Bear in the Big Blue House
| Bear in the Big Blue House | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Children's television series Preschool-oriented puppetry |
| Created by | Mitchell Kriegman |
| Developed by | The Jim Henson Company |
| Directed by |
Mitchell Kriegman Dean Gordon Richard A. Fernandes Hugh Martin Jim Martin Lisa Simon Tom Guaddarrama Chuck Vinson |
| Starring |
Noel MacNeal Peter Linz Tyler Bunch Vicki Eibner |
| Voices of |
Lynne Thigpen Geoffrey Holder |
| Opening theme | "Welcome to the Blue House" Bill Obrecht Peter Lurye |
| Ending theme | "Welcome to the Blue House" (Instrumental) Bill Obrecht Peter Lurye |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 118 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Mitchell Kriegman Brian Henson Alex Rockwell |
| Producer(s) | Richard A. Fernandes |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Shadow Projects Jim Henson Television (1997–2006) Walt Disney Television The Muppets Studio |
| Distributor | Disney-ABC Domestic Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | Playhouse Disney |
| Picture format | 4:3 480i (SDTV) |
| Audio format | Dolby Surround |
| Original release | October 20, 1997 – April 28, 2006 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Bear in the Big Blue House is an American children's puppetry television series created by Mitchell Kriegman and produced by Jim Henson Television for Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney preschool television block. Debuting on October 20, 1997,it ran until 2003. Eight additional episodes were produced to make a 5th season and ran in 2006. The final episode aired on April 28, 2006.
Bear lives in the Big Blue House with his friends Ojo, Tutter, Treelo, Pip, Pop, and Shadow. He and his friends have many adventures together. Those normally include solving problems, sharing, cooperating with each other, and developing social skills.
Each episode opens with the welcome song. The other characters in the show then make their appearance, and the theme and plot of the show then comes to place. Throughout the episode, the theme (ex; "sleep", "doctors", "Thanksgiving") is learned about, and a lesson is learned at the end of the episode. Songs and jokes accompany the episode. Bear acts as a caregiver towards Ojo the bear cub, Treelo the lemur, Tutter the mouse, and Pip and Pop, who are two otters. Character "Shadow" narrates a segment with shadow puppets in each episode. Most of the segments are in song, while some are simply a short story relating to the episode's theme. At the end of the program, Bear then sings the goodbye song with Luna, the moon.
Several of these characters appeared in a music video for the We Are Family Foundation. Bear also appeared as a celebrity in the 2002 revival of The Hollywood Squares; he notably appeared in Whoopi Goldberg's final episode.
Bear in the Big Blue House was initially produced from 1997 to 2004. The voice actor for "Luna" the moon was played by Lynne Thigpen, who abruptly died due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Thigpen's death led to a three-year hiatus of Bear in the Big Blue House. A planned film version of Bear was also put on hold. Two years after Thigpen's death, Tara Mooney, who played the character Shadow, in an interview with Ray D'Arcy on Today FM stated: "The crew's hearts just weren't in it anymore". Thigpen's friends and family established a non-profit foundation, The Lynne Thigpen - Bobo Lewis Foundation, to help young actors and actresses learn how to survive and succeed in New York theater and to mentor the next generation of Broadway stars. After the hiatus and the spin-off Breakfast with Bear, new episodes returned to the Disney Channel in April 2006, with the last episode airing on April 28, 2006. Thigpen was posthumously nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for voicing Luna the moon in Bear in the Big Blue House but lost to Jeff Corwin.
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