Oobi (TV series)

The main cast, from left to right: Tim Lagasse, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Tyler Bunch, and Noel MacNeal.

• Oobi (Tim Lagasse) is a four-year-old boy. He is curious and always willing to learn something new. Unlike the other characters, he is a completely bare puppet aside from his eyes and wears no accessories or clothes. His eyes are brown in the short episodes and hazel in the long-form episodes. Recurring elements in the series include Oobi's aspiration to become a piano player and his favorite toy, a miniature red model car. He acts as a role model to his younger sister, Uma, who often looks to him for guidance.
• Uma (Stephanie D'Abruzzo) is Oobi's three-year-old sister. She is shorter than Oobi and usually wears a barrette on her pinky finger. She loves singing, dancing, and pretending. Chickens are her favorite animal, and she will often talk about and imitate them, much to Grampu's annoyance. She has a tendency to comically overreact to minor changes or inconveniences. Her catchphrases are "Nice!" and "Pretty." Because she is so young, she has trouble pronouncing long words.
• Kako (Noel MacNeal) is Oobi's excitable, confident, and slightly arrogant best friend. Kako generally has a playful attitude and often cracks jokes, but he can prove to be insightful and sincere whenever Oobi needs advice. He has green eyes and wears a red knit cap. His catchphrase is "Perfecto," the Spanish word for "perfect." Unlike Oobi and Uma, Kako comes from a nuclear family consisting of himself and his parents, Mamu and Papu.
• Grampu (Tyler Bunch) is Oobi and Uma's wise and sometimes rather unlucky grandfather, who acts as their caregiver and mentor. His appearance is different from that of the children; four of his fingers are curled instead of being extended, making him look taller. His favorite pastimes are cooking and gardening. He develops a romantic relationship with Oobi's piano teacher, Inka, throughout the series. His catchphrase is "Lovely!"

• Inka (Stephanie D'Abruzzo) is Oobi's piano teacher and Grampu's love interest. She often takes Grampu on dates and flirts with him when she visits Oobi's house. She hails from Paris, is fond of French foods, and has an ambiguous Eastern European accent.
• Angus (Matt Vogel) is a high-strung friend of Oobi's whose eyes are below his fingers rather than on top. He speaks in a nasal voice and tends to worry about how he looks in front of others. Ironically, he is a gifted actor and has a talent for singing but gets stage fright whenever he has to perform in front of an audience.
• Mrs. Johnson (Jennifer Barnhart) is Oobi's elderly neighbor and one of the few left-handed characters on the show. She wears a white wig, glasses with circular lenses, and a sleeve-like brown dress. She has a pet cat with a propensity to climb up trees.
• Mamu and Papu (Frankie Cordero) are Kako's parents, who appear whenever Oobi visits Kako's house. Papu is the homemaker of the household and is not currently employed. Mamu works at an office and is frequently away from home, but she still finds time to spend with her family.
• Maestru (James Godwin) is Oobi and Kako's singing teacher, who works at the local community center. He is also in charge of the town events. He wears a bow tie and a gray wig made to look like Ludwig van Beethoven's hairstyle. His index finger is always extended and he uses it as a conducting baton.
• Frieda the Foot (Cheryl Blaylock) is a five-year-old girl portrayed as a talking foot puppet. She has blue eyes and wears a flower-shaped pin on one of her toes. Oobi and Frieda often play with each other at the park and teach each other how to play different games. She represents a person of a different race or culture from the hand puppets, and episodes featuring her involve themes of social integration and diversity.
• Moppie (Heather Asch) is Uma's best friend from preschool. She has curly red hair, and her fingers are curled in a fist-like position. She is high-spirited and energetic, but also afraid to try new things. Her favorite activity is drawing portraits of her classmates.
• Bella (Lisa Buckley) is a greengrocer and one of Grampu's close friends. She owns the local grocery store and speaks with an exaggerated Italian accent. She is shown to bring fruit wherever she goes, regardless of the time or situation.

