This unlikely romance actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it-they’re both prone to violent fits of rage, he is more swine-like than Kermit will ever be, and they both enjoy spending time touring the stars in spaceships.

This adorable fan made illustration comes to us courtesy of DeviantArtitst Loopydave, and I think it would make a great poster for all the fans who love both the Muppets and Star Wars.

Link  –via The Mary Sue

Looking for a good way to show your love of the Muppets while staying warm this winter? You could always try knitting your own Muppet hats like Annie of Wattlebird did. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any patterns and isn’t planning on selling them, so if you want to make your own Statler or any of your other favorites, you’ll have to figure it out on your own.

Link Via Craftzine

We all know that Animal from the Muppets likes to rock out on the drums, and occasionally he likes to destroy things at random, so posing as Iron Maiden cover mascot Eddie was a no brainer. The only thing missing is a hapless victim and a heavy metal soundtrack!

Link

I’ve caught a fresh case of Muppet Fever thanks to the new movie, and I hope that a whole new generation of youngsters will find love for these fleece superstars. However, their career was in a slump for a while, and a few of the Muppets thought they might need to find other work, so here are some test shots from their alternate movie role tryouts.

You can see the rest at the link below, including Kermit as Anchorman and Dr. Bunsen as Walter White from Breaking Bad!

Link –via ComicsAlliance –image via National Post

One of the occupational hazards of eating pasta is the way it slings sauce on everything around you—shirts, jacket … dates. Physicists creatively named this the spaghetti effect, the tendency of long flexible strands (like spaghetti) to whip side to side when pulled into a container (like your mouth). It’s a mild annoyance at dinner but a real danger in industrial settings where ropes or chains are rapidly pulled to and fro—or at home, when your metal tape measure goes feral. Fortunately, you can tame the noodle. —Judy Dutton

Instructions for better spaghetti-slurping follow. Link

Inspiring the Classics

We’ve talked about Jim Henson’s show Sam and Friends, where Kermit originated, before, but that wasn’t Jim Henson’s first experience working with puppets. It actually started all the way back in 1954 when Henson was still attending high school. He was quite ambitious because before he graduated, he already was creating puppets for a Saturday morning kid’s show called The Junior Morning Show featured on WTOP-TV.

Interestingly, Jim didn’t really intend to work on puppets for a career. He actually originally went to the University of Maryland, College Park, to become a commercial artist. But when he was only a freshman, he was asked to create a five-minute long puppet show for WRC-TV named Sam and Friends. The show ended up playing a huge role in the inspiration for The Muppets and featured a prototype version of Kermit the Frog.

Image Via zhurnaly [Flickr]

So Who Was Sam and What’s Up With His Friends?

(Video Link)

Well, Sam was a puppet that looked like a human and his friends were a variety of other human puppets, a few weird monstery creatures, a snake and a lizard that eventually morphed into the world’s most famous frog. The show started out just featuring the puppets lip-synching to popular songs, but as the show started gaining popularity, they started writing real sketches, many of which involved featured spoofs of popular TV shows.

One of the best-known sketches involved Kermit nibbling on something that looked like a worm, but eventually turned into the tongue or nose of the character Big V, a giant monster, who would eventually eat him. Near the end of the show’s run, Esskay Meats started showing ads at the end of the show, which would feature characters from Sam and Friends.

While the show was best known for introducing Kermit to the world, it also played a huge role in letting Henson perfect his puppetry techniques that would eventually change the way puppets were shown on television forever. One of his biggest innovations was setting up the camera shots so the people operating the puppets would not be seen on screen. He also made the puppets more flexible than puppets previously seen on television so they could express a wider array of emotions on screen.

Making It Big

(Video Link)

Humorously, after leaving school and the financially successful show, Henson still doubted that he would be able to make a career out of puppetry. Fortunately, like many recent graduates, he took a trip to Europe, where he could think about his future. While there, he spoke with a number of professional puppeteers who believed their work was a true art form. This sealed his interest in the field and ensured the success of the Muppets in the future.

Throughout the next decade, Jim focused all of his efforts on puppeteering. He appeared as a guest on a number of talk shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, and created a number of commercials, a few of which led to the body styles and voices of future Muppet characters. He also made a number of short, experimental films, one of which was even nominated for an Oscar (that’s it above).

