El Compayito could be considered a successor to the original American show, but the creators of
Oobi were uninvolved with the series' development. The Compayito puppet was based on and named Oobi when he first appeared in 2003. At the time, he was not intended to become a mainstay of the Televisa network. When Edson Zuñiga was asked by Televisa to continue the character on their news programs, his name was changed to Compayito ("little compadre") to avoid being mistaken for the American character.