Josh Selig was inspired to create the show after watching puppeteers perform with their bare hands on the set of Ulica Sezamkowa, the Polish adaptation of Sesame Street.[11] Each puppeteer used their hand and a pair of ping pong balls in place of a puppet. This is a common technique among puppeteers in training, as it helps them learn the basics of lip-syncing and focusing the eyes of a puppet. Selig noted the amount of expression conveyed by the more skilled actors' hands, and it gave him the idea for a series that showcased the "raw emotion" of bare-handed puppetry.[12]

In 1999, Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop created the Noggin cable channel. The network's lineup consisted mainly of repackaged programs from Sesame Workshop's library, so both companies started to seek pitches for original shows. Selig had recently left Sesame Street when he was given the opportunity to propose his own show to Noggin. He pitched Oobi to them under the working title Pipo, which he intended to name the main character.[13] He decided to rename the show Oobi after he discovered that "Pipo" was already trademarked by an Italian brand of jeans.[13] The new name was meant to mirror the characters' eyes with two O's.[13]

Selig's pitch was successful, and Oobi entered production with funding from Nickelodeon. The network ordered a collection of about 50 interstitials, which lasted 1 to 2 minutes each and would play during commercial breaks. They were made as an experiment to gauge whether or not Selig wanted to continue his own production studio, Little Airplane Productions. Of the shorts, he said, "I set up a shop to produce that series. So we just signed a one-year lease, it was really an experiment for us... and after the first year we found that we loved having a company."[14] The shorts were filmed in 1999[15] and started airing in mid-2000 on both Noggin and Nickelodeon.

Tim Lagasse was chosen to play the main character on Oobi because of his previous bare-handed puppetry in A Show of Hands, a series of short films he created in 1992.[12] Many of the techniques he used to convey expressions through hand motions in the films were carried over to Oobi. The rest of the show's cast consisted exclusively of Sesame Workshop alumni. Kevin Clash, best known for being the original performer of Elmo and working on in many Muppet projects, was an ensemble puppeteer on Oobi and guest-starred as Randy in the "Babysitter!" episode.[16] Matt Vogel, the current puppeteer for Kermit the Frog and Big Bird, played the recurring role of Angus. Martin P. Robinson – who performs Mr. Snuffleupagus and Telly Monster on Sesame Street – created and built the puppets' costumes and accessories.[12] Ken Reynolds and John Tierney, editors on Sesame Street, were hired to edit the show. Both Josh Selig and the show's educational consultant, Natascha Crandall, worked on the Palestinian and Arabic adaptations of Sesame Street.[17] Lisa Simon, who won 20 Daytime Emmys for her work as a director of Sesame Street, acted as the supervising producer.[18][19]

Sacred Noise, a music production company in New York, provided the show's background music. A staff of New York-based composers wrote original songs sung by the characters. Christopher North Renquist, who had been a songwriter for Disney Channel prior to working on the show, wrote the majority of the music.[16][20] Jeffrey Lesser, who continued to work at Little Airplane as the music producer of Wonder Pets, joined the music crew to write the song "Oobi and Grampu" for the "Fishing!" episode.[21] Mike Barrett, who worked as the sound editor on the Wonder Pets pilot, was the series' sound mixer.[22][23]

Oobi was filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York. The show's set pieces were built on tall wooden poles, positioned to be level with the puppeteers' hands when they raised their arms.[24] This kept the actors' heads out of the camera frame and allowed them to walk normally while performing, making their puppets' movements as smooth as possible. Television monitors were placed below the sets so that the puppeteers could watch their motions and position their characters according to each scene.[24] The actors wore hands-free headsets that recorded their dialogue, making them able to perform and voice their characters at the same time.[25] They occasionally dubbed over their lines in post-production, specifically for the musical sequences, which required them to record different takes to match their voices to the music tracks.[25]

