs are used to represent mouth movement, and their fingers flutter and clench to show emotions. The characters talk in simple sentences, using only two to three words at a time. The show's ending credits feature a montage of families making and playing with their own bare-hand Oobi puppets.
Category:TV Shows