On Episode 246 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview voice actress Katie Leigh! Katie's voiceover career spans across several decades, with some of her best known television roles being the voice of Baby Rowlf in the original Muppet Babies series, Sunni Gummi in Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Honker Muddlefoot in Darkwing Duck, Alex in Totally Spies! and various characters for the My Little Pony franchise and The Mr. Men Show. Katie is also best known for her voiceover work in vi...
Sep 04, 2024•55 min
On Episode 245 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview puppeteer, puppet builder and wrangler Ben Durocher! For 8 years, Ben was a puppet wrangler for Sesame Street, including various specials and the spin-off series The Furchester Hotel and The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo. He was also a puppet fabricator on The Happytime Murders and was an additional puppeteer on the Apple TV+ series Helpsters. Recently, Ben has worked as a puppeteer on the Apple TV+ series Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock a...
Aug 31, 2024•50 min
On Episode 244 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview author and producer Debbie Gendler! Debbie is a four-time Emmy nominated TV executive and producer who worked at CBS and ABC. Aside from her work in the television world, she is best known for being a Beatles fan. She attended The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and was interviewed about The Beatles for the Beatlemania film and the documentary The Making of A Hard Day's Night. Recently, Debbie wrote the Beatles book I ...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 27 min
On Episode 243 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview writer and author Louise Gikow! Louise's professional career started as a writer and copy editor for the National Lampoon magazine. She then started writing books based on a number of Henson projects, including Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, Labyrinth and many others. She also wrote music and lyrics for the Sing Along with Kermit and Friends book-and-tape sets and wrote the Sesame Street 40th anniversary book. As a television writer, Loui...
Aug 24, 2024•1 hr 12 min
On Episode 242 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview non-binary children's musical artist Jules Hoffman! Jules' career in the music business started in the rock band Boketto the Wolf, before becoming a children's artist. Jules is best known for their Songs for Littles series and their educational resource videos. Throughout their career, Jules has collaborated with Laurie Berkner on various projects and is also best known for her collaborations with children's YouTuber Ms. Rachel! Recentl...
Aug 21, 2024•40 min
On Episode 241 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview producer Carol-Lynn Parente! Carol-Lynn first started working for Sesame Street in 1989 as a post-production coordinator, before moving to production assistant, associate director and producer, becoming executive producer for them in 2005. Carol-Lynn was a producer on Elmo's World, executive produced the segments Elmo the Musical, Murray Has a Little Lamb, Super Grover 2.0 and Cookie's Crumby Pictures and a number of home videos, specia...
Aug 17, 2024•1 hr 10 min
On Episode 240 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview singer-songwriters Again Again and Mista Cookie Jar! Jennifer Cook and Anne Montone of Again Again Music are a pair of singer-songwriters, parents and lifelong friends. C.J. Pizarro, better known as Mista Cookie Jar, is best known for his family band Mista Cookie Jar & the Chocolate Chips. Together, Jennifer and Anne collaborated with C.J. on the brand new song Thank You Teacher, which celebrates all the teachers in our lives....
Aug 14, 2024•1 hr 29 min
On Episode 239 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview actress and singer Lisa Foiles! Lisa started her acting career on the Disney Channel series Even Stevens and as a guest star on Malcolm in the Middle. She is best known for her time as a cast member on the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That from Seasons 7 through 10 and occasionally in the 2019 revival. During her time on All That, she was featured in sketches such as 2-Gether 4-Ever, Sugar and Coffee, Bridgett's Slumber Party an...
Aug 10, 2024•44 min
On Episode 238 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview TV creators Scott Schultz and Christian Jacobs! Scott and Christian are known by many for creating the hit Nick Jr. series Yo Gabba Gabba! Recently, they came together to reboot the series as Yo Gabba GabbaLand! In this discussion, the Happy Nostalgia team talk to Scott and Christian about the success of the original series, the transition from DJ Lance Rock to Kammy Kam as the host, changes in the new series and more!
Aug 07, 2024•37 min
On Episode 237 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer and puppet wrangler Melissa Creighton! Melissa is best known in the puppet world for performing the character Burdette on the PBS series It's a Big Big World! She also worked on Sesame Street for several years as an occasional puppeteer. Aside from her work as a puppeteer, Melissa worked as a set dresser on the Noggin series Oobi and as a puppet wrangler on several Muppet productions, including A Muppets Christmas: Letters to ...
