We have a number of videos in this series, which my daughter enjoys. I’m curious, though, as to whether there’s an “opening episode” that explains the characters and setting. Is this some kind of woodland frat house? How did all these animals end up living there? What is their relationship to the Bear? Is he their official guardian, or just the eldest and most responsible? And what’s with the pig doctor and turtle mail carrier? Does the house exist in some sort of animal civilization? Have they taken it over from humans, ala’ Animal Farm, or even Planet of the Apes?
Or is it all just kind of a contextless hallucination, like the Teletubbies?
You are complicating children’s television waaaaaaaaay too much!
However, Bear & Tutter live in the Big Blue House. Ojo, Treelo, Pip & Pop come to visit a lot, like every day. They have playdates and sleepovers. Woodland Valley is home to all the characters except Ursa, Bear’s on/off girlfriend who lives in Spain. In addition to Doc Hogg, there’s Jeremiah the mail carrier, Pip & Pop’s relatives Etta & Otto, Lois the telephone operator, and a bunch of others. Oh, another out-of-towner is Tutter’s Grandma Flutter and his other relatives, who come to visit once in a while.
I have never seen the “original” episode if there is one. There probably isn’t. Another recent Disney channel addition, “Stanley” didn’t have a really expository episode when it started. You just kind of got to know Stanley, his fish Dennis, his brother Lionel, mom & dad, etc.
And Luna’s voice is the recently-deceased Lynne Thigpen. Not sure if they’re searching for a replacement. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure if they’re producing new episodes.
Lynne Thigpen died?!?!? Oh my goodness! I’ll have to google to find the news. I’m very sad. She was a class act.
[Reliving memories of Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiago. . . ]
I have nothing to add this discussion but I have to take the chance to share this little story.
A few years ago, my sister was a bartender in a very busy bar in our hometown and the “Bear and the Big Blue House” show had just played to a sold-out show at a nearby auditorium one Saturday night. After the show, four members of the cast, including Bear himself, came to the bar in costume, took their heads off and proceeded to get completely smashed.
I don’t think “Bear” danced on the bar or anything, but my sister said he was pretty darn drunk by the time he left.:eek:
Shadow creeps my wife and me out, somehow. Where’s she come from? What’s she a shadow of? My theory is that she’s the ghost of a little girl that Bear ate, and although he’s filled with remorse and is always kind now, she never totally goes away, always staying around as a memory of his crime…
I find Shadow creepy too. I think it’s partly the unplaceable accent.
I did think Ojo lived with bear. He puts her to bed at night and reads her stories. I’m not sure about Treelo, but I thought he lived with them too.
I love Ojo means ‘little bear’ in a Native American language (sorry, I forget which one) while Ursa (who is Bear’s cousin), of course, is Latin for bear.
Oh, I’m so sad to hear that Lynn Thigpen died! She had a lovely voice.
[mommy hijack]
Side story - we took my 2 year old to see the live show of BITBBH a couple of weeks ago. It was our first experiment with getting her to sit still and watch something in a theater. She stood the entire time yelling “Bear! It’s ME! It’s MEEE!!!” and waving her little hands off. It was the cutest thing in the world, and she made it to the beginning of the second act when she turned to me and said, “OK, I’m all done.” It was past her bedtime, so we went home.
Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.
[/mommy hijack]
I think I might know a few of those people, Greywolf73! An ex-girlfriend of mine, a puppeteer, worked in the BITBBH touring company for a few tours. The guy who played “The Bear” was her boyfriend (we’d been long broken up by that point. I’d just like to point that out lest anyone think I was dumped for The Bear. On second thought, that might not be so bad after all… :D). Anyway, I knew both of them, and yes, it would not surprise me at all to hear that they got rip-roaring drunk after a show. It must’ve been quite a site, in half-costumes, though!
I’ve only seen 2 or 3 episodes while babysitting my niece, but I thought Shadow was cool. And her voice is amazing! Why don’t we hear her on anything else?
I guess I’ve just read enough fantasy to be comfortable accepting an independent, animate shadow without assuming anything sinister.
I have this theory that TBITBBH is based on Leonard Slatkin. But then I have a lot of theories that have no basis in reality whatsoever, so don’t mind me…
My thanks to EJsGirl for the prompt response. It’s not so much that I was seeking to complicate things, it’s just that after seeing a tape thirty or forty times, strange questions start running through your head…
QueenAl – I took Shadow’s accent to be Irish, further evidence being found in her occasional “modulated” notes while singing, as seems common in female singers with Celtic folk roots, Dolores O’Riorden of the Cranberries being the example probably most familiar to listeners here in the U.S. Perhaps Shadow is not a ghost, per Rube E. Tewesday’s theory, but rather a spirit of the realm of Faerie. This would also account for that simultaneously whimsical and menacing vibe she gives off. Perhaps Bear will follow her off into the woods one day, and return to the house to find that 100 years have passed, and only Jeremiah the Mail turtle and an elderly Ojo remain alive.
Side note- we went to see Playhouse Disney Live at the Disney California Adventure park last week. The three year old really enjoyed it, as it was mostly Bear and Tutter, plus vignettes from the other Playhouse Disney shows.
The disturbing part was Luna. I had desperately hoped that the dialog was taped rather than live, due to the terrible loss of Lynne Thigpen this year. But even if it wasn’t live, it wasn’t taped before her death, because the voice of Luna definetly wasn’t hers. I don’t know how many kids noticed it, but a bunch of parents sure did. Only the song used her voice.
And Geoffrey Holder rules! Why isn’t Ray in more episodes?!?
