The Muppets
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety- sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompasses ...
are a group of puppet characters created by
Jim Henson
James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...
, many for the purpose of appearing on the children's television program ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
''. Some of the best known Muppets on ''Sesame Street'' include
Big Bird
Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show ''Sesame Street''. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skat ...
,
Oscar the Grouch,
Ernie
Ernie is a masculine given name, frequently a short form (hypocorism) of Ernest, Ernald, Ernesto, or Verner. It may refer to:
People
* Ernie Accorsi (born 1941), American football executive
* Ernie Adams (disambiguation)
* Ernie Afaganis (born c ...
,
Bert
Bert or BERT may refer to:
Persons, characters, or animals known as Bert
*Bert (name), commonly an abbreviated forename and sometimes a surname
*Bert, a character in the poem "Bert the Wombat" by The Wiggles; from their 1992 album Here Comes a Son ...
,
Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster is a blue Muppet character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street.'' In a song in 2004, and later in an interview in 2017, Cookie Monster revealed his real name as "Sid". He is best known for hi ...
,
Grover
Grover is a blue Muppet character on the popular PBS/HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a blue monster who rarely uses contractions when he speaks or sings. Grover was originall ...
, and
Elmo
Elmo is a red Muppet monster character on the long-running PBS/ HBO children's television show ''Sesame Street''. A furry red monster who has a falsetto voice and illeism, he hosts the last full five-minute segment (fifteen minutes prio ...
. Henson's involvement in ''Sesame Street'' began when he and
Joan Ganz Cooney
Joan Ganz Cooney (born Joan Ganz; November 30, 1929) is an American television writer and producer. She is one of the founders of Sesame Workshop (formerly ''Children's Television Workshop'' or CTW), the organization famous for the creation of ...
, one of the creators of the show, met in the summer of 1968, at one of the show's five three-day curriculum planning seminars in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. Author Christopher Finch reported that director
Jon Stone
Jon Arthur Stone (April 13, 1931 – March 30, 1997) was an American writer, director and producer, who was best known for being an original crew member on The Muppets' ''Sesame Street'' and is credited with helping develop characters such a ...
, who had worked with Henson previously, felt that if they could not bring him on board, they should "make do without puppets".
Henson was initially reluctant but agreed to join ''Sesame Street'' in support of its social goals. He also agreed to waive his performance fee for full ownership of the ''Sesame Street'' Muppets and to split any revenue they generated with the
Children's Television Workshop (renamed to the Sesame Workshop in 2000), the series' non-profit producer. The Muppets were a crucial part of the show's popularity and it brought Henson national attention. The Muppet segments of the show were popular since its premiere, and more Muppets were added during the first few seasons. The Muppets were effective teaching tools because children easily recognized them, they were predictable, and they appealed to adults and older siblings.
During the production of ''Sesame Street''s first season, producers created five one-hour episodes to test the show's appeal to children and examine their comprehension of the material. Not intended for broadcast, they were presented to preschoolers in 60 homes throughout Philadelphia and in day care centers in New York City in July 1969.
[Lesser, p. 164.] The results were "generally very positive";
[Fisch, p. 39.] children learned from the shows, their appeal was high, and children's attention was sustained over the full hour.
However, the researchers found that although children's attention was high during the Muppet segments, their interest wavered during the "Street" segments, when no Muppets were on screen. This was because the producers had followed the advice of child psychologists who were concerned that children would be confused if human actors and Muppets were shown together. As a result of this decision, the appeal of the test episodes was lower than the target.
The Street scenes were "the glue" that "pulled the show together",
[Gladwell, p. 106.] so producers knew they needed to make significant changes. The producers decided to reject the advisers' advice and reshot the Street segments; Henson and his coworkers created Muppets that could interact with the human actors,
specifically
Oscar the Grouch and
Big Bird
Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show ''Sesame Street''. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skat ...
, who became two of the show's most enduring characters.
[Fisch & Bernstein, p. 40.] These test episodes were directly responsible for what writer
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published seven books: '' The Tipping Point: How Little ...
called "the essence of ''Sesame Street''—the artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults".
Since 2001, the full rights for the Muppets created for ''Sesame Street'' (which do not include
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson. Introduced in 1955, Kermit serves as the everyman protagonist of numerous Muppet productions, most notably ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Muppet Show'', as well ...
) have been owned by Sesame Workshop.
Muppets
See also
*
List of human Sesame Street characters
Since the premiere of the children's television program ''Sesame Street'' on November 10, 1969, it has included what writer Malcolm Gladwell has called "the essence of ''Sesame Street''—the artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults ...
*
List of Muppets
The Muppets are an ensemble group of comedic puppet characters originally created by Jim Henson. The Muppets have appeared in multiple television series, films, and other media appearances since the 1950s. The majority of the characters listed ...
Notes
References
* Borgenicht, David (1998). ''Sesame Street Unpaved''. New York: Hyperion Publishing.
* Clash, Kevin, Gary Brozek & Louis Henry Mitchell (2006). ''My Life as a Furry Red Monster: What Being Elmo Has Taught Me About Life, Love and Laughing Out Loud''. New York: Random House.
* Davis, Michael (2008). ''Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street''. New York: Viking Penguin.
* Finch, Christopher (1993). ''Jim Henson: The Works: The Art, the Magic, the Imagination''. New York: Random House.
* Fisch, Shalom M.; Lewis Bernstein, "Formative Research Revealed: Methodological and Process Issues in Formative Research". In Fisch, Shalom M. & Truglio, Rosemarie T.. ''G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street''. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. .
* Gikow, Louise A. (2009). ''Sesame Street: A Celebration—Forty Years of Life on the Street''. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. .
* Gladwell, Malcolm (2000). ''The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference''. New York: Little, Brown, and Company.
* Hellman, Peter (November 23, 1987)
"Street Smart: How Big Bird & Co. do it".''New York Magazine''. 20 (46): 48—53. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
* Lesser, Gerald S. (1974). ''Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street''. New York: Vintage Books.
* Morrow, Robert W. (2006). ''Sesame Street and the Reform of Children's Television''. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
External links
Sesame Workshop Muppet and Puppeteer Bios
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seasame Street Muppets, List Of
Lists of children's television characters