In between my various projects this last week I’ve had the opportunity to indulge in some fun pastimes. Since Australian TV has gone digital, there’s been a huge amount of stuff to watch. (Those in the US or elsewhere: we had 5 TV channels. We’ve added another 10 on top of that) The Aus. Broadcasting Corp, the main government-run channel, added on a whole new digital station devoted to kids’ TV. Channel 7 added one, and to my surprise, has been running repeats of ALF, something I haven’t seen in oh, 20 years or so. And it’s quite fun catching up with all this stuff that no doubt those in the UK and US have been enjoying for ages. This brings me to the title of my post.

I’ve been watching lots of children’s shows - enjoying dirtgirlworld and their amazing animations, being creeped out by claymation Bert and Ernie (what’s with that?), and most recently, Bookaboo. (Side note: what is with the page for parents on the Bookaboo site being a Ning community? How lame!) When it comes to talking about puppetry on TV, it’s so hard to talk about local - ie. Australian - shows… but really, I quite enjoyed this little puppy.

The idea of the show is quite simply: Bookaboo the rock puppy can’t play in his band until he is read a story. Each episode a celebrity guest comes and reads him a book.

I saw the ad whilst flipping channels, and actually ended up watching the third episode of the whole series. At first, I wasn’t all that impressed with the puppet. Yeah, ok, we’ve all seen a muppet-type puppet before on TV - nothing new there. And it’s a gorgeous looking puppet, but you’re not about to see something crappily made on TV now are you?

But then I started getting into it, watching the way the crooked mouth moves. I noticed the flexibility of the cheeks and how they almost seem to have a natural bounce to them. And I watched the ears. Omigod, the ears are beautiful! … Yeah, I know that sounds crazy, but if you’re a puppet fan/maker/performer, go watch. Those are some fascinatingly elastic ears, extremely realistic of how a dog’s really work. They’re floppy, but not too floppy, they move naturally… and I swear they have some animatronics happening at some points.

Puppet Heap are the builders of Bookaboo, and I can see why they get so much praise overseas. The American company has worked on Veggie Tales, one of the more popular puppet shows in the US. - The Bookaboo program, as far as I can tell, has only been shown here and in the UK. (There are plenty of clips on the Bookaboo site, linked above and below. Those in Australia: check out ABC’s iView, there are episodes listed under the category ‘ABC for kids‘) And actually, Bookaboo received a BAFTA, the equal of an Emmy in the UK.

I have to give a huge amount of credit to the puppeteer too, Marcus Clarke, who does some amazing performing. (But sadly, sucks at web design) Not only is the character fun and witty, but it has an excellent report with the guests… Admittedly in the sole episode I’ve watched so far.

My only problems with the show: Julian Clary’s over-the-top makeup; the scary book that wasn’t scary at all; and the fact that broke my irony meter… the show aims at encouraging parents/families to read together … by you know, presenting the message on a one-dimensional screen.

Normally I wouldn’t mention American/Brit stuff here, but the show made me laugh, curious, fascinated, and extremely impressed. The saddest part is that we don’t have nearly that quality puppetry on TV in Australia. Unfortunately, I’ve not caught any of the other episodes as yet, but I think I’ll be setting a tape for them. It’s great to see some genuinely good puppetry on TV for once, that isn’t from the Henson Co.

Now… watch the clip: once for the enjoyment; and once for the ears. (Fair warning: the below clip seems to be the whole episode. No doubt someone will pull it for infringement at some point)