New Puppet Show Streaming in Alexandria

Alexandria, VA – Remember sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the family’s Magnavox console TV watching cartoons and animated characters doing silly things? So do the creators of a new online puppet show debuting Saturday, September 12 on Z-TV, the new video division of The Zebra Press.

Click the Arrow to See “The Puppet Show Show” Below!

“This whole thing started with the idea of doing a Saturday morning puppet show. Something that captures that same, almost frenetic, elements that we had as kids growing up, where you have all sorts of things going on,” shared Jeff Bragg, a television producer and director with credits from Acura, Coleco, Milton Bradley, and Media General Cable Systems. His recent work with the National Capital Puppetry Guild is recognized for increasing puppetry’s visibility in the Washington, D.C. area.

“You had different animation styles and that’s what this is — a bunch of puppets shorts that are two to five minutes long with each introduced by the Flexitoon Puppets,” he continued.

Puppeteers with Pedigree

Craig Marin and Olga Felgemacher from Flexitoon Productions, whose credits include “Shining Time Station’s Juke Box Band” (PBS), “The DJ Kat Show” (FOX), and “Pinwheel”(Nickelodeon), share Bragg’s enthusiasm and are co-founders of the show, bringing boundless energy and innovative ideas to the new, variety-style, family-friendly, online puppet production.

Flexitoon is an award-winning puppet production company that designs, builds and performs puppets and marionettes for television, film, commercials, music videos and stage. Craig began his career with television puppetry legends Chuck McCann, Sandy Becker and performing on Wonderama. Olga’s career started in New York City, working in theater, but she quickly found work as a puppeteer with Nick Coppola, Bil Baird and Jim Henson.

With so much creative talent on the team, the aims for the show are set high. Bragg says, “We love showing how stories can be told through puppetry in a living and fun way. And that’s the best way to learn. ‘The Puppet Show Show’ is a way to bring back the richness of Saturday morning children’s programming with diverse puppetry offerings spanning ages three to adult, engaging viewership by both children and their parents.”

‘The Puppet Show Show’ variety format features world-class puppetry shorts from contemporary masters of the art, including Steve Widerman, Hobey Ford, Brad Brewer, Robert Rogers, Beech Tree Puppets, and David Stephens. Also featured will be classic puppet shorts from legends such as Bil and Cora Baird (Sound of Music), Paul Winchell, Chuck McCann and Sandy Becker, all names that were the gold standard in early film and TV puppetry. Hosting the whole thing will be two new Flexitoon Puppets: Professor Binge and Mickey Monkey.

Former Schoolmates Kindle the Alexandria Connection

In a most entertaining of surprises, Jeff Bragg and Z-TV Executive Producer and Director David McClure graduated high school together in the 70s. “It was a great coincidence that I was able to reconnect with

Jeff 47 years later. He was one of the cool, creative guys in high school so once we started talking about what we were doing, and he mentioned puppetry I knew we had to do a story on that.”

“This is why I love working with the Zebra and the promise I see in the Z-TV Network. I see “The Puppet Show Show” as a natural expansion for Z-TV and couldn’t be more excited to be part of this.”

Bragg added, “We would love to have more puppetry programming out there and a new show from us every week. The process is super fun and we could always use more good puppetry in the world!”

Z-TV hosts the live premiere of ‘The Puppet Show Show” on Saturday, September 12, 2020 at 9:00 AM on The Zebra Press Facebook Page (facebook.com/TheZebraPress). Replays will also be available at thezebra.org after September 12 under the Z-TV button, and on the Z-TV You Tube (youtube.com/c/ZTVZebra).