Many of the show's sets were made to evoke the appearance of old-fashioned home environments. To simulate natural window light in the studio, the crew of Oobi placed shades with foliage patterns over their studio lights; this gave the appearance of sunlight passing through trees.[24] Green screens were used for the sky of the outdoor sets and for the windows of Oobi's house.[24]

Every week during production, the puppeteers visited their local manicurist to get their fingernails touched up.[11] The male puppeteers, such as Tim Lagasse, also had to shave their arms regularly if they played younger characters; Josh Selig said in a 2004 interview that Lagasse had to shave often so that Oobi would not "look like a hairy kid."[11] Tyler Bunch was told specifically not to shave, as his natural arm hair gave Grampu the appearance of an elderly, hairy grandfather.[11]

When Cheryl Blaylock was offered the role of Frieda the Foot, she had to revisit puppeteer training techniques to learn to use her foot as a puppet.[26] She recounted in a 2012 interview: "I had to actually go back to Puppetry 101 to train my foot to lip sync. Oh yes, I was determined to do some kind of toe wiggle that could be convincing."[26] For episodes featuring Frieda, the crew had to construct a new set that allowed Blaylock to raise her foot alongside the hand puppets. To do this, they assembled a ramp-like stage with a chair connected to it, resting on its side. Blaylock was able to lie down in the chair and rest her leg on the ramp, making her foot appear to be standing at the same height as Oobi.[24]

The characters in Oobi: Dasdasi were outfitted with garments typically worn by Muslims.

In a fashion similar to Sesame Street's international co-productions, a spin-off and adaptation of Oobi was produced in Iran in May 2012.[27][28] It was titled Oobi: Dasdasi in reference to an Iranian folk song about clapping hands. Amir Soltan Ahmadi and Negar Estakhr, who directed and starred in the program, said in an interview with Jaam-e Jam that their company had screened episodes of Oobi in English and wished to create a tailored version for a new audience.[29] The same American prop makers from Oobi supplied the puppet costumes, which were identical to those of the original show. The cast of adult puppets, which was expanded to include a set of parents in addition to a single grandfather, wore Arab garments.[27]

78 eight-minute episodes were produced.[30] They aired from September 22 to December 20, 2012.[30] In July 2013, Oobi: Dasdasi was sold to broadcasters in Kuwait, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka.[31][32][33] IRIB TV2 aired the show in Iran and NHK distributed a subtitled version in Japan.[34] IRIB's Art News Agency hosts full episodes of Oobi: Dasdasi on its website.[35]

48 shorts and 52 full-length episodes were made.[36] Each short is 1–2 minutes long, while the full-length episodes are 13 minutes each. The full-length segments were usually aired in pairs to fill half-hour timeslots.[37] The shorts were shown as interstitials on Noggin and Nickelodeon during its Nick Jr. block. The full-length episodes, each one spanning ten minutes, were aired in pairs.[38]

In the United States, Oobi aired on Noggin and Nickelodeon.[42] The original shorts aired on both networks from 2000 to 2002.[43] They were normally shown as interstitials between longer programs. When the full-length series debuted in 2003, episodes were primarily shown on Noggin, with several premieres shown on Nickelodeon during the Nick Jr. block.[42][44] The show was also available through Nickelodeon's on-demand service from 2004 until 2009.[45][46][47] In 2005, Oobi episodes were released to Nick Jr. Video, a section of the TurboNick broadband video service.[48] Later that year, the show was aired as part of "Cox Family Fun Night," a weekly event featuring content from Nickelodeon that was broadcast every Sunday on Cox systems' local origination channels.[49] Select General Motors vehicles sold throughout 2005 included entertainment systems preloaded with Nickelodeon content, including episodes of Oobi, and fellow Noggin program 64 Zoo Lane.[50][51] Oobi reruns were aired on the Nick Jr. channel from 2009 until 2013.[52] On May 6, 2015, twenty-six episodes of the series were made available as part of the Noggin mobile application.[53][54] The show has been available for streaming on Amazon Video since June 2018.[55]

