Oobi is an American children's television series produced by Little Airplane Productions for the Noggin channel. The show's concept is based on a training method used by puppeteers, in which they use their hands and a pair of glass eyes instead of a full puppet. The main character is a bare hand puppet named Oobi. The first season was a series of two-minute shorts. For its second and third seasons, it became a long-form series, with episodes lasting 13 minutes each. The show originally aired from 2000 to February 11, 2005, with reruns continuing until March 18, 2013.
The series was created by Josh Selig. He came up with the idea for Oobi while watching bare-handed puppeteers audition for Sesame Street. All of the show's puppeteers were veteran Muppet performers. The main characters were played by Tim Lagasse, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Noel MacNeal, and Tyler Bunch.
The puppets' designs include glass eyes and accessories like hats and hairpieces. The puppeteers' thumbs are used to represent mouth movement, and their fingers flutter and clench to show emotions. The characters talk in simple sentences, using only two to three words at a time.