I didn’t think children’s programming could get any weirder than Teletubbies. Then I had the pleasure of being introduced to Boohbah,
a brainchild of Teletubbies creator Anne Wood. I first found out about
this show a few months ago and found the description perplexing. Now
that I’ve seen it, my initial impression holds. I just don’t get it. The
Teletubbies were strange enough. The stars of this show are similarly
brightly colored creatures that could best be described as giant
gumdrops with Kewpie doll heads. A prominent feature of those heads is
the eyes, whose eyeballs click backward, then forward, then back to
center when one of the BoohBahs wishes to express emotion. This movement
is accompanied by the lighting up of their electronic eyebrows. Most
often, the eye trick seems to coincide with a sense of surprise or
confusion, but it’s one of the few means of communication these
creatures display.
Together, the blobs make up a colorful ball
that goes bouncing around through the sky leaving rainbows in its wake.
They awaken from their slumber when the children on the show call them
by name: Humbah (Yellow), Zing Zing Zingbah (Orange), Jumbah (Blue),
Zumbah (Purple), JingBah (Pink). This begs the question, what’s so
special about the orange guy that he gets two extra syllables? Nothing
that I can see; none of them seems to have any kind of a distinctive
personality. They don’t even speak, other than to sing a series of
“boo”s that, rather like the much more engaging Care Bear Stare,
eventually produce a rainbow. They float and they spin and they dance
around clumsily, and apparently this is supposed to encourage young
children to be more active.
Of course, the BoohBahs are not
the only characters on the show. There’s a host of children who call the
Boohbahs into life, blow objects into Story World and proclaim “Look
what I can do!” before engaging in a very boring and repetitive physical
activity. There are the Story World inhabitants as well: the
uncreatively named paper cutouts Grandmama, Grandpapa, Brother, Sister,
Auntie, Little Dog Fido, Mrs. Lady and Mr. Man. Their adventures are
chronicled by a narrator who actually reminded me a bit of Ringo in his
stint as the conductor on Thomas the Tank Engine. I found him the
least annoying part of the show, but it was balanced out by the
exaggerated manner in which the Story World actors react to their
situation. I guess it’s not so different from what Mr. Noodle does on
Elmo’s World, but I find him a lot easier to take.
I don’t
know what to think. Maybe I’m just too out of touch with my 3-year-old
self to get the beauty of this show, but I am a person who generally
appreciates and enjoys children’s programming. What I found in this show
was a plotless wasteland with enough flashing lights and colors to make
my head spin. It gave me a headache and made me wonder whether somebody
slipped something into my breakfast cereal. I think my dog got more out
of the show than I did; at one point Brother and Sister went bouncing
around on the beach in big squeaky socks that sounded just like her
squeaky teddy bear, and she ran to the TV to see what was up. I’d hardly
consider that a convincing endorsement. Of course, this show was not
made for me, but I think of Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, Polka Dot Door, Reading Rainbow and Captain Kangaroo and can’t help but wonder where children’s television is going…
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