Tammy (character)

Tammy is a purple armadillo who is described as six years old, and squeaks instead of talking. She first appeared as the co-host of KIDS on September 26, 2007. The character's popularity led to co-starring on Between Maids and she received a spin-off.

Character background
Tammy lives in an apartment in the city with Erica and her parents, Mrs. and Mr. T, sometimes in a countryside house, a park, or a school classroom. She has a pet hamster named Mungo Ann, who has babies Mungo, Groucho, Zeppo, and Harpo.

Other relatives in Tammy's family include her great aunt Greta (as shown in an episode of Tammy) and cousin Izzles (as shown in further episodes of Between Maids).

Her favorite food is a sandwich, as shown in interviews and her bio, but in the Tammy episode "Juicy Tammy," it is shown she also likes grapes. Tammy does not like spinach, which is listed in her bio.

As with many children of his age, Tammy is seen somewhat infrequently with a favorite toy of hers, but three: Mini Dillo, Happysaur, and Lady Tigress.

Tammy's birthday is September 26th.

Nick Jr. description of Tammy:"Tammy is a 6-year-old purple armadillo whose squeaks only her parents and human friends can understand. Enthusiastic, witty and playful, she always wants to be part of everything that goes on. However, like most preschoolers, she sometimes doesn't have the skills or knowledge to do what she wants. But that never stops her because she has a very positive, optimistic view of herself and life. Tammy's best friends are Erica, Simon, Frances, Sid, and Rebecca, and also her pet hamster Mungo Ann. Tammy loves eating her favorite food, sandwiches. She also loves roller skating and being tickled."

Origin
In early plannings of KIDS, Tammy was originally going to be an orange blanket, until the staff found her a little too difficult, so they changed her to a purple bear, until someone brought in an armadillo, also named Tammy, to the office, so she became an armadillo evermore.

Tammy's puppet was designed and built by Patrick Patterson, who was dropped in 2009 but later reused as Izzles on Between Maids in 2011. Tammy made her grand debut on September 26th that year when the block launched, first and always performed by Julie Mallory. Tammy started to build in popularity, as research showed that viewers were not only entertained by the character, but they were learning from her.

Popularity
Tammy appeared with Mallory and co-creator Greg Muzik on ABC in 2008, and had multiple guest spots on Moose and Zee interstitials on Noggin the same year. In the mid-2000s, Tammy became a regular on Between Maids, alongside KIDS hosts Erica O'Barr, Sean Fujiwara, Brayden Blackburn, and Maddie.

She stars on the TV series Tammy. Additionally, she has performed such songs as "Where is Tammy?," "Tammy is her name-o," "Five Little Tammys," "Polly Wolly Doodle," "Aiken Drum," and "The Tammy Slide."

Tammy has also been the co-host of the KIDS co-productions in South Africa (hosted by Marty Lancaster, Doug Moore, and Joe Mullally) and Asia (hosted by Dennisha Anil, Ashley Yoo, and Fujiwara)

Brown Johnson felt she knew part of the character's reason for success: "Tammy is popular because Tammy is purple."

Reese Witherspoon, who appeared on KIDS in 2014, lists the six-year-old armadillo's acting talents behind only Pacino, Marlon Brando and Meryl Streep, while KIDS host Charlie Falomir says she is a "giving actress."

Tammy's squeaks
Tammy characteristically avoids talking with words, using squeaks only others around her can understand.

In an episode of Between Maids, Izzles came up with a magic spell to make her cousin actually talk, when instead, Tammy mimicked a radio announcer and the Between Maids mimicked Tammy's squeaks.