I thought you might be interested in this interview with Dave Chapman on the Under The Puppet Podcast. He's had a number of roles on CBBC, but probably most notably as Otis the Aardvark. They start talking about CBBC, including the origins of Otis and some of the technicalities of doing live links, etc, from about 25:52, but the whole episode is worth a listen.
https://saturdaymorningmedia.com/2021/07/utp-61/
I found a clip of the rather shonky first iteration of Otis that he talks about, good job they improved it!
https://youtu.be/OpaJ1E3Ypb4
"Early Instalment Weirdness" as they say
Looked a bit anorexic in those days, probably because of that massive neck.
But then most early puppet characters look odd when you look back on what they later became.
I think Hacker is the longest running CBBC Puppet by quite a distance as I believe it is now something like 12 years beating Otis who was there an impressive 6 years.
I believe counting Saturday shows it goes
Gordon the gopher ( 8 years 6 of them for going live ) 1985 - 1993
Edd the Duck 6 years 1987 - 1993
Otis the Arrdvark 6 years 1994 - 1999
Emlyn the Gremlin 2 years 1999 - 2001
Then no puppets on CBBC presentation for any of the bugs or arrows era of CBBC with puppets returning when the studio was ditched for the office era with
Oucho the cactus 2 Years 2007 -2011
Duncan the brain 2008
Hacker T Dog 2009 - Current
Dodge T Dog 2011 - Current ( although on CBeebies since 2016).
Speaking of Dave Chapman he has a long association with CBBC since 1994 and I believe still does some stuff for them occasionally. After Ortis he then of course did the voice of Tiny the hamster on the Saturday Show for about a year and has done various puppets on both X Change and Dick n Dom in the bungalow after that.
I believe both Gordon the gopher and the leprechauns ( Sage and onion along with Shamrock) are the longest running puppets on a Saturday morning for CBBC.
The only other notable puppets for CBBC are Basil Brush and Nev the bear.
Isn’t Dave Chapman doing the creature on Saturday Mash Up?
Ash101 post_id=38287 time= user_id=936 Wrote:Isn’t Dave Chapman doing the creature on Saturday Mash Up?
No don’t think he is although could be wrong.
Ash101 post_id=38287 time= user_id=936 Wrote:Isn’t Dave Chapman doing the creature on Saturday Mash Up?
Yep, he is, he talks about it in the podcast.
Here's a very short clip of him in action.
https://youtu.be/ceKIIARBZC0
My favourite CBBC Puppet has to be Emlyn the Gremlyn, he was the funniest and had great chemistry with the presenters.
BBCMeridian post_id=38386 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:My favourite CBBC Puppet has to be Emlyn the Gremlyn, he was the funniest and had great chemistry with the presenters.
Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, he always seemed to me to be the blandest generic kids TV puppet. Even the name seemed to be by committee too, awful.
I was around at CBBC occasionally during the time that Otis handed over to Emlyn and no-one really seemed that keen on him. The puppeteer was very different to Dave Chapman, fairly quiet and not as confident or outgoing
Inspector Sands post_id=38405 time= user_id=1003 Wrote:BBCMeridian post_id=38386 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:My favourite CBBC Puppet has to be Emlyn the Gremlyn, he was the funniest and had great chemistry with the presenters.
Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, he always seemed to me to be the blandest generic kids TV puppet. Even the name seemed to be by committee too, awful.
I was around at CBBC occasionally during the time that Otis handed over to Emlyn and no-one really seemed that keen on him. The puppeteer was very different to Dave Chapman, fairly quiet and not as confident or outgoing
Well I'm sorry but to me Otis was awful and I was glad to see the back of him, Emlyn was the best puppet, very funny and had a great sense of humour.
Besides Otis had been at CBBC for 5 years and it was time for a change, especially as we were heading towards the millennium.
Best puppet, the little remembered Maximum Monkey
![[Image: MM.png]](https://up.metropol247.co.uk/Inspector%20Sands/MM.png)
BBCMeridian post_id=38406 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:Well I'm sorry but to me Otis was awful and I was glad to see the back of him, Emlyn was the best puppet, very funny and had a great sense of humour.
Are you the same person that thinks SMTV Live was crap and the 2000 revamp of Live & Kicking was better?
VMPhil post_id=38416 time=1631110634 user_id=1043 Wrote:BBCMeridian post_id=38406 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:Well I'm sorry but to me Otis was awful and I was glad to see the back of him, Emlyn was the best puppet, very funny and had a great sense of humour.
Are you the same person that thinks SMTV Live was crap and the 2000 revamp of Live & Kicking was better?
I'm sorry I've moved on past that because I know not everyone is going to agree with me, as I say we can agree to disagree, we all have our own opinions don't we, I'm not going to force everyone to agree with me.
BBCMeridian post_id=38406 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:Inspector Sands post_id=38405 time= user_id=1003 Wrote:BBCMeridian post_id=38386 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:My favourite CBBC Puppet has to be Emlyn the Gremlyn, he was the funniest and had great chemistry with the presenters.
Can't tell if this is sarcasm or not, he always seemed to me to be the blandest generic kids TV puppet. Even the name seemed to be by committee too, awful.
I was around at CBBC occasionally during the time that Otis handed over to Emlyn and no-one really seemed that keen on him. The puppeteer was very different to Dave Chapman, fairly quiet and not as confident or outgoing
Well I'm sorry but to me Otis was awful and I was glad to see the back of him, Emlyn was the best puppet, very funny and had a great sense of humour.
Besides Otis had been at CBBC for 5 years and it was time for a change, especially as we were heading towards the millennium.
as I mentioned earlier Hacker has been there 12 years and Dodge has been around for about 10 and both are still going strong so Otis could very easily had lasted yup to the 2002 relaunch as he was still a very popular puppet and Indeed Dave Chapman returned to CBBC two years later to do the puppet and voice of Tiny the hamster on the Saturday show and various puppets on CBBC including Jelly and Jackson so I can only guess it was his own decision to leave at the time in 1999. In comparison Emlyn barely lasted two years was not very popular with either the CBBC bosses or viewers and unlike Otis having a send off was quietly got rid off unlike Otis who would be the face of CBBC for the majority of the 5 years Emlyn from the beginning was never used for the full afternoon and like with the discussion about CBBC itself ended up been mainly used for the pre school links and even then it was not for long. It just never worked as a puppet.
VMPhil post_id=38416 time= user_id=1043 Wrote:BBCMeridian post_id=38406 time= user_id=2083 Wrote:Well I'm sorry but to me Otis was awful and I was glad to see the back of him, Emlyn was the best puppet, very funny and had a great sense of humour.
Are you the same person that thinks SMTV Live was crap and the 2000 revamp of Live & Kicking was better?
To be fair I never really got into SMTV and preferred Live and Kicking but they no denying SMTV was on a roll by then and was at its height which of course was mainly the reason Live and Kicking was axed. That 8th series was actually decent enough but really should have been called something else and been giving a massive promotion push as the L and K brand had lost all popularity by that point and having the program completely changed from it was probably helped to finish it off.