 Josh Selig is a writer, producer, and filmmaker. He was a founder of Little Airplane Productions, the studio that made Oobi. Selig has also created other shows, including Wonder Pets for Nick Jr. and 3rd & Bird for the BBC. Oobi was the first show that he made. The first season of Oobi was made as an experiment to see if Josh wanted to start a studio. When it was successful, he decided to found Little Airplane with his then-business partner, Lori Shaer. In addition to working on his own shows, Josh has made independent short films, most notably The Time-Out Chair in 2003. BioAs a child, Josh appeared in the first two seasons of Sesame Street. He returned to the show as a writer in 1988. While there, he also wrote songs and created short films. One of his films was called "I'm a Little Airplane." It was shot in Central Park and featured kids running around in circles with their arms spread out like airplanes. In 1999, Josh co-founded Little Airplane Productions with Lori Shaer. The company was named after "I'm a Little Airplane." He called fellow Sesame Street crew members Martin P. Robinson and Tim Lagasse to help him develop his own show, Oobi. Lagasse was selected because of his former work as a bare-handed puppeteer for Nickelodeon. Robinson was selected to design the puppets' eyes, having been the designer for Little Shop of Horrors. Josh Selig was inspired to create Oobi after watching puppeteers audition for Sesame Street. The puppeteers were being trained to lip-sync with their hands and a pair of ping pong balls instead of a full puppet. This training method is common among Muppet performers, since it helps them focus on their puppet's mouth movement and eye focus. Josh noted the amount of expression conveyed by the more skilled actors' hands, and it gave him the idea for a series centered on the most basic form of puppetry. The idea stayed in the back of his mind until the opportunity came for him to pitch a show idea to Nickelodeon's Noggin. In addition to creating Oobi, Josh worked as a director and executive producer on the show. He didn't write or perform in any of the episodes. He continued to work at Little Airplane as a writer and producer until December 2020, when he exited the company. Credits
Quotes"I honestly believe that human beings peak at about age 4. The average 4-year-old is more creative, more interesting, and has a better sense of humor than the average 40-year-old -- me included!" (Child interview, 2004) "When I began working at Sesame Street, I used to observe pre-school classrooms so I could learn more about this age group. I was — and still am — amazed by the creativity and decency of very young children. I think adults have much to learn from them. Including this adult." (Big Apple Parent interview, 2004) On licensing: "My fear and loathing of licensing goes back to my early days at Sesame Street where I was taught that a preschool series and its educational curriculum was paramount. All the rest, the amusement parks, the live shows, the closets full of swag that were protected like gold in Fort Knox, meant nothing compared to the Holy Grail that was the show itself. We, the makers of Sesame Street, felt our show to be the sun around which everything else in the company (if not the world) orbited and, quite frankly, the wider their orbit the better. We were the caretakers of Sesame Street, the undisputed Barbra Streisand of all preschool shows." External links
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Josh Selig
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