In 1963, Jim and his new wife moved to New York City, where they formed Muppets, Inc. When his wife quit working on the puppets so she could raise their children, Henson hired Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz, who both played crucial roles in the development of The Muppets.

Henson’s first big break occurred in 1966, when he started working on Sesame Street for PBS, which would finally give his Muppets a national audience. While the show was a massive success and Jim loved the idea of an educational show for children that was actually fun to watch, he was determined that the Muppets shouldn’t be pigeonholed as children’s characters. In 1974, he left the show and headed to London to start working on his dream creation The Muppet Show.

(Video Link)

The first episode of The Muppet Show (above) premiered in September 1976. While kids enjoyed watching characters they recognized from Sesame Street, most of the jokes were written for adults, who enjoyed the slapstick plot lines and big name guest stars. Throughout the series’ six year-long run, over one hundred guest stars appeared on the show and no celebrity ever appeared twice on the show. In the beginning of the series, each star would receive a Muppet modeled after them as a parting gift, but because this practice was costly and time consuming, this policy was changed and characters based on stars were only created if they were intended to be used in the show.

Life After The Muppet Show

After the show finished its run, the characters went on to star in a number of popular movies featuring the characters interacting with humans in real life settings and an animated series called The Muppet Babies. In 1989, Henson made another TV show, called The Jim Henson Hour, which featured many of his most famous characters, but the show was cancelled after only one season due to low ratings. As it turned out, the show probably would have been cancelled soon after anyway, because Jim passed away in May of 1990. I know we’ve shown some videos of his memorial here before, but just in case you haven’t seen this touching, beautiful and depressing display, here it is (have some tissues handy):

(Video Link)

Fortunately, Jim’s legacy continued to thrive after his passing and The Muppet Show was revived as Muppets Tonight in 1996, bringing the characters a whole new generation of fans. New movies also continued to be created and the characters made a number of movie and television appearances throughout the years as well.

Disney bought the rights to The Muppets in 2004 (although they do not own the rights to Sesame Street characters or Fraggles) and helped push the characters back into the public eye, starting with a number of popular web shows, particularly the award winning series Statler and Waldorf: From the Balcony. The company also opened a new attraction at their California Adventure park titled Muppet*Vision 3D, which features many of the show’s favorite characters attempting to put on a big new show that keeps going terribly wrong.

The characters have only gone up in popularity since then, appearing on a postage stamp and earning their own wing at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta (set to open next year). Fox is also in talks with Disney about making a new Muppets show, and, of course, there is the new movie coming out today as well.

Image Via Express Monorail [Flickr]

Fun Character Trivia

The Muppets wouldn’t be The Muppets if it weren’t for the individual characters, of course. So now that you know all about the history of the show, it’s time to take a look at some of the characters themselves.

• Kermit the Frog was the first Muppet, originally created in 1955 for Sam and Friends. He was first made from a turquoise woman’s coat that Jim’s mother had tossed in the trash. When he was adapted for Sesame Street, he was given his trademark collar to help hide the seam that attached his neck to his head. Kermit has reached #25 on the Billboard music charts with his hit song “The Rainbow Connection.
• Miss Piggy was only supposed to be a minor character on The Muppet show, but her obsession with Kermit and delusional view of herself quickly made her one of the central characters in the show.
• Animal has appeared in all of the Muppet movies and is undoubtedly the most famous member of the Electric Mayhem, making him the only one from the band to regularly appear on The Muppet Babies, where he was voiced by Howie Mandel. In 1998, he was named the official mascot of the U.S. Ski Team in that year’s Winter Olympics.
• Fozzie Bear was named for Faz Fazakas, who created the mechanism that allowed him to wiggle his ears. Fozzie’s jokes often include Jewish humor because he was origianally performed by Frank Oz, who is Jewish.
• Gonzo the Great was originally called a “whatever” or a “weirdo” when it came to his species, but in Muppets from Space, it was revealed that he is actually an alien from a distant planet. Of course, that doesn’t make his love for Camilla the Chicken any less strange.
• Rowlf the Dog was originally created for a 1962 Purina commercial, but his career really took off when he started regularly performing on The Jimmy Dean Show. Because Jimmy Dean did so much to help promote The Muppets, Henson even offered him a cut of his profits, but Dean refused, explaining that Jim did all the work and thus, deserved all the credit. In a 1966 IBM film, Rowlf lists his full name as Rowlf Cameron Swayze.

