The first week in November 1998, I puppeteered for a television pilot - a demo, really, as it was not a full length pilot - for Nickelodeon called "Me and My Friends." Shot in at the now defunct Nick studios in Orlando, the show featured large costume characters, and also puppets -- the meerkats shown above. The puppeteers were (left to right) Jennifer Barnhart, Rick Lyon (me, playing Omar), and Jim Kroupa (whose company 3Design made the puppets). The show, intended as part of the Nick Jr. programming block, did not get picked up in its live action form, but did get developed into an animated series, and years later became the beloved show "The Backyardigans."
MANY people have contacted me about this project. The demo, which almost no one who worked on it ever saw, was screened for some Nick execs, and that's it. Maybe ten people at most ever saw it. It never aired, no one who performed in it was given a copy, and it is considered "lost media." Super obsessed lost media searchers have been harassing me for YEARS about this, asking me if I had a copy, if I have the puppet, do I have a script, etc, etc. The answer to all those questions is NO. It was like two days of work a billion years ago, long before people snuck photos and videos of everything with their smart phones and posted everything on social media and files of digital media were swapped around so easily. I've been so inundated with inquiries about this project that I will no longer answer them. People obsessed with this have shown no courtesy or boundaries and I'm done with it. So, do not email or message me about "Me and My Friends." It was fun to work with my friends on it, and I was grateful for a couple of days of employment, and I have nothing more to say about it. Thanks for understanding.
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["Me and My Friends," and all puppet names and likenesses © Nickelodeon]
[Photo by Eric Baker, used by permission. Unauthorized duplication in any form strictly prohibited.]