Comments on: Who Are The People (and the Muppets) In Your Neighborhood?

Who Are The People (and the Muppets) In Your Neighborhood?

jonp72 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:32:35 -0800

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, let's take a few moments to honor those Sesame Street humans overshadowed by their Muppet counterparts. Check out Bob (Bob McGrath) singing Danny Boy in Japanese on a 1966 broadcast of To Tell The Truth or singing a Japanese ballad. Watch Gordon (Roscoe Orman) as the big pimpin' title character in this original trailer for the film Willie Dynamite. See Maria (Sonia Manzano) as a lady trucker on B.J. & the Bear or getting menaced by Jeff Goldblum in the movie Death Wish. And Mr. Hooper (Will Lee) plays Pac-Man in an Atari commercial. Meanwhile, the Muppet stars of Sesame Street have gone some interesting evolutions as well in their career.

Check out the Cookie Monster prototype in this Munchos commercial or this Computer Monster skit. The original prototype of Grover was a thieving Muppet named Gleep who appeared on a Christmas sketch on the Ed Sullivan show with Arthur Godfrey as Santa Claus, but Grover also appears as Fuzzyface in a 1st season appearance on Sesame Street with Kermit. Last but not least, this Monsterpiece Theater production of Me Claudius features Elmo with a much raspier voice than the childlike Muppet who monopolizes the show today.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:35:17 -0800

Happy birthday, Sesame Street!

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:38:42 -0800

Cameo by Sweetums at the 1.52 mark of the Willie Dynamite trailer.

By: spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:42:16 -0800

Wait, Maria's name isn't really Maria? *mind blown* also: one two three four five, six seven eight nine ten, eleven twelve

By: middleclasstool

middleclasstool — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:42:20 -0800

Maria has also been in The Vagina Monologues. And it was not brought to you by the letter Y.

By: spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints

spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:43:01 -0800

whoa, 1-12 in several languages!

By: DU

DU — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:45:20 -0800

Great post! (Roscoe Orman is only one of at least 3 Gordons, btw.) Also, I always find it weird watching these really old TV shows over the Internet. Who then could have predicted that in the future people would watch them while sitting in front of a flickering screen at home?

By: DU

DU — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:47:51 -0800

Maria's real name isn't Maria, but (at least for a while) her on-screen daughter Gabriella was played by her real life daughter Gabriella.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:49:12 -0800

Feist on Sesame Street.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:53:39 -0800

MetaFilter: The most powerful exploding device known to man. I absolutely love the Muppets. My kids are going to watch every single episode of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, and that's that.

By: Nanukthedog

Nanukthedog — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:12:52 -0800

True story: Bob sang 'the dishwasher is a person in your neighborhood' to me when I first started working at 14... and yes, I was a dishwasher.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:16:58 -0800

Yeah, I used to hang out on the street. You come back and see everything's changed. But it's still the same in a lot of ways. Elmo is bigger than Grover. Wow. But, I saw this a bit ago, always puts a smile on my face, so the street is still in good hands.

By: empath

empath — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:19:48 -0800

Stay tuned for the second half of that Christmas sketch. It's weird and a little bit dirty.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:26:35 -0800

Tranny Kermit's upskirt is pretty disconcerting, yes.

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:28:50 -0800

When you said that Will Lee played Pac-Man in a commercial, I pictured him in yellow make-up, running around chasing ghosts and eating giant dots. I was very disappointed at the real thing.

By: 445supermag

445supermag — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:44:09 -0800

How about Mr. Noodle's brother Mr. Noodle appearing in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 19:56:01 -0800

Lest anyone doubt the vocal abilities of the human cast... Gimme Five (inspired by this)

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:07:25 -0800

Gordon number one: Matt Robinson Gordon number two: Hal Miller Bonus Gordon: Unknown Actor (from a test episode that only aired in Philadelphia) (Bob McGrath sings theme song instead of kids)

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:32:04 -0800

This is one of the finest shows ever put on television. I could watch with my son and get almost as much out of it as he did. Some of the videos like the visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Japan, and China, and then the 25th Anniversary video were amazingly good. The recent political correctness though kind of ruins that and dumbs down the whole thing. Cookie Monster is not supposed to crave veggies, I am sorry.

By: cazoo

cazoo — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:35:23 -0800

Bob McGrath singing Japanese is the best thing ever.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:36:15 -0800

Can you pick out Bob McGrath singing along with Mitch?

By: PhoBWanKenobi

PhoBWanKenobi — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:52:51 -0800

Yay, Sesame Street! Here's a video for all the mefite librarians out there.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:56:56 -0800

Some more trivia you can take to the bank: Toots Thielemans is the guy playing the harmonica on the theme song.