Image Via cmpalmer [Flickr]

Obviously in the almost sixty years since Jim Henson started creating Muppets, a lot has happened, so I can’t cover it all here. That being said do any of you have any favorite Muppet stories I may have left out here? Also are you guys excited about the new movie?

Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11

This is one movie parody trailer that is not for children. -via Buzzfeed

Bert and Ernie are recording their voices for the TomTom GPS company. They can tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Street! -Thanks, Bearfoot!

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m excited as heck for the release of the new Muppet Movie and these cake pops seem like a perfect way to get in the spirit for the new film. If you want to make your own, Bakerella has the instructions.

Link via Laughing Squid

Before The Muppet Show, before Sesame Street, there was Sam and Friends, a 1955 series of local TV sketches created by a college student named Jim Henson.

Despite getting top billing, the star of “Sam and Friends” was not jug-eared Sam, whose round nose and bald head suggested Popeye. No, the show’s heart was an olive-drab, lizard-like creature named Kermit, who was sewn from one of Henson’s mother’s cast-off wool coats (that’s him, Sam, and a few other Friends at the top of this article, with Henson circa 1956 or 1957). The original Kermit had rounded feet instead of flippers, lacked Kermit’s classic crenellated collar, and viewed the world through a ping-pong ball that had been sliced in half and painted. Henson lined his creation with denim from an old pair of jeans.

Collector’s Weekly talks to Smithsonian curator Dwight Blocker Bowers about the history of Kermit and Henson’s other puppets, and gives us a glimpse at the collection of Muppet memorabilia on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Link

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew of Muppet Labs doesn’t actually have eyes, but his glasses are stylin’. Craftster member djonesgirl made this crocheted model of his head so you have a place to put your glasses. You can find her pattern at the link.

Link -via Geek Crafts

Occupy Wall Street is taking over all the news networks these days, but the truly important movement these days is the Occupy Sesame Street cause. Check out some of the key Tweets from the front lines over on BuzzFeed.

Link

Muppet creator (and the most renowned puppeteer ever) Jim Henson was born on September 24, 1936, which would make him 75 years old if he were with us today. In honor of the occasion, the Google Doodle features a group of Henson’s monsters -and you can act as the Muppeteer!

Link to Google.

Link to a memorial at the Google Blog.

Link to more from and about Jim Henson.

Link to more from the Muppets.

The latest Muppet ad for their new movie is a parody of the trailer for the movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. You can see the original at YouTube, but be aware that it is not a “family” film. -via Buzzfeed

An artist with the moniker J-RYU refers to this piece as “Forbidden Love Child.” Well, forbidden only in the eyes of some people. If you’re in Los Angeles on Friday, you can see it at the Toy Art Gallery’s “Brain Evolution” show.

Link -via Super Punch | Gallery Website

The Yip Yip Martians from Sesame Street were a hit at DragonCon 2011. The description at YouTube says it all:

simply put, one of the most entertaining and crowd pleasing cosplay costumes EVER… there wasn’t a single person who saw these guys who didn’t explode into joy.

If you are not familiar with these characters, you can watch the Muppets in one of their original Sesame Street sketches. -via reddit

By OK Go (with help from The Muppets). This is from The Green Album, available as of today. And it’s not over when the fat lady sings! -via Metafilter

There’s a fuzzy new exhibit coming to a museum near you that showcases the works of puppet messiah Jim Henson. The Fantastic Voyage is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute and showcases some of Henson’s most beloved and well known characters, like Bert and Ernie, Kermit, and Rowlf the piano playing dog, so you can see your Muppet pals up close and personal. Plus there’s lots of concept art, sketches and photographs spanning the entire career of the world’s most beloved puppeteer. Jim Henson fanatics unite and show the puppet master some love when the exhibit comes to your town!

Link image via Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service

Be warned, if you tend to cry after watching emotionally-charged moments, this article (particularly the videos) might have you spraying your computer with tears. I know I was misty-eyed while writing it.

