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)

I feel a bit lucky right now. You always hear about important bloggers and the like receiving special previews of TV shows, because they can greatly influence the number of people who watch the show when it’s revealed to the public. It just so happens that I have recently experienced a little of that.

The online world is a strange place, where you can meet (practically) neighbours without ever actually meeting them. And so it was when me and Henry from Puppets and Stuff met. He’s in the Dandenongs, about an hour drive from me; despite being there numerous times, I’d never known any puppetry to be there. What’s great is that it’s another person who’s local to me (in a sea of American puppeteers online) and that he has decided to share his work with me.

See, Henry is also known as Tall Ted (Bret is his real name, just to confuse things! Henry is just his P&S handle), a roving performer in a teddy bear costume. He and some fellow artisans have gotten together to make a TV pilot for a children’s show, which combines puppetry, craft, song, storytime and other such things. And I just finished watching a special DVD preview 

Of course, I’m not watching it because I have a huge sway with the local programming on TV; I’m watching it because Henry’s been talking about the pilot on P&S and was happy to send me a copy for fun. But it does make me feel special! (The show, as I understand it, will probably appear on Aussie TV on Channel 31 - our community TV station - if they can convince the programmers to show it)

Although the show has a certain unpolished feel to it, you can definitely tell it was done with love. The puppets are really well made, and the whole thing (while maybe not having the budget of you know, Sesame Street) has the overall feel of someone doing what they love and hoping to share it with the world, and in particular, children.

The good news is that I don’t have to tease you with tantalising hints of this pilot. Henry has put some of it online; the opening credits, which includes puppetry, Tall Ted, and an easily-stuck-in-your-head song . For anyone interested, the Tall Ted site also has some downloadable activities for kids, and info about hiring him for shows and the like. (Er, be warned, the site has some rather annoying moving bubbles as a background, which may not be pleasing to visually impaired people)… So yeah, watch some Aussie puppetry below:

A few nights ago I was flipping channels and happened upon the end of a segment on David Letterman’s show (yeah, we get it here but I can’t stand him or the show). I just caught him saying thanks to a very strange looking Nathan Lane (who I like). It seemed to be a Halloween thing. But because Nathan Lane was there, I got curious and in a few seconds heard The Addams Family. Well, the two and two clicked and it was clear the TV show has been turned into a musical. (One doesn’t have to hear Letterman say it: the mere fact that Lane is in a show usually suggests to me it’s going to be a musical)

Normally I wouldn’t care much or write about it, but it turns out this is yet another in the recent upsurge of staged musicals of well-known films (or TV shows in this case) using puppetry. Let’s see: The Lion King, Shrek the Musical, Finding Nemo, and yes, now, The Addams Family.

Naturally, by the time it gets to Australia another ten will have appeared in the US (neither Shrek nor FN have come here yet), so I went hunting for a bit of video. (I actually managed to track down the Letterman clip, but no puppets! )

If you’re curious, the puppetry is done by Basil Twist. So far, I’m not sure I’d like the musical (I’m not sure the Addams would really spend so much time singing so, well, joyfully. Also, as much as I like Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia, she’s just a little too ‘warm’ for my liking. If that’s possible, she’s more of Morticia in Frasier than in the clips I’ve seen), but I’m definitely curious about the puppetry in it. A squid, Cousin Itt, a venus fly trap, a giant iguana… sounds like fun!

So the closest I can get is this possible puppet (the iguana?) from a Vanity Fair pic: http://www.theaddamsfamilymusical.com/news.php?vanityfair=1 (sorry about the link, I couldn’t figure out if there was an embed option somewhere) and the clip from DL:

Hilary Talbot has started a Twitter account specifically for updating people about news and events on Australian puppetry. You can find the new account here: http://twitter.com/OzPuppetry. She’s recently posted about Polyglot Puppet Theatre’s movements, some pics of Snuff Puppets‘ shows, workshops and sales of useful materials, and more. If you’re an Aussie, it’s definitely worth the follow… and if you’re not, the pictures are pretty cool!