By the end of its run in 2005, Oobi had aired in over 23 international markets,[56] many of which span multiple countries. In Canada, TVOntario aired both the shorts and the full-length episodes.[1] It carried the show from September 1, 2003 to September 2, 2006.[57][58] On December 5, 2004, the series started airing on AFN Prime, a channel operated by the U.S. Armed Forces that is available worldwide.[59] It was shown on the network every Sunday until April 3, 2005.[60] The Australian channel ABC Kids ran premieres of the show from February 8 to March 15, 2005,[61] with reruns continuing until February 2, 2007.[62] Oobi has been one of Nickelodeon Pakistan's flagship series since 2009; as of 2018, it continues to air on the network once per day.[63][64]

The series has been dubbed in a variety of languages. From 2005 to 2006, an Icelandic-dubbed version of Oobi aired on Stöð 2.[65] In China, a Standard Mandarin dub aired on SMG's children's block from May 1 to August 5, 2005.[66][67] In Israel, a Hebrew dub was created with Gilad Kleter and Yoram Yosefsberg as the respective voices of Oobi and Grampu. It aired on Nickelodeon Israel and BabyTV from 2008 to 2013.[68][69] In France and Wallonia, a French dub aired on Nickelodeon Junior from 2007 to 2010.[70][71] The show was included as part of the channel's Fête de la Musique event in June 2010.[72] A Polish dub titled Rączusie[73] aired on Nickelodeon Poland from July 19, 2009 to February 28, 2010.[74][75] Nickelodeon Arabia, which broadcasts to the Middle East and North Africa, aired an Arabic dub from 2009 to 2011.[76] The series was also shown in other Oceanian regions, such as Tonga.[77] Although Oobi was not shown regularly on Nickelodeon Southeast Asia's feed, the channel's website featured games and media relating to the show until 2016.[78]

External video

"Dog Problems" Official Music Video, December 1, 2006, Nettwerk Music[79]

Indie rock band The Format released a music video for their song "Dog Problems" in November 2006. The video, which includes Nate Ruess of Fun as the lead singer alongside Sam Means and Steven Shane McDonald, was inspired by Oobi and features hand puppets in the style of the show.[79][80] Ruess is represented in the video by a puppet wearing a bowler hat on his knuckles, in a fashion similar to the Oobi character Kako (who also sports a cap). It begins with Ruess's character creating a shadow puppet, but "the set-ups get increasingly intricate and clever as things progress out into the real world and onto various parodies," one of which features a quartet of Oobi puppets spoofing Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".[80]

"Dog Problems" was aired throughout 2007 on the music-themed cable channel Fuse as a part of its hour-long Oven Fresh music video blocks.[81][82] It was pulled from the channel's lineup in 2008 following The Format's announcement that it would break up, and not release another album. The video was also briefly shown on Viacom's own networks MTV2 and MTVU.[83] The newspaper Pipe Dream noted in 2008 that the video "was just making the rounds on alternative music networks ... but almost as quickly as [The Format] shot up in popularity, they were no more."[83]

Four scenes from the commercial, depicting a man dating an Oobi puppet.

In January 2014, Havas Worldwide and the Turkish branch of the condom company Durex created a television commercial titled "Farewell Elizabeth" that parodied Oobi.[84] It featured a man breaking up with his girlfriend and resorting to dating his right hand, which was dressed up like one of the characters from the series.[85] The Oobi hand puppet (named "Elizabeth") was intended to be a metaphor for masturbation, which is generally regarded as a taboo subject in the country.[86] The company had produced other anti-masturbation advertisements in the past, all of which were unsuccessful in Turkey. Havas Worldwide stated in an interview with La República that they chose to parody Oobi after deciding that doing "something never said or done" before would be the only way to make such a commercial popular with Turkish viewers.[87]