1. Borderlands

I have to admit, this just might be my favorite wedding proposal ever. Ben and his girlfriend, Tora, were both seriously addicted to the popular Gearbox RPG shooter Borderlands. That’s why when Ben decided to ask Tora to marry him, he decided to ask Gearbox for help popping the question. The company’s response was more positive than Ben ever could have hoped for, as they spent a week working on a special Borderlands-themed wedding proposal video for the couple. It even featured a few hilarious quips from the robot character, Claptrap.

Ben got all of Tora’s friends and family members together under the guise of throwing her a birthday party and unveiled the video by saying he got a hold of a new Borderlands trailer. Needless to say, after watching the video, Tora’s response was a big fat “yes,” although she did later admitted that she was a little upset that Ben got to go to the Gearbox studio without her.

Video links #1 and #2

2. Mario

This guy and his girlfriend both seriously love Mario (if you couldn’t tell already by looking at the room) so in order to ask his girlfriend to marry him, he set up a functional Mario question mark box that would drop the ring when she hit it with her head. While the set up is exactly as geeky as you might expect, it’s surprisingly emotionally touching when she tries to hold back her tears as she jumps to hit the box.

Video link

3. Bejeweled

If your girlfriend loves the game Bejeweled and you happen to be a software programmer, you can do something above and beyond if you’re so inclined. Or at least, that’s what Bernie Peng did when he decided to propose, using his programming skills to create a custom Bejeweled game. Once the score got high enough, the regular screen would clear out and a ring would appear on the DS screen. Bernie then dropped to one knee and presented her with a pink ring that looked like it belonged in the game.

As if the story weren’t great enough on its own, the company that makes Bejeweled was so impressed by Bernie’s proposal that they offered to pay for the couple’s honeymoon and they volunteered to supply all of the wedding guests with a free version of Bejeweled. Now that’s a great way to capitalize on the publicity of the wedding proposal!

4. Google Maps

Michael Weiss-Malik’s girlfriend already agreed to marry him during a low-key, at home proposal, but Michael felt the occasion needed more pizazz, so he moved on to his proposal 2.0 plan, which involved a hot tip he learned at work. Did I mention Michael works at Google?

When the Google Street View car was set to drive by the company’s headquarters, everyone was invited to go outside and wave at the car, but Michael opted to do something even more memorable. He dressed in some kind of animal costume and stood outside holding a banner that read “Proposal 2.0 Marry Me Leslie!!”

Then, instead of emailing her the link directly, he asked internet users to email her and tell her why she should marry Michael or to link to his website that included the Google Street View scene.

5. Muppets

Anyone can order a custom Muppet doll to propose for them, but Sid Ceaser decided to go one step further by making a three minute long, professional-looking video staring Muppets made to look like him and his girlfriend. He then brought her to the movies where the proposal film was played before the feature presentation. When she said yes, the lights came on, revealing that her friends and family made up the entire theater audience.

Video link

6. Light Writing

Light Writing Proposal from Derick Childress on Vimeo.

Light graffiti involves using lights and a camera to “tag” a building or other surface. Usually, it’s taken close up in one long-exposure shot, but when one photographer decided to use the technique to ask his girlfriend to marry him, the production got pretty massive pretty fast. In order to spell out “Emily Will You Marry Me?” the photographer decided to shoot the massive light letters from a high vantage point that would show a huge chunk of downtown Raleigh.

After scouting out the perfect building, he rented a hotel room there and had his friends help him shoot the images and throw out the lights to create the writing. The process was incredibly tedious and technical, but if you want to learn more about how it was done, his website has a lot more information. If you don’t care about the technical side of things, the video shows all you need to know…how the lights spelled out his message.

Video link

7. LOL Cats

I Can Has Cheezburger played a critical role in this marriage proposal, where a man used photos of his cat and ICHC’s classic LOL builder to create a one-of-a-kind proposal that went on the site’s front page. When she gave her answer, they added a few captioned pics of the girl with her kitty to the post so everyone knew she gave a resounding “afurrmitive” to the question.

8. Comics

As a freelance artist who has worked on a number of major comic books, Leigh Gallagher knew he didn’t spend enough time at home or give his girlfriend nearly enough attention. That’s why he made sure his proposal comics were filled with heart-filled confessions, humor and an unbelievable attention to detail. Despite his self-confessed flaws, the comics made one thing abundantly clear: Leigh is one heck of a catch.

If all the touchy-feeliness of this article has gotten to you and you want to read about a few proposals that haven’t gone this smoothly, then you might want to check out this older Neatorama article featuring 14 Romantic Gestures Gone Terribly Wrong.

