Episode
Bear in the Big Blue House: Friends At Play
Overview
Ojo is excited about a visit from her friend, Christine. The two quickly get involved in one of Ojo's imaginative games --- a pillow castle. Tutter arrives and asks if they'd like to play checkers, but Ojo tells him she's in the middle of her game with her "best friend," Christine. Tutter is hurt by the use of the term "best friend." He creates his own friend to play with, "Mr. Cheese," but Bear helps to mend his friendship with Ojo. He also finds Pip and Pop at odds with Treelo out at the Otter Pond. He keeps pretending to be a monster during their Deep-Sea Divers game and they don't like it at all. Bear, however, introduces them to a game called The Treasure of Kalamazoo Bay. In the Shadow segment, Shadow retells the story of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The lamb in this version drives a car, skies and scuba dives in its efforts to follow Mary everywhere she goes.
Details
- Series
- Bear in the Big Blue House
- Season
- Season 3
- Episode
- Episode 1
- Air date
- 1999-07-19
- Runtime
- 25 min
Episode context
Friends At Play is Episode 1 in Season 3 of Bear in the Big Blue House. It aired on 1999-07-19. The runtime is 25 min.
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More episodes from this season
Episode 3: Lost And Found
Ojo loses his favorite teddy bear and the members conducted a search party to help search for it, but in vain.In the end, they played hide-and-seek and Ojo found his bear back.
Pip and Pop are out playing ball when they find a little duck who seems to be looking for something. He introduces himself as Harry and says that apparently his family got lost while they were flying south. Bear takes the opportunity to remind the viewers about what they should do if they were ever lost and promises to help reunite Harry with his family. Meanwhile, the kids of the Big Blue House get acquainted with Harry the Duck. In the Shadow segment, Shadow tells a story about a dame who's lost her shoe and a master who's lost his fiddle-stick.
Songs
You Will Find Your Way
Notes
This episode introduces the character of Harry the Duck. He and his family live at the Duck Pond, which is actually what Pip and Pop know as the Otter Pond. They fly south every winter. Bear invites Harry to come back to visit the Big Blue House when he returns in the spring.
In this episode, Harry says that he's been separated from his Mom, brothers and sisters. No reference is made to his brothers and sisters in future episodes and none are present when Hallie is born in "When Harry Met Hallie."
The dog in the Shadow Projects logo in the closing credits quacks like Harry.
Episode 4: The Senseless Detectives
Bear is busy doing some cooking --- he's making his annual batch of cookies for everyone in Woodland Valley. As he starts to bake the cookies, he gets a call from Ojo and Tutter. They're pretending to be Big Blue House detectives, but they feel that they've solved all the mysteries in the Big Blue House, or perhaps even the world. Bear gives them a new challenge by using dishtowels to blindfold them so that they can play one of his favorite games --- "What is It?" Using senses other than sight, he first has them identify a flower and then peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Later, they find an actual mystery to solve when Treelo reports that his "banananana" is missing. With Bear's help, the senses of touch and smell are used to track down the stinky, squishy old banana. When the cookies are finally finished, the kids decide to cover up all their senses except taste in an attempt to get Bear to give them some cookies. He quickly ends the game --- he was planning to share the cookies with them anyway. They all end up sharing the cookies together outside, as Pip and Pop express their appreciation for all the wonderful sounds, sights and smells of nature. In the Shadow segment, Shadow retells the story of Little Red Riding Hood. In her twist on the story, the Granny is a doctor.
Songs
Making Sense of Your World
Episode 5: Halloween Bear
It's Halloween at the Big Blue House. The house is all decorated and everyone is getting ready. Bear helps his friends to find costumes and helps Tutter with carving a pumpkin. He always helps out Treelo when he's scared by Ojo's bat costume. Later, everyone gets together for some fun trick-or-treating. The kids have all picked out their Halloween costumes, but Bear hasn't been able to find anything to dress up as. The kids go through Bear's box of costumes and come up with an amusing idea. In the Shadow segment, Shadow performs the song "What Do Shadows Do for Halloween?"
Episode 6: You Never Know
It's Ojo's birthday. She already knows that everyone's put together a big party for her, but she doesn't know about some special surprises. These include the biggest of all --- a visit from her good friend Ursa. Pip and Pop learn just how important it is to keep such a surprise. Treelo also learns something about surprises --- that sometimes they are fun, but the wrong kind of surprise can be scary. In the Shadow segment, Shadow sings a verse of "Pop Goes the Weasel."
