Post by miltonfludgecow on Dec 21, 2018 10:27:20 GMT
Hello, everyone. My name's Kevin and I'm new to the LMW forums. For the past few years, it's become a hobby of mine to find rare and obscure media from my childhood. I'm primarily focused on finding the oddball stuff that used to scare me as a kid- which is why I'd like to dedicate my first ever thread to Nick Jr's interstitial programs. Sure, I could discuss old Nick Jr. interstitials all day ("Hey, remember that schmuck Countin' Carl?"), but I'm here to talk about a little piece of puppeteering lore known as Nick Jr's Little Big Room.
Imagine if Sesame Street had a bastard child with Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Now imagine said bastard child was baptized in a vat of nuclear waste. You'd have Little Big Room.
In all seriousness, it was a series of shorts that would play between shows on Nick Jr. in the mid-to-late nineties. The show was centered around a delightful duo of puppets named Flexy and Jam (performed by Sesame Street alumni Joey Mazzarino and Fran Brill, respectively). Early in the show's run, there were two human characters, Isabelle and Silly Man, that would interact and play along with Flexy and Jam. Isabelle served as the voice of reason/comedic foil between Flexy and Jam while Silly Man would do, as the name implies, silly stuff.
After a year or so, Nick Jr. decided to drop the human characters in favor of a more puppet-centric show. But as time went on, the show began to focus more and more on Flexy. Soon after, Flexy would get his own spin-off show called Flexy's Little Big Question. In this show, Flexy would leave the confines of the Little Big Room, go out into the real world, and ask children questions like "Why do we brush our teeth?" or "Why do we have to eat our vegetables?". While the show was charming to boot, it was short-lived. But soon after, a little explorer named Dora would forever change the landscape of Nick Jr.
Why am I rambling on about an old puppet show? Well, for one, it used to frighten the heck out of me! I was too young to remember the segments with Isabelle and Silly Man, but I do remember the standalone puppet shorts vividly. You see, my dad would frequently record Nick Jr. programs for me on VHS when I was a wee lad. On one VHS of mine, a Little Big Room short appeared. This was the first time I ever saw Flexy- and let me tell ya, I nearly crapped myself. It was a close-up shot of him welcoming you to the Little Big Room and inviting you to meet a new friend of his, all the while his disjointed bug eyes stared directly into your soul and his quasi-New York accent pierced your eardrums. I have never been the same since.
The short involved Flexy interviewing a boy named Tyler. They would talk about making silly noises. Tyler would later squeeze a squeaky ball and Flexy would proclaim that the ball is playing their silly noise game. The short is barely a minute long and is pretty forgettable (aside from Flexy himself). This short doesn't seem to be available online anywhere, but maybe that's for the best.
Flexy frequently haunted my dreams during my elementary school years. His creepy yellow face and bug eyes were burnt into my brain. Every time I would pop in that VHS to watch some Little Bear or Blue's Clues, I would know exactly when that Little Big Room short would strike. Little Bear would end and Face would come on the screen:
Face: Hi there! Face here! And guess who's in the Nick Jr. (brr, brr, brrr!) Little Big Room? It's Flexy! Let's go see what he's up to this time!
As soon as Face would announce Flexy's arrival, I'd hide in another room until I could hear that the short was over. This would go on for several years until the summer of 2006, when I decided to man up, watch the short, and laugh at it's sheer cheesiness. I couldn't believe it: I was afraid of that? Frankly, any wide-eyed puppet could scare the pants off a two-year-old, but I digress.
To make a long story short, there's plenty of Little Big Room shorts available on YouTube- just not all of them. If you're feeling nostalgic for 90s Nickelodeon or just want to kill a couple of minutes, give them a watch. But beware, those puppets look like they're up to something. That or doing copious amounts of illegal narcotics.
TL;DR: There's a Little Big Room that scared me as a kid that's not available on the web.
Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nvOFOJMmmM
Another link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG-SperBRz4
Another, another link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GwJYmX1wbg
Imagine if Sesame Street had a bastard child with Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Now imagine said bastard child was baptized in a vat of nuclear waste. You'd have Little Big Room.
In all seriousness, it was a series of shorts that would play between shows on Nick Jr. in the mid-to-late nineties. The show was centered around a delightful duo of puppets named Flexy and Jam (performed by Sesame Street alumni Joey Mazzarino and Fran Brill, respectively). Early in the show's run, there were two human characters, Isabelle and Silly Man, that would interact and play along with Flexy and Jam. Isabelle served as the voice of reason/comedic foil between Flexy and Jam while Silly Man would do, as the name implies, silly stuff.
After a year or so, Nick Jr. decided to drop the human characters in favor of a more puppet-centric show. But as time went on, the show began to focus more and more on Flexy. Soon after, Flexy would get his own spin-off show called Flexy's Little Big Question. In this show, Flexy would leave the confines of the Little Big Room, go out into the real world, and ask children questions like "Why do we brush our teeth?" or "Why do we have to eat our vegetables?". While the show was charming to boot, it was short-lived. But soon after, a little explorer named Dora would forever change the landscape of Nick Jr.
Why am I rambling on about an old puppet show? Well, for one, it used to frighten the heck out of me! I was too young to remember the segments with Isabelle and Silly Man, but I do remember the standalone puppet shorts vividly. You see, my dad would frequently record Nick Jr. programs for me on VHS when I was a wee lad. On one VHS of mine, a Little Big Room short appeared. This was the first time I ever saw Flexy- and let me tell ya, I nearly crapped myself. It was a close-up shot of him welcoming you to the Little Big Room and inviting you to meet a new friend of his, all the while his disjointed bug eyes stared directly into your soul and his quasi-New York accent pierced your eardrums. I have never been the same since.
The short involved Flexy interviewing a boy named Tyler. They would talk about making silly noises. Tyler would later squeeze a squeaky ball and Flexy would proclaim that the ball is playing their silly noise game. The short is barely a minute long and is pretty forgettable (aside from Flexy himself). This short doesn't seem to be available online anywhere, but maybe that's for the best.
Flexy frequently haunted my dreams during my elementary school years. His creepy yellow face and bug eyes were burnt into my brain. Every time I would pop in that VHS to watch some Little Bear or Blue's Clues, I would know exactly when that Little Big Room short would strike. Little Bear would end and Face would come on the screen:
Face: Hi there! Face here! And guess who's in the Nick Jr. (brr, brr, brrr!) Little Big Room? It's Flexy! Let's go see what he's up to this time!
As soon as Face would announce Flexy's arrival, I'd hide in another room until I could hear that the short was over. This would go on for several years until the summer of 2006, when I decided to man up, watch the short, and laugh at it's sheer cheesiness. I couldn't believe it: I was afraid of that? Frankly, any wide-eyed puppet could scare the pants off a two-year-old, but I digress.
To make a long story short, there's plenty of Little Big Room shorts available on YouTube- just not all of them. If you're feeling nostalgic for 90s Nickelodeon or just want to kill a couple of minutes, give them a watch. But beware, those puppets look like they're up to something. That or doing copious amounts of illegal narcotics.
TL;DR: There's a Little Big Room that scared me as a kid that's not available on the web.
Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nvOFOJMmmM
Another link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG-SperBRz4
Another, another link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GwJYmX1wbg