The commercial was the first advertisement from Durex Turkey to take a comedic approach to spreading brand awareness. The humorous inclusion of an Oobi puppet made "Farewell Elizabeth" a success with Turkish consumers. The advertisement received over five million views on YouTube in its first week of release, despite how the website was blocked in Turkey at the time.[87] The amount of Durex Turkey's followers on Facebook also increased by 20% following the commercial's first broadcast on television.[87]

Oobi was instrumental in growing the Noggin network's viewership. From 2003 to 2004, full-length episodes of the show (along with premieres of Miffy and Friends and Connie the Cow) were responsible for increasing Noggin's average daily viewers to 93,000 children in its key demographic of infants and toddlers (a 55 percent increase over its ratings the year before).[88] The average number of viewers aged 2–5 watching Oobi increased by 43 percent during the same time period.[88] The steady increase in ratings received coverage from Multichannel News author Mike Reynolds, who attributed Noggin's popularity to its "breakout original series Oobi."[89] Its growing audience was what led Noggin to order a second set of full-length episodes.[90] The premiere of the "Uma Preschool!" episode on September 6, 2004, posted a 2.35 Nielsen rating among the preschool age group, becoming the highest-rated premiere of a Noggin original series to that date.[11][88]

The puppeteers' performances and the show's approach to teaching fundamental life skills have been praised by critics. Common Sense Media reviewer Andrea Graham gave the show a five-star review, writing that "when it comes to preschool programming, Oobi really breaks the mold, succeeding in its simplicity."[91] Jeanne Spreier of the Dallas Morning News called Oobi "the most imaginative and interesting preschooler program to debut in years," describing its characters as "amazingly expressive hands that show anger, fear, happiness, even age and youth."[92] The Coalition for Quality Children's Media wrote positively of Oobi, complimenting its concept, and calling it "thoroughly enjoyable" and "extremely well received."[93] Diana Dawson of the Herald-Journal found the show's old-fashioned look appealing, stating that "in a world that too often forgets the innocent joy of playing kick-the-can and catching fireflies, there's something incredibly endearing about the bare-handed puppetry."[94] DVD Talk's Holly Ordway called Oobi "a clever way to encourage kids to be imaginative."[95] Jaime Egan of Families.com commended the show's messages of inclusion and diversity, calling them "invaluable" and highlighting Frieda the Foot and Kako as stand-out characters.[96] Ryan Ball of Animation Magazine described the show as "an offbeat new entry" to Noggin's lineup, adding that "the fact that all the characters are played by hands just adds to the quirkiness."[97] In 2010, Babble.com listed Oobi second on their list of top twelve television series for babies and toddlers.[98] In 2018, television writer Jon Weisman named Oobi one of the best kids' shows of the 2000s, calling it "low-key charming" and praising the theme song.[99]

Some critics have commended the show for its widespread appeal. In an interview with The New York Times, Tom Ascheim said that "the show's quirky appeal extended far beyond Noggin's target audience. 'The simplicity is really understandable by my two-year-old, but my ten-year-old really giggles at Oobi.'"[100] Andrew Dalton of The Stir stated that he was a fan of the show himself, adding that Oobi is "just happy to be simple and gleeful, and that actually makes it more appealing to sit and watch as a grown-up."[101] The San Diego Union-Tribune's Jane Clifford felt that it could be enjoyed by viewers of all ages, remarking that "if as a kid you ever drew eyes or a mouth on your hand and then 'talked' to a friend, you'll relate to this show."[102] The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette named Oobi the best cable premiere of April 2003, reporting: "I've seen every blessed minute of each general-audience premiere; they are good. But another new show outreaches the rest: Oobi."[103] In a 2018 interview, Noel MacNeal recounted, "Some of our biggest fans became [college] kids coming back from parties, who were just like really stoned, and would just sit and watch Oobi."[4]

