'' Oobi'' is an American

children's television series Children's television series (or children's television shows) are Television show, television programs designed specifically for Child, children. They are typically characterised by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are ...

produced by

Little Airplane Productions Little Airplane Productions was an American television production company co-founded by Josh Selig and Lori Shaer (née Sherman) in 1999. The company produced '' Oobi'' for Noggin, '' Wonder Pets!'' for Nickelodeon, and '' 3rd & Bird'' for th ...

. The show's concept is based on a technique used by puppeteers in training, in which they use their hands and a pair of ping pong balls instead of a full puppet. The main characters are bare

hand puppet A hand puppet is a type of puppet that is controlled by the hands that occupies the interior of the puppet.Sinclair, A, ''The Puppetry Handbook'', p.15 A glove puppet is a variation of hand puppets. Rod puppets require one of the puppeteer's han ...

s with eyes and accessories, played by

Muppet The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential style of musical variety-sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, the eponymous media franchise encompasse ...

performers. The show aired on the Noggin channel, which was co-founded by

MTV Networks Paramount Media Networks is the division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of its television channels and online brands. The division was originally founded as MTV Networks in 1984, named after MTV. It would be known under this ...

and

Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization and Television station, television company that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's ...

. ''Oobi'' has three seasons: one season of shorts and two seasons of long-form episodes. The shorts are 1–2 minutes each and were aired during commercial breaks. The long-form episodes are 10–13 minutes each. The show ran from 2000 to 2005, with reruns continuing until 2013. It ended with 48 shorts and 52 long-form episodes: a total of 100 individual stories. From 2015 to 2020, ''Oobi'' was available for streaming through the Noggin streaming app. The show received a variety of awards and nominations, including an Innovation Award from the

Television Academy The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), also colloquially known as the Television Academy, is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the television industry in the United States. A 501(c)(6) non-profit or ...

and two accolades from the Parents’ Choice Foundation. In 2012, a foreign adaptation titled '' Oobi: Dasdasi'' premiered and ran for 78 episodes. It was filmed in Iran and produced by the Iranian network

IRIB TV2 IRIB TV2 () is one of the 40 national television channels in Iran. It broadcasts to the Persian-speaking areas of the Middle East and is headquartered in Tehran. The channel has a variety of programming similar to IRIB TV1, including miniseries ...

. In July 2013, ''Oobi: Dasdasi'' was sold to broadcasters in Southeast Asia and Japan, becoming one of the first Iranian children's shows to air internationally.

Series overview

Episodes

Season 1 (shorts, 2000–02)

The first season was a collection of two-minute shorts that were played as interstitials between half-hour shows. 48 shorts have been confirmed. The episodes are listed below in the order used by

TVOntario TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian Public broadcasting, publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates ...

Season 2 (2003–04)

For the show's second season, it became a long-form series with each episode lasting around 13 minutes. A total 26 long-form episodes were filmed for this season from January to February 2003. The first two episodes ("Camp Out!" and "Uma Swing!") premiered on April 7, 2003. The episodes are ordered below according to the Noggin streaming service.

Season 3 (2004–05)

The show's third and last season was filmed from January to February 2004. Like the second season, it contains 26 episodes. The season premiered on September 6, 2004. The episodes are ordered below according to the Noggin streaming service.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Sesame Street Oobi