Aug 03, 2024•46 min
On Episode 235 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer and actress Jimmica Collins! Jimmica is a puppeteer who has worked for Sesame Street as a Muppet performer since Season 53, where she performs the character Grandma Nell! Outside of Sesame Street, she puppeteered on the Apple TV+ series Helpsters and the PBS Kids series Donkey Hodie. Jimmica is also a theater actor who has recently performed the lead role of Aanika in the theater production Aanika's Elephants!
Jul 31, 2024•53 min
On Episode 235 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is writer and producer Ken Scarborough! Ken is known for his career writing for numerous TV series, with one of his earliest writing credits being on the Nickelodeon and Disney series Doug. He was also one of the original writers and head writers of the PBS series Arthur and wrote for Saturday Night Live, Between the Lions, Curious George, Pocoyo and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Ken also developed Martha Speaks for television and has been...
Jul 27, 2024•1 hr 36 min
On Episode 234 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is songwriter Angelo Natalie! Angelo's career in the music business started out with the gospel-rock group Clockwise. Some of his best known music work includes writing dozens of songs for the Barney franchise, including Nothing Beats a Pizza, You Can Count on Me, It's C-C Cold BRRRR!, Books Are Fun!, Walk Around the Block and many more! Aside from Barney, Angelo became the main songwriter for BOZ: The Green Bear Next Door and scored comme...
Jul 24, 2024•48 min
On Episode 233 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is writer and producer Adam Peltzman! Early on in Adam's professional writing career, he was a writer and head writer on the long-running Nick Jr. series Blue's Clues, where he also voiced the character Green Puppy! After Blue's Clues, Adam became a writer and head writer on The Backyardigans, wrote for The Wonder Pets!, Bubble Guppies and Peter Rabbit and created the series Wallykazam! Aside from his work with Nick Jr, he wrote for the PB...
Jul 20, 2024•59 min
On Episode 232 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is director and producer David Gumpel! David was a frequent director and producer on various projects with The Jim Henson Company for many years. Some of them include working as an associate director on The Jim Henson Hour, directing the Muppet Sing Alongs video series and producing the Fraggle Rock documentary Down at Fraggle Rock: Behind the Scenes. David also directed The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, the pilot of Bear in the Big Blue H...
Jul 17, 2024•43 min
On Episode 231 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppet designer and builder Paul Andrejco! Paul is best known for his countless contributions to The Muppets and The Jim Henson Company as a puppet designer and builder! He started out as a puppet designer and builder on The Muppet Christmas Carol and was in the Muppet Workshop for Muppet Classic Theater and Muppets Tonight. Most notably, Paul designed all the puppets for the series Bear in the Big Blue House and It's a Big Big World! H...
Jul 13, 2024•58 min
On Episode 230 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is blogger and Muppet fandom expert Joe Hennes! Joe is best known for being a professional Muppet fan and contributing to the Muppet fandom in many different ways, more notably as the co-owner of the Muppet fansite, ToughPigs, where he has had the pleasure of interviewing a wide variety of talent in the Muppet world and got to host several podcast series! Joe also worked at Sesame Workshop for several years, where he wrote for some of Sesa...
Jul 10, 2024•1 hr 47 min
On Episode 229 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is puppeteer and dancer Bryant Young! Bryant first started out as a dancer, where he had the opportunity of performing with the New York City Ballet, the Briansky Saratoga Ballet Center and many more. Since 1979, Bryant has been a puppeteer on Sesame Street, more notably as the back-end of Mr. Snuffleupagus! In addition to assisting Snuffy, Bryant occasionally performed the role of Barkley and also choreographed for the show, including the...
Jul 06, 2024•1 hr 20 min
On Episode 228 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guests are actors David Connolly and Charlotte Walker! David is an amputee actor, choreographer and disability advocate and Charlotte is an actress and artist with autism. For many years, David choreographed a number of TV series and films, including the children's series The Doodlebops and its animated spin-off, Doodlebops Rockin' Road Show, where he also worked as a director. Charlotte has made a wide variety of artwork across social media and...
Jul 03, 2024•34 min
On Episode 227 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is Danielle Vega! Danielle is an actress who got her start on the religious video series Psalty's Songs for Li'l Praisers, before landing the role of Kim on Seasons 4-6 of the hit PBS series Barney & Friends, as well as a number of Barney home videos, including Barney's Sense-Sational Day, It's Time for Counting, Barney in Outer Space and more. After her time on Barney, Danielle starred as Ceci in the Hulu series East Los High and recu...