In spring 2001, Little Airplane Productions was the recipient of a Parents' Choice Television Gold Award for Oobi.[104] Later in the same year, Oobi won a Kids First Endorsement Award, presented by the Coalition for Quality Children's Media.[105] It was also nominated for the organization's Best Children's Film or Video Awards.[106] In 2004, the series received a second Parents' Choice Award,[107] and a nomination in the "Up to 6 Fiction" category at the Prix Jeunesse International Festival.[108] In 2007, Common Sense Media named the series on its annual list of "Best Bets for Young Kids 2-4."[109] In June 2009, Josh Selig was presented with an Innovation Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation for his work on the show.[110] In 2014, Prix Jeunesse recognized the series in its category "The Greatest Impact Programmes of the Last 50 Years."[111]

Havas Worldwide and Durex's commercial featuring Oobi, "Farewell Elizabeth", was also the recipient of one award and three nominations in 2014. It was nominated in two categories at the Kristal Elma awards, which were presented by Reklamcılar Derneği.[112] It won a Silver Prize at the Loeries,[113] and was a finalist in the 2014 Epica Awards.[86]

Artist Jesse Hernandez with an Oobi tattoo in Longview, Texas.

Oobi has made an impression on celebrities. Actress Uma Thurman, who shares her first name with the character of Uma, revealed to Stephanie D'Abruzzo (who plays Oobi's Uma) that she was familiar with the show and its characters in 2004.[114] As part of his "Brotherhood 2.0" project, author John Green featured Oobi in an installment of his video blog series Vlogbrothers.[115] In a humorous sketch, the show's title character demonstrated how to write a book proposal alongside a sock puppet. Clips from Oobi were frequently shown on Joel McHale's The Soup during the segment "What the Kids Are Watching", in which McHale took scenes from children's programs out of context and provided sarcastic commentary on them. After watching a scene from the "Showtime!" episode that depicted Oobi and Kako glued together, McHale joked about the puppets being homosexual.[116]

During its run, the series developed a cult following of Muppet fans and amateur filmmakers who created their own Oobi puppets.[3] Before Oobi premiered as a long-form program in 2003, Amy Amatengelo of the Boston Herald stated that the Oobi shorts were "already very popular" with "those of the Muppet generation."[117] In the same article, Tom Ascheim stated that Oobi "gets fan mail," attributing the popularity to viewers' ability to make their own Oobi puppets.[117] In 2004, The Melbourne Age reported that "the show - the work of various Sesame Street alumni - is developing a strong cult following; the real Uma [Thurman] is said to be a fan of hand Uma."[3] An online catalogue of unofficial Oobi puppets and accessories, OobiEyes.com, was operated from 2006 to 2013.[118] A community of amateur puppeteers who created fan films with Oobi puppets existed during the early years of the YouTube website, and OobiEyes.com held an advertising campaign with YouTube in 2008.[118]

One of the runner-ups of the 2009 Cannes Young Lions Competition, a television advertising contest, was an Oxfam commercial based on Oobi. Titled "Let Your Hands Do the Talking," it featured spoofs of celebrities portrayed as hand puppets and given "Oo"-themed names in the vein of Oobi and Uma.[119]

In July 2016, Disney XD announced that it had greenlit a put pilot titled Right Hand Guy, which was in consideration for a full series. The pilot starred a pre-teen who draws a face on his right hand that comes to life and befriends him. The creator, Dan Lagana, took inspiration from Oobi while developing the concept.[120][121] Lagana showed the Oobi episode "Babysitter!" to the actors so that they would be familiar with it.[122]

The show is mentioned in a variety of books published by television producers, puppeteers, and parents of young children. Satirist Neal Pollack mentions the show in his autobiography Alternadad, in which he notes that Oobi "offered the standard share-and-be-creative message ... it also featured a hilarious character called Grampu."[123] It is briefly referenced in Laura Lynn's Ariel's Office, in which the narrator describes her daughter watching Noggin, and being transfixed by Oobi.[124] It is described as a "Noggin show that use[s] Señor Wences-style human hand puppets" in Dade Hayes's novel Anytime Playdate, which investigates the preschool entertainment business and its effect on parenting.[125] Robert Rodriguez, a filmmaker who directed Sharkboy and Lavagirl and the Spy Kids franchise, also likens the show to Señor Wences' puppets in his book The 1950s' Most Wanted.[126] Lisa Guernsey mentions that Oobi "promot[es] cognitive growth" in her 2012 book Screen Time, which reports on how electronic media affects children.[127]

