On Episode 262 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview voice actress and singer Gigi Abraham!

Some of Gigi's voiceover roles include voicing the Hasbro toy TJ Bearytales and several projects for Sprout, including JB in Sprout's Wiggly Waffle and Halley in Astroblast! She also voiced Laura Carrot and Nicky the Pepper in VeggieTales and voiced characters for the Cocomelon franchise. Gigi has also provided voiceover for toys, DVDs, commercials and audiobooks!

On Episode 261 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview puppeteer and actor Bruce Connelly!

Throughout Bruce's career, he has acted and directed a wide variety of theatre productions. He is best known for being the current performer of Barkley on Sesame Street since 1993! In addition to performing Barkley on the show, he performed Barkley in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is also a background and assistant puppeteer on the show! Outside of Sesame Street, Bruce puppeteered in the Disney film Old Dogs and has also acted on stage in various theatre productions!

Special thanks to our guest co-host Keelin for joining us!

On Episode 260 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview puppeteer, photographer and editor Art Vega!

For many years, Art puppeteered in various stage shows for Disney, including the Playhouse Disney and Disney Junior live shows! Since 2010, he has been a Muppet performer with The Muppets, where he got to work on The Muppets (2011), Muppets Most Wanted, The Muppets (ABC series), The Muppets Mayhem and various commercials. He was an assistant puppeteer on the Apple TV+ series Slumberkins and also works in photography and video editing! Art also co-founded the successful Twitch streaming channel Perception Studio!

On Episode 259 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview writer and TV creator Jymn Magon!

Jymn is best known for his work with Disney, first starting out by producing their children's records. After Jymn moved to Disney's animated television division, he created Adventures of the Gummi Bears, co-created DuckTales and TaleSpin, wrote episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Book of Pooh, Goof Troop and Disney's House of Mouse. In film, he is best known for writing the hit 1995 Disney film A Goofy Movie! Outside of Disney, Jymn co-created Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad and developed Archie's Weird Mysteries for DIC, wrote the Casper films Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, created the PBS Kids series Make Way for Noddy and was head writer on The Hub series Maryoku Yummy!

On Episode 258 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview puppeteer and diretor Raymond Carr!

Early on in Raymond's career, he was an assistant puppeteer on the Icelandic series LazyTown. He is best known for performing the character Dunk in the Henson digital puppetry series Splash and Bubbles. Raymond also puppeteered on Moon and Me, WonderMore Kids, Earth to Ned, the revival of Crank Yankers and many more! He toured with Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular for several years and recently served as puppet captain on the Netflix series Eric!

On Episode 257 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, writer Peter K. Hirsch returns to the show!

Peter has written for a number of children's series, with most of his work being with PBS! His longest writing job was on Arthur, taking on the role of head writer later in the show's run. He also wrote episodes of Between the Lions, Lomax: The Hound of Music, Peep and the Big Wide World, Curious George, Martha Speaks and Octonauts and was head writer on Molly of Denali and Jessy & Nessy. Recently, Peter co-created the new Max series HOP!

On Episode 256 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview authors Barbara Irwin, Tony Buttino Sr. and Pam Johnson!

Barbara, Tony and Pam recently wrote the book Creating Reading Rainbow: The Untold Story of a Beloved Children's Series, which covers the long-running PBS literacy series Reading Rainbow, which Tony also co-created! The new book talks about how Reading Rainbow first came to be, working with a public television station in Buffalo, the affect it had on millions of children's reading abilities and so much more!

On Episode 255 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview writer and playwright John Weidman!

John's work in the theatre world consists of collaborating with the late Stephen Sondheim on several musicals, including Pacific Overtures, Assassins and Road Show and also worked with theatre director and choreographer Susan Stroman. He also wrote for the National Lampoon magazine. As a television writer, John wrote a number of episodes, inserts and segments for Sesame Street for several decades. Recently, he updated the book for the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale, originally written by his father Jerome Weidman!

On Episode 254 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview producer and writer Kristin Laskas Martin!

Kristin's career in television began as a coordinator on the PBS series Great Performances and as a producer on the ABC soap opera All My Children. After transitioning into children's television, she was the Vice President of Production at Nickelodeon and produced the TV adaptation of The Baby-Sitter's Club. Most notably, Kristin co-created The Magic School Bus TV series, the long-running math series Cyberchase and was a part of the development team of many other children's series. She is also the wife of previous guest Hugh Martin!

On Episode 253 of Jake's Happy Nostalgia Show, we interview singer, songwriter and entertainer Willy Welch!

For a number of years, Willy wrote dozens of songs for the long-running Barney franchise, with only some of his best known songs being I Put a Smile On, I Love to Read and Icy, Creamy Ice Cream! Outside of Barney, Willy is best known for his song Right Field, which was first recorded by folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. Willy also has his own musical act with his wife Willy called Wendy & Willy, where they recorded three albums and performed at various clubs, camps and churches!