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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BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE TICKETS
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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.
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 Otters, Pip and Pop, portrayed by Gilbert Gottfried and Brad Garrett
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.
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"