Wikipedia
Oobi is an American children's television series created by Josh Selig of Little Airplane Productions. It began as a series of shorts produced for the Noggin network. Full-length episodes of the show began airing on April 7, 2003, and the series ended its run on February 11, 2005.
Selig created the series shortly after leaving Sesame Street, which he had worked on since its premiere in 1969. He developed the idea for Oobi while watching bare-handed puppeteers audition for Ulica Sezamkowa, the Polish adaptation of Sesame Street. Roles on Oobi were offered to veteran puppeteers from related Sesame Workshop productions, and the original shorts were broadcast when Noggin was a joint venture between Viacom and the Workshop.
The series follows four characters, represented by bare hand puppets, on their everyday adventures. Its concept is based on a technique used by puppeteers learning to lip-sync, in which they use their hands and a pair of ping pong balls in place of a puppet. The characters' designs include plastic eyes and accessories, such as hats and hairpieces. The puppeteers' thumbs are used to represent mouth movement, and their fingers flutter and clench to indicate emotions. The puppets have been compared to those of ventriloquist Señor Wences and referred to as "furless Muppets" in promotional statements.
Oobi was a breakout success for the Noggin network. It has received a variety of awards and nominations, including an Innovation Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and multiple accolades from the Parents' Choice Foundation. Although critical reception upon the show's release was generally positive, criticism has been directed toward the characters' use of simplified sentences that normally do not contain prepositions or conjunctions. Oobi posted an average Nielsen rating of 2.35 among the preschool age group by its second season, becoming the highest-rated series ever to air on Noggin in 2004. It is the most widely distributed Noggin original program, having aired in over 23 markets worldwide.
Oobi was a toy, invented by Larry Reiner and test marketed by Parker Brothers in 1971, that was intended to pass a message to a recipient relying on "the kindness of strangers" as transport.
Physically, an Oobi is a bright orange oblong spheroid with a slit, an addressing area, and big painted-on eyes. They were sold in packs of three. The original purchaser was to write an address on the address area, place a folded message inside, and leave the toy somewhere public to be found. Instructions to the finder were written on the Oobi's top: "I'm oobi. I contain a message to another human being. Please further my journey an inch, a foot, or a mile. Add a note, if you wish. Then help me to the next nice person like yourself! I'm on my way to ... Please don't confine me to a mailbox."
In spite of television advertisements and its slogan "oobi means love" it never caught on during trials on the West Coast and the Northeast, and has been described as the toy company's "wildest failure".
Oobi may refer to:
- Oobi (TV series), an American children's program airing on the Noggin network
- Oobi (toy), Parker Brothers toy introduced in 1971, to send messages from one location to another
- OOBI, for Out-of-band infrastructure, term in the telecommunications industry for voice communication since the 1950s