Of course, if you are feeling the emotions here, feel free to share your own proposal stories in the comments!

These new Muppet figures dressed as Star Wars characters will be sold at Disney theme parks beginning this fall. You’ll see Sam the Eagle as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Beaker as C-3PO, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew as R2-D2, Fozzy the Bear as Chewbacca, Link Hogthrob as Han Solo, Kermit as Luke Skywalker, Miss Piggy as Princess Leia, Gonzo as Darth Vader, and his chicken Camilla as a Storm Trooper.  Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

Well, sort of. In this spoof teaser for the upcoming Muppets movie, written by Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller (the team behind Forgetting Sarah Marshal) and directed by Flight of the Conchords co-creator James Bobin, the Muppets get their Wolf Pack on just like Stu, Doug, Alan and Phil. Love the Danny Trejo cameo.

Link via ET Online

I grew up with Sesame Street, but I never envisioned Bert as a terrifying character. This silicone bust by The FX Lab forum user Nacho is a bit more unpleasant to the eye than the Muppet. More pictures at the link.

Link via Geekologie

In the 1950s, before the Muppets, Jim Henson produced these commercials for Wilkins Coffee. They are, uh, very blunt. To summarize, the message is “Buy our coffee, or we’ll kill you.” The brand appears to be defunct. Read more about Henson’s early puppetry at Network Awesome. Link -via Boing Boing

Ho Komissionooster Sjolund!

Sveern hund der meenskroo skort herg dah smorgasbord bord bord.

Gloo das click click ein mein filmikin den Washington fom des Fancy Food, goôde des griting zoo des Kükenmenenstoof.

Yay boo thanken svenson eet des goo goo Per Nilsson und des Eilest Nassell fer yoom yoom.

Bork Bork!

Also included is a series of complaint letters about Sesame Street’s character The Count. Link

And the Black Cat Balloon Company does just that.  I’m talking Animal, Beaker, Rowlf, Gonzo, the works.  Now that right there is a balloon artist.

Link -via Holy Kaw!

Sid Ceaser proposed to Sara Prindiville as a Muppet. Really. He has been a Muppet fan all his life. When the time came, Sid ordered custom designed Muppets that resembled the couple and produced a film about them. It was shown along with the previews at a theater he took Sara to. Of course, she recognized who the Muppets were as soon as she saw them. And she said yes! Read the story of how the film came about, see photographs of the happy couple, and watch outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage of the project. Link -Thanks, Mike Weinstein!

You may remember Ricardo Autobahn as the creator of the awesome Golden Age of Video, or you might know him as part of the musical duo Spray, along with Jenny McLaren. Here is the video for their latest song, “Everything’s Better with Muppets.”-Thanks, Ricardo!

Or maybe it’s just popcorn; who can tell? Now with oh-so-helpful captions!

I was seventeen when I heard Jim Henson had died. It seemed impossible: he was Kermit, and Kermit was always there. He was only a few years older than my parents, so what kind of world was it where someone that young and that brilliant could die? I was, truly, as sad as I would have been if a friend had died suddenly, and felt the loss as keenly. I was angry, too, when I heard that he had died of untreated pneumonia, angry that he hadn’t gone to the doctor. Angry that the Muppets would never be the same.

I’m not angry any more, but the sadness is still there. I feel it every time I see — or, more accurately, hear — any of the characters he used to play. I don’t envy Steve Whitmire his job: how hard must it have been to pick up Kermit the first time after Henson’s death, put his hand inside the sleeve, and try to sound as much like Henson as possible? I’m glad that the Muppets, and Henson’s former characters, are still around. But they will never quite be the same.

Oh yes, there are videos as well. Link

(Image credit: Alan Light)

We’ve heard the Muppets sing “Ode to Joy“, “Dust in the Wind“, and “Bohemian Rhapsody“. In the most recent Muppet music video, a monstrous bunny rabbit and his smaller friends sing the Ben E. King song “Stand By Me”.

via Nerdist | Previously on Neatorama: Stand By Me

March 20^th is Big Bird’s sixth birthday. You may be wondering how he could be only six years old when he was the first Muppet on a show that has been on for over forty years, but the thing is that Big Bird (or just “Bird” as his friends like to call him) is always six years old. So although the Sesame Street favorite has been around for a whopping 41 years (meaning most of our readers had the chance to grow up watching him and that he got to meet Patricia Nixon while she was still the first lady), we at Neatorama are proud to say happy birthday to one of our favorite perpetual children.

