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in: Episodes with The Singing Man in the Pink House, Teletubbies Magical Events, Activities/Segments,
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The Magic House

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Teletubbies Magic House

The Magic House is one of the 7 Magical Events. It was first shown in the 3rd episode The Grand Old Duke of York.

This Magic Event features The Singing Puppet Man who lives in a large pink house with 4 windows. In each episode, he wanders around his house choosing a window to sing from, with the window changing for each episode.

Magic House

The puppet has tanned skin and orange-red hair. He wears a blue jumper and a blue hat with a big red bobble on it, and he speaks in gibberish. His puppeteer (operator and voice) is Robin Stevens who also worked on other Ragdoll shows including Pob's Programme (Pob), Rosie and Jim (Jim), Tots TV (Tom), Boohbah (Grandpappa), and Blips (Mr Perfect), and the puppet also looks similar to Captain Feathersword, one of The Wiggles' characters and Smitty from Disney's Dumbo.

Appearances[]

Episodes[]

UK Series (on BBC)[]

US Series (on PBS)[]

Teletubby Days[]

Home Media[]

Special (VHS/DVD)[]

DVD[]

Synopsis[]

The sketch starts with The Magic Windmill spinning for a little bit longer than usual. The Teletubbies arrive silently at the Magical Event place in Teletubbyland. The Baby Sun starts to giggle happily. There is no sound indicating from the event like the other Magic Events (Though the other Magic Event is Little Bo Peep which also has the sound at the start). Instead, the Windmill is still heard spinning. Despite this, the Teletubbies look around and then venture off to the destination of the Magical Event. The Teletubbies arrive at and sit down on a hill. Over on a further hill, a roof and 4 windows magically appear. Then it cuts to a close-up of a house, and the rest of it appears (a pink wall, rain gutter, drain pipe and a red door with a Number 4 on it). As the house appears, a soft, jolly tune starts to play. Footsteps are heard. Suddenly one of the lights is turned on and a silhouette walks around the room mumbling to themselves. They then turn the light off and walk to the next room, doing the same thing. After doing this 3 times, the silhouette walks to the last window, turns on the light and appears. The silhouette then opens the curtains, revealing to be a puppet man wearing a blue and red bobble hat and a blue coat. The puppet man then opens the window and the camera zooms in. The puppet man starts singing in a gibberish operatic voice. The puppet sings in a different tone of voice for each window. He sings very loudly at the right windows, whereas he sings more softly at the left windows. After finishing by holding a long note, the puppet man walks off. As the camera zooms back out, the window and curtains close, and the light is then turned off. The pink house then disappears, first the roof, wall, door, gutter, and pipe, then the windows, individually, in the following order: Bottom right, Bottom left, Top right, Top Left. The house then disappeared completely, making the hill visible again. The Magic Windmill sometimes stops spinning or the Sun Baby Giggles.

Reception[]

Just like The Lion and Bear sketch, this was a controversial sketch in the show. The reason behind this was that many kids considered the sketch to be scary, due to the puppet's scary appearance, his singing and the way he screams, although some fans liked the event and didn’t find the event scary. Despite being deemed scary, it still aired in the US.

Watch[]

Teletubbies_Magical_Event_The_Magic_House_-_Clip

Trivia[]

  • The Magic House is one of the most controversial Magical Events because of the puppet’s looks and creepy voice (UK).
  • Despite speaking gibberish, after the puppet leaves at the bottom left window, he clearly says "Very Nice!" as the window closes.
  • In the US, the puppet has a different voice that sings "Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do", and he sings it on each window.
  • In Emily and the Trap, My Mum's Keyboard, Carnival, Wake Up!, Numbers - 4 (V2), the US Versions of Dirty Dog, and Teletubby Days: Tinky Winky, the Teletubbies are silent when the house appears.
  • In Delilah Packing, Emily and the Trap and the US Version of Running, a fade effect is used to transition to the Magic Windmill stopping after the magical event ends.
  • In Wrapping, and the US Versions of Numbers - 4 (V1) and Rabbits, the Sun Baby giggles for Tubby Bye-Bye after the windows fade out.
  • In Wake Up!, and Magical Surprises, after the Magical event, a fade effect is used to show the next segment.
  • The puppet's name is Hamish.
  • Commonly, the puppet sings in the bottom left window. Conversely, the original "top left window" version was only used 3 times (4 times if you count the US version of Numbers - 8).
  • In the foreign language dubs, the puppet has Robin Stevens' voice. There are some dubs where he's completely silent, e.g. Thai, and Icelandic (some episodes). In the Icelandic version of Carnival and in Lithuanian dubs, he is silent while wandering around the house, then when he sings, he is voiced by a woman singing "Daah da Daah", However in the Persian Dub, the Puppet doesn't have his original voice and instead sing with a thick voice.
  • in the US, this magical event is commonly a replacement for the Lion And Bear. This is because both the Original and Edited sketches were banned by PBS Kids.
  • This is the first Magical Event that has no sound at the start. The other one is Little Bo Peep which also has no sound at the start.
  • Just like the Lion and Bear and Little Bo Peep sketches, the Magic House doesn’t rely on CGI. The only thing CGI is the puppet’s house.
  • This is the only magical event that varies from episode to episode.
  • It’s unknown what happened to the puppet after the house completely disappeared. It’s possible that the puppet is also magic along with the house or he died.
  • In The Grand Old Duke Of York, Delilah Packing, Naughty Sock Returns, Numbers - 4 (V2), Wrapping and Dog Kennel, the Magical Event theme and the Windmill's sound effects are only played once, but in all of the other episodes featuring this sketch, they are replayed several times.

Goofs[]

  • If you look very closely at the beginning of the segment, you can see Po standing at the side before the Teletubbies arrive to watch the event. There also appears to be a camera or a black light on the left side.
  • In most of the Italian dubs, the music is off-sync and the music starts when the camera cuts to the pink house.
  • In the Icelandic version of Carnival, when the music starts, it sounds distorted and loud.
  • In the episodes where the puppet sings in the Top Left Window, the brown curtains have remained as the house vanishes. In the other windows, the brown curtains fade to a blue background.

Gallery[]

Behind the scenes[]

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