‘Googy’ Makes Pee-wee Herman Look Like Mr. Rogers

Channel 101 has a new rising Los Angeles contender: Googy, a zany kids show that feels like a cross between Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, Doug, and The Truman Show.

The series, created by Mike Mansewitsch & Willy Roberts and starring Roberts, features the character Googy, a grown man dressed in pajamas, oven mitt gloves, a red towel cape, yellow rain boots, a green bowtie, and goggles, who lives in a house that appears to be decorated by an eight year old with an unlimited budget.

In the first music-filled episode we meet Googy’s friends and neighbors: a drummer that lives in his inner ear, a talking toaster, two ne’er-do-well crows and a child police officer. The didactic storyline features Googy’s naive trespass into ‘Bad Town’ at the encouragement of the crows, despite the warnings of the kid cop, who later jails him in a bouncy castle.

A mixture of cartoon and stop animation adds color to Googy‘s fantastical live action world, producing an unsettling yet captivating backdrop for his imaginative hijinks. It’s weird, but I can’t stop watching. Googy is currently in 4th place on Channel 101—we’ll see how it fares at the next screening February 26 at The Downtown Independent.

Hat tip to Jay Hathaway at Urlesque for spotting this series.