Why Six?

Big Bird’s character was originally supposed to be more of a village idiot than a neighborhood friend, but within the first season, the writers and performers quickly started seeing a lot more potential in the innocent and sweet bird. They started envisioning him more as a curious child than a yokel and quickly morphed him more into a role model for the youngsters at home.

Big Bird’s young mind is always inquisitive and he always asks questions as a result. This not only gives kids a chance to learn the answers to questions he asks, but also teaches them that it’s good to ask about things they don’t understand. Big Bird helps children understand that it’s OK to not understand everything because even someone who’s eight feet and two inches tall still doesn’t know everything.

This also helps the character share morality lessons with kids without preaching to them because he is only reflecting on something he just learned.

All of Life’s Lessons

Big Bird continues to be one of the most prominent characters on Sesame Street. As such, he is often given the opportunity to teach some of the hardest life lessons to the home viewers.

Big Bird’s star role in the early 80’s episode about the death of Mr. Hooper was considered to be a milestone in children’s programming and may have been part of the reason he was selected to play such a key role in Jim Henson’s funeral, where he sang “It’s Not Easy (Being Green)” in memory of Jim, who created the Muppet family and played Kermit. At the end of the song, during which he almost broke into tears, he looked up at the ceiling and quietly said, “thank you Kermit.”

One of the other important lessons Bird taught kids was that just because adults don’t immediately believe you about something doesn’t mean you should stop trying to tell them about it. This came about when the producers of the show decided that the long running gag about Mr. Snuffleupagus never appearing when the show’s adults were around. When a string of sexual abuse cases hit the public eye in the early 80’s the staff worried that the gag might encourage kids to think that adults won’t believe them if they talk about something out of the ordinary, so finally Snuffy actually made himself known to the show’s adult characters. Perhaps Big Bird sums up the message best:

“Snuffy’s my best friend, he was never imaginary! It was just a matter of poor timing. Sometimes I would ask Snuffy to wait for me in one spot, then while I was away he would leave to go put on a tie or brush his teeth. And then when I came back he would be gone! But then one day he finally stuck around, and everyone could see that my friend Snuffy was real after all. I was so glad that day, because then I knew that my grown-up friends on Sesame Street would always believe me when I told them something that unusual but still true.”

He’s A Little Ahead of His Age

Just because he’s only six and a giant bird doesn’t mean Big Bird doesn’t have an array of skills and abilities. He can sing, dance, roller skate, ice skate, ride a unicycle, draw and write poetry. He also lives on his own in the nest on 123 Sesame Street. Well, actually, he does live with one friend, his teddy bear Radar, named for Walter “Radar” O’Reilly from M*A*S*H who was also naive and kept a teddy bear friend. Although Gary Burghoff gave Big Bird Radar during a guest appearance, later episodes claim that he was actually a gift from Mr. Hooper.

What Kind of A Bird Is He Anyway?

Big Bird’s species will likely remain a mystery through the ages, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been hinted at. He most commonly seems to say he is a lark, which started during a 1976 appearance on Hollywood Squares. He even reiterated this fact just last year in an interview with TV Guide. In the same interview though, he also calls himself a golden condor, an origin that started back in a 1981 episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

While many people assume he is supposed to be a canary because of his yellow coloring, it was only said by Ma Bear during the 1987 filming of A Muppet Family Christmas. The Swedish Chef responds to this one by looking at the bird and calling him “gobbla gobbla humungo.”

Oscar the Grouch seems to have his own theories about Big Bird. While he often calls him a giant turkey, he also called him “part homing pigeon” in the 1978 Christmas Eve on Sesame Street special. While his calling Bird a turkey is supposed to be an insult, it actually helped him hitch a ride on a turkey truck in the 1985 movie Follow That Bird because Big Bird was able to explain that “my friend Oscar always says that I’m a big turkey!” In fact, this is actually true to some extent, since only turkey feathers are used for the character’s costume.

