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Oobi is the main character of the show. He's a smart, curious hand puppet with brownish-hazel eyes. He lives with his sister Uma and his grandpa Grampu. He was played by Tim Lagasse. DescriptionOobi is a curious puppet with an eye for adventure. He explores the world around him in small steps and is always eager to learn something new. Oobi is a role model to his little sister, Uma, who usually looks to him for guidance. He has a good-natured attitude and is loyal to his friends. His quiet, self-conscious personality is often contrasted with Uma and Kako's goofiness and arrogance. Oobi's favorite color is blue and most of his belongings have a blue color scheme to set them apart from Uma's.   Oobi and Uma. Oobi is closest with his sister Uma and grandfather Grampu. His best friend is his next-door neighbor Kako, who visits Oobi's house so much that he's practically another member of the family. Oobi's friendship with Kako has lasted since they were very young. They have a lot of the same interests, like playing T-ball and taking care of pets. However, their personalities are drastically different and balance each other out. Kako is jokey, energetic and sometimes conceited while Oobi is more reserved and thoughtful.   Oobi with Frieda and Frankie. Oobi is also friends with Frieda the Foot, a girl who happens to be a foot puppet instead of a hand. When he first met Frieda, Oobi was instantly smitten with her but thought they couldn't play together because they look and act different. Grampu helped him realize that differences are good and people come in many shapes and sizes. Oobi has been a close friend of Frieda ever since. An important element in the series is Oobi's dream of becoming a piano player. He takes piano lessons from Inka, an elderly woman who's dating Grampu. Being a hand, Oobi needs to focus all of his energy on the music when he plays the piano. After all, he uses his entire body to touch the keys. He takes a lot of pride in being able to master simple tunes, but he tends to get nervous when he has to perform in front of others. Along with his piano lessons, Oobi is part of the community center choir. He and Kako visit the center every week to take singing lessons from Maestru, the local voice teacher and part-time conductor. Maestru wasn't very fond of Oobi and Kako when they first met. He knew the boys had a talent for singing when they put their minds to it, but they preferred to sing their own songs rather than perform as part of the group. Luckily, after some practice and a short talk about what it means to be part of a group, Oobi and Kako learned how to sing in unison and became official members of the choir.   Oobi and Kako with Oobi's toy car. Oobi's favorite toy and prized possession is a red toy racecar, modeled after a 1973 Ford Mustang. Although he loves playing with it, he obsesses over keeping it in perfect condition, treating it more like a collectible than a toy. He's always hesitant to let anyone else touch his car, out of fear that they'll break it. On the one occasion that Oobi let Uma play with the car, she accidentally broke a loose wheel off and ended up destroying the whole thing while trying to fix it. Grampu was able to fully repair the toy with the kids' help, and Uma even fixed its squeaky wheel with some oil. At the end of every episode, Oobi waves goodbye to the viewers while using his catchphrase: "Oobi, you, friends!" Even when he isn't the focus of an episode, Oobi shows up at the end to say the line. For example, "Uma Preschool!" is all about Uma's school life, but Oobi still pops up at the end to say it and wave goodbye to the audience. There are some meta-references in the show about how much Oobi uses the phrase, like a scene in "Uma Dreams!" that reveals he even says it in his sleep! Development Tim and Josh Selig Being the main character, Oobi was the first puppet created for the show. From the beginning, he was meant to be the simplest kind of hand puppet imaginable, with his signature acrylic eyes being his only accessory. Series creator Josh Selig said in 2004 that he experimented with many different names while developing Oobi as a character. His first choice for Oobi's name was "Pipo". (source) He had to choose a different name after he learned that Pipo was already trademarked by an Italian brand of jeans. He still wanted "a name that wasn't like any other name" and "didn't want to name Oobi after a real child, since he's kind of his own species." (source) He eventually settled on Oobi, because the double O's mirror Oobi's iconic eyeballs.   A still from A Show of Hands. Oobi's performer, Tim Lagasse, is a veteran puppeteer for Sesame Workshop. He was chosen to play Oobi because of his previous work as a bare-handed puppeteer on A Show of Hands. This was a series of short films that Tim wrote and directed for Nickelodeon. Each short featured Lagasse and several other puppeteers performing short comedy skits with their hands. They focused on the visual illusions that can be made with hand gestures and shadows. Many of the techniques that Tim used to convey expressions through hand motions in the films were carried over to Oobi. (source) In an interview with the Newsweek magazine, Josh Selig mentioned that Tim had to shave his arm regularly while working on Oobi so that his character would not look like an adult. Tim and the other cast members were paid to visit a manicurist and get their nails touched up every week during production. On his website, Tim mentions that Oobi "is probably the most unique thing I have ever done." (source) Looks  Oobi in a promo photo for season two. Oobi is a small hand puppet with fair skin. His eyes are dark brown in the first season of shorts and hazel in the long-form episodes. Four fingers act as Oobi's upper lip, while his thumb acts as his lower lip. Unlike most of the other puppets, he only wears accessories or clothing on special occasions. Three pairs of acrylic puppet eyes were used for Oobi throughout the show's run: a brown pair in the shorts and two separate pairs of hazel eyes for seasons two and three. With each new pair, Oobi's eyes got lighter and lighter in color. GalleryPromo images                Screenshots Oobi camping out  At the playground  Uma sneaking up on Oobi  "Practice."  Oobi with Kako's puppy  Oobi in a party hat  Oobi's first haircut  Doing the "hair dance"  Mimicking Kako  Oobi pointing  Thumbs up  Oobi's cat costume  Oobi at the piano  Oobi in his room  "Oobi, you, friends!"  Oobi's pet turtle  "Oobi draw!"  Oobi as Marilyn Monroe  Oobi in the rain  Businessman Oobi  At Kako's house  At the Chinese restaurant  Oobi's dinosaur costume  Learning sign language  Oobi with Sophie  Angus gives Oobi a thumbs-up  Oobi as the Big Bad Wolf  On a nature walk  Oobi fishing with Grampu  "Super Oobi!" Game sprites Normal  Facing right  Mouth open  Thinking  Holding a pencil  Holding a watering can Trivia
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