Jun 29, 2024•1 hr 19 min
On Episode 226 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is Brendon Gawel! Brendon is a puppeteer and actor whose work is best known on the long-running Sprout network, where he was one of the puppeteers of Chica on The Sunny Side Up Show and performed Curtis E. Owl on The Sprout Sharing Show. During his Sprout days, he also worked on the Holiday special Preschool Musical and got to perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! Outside of Sprout, Brendon directed for Philadelphia Children's The...
Jun 26, 2024•1 hr 13 min
On Episode 225 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is Judy Rothman Rofé! Judy's professional career consists of writing and creating a wide variety of children's projects! Early on, she worked as director of development for Disney Channel and developed and wrote for the Madeline TV series, based on the children's book series. She also wrote the Sesame Street home video Big Bird Gets Lost and wrote the screenplay for the 2001 film The Trumpet of the Swan. Judy also wrote episode scripts for...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 5 min
On Episode 224 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is Chase Woolner! Before working as a puppeteer, Chase grew up a Muppets fan! His love for the art of puppetry eventually turned into a career, where he worked as an additional Muppet performer on various films, TV series and commercials with The Muppets! Chase has also been a participant at the Eugene O'Neill National Puppetry Conference several times, worked as a puppeteer and puppet wrangler for Walt Disney Imagineering and co-founded B...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 13 min
On Episode 223 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is Dean Gordon! For many years, Dean Gordon worked as a director and associate director for children's television. He got his start directing for the Nickelodeon series The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss and since then, has directed numerous other series, including Bear in the Big Blue House, Out of the Box, Between the Lions, The Book of Pooh, Animal Jam and even a brief stint on Sesame Street! After moving on from the children's world, Dea...
Jun 15, 2024•1 hr 29 min
On Episode 222 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guest is Earl Fisher! After starting out as a stage actor, Earl has worked as a voice actor for nearly four decades. Some of his most well-known voiceover jobs include narrating dozens of promos for Lyrick Studios and HIT Entertainment and voicing characters such as Booker T. Bookworm in Season 5 of Barney & Friends and Brussel in the Sprout interstitial series Sprout Diner, as well as being the current voice of Pasqually in the Chuck E. Che...
Jun 12, 2024•1 hr 10 min
On Episode 221 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, our guests are writing and producing duo Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert! Many will know Kevin and Heath's work from writing and producing the Nickelodeon sketch comedy series All That, where Kevin also played Kevin the Stage Manager! They also wrote and produced Kenan & Kel and KaBlam! and co-wrote the 1997 hit film Good Burger and its 2023 sequel, as well as various Holiday specials for Nickelodeon. Kevin and Heath are also best known for crea...
Jun 08, 2024•1 hr 7 min
On Episode 220 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview Haley Jenkins! Haley first became a Muppet performer on Sesame Street in Season 45. Since then, she has worked as an assistant and background puppeteer, as well as performing the character Karli in various Sesame Street outreach videos and played Marvie for Sesame Studios. Outside of Sesame Street, Haley is best known for performing the title character Donkey Hodie on the PBS Kids series Donkey Hodie. She has also puppeteered in the Fre...
Jun 05, 2024•1 hr 16 min
On Episode 219 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview Julie Johnson! Many will best know Julie for lending her voice to the character Baby Bop in the long-running Barney franchise, including the Barney & Friends TV series and many home videos, concerts, albums and more! Aside from Barney, she performed in musicals such as Amnesia, Hairspray, Come from Away and Beauty and the Beast and acted on-camera in the films Pure Country and The Apostle!
Jun 01, 2024•55 min
On Episode 218 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview James Murray! Early on in James' puppeteering character, he worked on the Jim Henson Company series Dinosaurs. One of his best known projects was co-creating The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth, as well as performing The Cavity Goon and various other characters. He was also an additional Muppet performer with The Muppets on various films, TV series and commercials! James also performed Rabbit in Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola, various...
May 29, 2024•42 min
On Episode 217 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview Josh Dela Cruz! Josh is an actor who is best known for playing the lead role of Josh in the Nick Jr. Blue's Clues revival series, Blue's Clues & You! During his time on the show, he performed in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for several years and starred in the Paramount+ movie, Blue's Big City Adventure. Aside from Blue's Clues & You!, Josh has also acted in various Broadway and off-Broadway productions, including the musi...
May 25, 2024•50 min