Perhaps the best answer for Big Bird’s species though is that he’s a bit of a mixed bag bird. After all, he does have his own scientific name, “Bigus canaries,” according to the book Sesame Street Unpaved. And, in the 2004 special A Celebration of Me, Gover, Big Bird says, “I wish I could fly like Super Grover. But my Grandpa was an emu bird. They can’t fly. But they can run! Every fall, Grandpa ran south for the winter.”

Of course, everyone’s just going to see what they want to see. The Egyptian god Osiris called Big Bird an ibis during the movie Don’t Eat the Pictures. Personally, I like to think that he’s a canary emu mix.

The Effects of Aging

Just because Big Bird is only six doesn’t mean he hasn’t aged quite a bit throughout the years. Of course, his species must age rather well because he seems to be looking better than ever. The original Big Bird was designed to be clumsy and goofy to go along with his yokel behavior. He had googly pupils on occasion and rather raggedy feathers. His puppeteer, Caroll Spinney remarked on this original incarnation by saying, “He didn’t look too keen. I thought he was one of the ugliest things I’d ever seen!”

Of course, this goofy design didn’t quite work out for the eternal child character they decided he should take on, so near the end of the first season, he was given a makeover. He received more feathers on his head and his eyelids were made to raise and lower. The puppeteers figured out a great way to enable him to move his right arm, which was originally pinned to his side (Caroll Spinney has to use one arm to move his mouth and the other for his left arm, which left his right arm useless). By the second season, his feathers were better groomed and they were a more constant shade of his trademark golden yellow hue.

In season eight, Big Bird was given three bright yellow highlights around his head (like those seen in the image above by Flickr user Anthony Grimley), which he maintains to this day, although the color and size shift through the years. In season ten, Big Bird received a more rounded head and a more shapely neck that largely resembles the current inceptions of the puppet since.

The costume itself is partially assembled by American & Fancy Feather. Because 90% of the feathers selected for the costume are rejected, the company’s owner, Anthony Trento, says Big Bird is his toughest customer.

Puppeteering the Giant

Big Bird is obviously one mammoth of a Muppet, so controlling him is quite a big job. Fortunately, the team has worked out some ingenious innovations to make Big Bird as lifelike as possible. For the most part, Big Bird is controlled by Caroll Spinney who uses his right arm to control big bird’s head, eyes and mouth movements and his left arm to control Bird’s left wing.

As I said earlier, the first version of the puppet was forced to have his hand tied down because it couldn’t be controlled. They fixed this first issue by tying fishing line to the puppeteer’s arm so the right arm would do the opposite of the left arm. When the arms need to be moved independently in movies, a green screen tool is used so a second puppeteer can stand behind the character and move his arm and then later be edited out of the shot. This cannot be done on the Sesame Street set because it is too vivid of a background.

That’s not the only major change the puppeteer has seen in his costume. While the early incarnations of Big Bird had a small mesh screen in the front of the neck for Caroll to see from, this was latter sealed off to make things look even more accurate. Instead, Mr. Spinney uses a video monitor in the front of the suit to navigate his way around. He says he also includes the scripts in his costume to make it easier to remember his marks.

When Big Bird performs on-location, he cannot use the monitor suit though, so the team uses a neck tie or tuxedo shirt to hide the screen on the front of the costume.

Image by Luis Rubio [Flickr]

Casting Call

Jim Henson was originally slated to play Big Bird and the first costume was actually built for him, but the man who built the costume told Henson that he wasn’t walking the way a bird should stroll, so Jim decided not to play the part. He then offered the role to Frank Oz, who is known for playing Bert, Grover and Cookie Monster, as Big Bird, but Oz refused largely due to claustrophobia related to being in the giant suit. Fortunately, Caroll Spinney took on the character and helped shape the creature into the endearing bird we know and love today.

Spinney has played Big Bird almost consistently since the show’s inception in 1969. Daniel Seagren performed in his place a few times when he was sick and also on a few appearances on other shows and in recent years, Rick Lyon and Matt Vogel (the main understudy) have taken on apprentice roles in anticipation of 76 year-old Caroll’s eventual retirement.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved Big Bird, and so do millions of other Americans. After all, you have to be pretty popular to have your own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (pictured above thanks to Flickr user GrahamKing) and to be featured on a postage stamp. I hope you all enjoyed learning about the character that helped so many of us learn!

