Bear in the Big Blue House
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| Bear in the Big Blue House. | |
 Bear in the Big Blue House title card |
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| Format | Children's / Infant's |
|---|---|
| Created by | Mitchell Kriegman |
| Developed by | The Jim Henson Company and Walt Disney |
| Directed by | Mitchell Kriegman, Dean Gordon, Rick Fernandes, Hugh Martin and others |
| Starring | Noel MacNeal |
| Opening theme | Bill Obrecht and Peter Lurye |
| Ending theme | Peter Lurye |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 119 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Mitchell Kriegman |
| Producer(s) | The Jim Henson Company and Shadow Projects |
| Running time | approx. 35 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel |  FivePlayhouse Disney UK  Australian Broadcasting Corporation RTÉ Two Playhouse Disney |
| Original run | October 20, 1997 – May 6, 2007 |
| External links | |
| [[1] Official website] | |
Bear in the Big Blue House is a television program for young children produced for the Disney Channel by Mitchell Kriegman and 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.
In 2004, The Jim Henson Company sold The Bear in the Big Blue House franchise to The Walt Disney Company. The characters and show are currently owned and operated by The Muppet Holding Company, LLC.
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[edit] Overview
The gentle, soft title character of Bear in the Big Blue House is a talking, six-foot, light brown bear who lives in a house and loves to help children learn. Despite his enormous size, Bear is child-friendly, teaching them his favorite pastimes. 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. He then retires to bed with a great big smile.
Bear interweaves learning with playtime. After the musical call, "Where oh where oh where is Shadow?", Bear's friend Shadow appears. She then will tell Bear a story in musical form, relating to the episodes theme, played out with shadow puppets.
[edit] Cast
The cast for the show including:
- Bear: a tall, gentle bear who always gives great advice. Portrayed by Noel MacNeal
- Luna: the moon. Bear and Luna often meet on Bear's balcony and Bear tells her what he has done during the day and they sing the "Goodbye Song". Her name comes from the word "Luna" the Earth's moon. She was portrayed by the late Lynne Thigpen
- Tutter: a small blue mouse, portrayed by Peter Linz
- Pip and Pop: two purple otters (twins) Dee Bradley Baker
- Ojo: a girl bear cub Lori Alan
- Treelo: a colorful lemur, respectively portrayed by Tyler Bunch. His voice and speech pattern are identical to that of Sesame Street characters Elmo and Cookie Monster.
- Grandma Flutter: Tutter's grandmother mouse portrayed by Alice Dinnean and later by Vicki Eibner
- Cousin Whiner: portrayed by Victor Yerrid
- Tutters Uncle "Jet Set Tutter": portrayed by Tim Lagasse
- Benny the Bat portrayed by Jim Kroupa
- Ray the Sun portrayed by Geoffrey Holder
- Miss Maxwell portrayed by Jennifer Barnhart
- Rita Mouse portrayed by Anney McKilligan
- Shadow portrayed by Tara Mooney
- Cousin Titter portrayed by Sean Choi
- Harry the Duck portrayed by Eric Jacobson
- Ursa: Bear's Friend from Spain portrayed by Carmen Osbahr
- The Possums portrayed by The Large one is Gilbert Gottfried and The Small one is Brad Garrett
[edit] Popularity
Bear in the Big Blue House became a long-running hit on The Disney Channel. The program was initially produced from 1997 - 2003. After a three-year hiatus and the spin-off Breakfast with Bear, new episodes returned to the Disney Channel in April 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. Despite this, the anniversary has passed without event.
The show was shown throughout the world including in the United Kingdom on five and Playhouse Disney UK, on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Australia and on RTÉ Two in Ireland.
[edit] Awards
- Multiple Daytime 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"
[edit] External links
- Bear in the Big Blue House on Muppet Wiki, an external wiki
- Bear in the Big Blue House at the Internet Movie Database
- Bear in the Big Blue House. at TV.com
- TV.com Show Guide
- Bear in the Big Blue House DVD Reviews
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