By: strixus

strixus — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:02:50 -0800

I grew up with this show. I still remember many of the things I learned from it. Here's to 40, and another 40. May Sesame Street outlast Meet the Press (61 years), and the Tonight Show (54). May there be a Sesame Street on the colonies of Mars, and beyond. Because we are all the people in your neighborhood.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:04:37 -0800

The Funky Chimes (by unknown)

By: Don't_deceive_with_belief

Don't_deceive_with_belief — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:05:19 -0800

Don't get me wrong, I love Sesame Street. Hell, I even remember the good old days when Big Bird was the only one who ever see Snuffy and everyone else thought it was a symptom of some undiagnosed mental infirmity. I remember before they started to add characters like ~Elmo~ to make up for flagging plot-lines in the show. I remember when Mr. Hooper died, and everyone was very genuinely sad (including myself). I even had Sesame Street Fever. But then I grew older and my interests shifted as they often do towards the beginning adolescence. Then... ... then, the interwebs came along and gave me this, and honestly I had never laughed so hard in my life.

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:12:46 -0800

I grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, where Bob has lived (and still lives) most of his life during his Sesame Street career. You have to understand that I cannot actually use his last name. At all. No one in our town can. He rides on the July 4th float and people just scream "BOB!" at him. Basically, he's magical. He was at a store once and suddenly discovered something tugging at his pants leg. He looked down at it was a four-year-old child. And she looked up at him, and whispered "Boooobbbbbbbb." My sister used to work at the health food store on the main street and one day I came by and she had this weird look on her face, and when I asked her what was up she just whispered to me, much like a small child would tell their parents that they see a deer outside in the yard and do not want to scare it away but at the same time would very much like to go up to it and ride it, "It's. Booooooooobbbbbbb. Bob's heeeeeerrrrreeee." Not a memory from childhood. This was a recent occurrence. We were both post-college. And I looked at her and said "Booooooooobbbbbb."

By: Chocolate Pickle

Chocolate Pickle — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:28:46 -0800

Carroll Spinney is now 76. How much longer can he perform for them? And what would Sesame Street be without Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch? They found a replacement for Henson to do Kermit, but I don't see how anyone else can do Big Bird or Oscar.

By: evilcolonel

evilcolonel — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:11:36 -0800

A guy named Matt Vogel has been backing up Carroll Spinney as Big Bird in some segments for several years. Some of these new people are pretty good -- I have a hard time detecting Eric Jacobson when he performs Frank Oz's characters. For the record, few of the Muppet characters are being done by their original performers at this point. Jerry Nelson still does the Count but has retired from performing his Muppet Show characters. Frank Oz has been trying to distance himself professionally from the Muppets but will still occasionally perform one of his characters. He won't be photographed together with them, though, or perform voices on request. Of course, Jim Henson and Richard Hunt have been deceased for many years. Steve Whitmire inherited Henson's characters, but at least one other person has done some Ernie bits. Fran Brill remains on the show as Zoe, as well as her longtime character Prairie Dawn. And of course, Kevin Clash is still the one and only Elmo.

By: Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:45:40 -0800

Sesame Street: 30 Rocks. Related: How Kenneth the Page Sees the World.

By: Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:49:02 -0800

Original Orange Oscar (1969).

By: Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:51:48 -0800

[pre-emptive eponysterical]

By: JHarris

JHarris — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:20:34 -0800

MetaFilter: The most powerful exploding device known to man. It is over. The "Optimal Metafilter Tagline" problem has been solved, by someone calling himself "Mikey-San." Frank Oz distancing himself from the Muppets? How horrible. Why would anyone do that? Muppets are love, baby. Any employer who'd hold the Muppets against him is not a person worth working for.

By: 445supermag

445supermag — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 05:20:32 -0800

How about an employee? It was rumored that during the filming of The Score, Marlon Brando refused to take direction from Oz, causing Robert De Niro to act as an intermediary to relay instructions. Brando is reported to have called Oz "Miss Piggy", and to have once said to Oz, "I bet you wish I was a puppet so you could stick your hand up my ass and make me do whatever you want"

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:06:23 -0800

Yay is all I have to say! Yay!

By: Jilder

Jilder — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:47:12 -0800

My god, that picture of Frank Oz with a...a...an empty Cookie Monster is just horrible. As if he's killed him. I will never, ever get used to seeing non-full body muppets below the waist. It's unclean.

By: oozy rat in a sanitary zoo

oozy rat in a sanitary zoo — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:07:49 -0800

Anyone interested in how Sesame Street was created should check out Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. It's an amazing and quite thorough look at the development of the show over the years.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:51:54 -0800

It is over. The "Optimal Metafilter Tagline" problem has been solved, by someone calling himself "Mikey-San." mathowie, i take my royalty payments in jujubes TIA

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:45:39 -0800

One of the highlights of my year thus far has been Gordon following me on Twitter.

By: JHarris

JHarris — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:01:05 -0800

445supermag: Christ, what an asshole. (Not you. Brando.)

By: ioesf

ioesf — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:47:38 -0800

drat, i thought mr. hooper was going to play the part of pac-man.

By: ioesf

ioesf — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:56:32 -0800

my goodness, the humor in henson's wilkins coffee ads is dark.