Sources: SesameStreet.org, New Yorker, Muppet Wikia, New York Times, Wikipedia, Jim Henson: The Works

Beaker tries for YouTube fame. It’s not as easy as he thought! -via YesButNoButYes

This new muppet clip – made with 70 different muppets – takes on one of the greatest rock hits of all time; Bohemian Rhapsody. The clip stays true to the pure, unadulterated awesomeness that the muppets are meant to be and brings them to life once again. From Gonzo and Animal, to Beaker and Rowlf,  they combine to create what I see as both tribute to both themselves and to Queen. I could go on and on, but really, the best thing to do is let the video speak for itself. 

Enjoy.

– via nerdist

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by rampatmonkey.

Image: TMZ

TMZ has side-by-side photos of celebrities and the Sesame Street Muppets that they resemble. Queen Elizabeth II, Nick Nolte, Dustin Diamond, and Zach Braff are among the mocked.

Link via Urlesque

Sesame Street premiered on November 10th, 1969, which makes it 40 years old today! The above clip is from a promotional show aired to introduce the series two days before the premiere. Sesame Street was originally intended for inner-city children, but became a hit with the preschool set all over the globe. Many people don’t realize how much the show has changed in 40 years. The early seasons are available on DVD with a disclaimer that says:

“These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

In those early days, Cookie Monster smoked a pipe. He also ate things that weren’t edible, much less nutritious. Oscar the Grouch was much grouchier. And children rode bicycles without helmets! You won’t see those things on this season’s Sesame Street. Link

More Sesame Street Links

Today’s anniversary episode features guest star Michelle Obama.

Caroll Spinney, who plays Big Bird, is still going strong at almost 76 years old.

8 Memorable Sesame Street Celebrity Cameos.

Sesame Street videos on YouTube.

The 101 Muppets of Sesame Street.

The Cookie Monster Interview.

Big Bird Sings at Jim Henson’s Funeral.

Imagine it from a TV executive’s point of view: a weekly variety show, in an old vaudeville theater, featuring puppets, and a mix of A, B and C-list celebrities that catered to both kids and adults. That’s not a pitch… it’s a just list of random words that don’t go together. Unfortunately, it’s that weirdness that’s been lost to the ages, as these days the Muppets are remembered more as a kids’ show instead of the more adult, primetime comedy it was.

The Muppet Show‘s 10 Weirdest Moments has video clips of sexual innuendo, violence, and surreal guest stars that bring back fond memories. Link -via Look At This

Years before Sesame Street, Muppet creator Jim Henson made a very similar monster who ate snack foods and computers in television commercials. The basic look and spirit were there, but the character we know today was still a ways off.

Enter puppeteer Frank Oz. For nearly 30 years, Henson and Oz were an extraordinary team. Cheryl Henson, Jim’s daughter and the president of the Jim Henson Foundation, says the two men shared a subversive sense of humor. Their Muppets were regulars on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show.

It was later, on a Muppet game show, that the cookie-fixated creature we know emerged, Oz says. The winning contestant was offered the chance to choose a prize: a vacation, a new house, $10,000 cash, or a cookie. He chose the cookie — and the Cookie Monster was born.

Om nom nom nom … COOKIEEE!!! … Link | The Cookie Monster Interview [embedded YouTube clip]

Worth 1000 contests always fascinate me, so Worth 1000 + Muppets (most of them are Muppets, anyway, but you’ll also find Wallace, Chucky and Alf) = pretty sweet. This particular contest asked Photoshoppers to stick puppets in unlikely situations. The one above is by taltieri is probably my favorite, but Animal in 300 and Bert and Ernie in 3:10 to Yuma are pretty awesome too. The Kermit and Miss Piggy entry is just… disturbing.

Link to the whole gallery

12. You have to love Statler and Waldorf. I couldn’t find much on their particular inspiration, but I can tell you that they’ve been around since the 1975 Muppet Show pilot. They are named after popular New York City hotels (the Statler Hotel was renamed the Hotel Pennsylvania in 1992.) Guess what Waldorf’s wife name is? Yep… Astoria (she looks startlingly like Statler.) FYI, Waldorf is the one with the mustache and white hair. Statler has the grey hair. Apparently Waldorf has had a pacemaker for more than 30 years.

Link – via i met a possum

Oh, I almost forgot: did you know that Statler and Waldorf now have their own YouTube account?