Songs
Surprise! (Big Blue House Song)
Happy, Happy Birthday (shortened version)
Episode 7: It's All About You
Tutter receives a postcard in the mail from his Uncle Jet Setter Tutter. He's a famous explorer, but he hasn't seen Tutter since he was just a baby mouse. He wants Tutter to write back and tell him all about himself. Tutter's worried that he'll have nothing to say, but Bear helps him to see that there's a lot that's unique about him. He also talks with Pip and Pop, who have noticed that they're not quite as alike as they thought. Bear tells them that even though they're different, they can still be great friends. He also helps Treelo to come up with a game that suits his own unique personality when he gets bored with playing Ojo's tea-party game. In the Shadow segment, Shadow retells the story of the ugly duckling. She talks about another ugly duckling who didn't grow up with dashing good looks, but found that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Songs
What's in the Mail Today? (shortened version)
Baby, You're You
What Kind of Mouse Am I?
Episode 8: Woodland House Wonderful
Despite something of a mess in the living room of the Big Blue House, Bear is prepared for a relaxing day. He settles down for some relaxing music listening, but then receives a phone call. It's Ms. Henrietta Vanderpeen, informing him that the Big Blue House has been selected as the House of the Month for Woodland House Wonderful. Bear is excited, but worries about the state of the house. He tells the kids the exciting news, but finds out from them that there's even more cleaning to do than he thought. Everybody pitches in to get ready by cleaning the house, taking a bath, and brushing their teeth. Songs Clean Up the House Everybody in the Tub Brush Brush Bree
Episode 9: I've Got Your Number
Pip and Pop s cousin Tally plans to visit.
Episode 10: What's Mine Is Yours
A package comes in the mail for Ojo --- a book from Ursa titled Bears Around the World. Ojo wants to keep it all for herself at first and read it alone, despite Tutter and Treelo's pleas for her to share it. Bear explains to them that sometimes when somebody has something new, they might want to keep it to themselves at first. But as Ojo becomes excited by the book, she begins to change her thinking. Meanwhile, Bear finds himself sharing quite a bit. He shares his food, he shares his berry-picking bucket with Pip and Pop and he lets Ojo, Tutter and Treelo use his bed as a comfy reading spot.
Songs
What's in the Mail Today?
What's Mine is Yours
Notes
This episode is somewhat similar to the first season's "Share, Bear." It involves a picnic, just like in "Share, Bear."
Bear reads the names of two potential alternate Bear in the Big Blue House shows from Ojo's book --- Bear in the Big Bamboo House and Canadian Bear in the Big Log Cabin (from Canada, near Saskatchewan).
Episode 11: Bear's Secret Cave
Pip and Pop, along with Treelo, have decided to go fossil-hunting. They've gathered up all their gear in a backpack and are ready to go. This gets Bear thinking about discoveries and how much he enjoys discovering things himself. He then hears Ojo and Tutter calling him. They've been searching around the attic and came across an old, dusty box. It turns out to be a treasure chest filled with some of Bear's old things. He remembers that the played with them all in a secret cave, but he can't recall just where exactly the cave is. Ojo and Tutter decide to get the help of the rest of the kids to rediscover the secret cave. Once there, they find out some things they never knew about Bear and realize that he's a lot like them.
Songs
I Love to Discover
A Lot Like You
Notes
The kids discover drawings on the wall of Bear's secret cave. These drawings are of two of Bear's friends when he was a kid: Don Deer and Roger Badger.
Episode 12: Smellorama
Spring has come to Woodland Valley and Bear is delighted by all of smells of the season. It's a veritable smellorama for him. As he makes his way to the kitchen, he finds smells there as well. Tutter has created his own "smellseum." Bear loves the smell of lilacs in his collection, but doesn't think much of his limburger cheese sandwich smell.
Later, he finds Ojo with Treelo in the living room. As Mademoiselle Ojo, she's trying to create special perfumes to capture the essences of her friends. She's creates "You de Treelo" and then invents a perfume for Bear. Later on, Bear helps Pip and Pop to track a rather stinky smell. They find Ojo and their old friend Snook the skunk, who's found a new way into Bear's secret cave that even Bear can fit into. He also tells them all about his favorite smells, some of which are rather stinky. In the Shadow segment, Shadow tells a story about an entire town that seemed to have lost its scent. As it turned out, though, everyone living there simply had a cold.
Songs
What's That Smell?
Smellorama