The Hoobs

Lore & Background

The Hoobs follows five extraterrestrial muppet characters—Hubba Hubba, Iver, Groove, Tula, and Romo—from the planet Hoobland. Hubba Hubba remains in Hoobland to compile the Hoobopaedia, while Iver, Groove, and Tula travel in a music-powered vehicle called the Hoobmobile. Romo explores the world on foot, by public transport, or on her music-powered motorcycle, the Hooby Picky Picky. The show combines live-action muppetry with animated sequences and live-action footage of human children, called Tiddlypeeps, who explain concepts to the Hoobs.

A typical episode begins with Hubba Hubba introducing the Hoobs and setting a question to be answered. The Hoobs visit the Tiddlypeeps twice, and the episode includes songs, animated drawing stories narrated by a Tiddlypeep, and a report from Romo. The series also spawned a five-minute segment called 'Hello Hoobs,' which used excerpts from the English-language version to teach English vocabulary and grammar to viewers aged four to eleven. The puppets were made by Jim Henson's Muppet Workshop.

Reader's Guide

The Hoobs was a landmark educational series for British television, commissioned by Channel 4 in a £20 million joint venture with The Jim Henson Company to replace Sesame Street in the early morning preschool slot. It aimed to be the biggest preschool series on British television, with hopes of matching the success of Teletubbies and Tweenies. The show's format—combining muppets, animation, and live-action children—was designed to address the needs of the first truly multi-media generation, as noted by executive vice-president Angus Fletcher. The series ran 250 episodes across five series from 2001 to 2003, with repeats continuing on Channel 4 until 2014. It also aired internationally, including on PBS Kids Sprout in the United States and on Nick Jr. UK from 2002 to 2004. The 'Hello Hoobs' segment further extended its educational reach, teaching 400 words and 150 expressions. The Hoobs remains notable as a major Jim Henson Company production for British television, blending entertainment with structured learning for young children.

Did You Know?

• The series included a five-minute segment called 'Hello Hoobs' that taught English vocabulary and grammar.
• The puppets for the characters were made by Jim Henson's Muppet Workshop.

A Hybrid Format Built Around Curiosity

The Hoobs wove together three production styles—muppet performance, animated sequences, and live-action footage of real children—into a single half-hour program. Each episode followed a remarkably consistent template: Hubba Hubba assigned a question to the team, Roma received it by email, and the Hoobs set out to find the answer for the Hoobopaedia, an encyclopedic knowledge base being compiled back on Hoobland in hopes of learning all there is to know. Along the way, the show wove in songs by the Hoobs or the Motorettes, sometimes borrowing familiar melodies or lyrics. A signature structural quirk was the cutaway device: whenever a character uttered a question word such as who, what, when, where, why, or how, the broadcast jumped to a brief musical performance of that very word. The Hoobs visited human children, called Tiddlypeeps, twice per episode, guided by the tagline that they are smart, fun, and know. Animated story segments narrated by a Tiddlypeep rounded out the adventure before Hoob News summarized the findings and the credits rolled.

Five Extraterrestrials and Their Puppeteers

Each of the five Hoobs carried a distinct personality and role. Iver, the purple male with orange ears, was punctual and businesslike yet prone to worry and bossiness that irritated his friends. Groove, the green male with a Twizzletuft over his eyes, was cool and a little slow, greedy and shy, but musically gifted and fond of collecting things. Tula, the pink female, was sympathetic, creative, and enthusiastic about arts and crafts, though sometimes a little tiring. Roma, the orange female explorer, traveled the world by foot, public transport, and her music-powered motorcycle, the Hooby Picki Picki, reporting discoveries through video messages. Hubba Hubba, the blue leader, stayed in Hoobland updating the Hoobopaedia, though in the Series 5 episode The Big Bonk he made a rare visit to the Hoobmobile. Performers rotated across series: John Eccleston voiced Groove in Series 1 through 3 before Mark Jefferis took over, while Hubba Hubba shifted from Jefferis to Brian Herring. The Motorettes—Tootle, Timp, Twang, and an unnamed fourth—powered the vehicles through song and dance.

Production Scale and the Music-Powered World

Produced by The Jim Henson Company in partnership with Decode Entertainment for Channel 4, The Hoobs was a substantial commitment spanning five series and a total of 250 episodes. The show occupied a unique niche as a live-action and animated hybrid aimed at young children, combining muppet performance with animated sequences and footage of real kids explaining concepts to the curious extraterrestrials. The production required a rotating cast of puppeteers, with some performers handling multiple roles across the run. The Hoobmobile itself was a music-powered vehicle operated by three Motorettes who sang and played instruments to drive the engine, while a fourth Motorette powered Roma's Hooby Picki Picki through dance. The show's world included Hoobland as Hubba Hubba's home base, the Hoobmobile as the mobile headquarters for Iver, Groove, and Tula, and the Hoobycomputer as the communication hub through which Roma relayed her findings. A robotic primate called the Hoobydudu, who hatched from an egg, lived in Hoobland alongside Hubba Hubba and Auntie Hattie.

Teaching Through Play: The Hoobs and Hello Hoobs

Beneath its playful surface, The Hoobs was fundamentally an educational vehicle. Each episode centered on a single question—always phrased with a who, what, when, where, why, or how—that the Hoobs set out to answer for the Hoobopaedia. Human children, the Tiddlypeeps, served as the show's primary teaching agents, explaining concepts directly to the curious extraterrestrials. The program also spawned a dedicated spin-off segment called Hello Hoobs, a five-minute teaching tool that aired immediately before the main broadcast on a weekly basis. Targeted at viewers aged four to eleven, the segment used the Hoobs to expand English-language vocabulary and explain the rudiments of grammar, with the stated goal of teaching 400 words and 150 different expressions. For Southern European audiences, these segments were compiled into a half-hour weekend broadcast designed as a review of previously learned material, layering structured language instruction over the show's entertainment format.