OOglies is a stop-motion animated children's television series produced by BBC Scotland for CBBC, and distributed worldwide by Classic Media. The show involves short sketches that play for 30 seconds to a minute starring household items and food, virtually all of which have googly eyes stuck on, hence the show's title.
The show first aired on 10 August 2009, on both CBBC and BBC HD. The commission was for two series of 13 shows, each 15 minutes long. The shows were produced in a block over five months in Glasgow. Voices are provided by Tim Dann, Peter Dickson, and Shelley Longworth. The series was created and written by Nick Hopkin, Tim Dann, and Austin Low. The show returned in 2015 as OOglies Funsize.
Recurring gags
There are groups of characters who appear with similar gags multiple times; sometimes, the characters meet each other. Episodes begin with a mock safety announcement voiced by Peter Dickson, telling viewers that all stunts "have been performed by trained OOglies". In OOglies Funsize, the message "It's time for OOglies!" is added on.
The Playful Grapes and Melonhead – A group of green grapes are playing until a watermelon tries to join them, usually ending up squashing the grapes. The pre-opening sketch in Series 1. Boo Potato – A sprouting potato often lays "traps" for a random OOglie character to come and observe. When it is close enough, the potato jumps out with a "BOO!" and scares the OOglie, resulting in them falling apart or breaking. The pre-opening sketch in Series 2. Strawberry Lovers – A pair of amorous strawberries meet across a gap in the counter and the male lover tries to get across, but is always unsuccessful and often ends up being squashed. The Cherry-aiders – Four cherries make up an air ambulance team using a flying mixer and go to help another OOglie, ending with the team causing more damage than normal. Lonely Sprout – A Brussels sprout tries to join in with or save other OOglies, but ends up failing. Stunt Tomato – A tomato in a cape and mask tries to do impressive tricks for three cherry tomatoes, but always ends up getting injured. Slippery Nana – A banana skin keeps slipping over, usually breaking objects around it. Racey Bacon and Mr. Bun – A slice of bacon is running away from a bun and hides somewhere disguising itself as something else. It escapes from the bun, but it ends up backfiring (such as being sprayed with water or covered in ketchup, respectively). Zombie Vegetables – An OOglie food is tossed into a bin where a rotting Parsnip and Potato live. Although seemingly menacing at first, the rotting foods quickly show their friendship to newcomers through flatulence, which often backfires on them when their "visitors" try and copy them. The Stapler Dogs – A stapler pranks three dogs (staple removers) by getting them to jump off their shelf. The Baby Blocks – Three toy blocks, a blue cube, a pink cylinder and a yellow triangular prism are babies, and go off to investigate something which ends up scaring them with a loud noise, causing them to cry and run back to the safety of their toybox. The Fruit Bunch and Devious Blender – An orange sees something and tells a banana, an apple and a pear about it. They go over to investigate, but find out that it is in fact a villainous blender in disguise. Later, the blender mixes them into a smoothie. Laser Mouse – A short-tempered computer mouse moves around by shooting a laser beam in front of himself and following it. He comes across an object he cannot get through due to only being able to move in straight lines, so he uses the laser to make a doorway. This usually causes whatever he burned through to cave in on top of him. Zip Face and Pencil – A cheeky pencil escapes from his pencil case, who wakes up and tries to recapture him. The pencil, however, uses a sketchbook to draw pictures that come to life. The Scramblers – A trio of motor biking eggs attempt daredevil stunts. However, one of the eggs has training wheels on his bike, and usually destroys the bike. The Cheeky Carrots and Torch – A torch tries to get some sleep in a basement, but whenever his light is off, a band of nocturnal carrots get up to mischief in the darkness, until the torch puts them straight. Sugar Cube – A small sugar cube goes sledging with husky dog tea bags, until she becomes knocked off her "sledge" (a spoon) and winds up coming into contact with water where she melts, much to her dogs' displeasure. Strictly Come Grating – Similar to "Strictly Come Dancing", a male grater dances with various female contestants (a carrot, an orange, a corn on the cob) until the female dancers are accidentally grated by their partner.