Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show!

On Episode 197 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview puppeteer, writer and director Noel MacNeal! Noel's puppetry career started on The Great Space Coaster, inheriting the role of Knock Knock. Since 1982, he has worked on Sesame Street as a puppeteer and now as a director. He is best known for puppeteering the title character Bear on Bear in the Big Blue House, as well as occasional...

On Episode 196 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview Australian voice actor and impressionist Keith Scott! Early on in his professional voiceover career, Keith lent his voice to many radio and TV commercials, both with his original voices and by doing character impressions. He also voiced Flap the Platypus, Splodge the Kangaroo and various others in the Blinky Bill franchise, Bullwinkle...

On Episode 195 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview puppeteer, puppet designer and director, Tim Lagasse! Tim has performed many styles of puppets for over 3 decades. Some of his most well-known puppeteering roles include performing Mr. Cook and Tweeter on Allegra's Window, Arty Smartypants, Barnaby B. Busterfield III and Gus the Bunny on Between the Lions, Basil on Johnny and the...

On Episode 194 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, voice actress and singer Debi Derryberry returns for a chat! For 30 years, Debi has lent her voice to countless characters in animation. Just to name a few, she voiced the title character Jimmy Neutron in Nickelodeon's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius franchise, Draculaura in the Monster High franchise and Clay, the host of Playhouse Disney. Aside fr...

On Episode 193 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview musician and composer, Julian Harris! Julian has composed and written songs for dozens of TV series. His children's work includes working on the Disney series Bear in the Big Blue House, starting off as the lead guitar player, then as lead score composer and occasional songwriter. Some other children's series he composed for i...

In Episode 192 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is author, illustrator and artist, Gene Barretta! Gene is best known for writing and illustrating a huge number of children's books, with some of his best-sellers being Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin and Timeless Thomas: How Thomas Edison Changed Our Lives. He also illustrated books and style guides for Bet...

In Episode 191 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer and puppet builder, Amanda Maddock! Early on in Amanda's puppeteering career, she was an additional puppeteer on Bear in the Big Blue House, Between the Lions and The Book of Pooh. She was also one of the puppeteers of Trixie on LazyTown, assisted Owl and puppeteered Kessie on The Book of Pooh, worked as an additional pu...

In Episode 190 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is children's TV executive, Lisa O'Brien! For many years, Lisa has worked in the children's TV business. She worked in the on-air promotions department for Disney Channel for several years and took part in developing Playhouse Disney! She also helped to launch Sprout and worked there for many years as a producer and writer fo...

In Episode 189 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer, Peter Linz! Since 1991, Peter has worked as a Muppet performer for Sesame Street, starting out as an assistant and background puppeteer, before inheriting the roles of Ernie and Herry Monster and performing Julia's dad Daniel. With The Muppets, he performs the role of Walter and took on the roles of Robin the Frog, Lips...

In Episode 188 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is Canadian actor and puppeteer, Marty Stelnick! Some of Marty's best known roles includes performing Ooh on Playhouse Disney's Ooh & Aah morning block. He also puppeteered on series such as Nanalan, Whoop's Littleburg and Mr. Meaty, created YTV's The Fuzzpaws, voiced Grant and Iggy on What's Your News? and many m...

In Episode 187 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is actor, TV presenter and online radio DJ, Rick Adams! Rick is best known for hosting the internet station Radio KOL from 2003 to 2007. Rick also hosted the CBS series Dance Revolution and the National Geographic series Animals Say the Wildest Things and Amazing Animals, co-hosted Nickelodeon's Slime Time Live, voiced the character...

In Episode 186 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer and puppet builder, BJ Guyer! Since 1989, BJ has been designing, building and performing puppets on a wide variety of projects. He puppeteered with Sesame Street and The Muppets on a number of projects including Muppets from Space, The Muppets 2011 film, Elmo's World: Happy Holidays! and Elmo's Christmas Countdown. A...

In Episode 185 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer, director and producer, Kevin Clash! Kevin's career in puppetry started on projects like Captain Kangaroo and The Great Space Coaster, before joining Sesame Street in the early '80s. He originated characters like Hoots the Owl, Baby Natasha, Kingston Livingston III and Wolfgang the Seal and is best known for inheriting the role...

