Weekly Character Wednesdays: Nina

 

NINA

PERFORMED BY:

Michele Lepe

FIRST APPEARANCE:

The Good Night Show, 2006

MOST RECENT APPEARANCE:

Nina's World

BEST KNOWN ROLE:

Goodnight Guide, mother figure to Star

WHO IS NINA? Nina is the Goodnight Guide and the host of The Good Night Show as of December 18th, 2006. She lives in the Goodnight Garden and later the You and Me Tree with Star, whom she acts maternal to. She also hosts the Sprout Stretches and sign language segments, amongst others. Every night, Nina leads Star and their Sproutlet friends in activities related to tonight's adventure. In order to replicate real life, Star asks Nina for more time to stay up, and the two engage in banter in whether or not Star should get into his hammock. It replicates a fight, but Nina eventually wins, and sacks out on the crescent moon couch in the final link.

Nina also hosted the on-demand bilingual series ¡Hola Sproutitos!, narrated the series Nina's Little Fables, which was basically a US dub version of an international animated children's show, and she and Star starred in both Sprout's Snooze-a-Thon and Preschool Musical on a Stick. In 2015, Sprout premiered Nina's World, an animated show about Nina's childhood. She also sang songs such as "The Welcome Song," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," "Let's Make Something New," "Clean Up," and "The Goodnight Song."

Image from YouTube

Nina guest hosted The Sunny Side Up Show several times, both in her usual outfit and regular clothes, and appeared in a concert-themed broadcast of The Let's Go Show. In 2011, Sprout allowed viewers to select four pairs of pajamas for Nina through a poll to promote the new season of The Good Night Show. From what I have heard, in 2009, the Good Night Show section of Sproutonline.com had a video that would play when you pressed a sleeping clock on the main menu. The video was basically just Nina sleeping on the crescent moon couch (source). Starting with the eighth season, Nina would tell Star childhood stories from her "Best Day Ever" book.

Huge comparisons between these two "Goodnight Guides."

WHY DOES THE GOOD NIGHT SHOW NEED NINA? The Good Night Show needs Nina because she represents the parents trying to get kids who want to stay up all night to go to bed (see above), a real-life scenario she re-enacts with Star. Michele Lepe, who previously appeared on Los Teens on Telemundo, auditioned for and won the role in late 2006, when auditions were held for a new host to replace previous Good Night Show host Melanie Martinez, who was axed that year due to a few PSAs she appeared in prior to Sprout. While auditions were still being held, puppetry veteran Noel MacNeal appeared as human guest host Leo.

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