Bear in the Big Blue House
| Bear in the Big Blue House | |
|---|---|
| File:Bear in the Big Blue House.jpg Bear In The Big Blue House title card | |
| Created by | Mitchell Kriegman |
| Starring | Noel MacNeal |
| Opening theme | Peter Lurye |
| Ending theme | Peter Lurye |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 119 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Mitchell Kriegman |
| Producer | The Jim Henson Company |
| Running time | approx. 22 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Release | October 20,1997 – may 6,2007 |
Bear in the Big Blue House was a television program for young children produced for the Disney Channel by The Jim Henson Company. The program taught simple life lessons by following the title character and his puppet friends as they went through their day.
Overview
The gentle, soft title character of Bear in the Big Blue House is a talking, seven-foot (213 cm) orange bear who lives in a house and who loves to help children learn. Despite his enormous size, Bear is child-friendly. He addresses the kids at home directly, talking to them as if they were all his close friends. Bear in the Big Blue House was created for the very young, teaching concepts like shapes, gravity, helping, seasons, and even toilet training. Joining the ever-curious Bear are an assortment of woodland creatures—excitable lemur Treelo, headstrong mouse Tutter, peppy otter twins Pip and Pop and imaginative little bear cub Ojo—all of whom help illustrate the day’s lesson. At the end of every episode, Bear goes out on his balcony to talk about what everyone has learned with his friend Luna, the wise moon. Bears character was used as a model for "Snook," the main character in "It's a Big Big World," who is a tree-sloth with similar size and mannerisms.
Bear interweaves learning with playtime. After the musical call, "Where oh where oh where is Shadow?", Bear's friend Shadow appears. Together with other shadow friends, the girl puts on shadow plays of brief, amusing stories— often with grown-up humor lurking just under the surface.
Cast
The cast for the show including:
- Bear: Noel MacNeal [1]
- Luna: Lynne Thigpen
- Tutter and Pip: Peter Linz
- Ojo: Vicki Eibner
- Pop, Treelo: Tyler Bunch
- Grandma Flutter: Alice Denean
- Tutters Cousin "Jet Set Tutter": Tim Legasse
- Benny the Bat Jim Kroupa
For more information, see the Muppet Wiki website
Popularity
Bear in the Big Blue House became a long-running hit on The Disney Channel. The program was initially produced from 1997 to 2003. After a three-year hiatus and the spin-off Breakfast with Bear, new episodes returned to the Disney Channel in April of 2006. The show attained such popularity that Bear himself sometimes appeared on Hollywood Squares.
Disney announced plans for several events and new merchandise to celebrate the show's 10th anniversary in 2007. However, as of late June 2007, further details have yet to be announced.
The show is also shown in the United Kingdom on five, on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and on RTÉ Two in Ireland.
During the hiatus, many puppeteers and voices left the show for the PBS series "It's a Big Big World," an eerily similar show with a main character who was molded from the same mold as Bear, has similar mannerisms and is the same size, named "Snook the Sloth." Instead of the woodland forest, Big World used a rainforest as it's setting but covers the same topics, in general, as Big House did.
Awards
- Two Time Emmy Award Winner
- Parent's Choice Gold Award Winner
- Director's Guild Award - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs - "Episode 225: Love Is All You Need"
Songs
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. |
- "Oops! I Goofed Again" (1:49), sung by Bear, included by Songs From Bear In The Big Blue House
- "So Much To Be Thankful For [Who could ask for more?]" (1:26), sung by Bear, Doc Hogg, Flutter, Pip, Pop, Ojo, Tutter and Treelo, included on Bear's Holiday Celebration
- "What's Mine Is Yours", sung by Bear, included on More Songs From Bear In The Big Blue House
- "What's That Smell?," sung by Bear in several episodes
- "What's in the Mail Today?," sung by Bear in several episodes
- "Everybody Say Ah!," sung by Old Doc Hog, Bear, Tutter, Ojo, Treelo, Pip, and Pop
- "Rub-a-Dub-Dub," sung by Bear, Tutter, Treelo, Ojo, Pip, and Pop in several episodes
- "A Little Quiet Time," sung by Bear and Tutter
- "Goodbye," sung by Bear and Luna (and sometimes others) at the end of every episode
- "Rock-A-Bye," sung by Bear and Shadow
- "The Shape of Bear," sung by Bear (and, later, Bear, Ojo, Pip, and Pop)
- "Good Morning," sung by Bear and Ray
- "Colors," sung by Bear
- "Clean Up," sung by Ojo Tutter Treelo & Pip & Pop
- "Take Time to Smell the Cheese", sung by Bear and Tutter
- "The Bear Cha Cha Cha" sung by Bear
Other media
There was supposed to be a Bear in the Big Blue House video game that was supposed to be made by Ubisoft and was supposed to release on the Gamecube.