In Episode 184 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer and actress, Donna Kimball! Donna's work in the puppet world has mostly been with The Jim Henson Company. She performed and voiced Miss Susie and Zeke in the PBS Kids series Sid the Science Kid, puppeteered Sweetpea Sue, Bedtime Bunny and Granny Pearl in the Sprout series Pajanimals and currently puppeteers Mokey Fraggle...

In Episode 183 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer and director, Matt Vogel! Matt's puppetry career started as an understudy for the Coca-Cola Polar Bear, before joining Sesame Street in 1996 as a Muppet performer. For many years, he was Caroll Spinney's understudy for Big Bird before fully inheriting the character, as well as inheriting characters like Count von Cou...

In Episode 182 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is director, writer and producer, Ozzie Alfonso! Ozzie is a director, writer and producer who for many years worked for the Children's Television Workshop on various projects. He started out directing and producing for Sesame Street and then went on to direct, write and produce for 3-2-1 Contact. He also produced and directed for the...

In Episode 181 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we speak with Terry Angus! Terry is a Canadian puppeteer who played several characters in the original Fraggle Rock series such as Brio the Minstrel, Storyteller Fraggle and Morris Fraggle. He also puppeteered on a number of Muppet projects, including Follow That Bird, A Muppet Family Christmas and Basil Hears a Noise. Terry is also best known for...

In Episode 180 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we talk to TV director Eric Dean Seaton! Starting out as a stage manager, Eric transitioned into directing for television, starting with the Disney Channel series That's So Raven. Since then he has directed countless TV series on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, including Good Luck Charlie, Austin & Ally, Imagination Movers, Nicky, Ricky, D...

In Episode 179 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we are joined by Tim Burns! Tim is a writer and composer for television who wrote a number of songs for the Sprout TV network, including the theme songs for The Sunny Side Up Show and The Let's Go Show, as well as songs for the Preschool Musical special and The Chica Show. Tim also composed songs for Playhouse Disney, wrote for The Jim Henson...

In Episode 178 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we speak to Patty Wirtz! Patty has been a voice actress for more than 20 years, providing voiceover for radio and TV commercials, toys, apps and more! She is best known for her work in the long-running Barney franchise as the voice of Baby Bop's older brother BJ. Tune in for a discussion all about Patty's audition process for the character...

In Episode 177 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we're joined by puppeteer Steve Whitmire! From 1978 to 2016, Steve worked on countless projects with The Muppets and The Jim Henson Company. During The Muppet Show days, he started performing his own characters Rizzo the Rat and Lips, before eventually inheriting the roles of Kermit the Frog, Beaker, Statler and more. He also puppeteered Wembl...

In Episode 176 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview Steve Segal! Steve is an animator and filmmaker known for his own animated shorts and contributing to the Disney-Pixar films Toy Story and A Bug's Life. He also did FX animation work on Pee Wee's Playhouse, animated the Sesame Street insert Animal Books and many more!

In Episode 175 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we speak with John Tartaglia! John works as a puppeteer, actor, director and writer. John is best known for creating and starring in the Playhouse Disney series Johnny and the Sprites as Johnny and Sage and the PBS Kids series Splash and Bubbles as Splash, performing Princeton and Rod in the original Broadway cast of Avenue Q and inheriting the ro...

In Episode 174 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we are joined by Joey Ahlbum! In the animation world, Joey worked on a number of inserts for Sesame Street, including the iconic '90s closing sequence and the Lecture Lady sequences on the original Elmo's World segments. He also created the Dino-Boppers IDs for Nickelodeon! As an author, Joey created the eBook series Lucy the Dinosaur and...

In Episode 173 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we chat with puppeteer, writer and director Bill Barretta! Early on in Bill's professional career, he performed the body of Earl Sinclair and various others on the Henson series Dinosaurs, then joining The Muppets and inheriting characters such as Dr. Teeth, The Swedish Chef and Rowlf the Dog and puppeteering his own characters Pepe the King P...