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Frieda the Foot is a recurring character on Oobi. She is an upside-down foot puppet. Oobi has a bit of a crush on her. She was played by Cheryl Blaylock.

Description

Unlike the other characters, Frieda is a foot puppet instead of a hand. Being a foot, Frieda's favorite things are soccer and dressing up in fancy shoes. Whenever she says something, her toes move up and down to give the impression that she's talking.

She likes to hang out at the park, which is where she first met Oobi. Despite looking completely different from each other, Oobi and Frieda are very good friends, and Oobi likes her a lot. Since they're nothing alike, Oobi and Frieda sometimes run into problems when they try to play together. They always end up finding a compromise that allows both of them to play at the same time, like turning a game of catch into "kick-catch."

Frieda appears in two episodes: "New Friend!" and "Frieda Friend!".

Development

Cheryl Blaylock was offered the role of Frieda in 2003. She knew the creator of Oobi, Josh Selig, from his time on Sesame Street and immediately accepted. For episodes featuring Frieda, the crew had to construct a new set that allowed Cheryl 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. Cheryl 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.

In 2012, Cheryl was interviewed by the website Old School Lane and described her experience on Oobi:

Question: "What was it like being on Oobi?"
Cheryl: "That show was just brilliant. A puppetry purist's puppet show. And inspired from Puppetry 101 when you just start with a coupla ping-pong balls, your hand and a camera monitor, learning eye focus and lip sync. Leave it to the talented Josh Selig to create a fantastic show around the idea. I was happy to provide a bit of diversity with Frieda the Foot. 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. My favorite moment was when they had her play dress up and she popped up wearing a shoe. That scene was with my Magellan, the amazing Noel MacNeal doing a southern accent." (source)

In 2020, she gave another interview, this time talking more about the process. Cheryl also mentioned that she and Stephanie D'Abruzzo (who played Uma) had an ongoing joke about Frieda's quote "Shoes, shoes, shoes!".

Cheryl: "When they asked me to come in and do Frieda, I was like, "Okay! So, where are you gonna put the eyes? That means I'm gonna have the eyes on the bottom of my foot, so... where do I put my body? I had to go back to Puppetry 101 and teach my foot: you know, eye focus and monitoring. I asked if I could come in early and if there was time to work on it on the set. Josh [Selig] said absolutely. So there I was, while they were doing other stuff... I was just down there with my monitor, teaching my foot how to talk!"
"I was just sending signals up my foot. Like, okay, do something... alright, well, the eyes are focused and they're wiggling a little bit and the toes are kind of moving. And if you go back and forth that way, well, things look like you're thinking about something! And then they have to throw a ball into it, and I gotta kick the ball, too! It took a few takes. I thought it was really sweet. But my favorite time was the next time I came in. We played dress-up so we came up with shoes. 'Shoes, shoes, shoes!' ... There's this one actress [Stephanie D'Abruzzo]. Every time she saw me, she said it. It was our little joke. 'Shoes, shoes, shoes!'" (source)

Video

Interview_with_Cheryl_Blaylock_-_Frieda_the_Foot

Interview with Cheryl Blaylock - Frieda the Foot

Looks

Frieda is an upside-down foot. In her first appearance, she has light green eyes and wears a blue barrette on her toe. In her second appearance, she has darker blue-colored eyes and wears a bright pink flower-shaped pin on her toe.

Gallery

Production photos

Episode scenes

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