Oobi shorts and episode clips were included in many Nick Jr. DVDs released in 2003 and 2004, beginning with Blue's Clues: Shapes and Colors!, which contained the "Dance!" short.[128] The final video to include a clip from the show was Oswald: On-the-Go Oswald, which featured a clip from the "Dance Class!" episode.[129] Several of these videos have been repackaged and sold in DVD packs as recently as 2015.[130]

Oobi has been featured in many television-related magazines. Information about the show was frequently incorporated into Nick Jr. Magazine, whose August 2004 edition included an Oobi-themed craft section.[131] In summer 2004, TV Guide published excerpts from an interview with Stephanie D'Abruzzo about the show.[114] The series is mentioned in the September 2004 issue of Big Apple Parent among Little Airplane's other works.[132] The October 2004 issue of Playthings includes an interview with Josh Selig about his company, along with two photos of Oobi characters.[133][134] Kidscreen regularly included news about the series. In July 2005, it mentioned the show in a description of the Little Airplane Academy.[135] The June 2007 issue included a story about how Little Airplane conceived the Oobi series' title.[13]

Oobi activities were available on Noggin.com from 2002 to 2009.[8] Kenny Miller of Viacom announced the addition of Oobi to the site in an interview with PR Newswire, describing the show's online webpage as a place "where kids can match shapes with bubbles, colors with snacks, compose music, and draw and dance with Oobi."[136] Many interactive games were created to coincide with the shorts.[137] From 2004 to 2006, printables featuring the characters were also released on the site.[138] The games based on the show were mentioned by Time magazine when it named Noggin.com one of the 50 best sites of 2004,[139] and by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences when the site won a Webby Award in 2005.[140]

The majority of the games received positive reviews. In 2006, the AACE organization listed the "Oobi's Letters" game as an online resource that helped players develop "critical components of children's development."[141] Jean Armour Polly and Heidi Kotansky of Common Sense Media wrote positively of the more informative activities, but noted that some lacked a sufficient amount of educational content. They write, "in Oobi's Bubbles, kids drag a bubble wand next to Oobi's 'mouth' so he can blow bubbles. This just teaches tots to click and drag. Wouldn't it be more fun to do this with real wands and soapy water?"[142]

Plastic hand puppet eyes, like those shown here, were given to customers at Oobi-themed events.

The 2001 North American Trade Show Tour in Saint Paul, Minnesota, included a replica of the Oobi set.[143] Noggin's other displays at the show were all related to Sesame Street; the Oobi display was included as part of the Sesame tour. The display was designed and constructed by Matthew Allar, a scenographer for Viacom Media Networks.[144] Oobi was also a recurring theme of "Club Noggin", a monthly event taking place at malls across the United States. Episodes of the show were screened at these events, and visitors were supplied with Oobi puppet eyes and activities.[145]

Fifteen minutes of Oobi shorts were played as part of the 2001 Kids First Film and Video Festival, presented by the Coalition for Quality Children's Media.[93] The festival was a nationwide event; the first screening occurred in Santa Fe, New Mexico, followed by subsequent showings at fifty locations across the United States.[106] From 2002 to 2004, Oobi shorts were also broadcast regularly at Jillian's restaurants as part of the chain's "Noggin Play Day" promotion.[146] At these events, attendees could watch a live feed of Noggin with themed activities and meals.[147]

"Oobi Arts and Crafts" sessions were held throughout November 2007 at Nickelodeon Suites Resort in Orlando, Florida.[148] Sets of plastic Oobi puppet eyes, identical to those at Club Noggin, were distributed to hotel guests at these events.[148]