Full-Bodied Oscar

[D'Snowth]

I just got to thinking... has Oscar EVER been depicted, in any shape or form, in full body, out of his trashcan?

I know when those knickerbocker plushes came out in the 80s, Oscar wasn't in his trashcan, but rather, wearing a golden sweatshirt with his name in red on the front, but other than that, it seems like in merchandising, storybook and magazine illustrations, etc, he's always shown inside his trashcan, either apparently sitting in it, or wearing it somewhat like those classic cartoon barrel pants (and usually wearing the lid like a hat).

Yeah, I know it's probably because we know starting in Season Three, he made his trashcan mobile, but there are also rare occasions over the years where he moves about the street without his trashcan.

 

[bluebomber95]

There is one episode where Oscar is fully out of his can:

 

[D'Snowth]

Man I miss so much in these recent years. ><

 

[minor muppetz]

I feel I recall a scene in the late-1980s/early-1990s where Oscar's full body was shown after jumping out of a trash can as well. There's also an episode from season 30 in which Miles does a video project for school. He decided to have it snow in the video, and after convincing Oscar to appear, he appeared in Hawian clothes, but was shown lounging in full-body form (can't remember if he was wearing pants in that scene).

I also feel like I've seen some pictures of Oscar plush toys that depict him out of his trashcan. Actually, aside from the Sesame Street Bean I don't think I've seen any Oscar plush that were attached inside the trash can (but pretty much all plastic figures do).

Just a few days ago I starting wondering if the main reason for Oscar's traveling trash can was so they wouldn't have to illustrate a full-body Oscar in books. If he can travel with his can like that, then it's not odd for the books. Though outside of Sesame Street Live and perhaps illustrated books has Oscar been shown traveling with his traveling trash can since the season 25 opening?

In the book How to Be a Grouch, there's quite a few illustrations that show Oscar out of the trashcan, and his legs are shown, but they always have something in the foreground blocking his waist, similar to the gags in Austin Powers movies where when Austin is naked they block his private areas. I wonder if there is anything "taboo" about showing Oscar's waist (ditto for Herry).

 

[D'Snowth]

Interesting points...

There's also an episode from season 30 in which Miles does a video project for school. He decided to have it snow in the video, and after convincing Oscar to appear, he appeared in Hawian clothes, but was shown lounging in full-body form (can't remember if he was wearing pants in that scene).

I think that was something of a tease, IIRC... yeah, we see him lounging in his can, but it's more like his feet hanging over the rim of the trashcan, which is probably why we can't remember if he wore pants or not... probably not.

Just a few days ago I starting wondering if the main reason for Oscar's traveling trash can was so they wouldn't have to illustrate a full-body Oscar in books. If he can travel with his can like that, then it's not odd for the books. Though outside of Sesame Street Live and perhaps illustrated books has Oscar been shown traveling with his traveling trash can since the season 25 opening?

Well again, in the Season Three premiere, he says it's because he hated leaving all his treasures behind, so he punched holes in the bottom of his trashcan so he can take his treasures with him.
[/quote]I wonder if there is anything "taboo" about showing Oscar's waist (ditto for Herry).[/quote]That's actually often confused me about Herry... in illustrations and merchandising, he's depicted wearing red and white striped pants, but on the show (like "The Street We Live On"), he wear no clothing whatsoever when shown full-bodied.

 

[minor muppetz]

That's actually often confused me about Herry... in illustrations and merchandising, he's depicted wearing red and white striped pants, but on the show (like "The Street We Live On"), he wear no clothing whatsoever when shown full-bodied.

I've seen him without pants in The Sesame Street Storybook and The Together Book, both early Sesame Street books. And when they do show him in full-body form they rarely make much effort to give him legs. In The Street We Live On his legs aren't very long (and when I first saw it I didn't think he was shown below the waist, being blocked by others, but later on I did notice he had feet there). In the butterfly pageant sketch they put large shoes on the bottom of the puppet. There's a sketch with Herry and some kids eating apples, sitting on a bench, and Herry appears to be positioned through the space between the bottom of the bench and the top part. What kind of person puts their body through that kind of bench space?

On The Muppet Mindset, somebody did an article asking why Oscar wears his lid like a hat in illustrations, and soon got a response from Joe Mathiew, who said that somebody thought when drawn the way it's shown on TV (with the lid hinged and Oscar in front of the open lid) it looked like a halo. The person who did that series of articles (titled "?") eventually stopped because he ran out of questions. Considering all the question articles eventually got responses from people who knew the official answer, it's a shame he didn't so an article asking about why Herry wears stripped pants or why Oscar's full body is rarely shown. It was said that the illustrators sometimes drew things differently from the show because it looked better when drawn (and the illustrators weren't limited by how the puppets were built), but Oscar and Herry aren't normally shown full-body so it shouldn't matter (and aside from Oscar wearing his lid on his head, what else has been drawn differently from how it's presented on the show?).

I'd like to make my own theory: Oscar and Herry have shedding problems below the waist, so Herry wears the pants and Oscar stays in his trash can.

Well again, in the Season Three premiere, he says it's because he hated leaving all his treasures behind, so he punched holes in the bottom of his trashcan so he can take his treasures with him.

I knew that, but I still wonder if, behind-the-scenes, they wanted to avoid showing his full body in illustrations, while coming up with a clever on-screen explanation. Oscar has been seen outside of his trash can many times, and they didn't exactly have to show him with legs on the show (they didn't do such similar things with other characters).

 

[D'Snowth]

In The Street We Live On his legs aren't very long (and when I first saw it I didn't think he was shown below the waist, being blocked by others, but later on I did notice he had feet there). In the butterfly pageant sketch they put large shoes on the bottom of the puppet.

Funnily enough, it seems like those who are traditionally glove puppets somehow look disproportionate when shown full-bodied as opposed to the rod puppets... Telly and Rosita are other examples... oh, and Lulu: I remember from that Biography special they showed Stephanie D'Abruzzo giving a presentation on making Lulu and regular character, and the puppet had attached legs and feet, and they looked too small compared to the rest of the puppet.

On The Muppet Mindset, somebody did an article asking why Oscar wears his lid like a hat in illustrations, and soon got a response from Joe Mathiew, who said that somebody thought when drawn the way it's shown on TV (with the lid hinged and Oscar in front of the open lid) it looked like a halo.

I guess I can kind of understand where that person is coming from, there are certain things that do look somewhat odd when drawn in illustration as opposed to actuality, so yeah, that kind of makes sense.

But lol, now I'm going to expect to look into a cloth and see the image of The Virgin Oscar appear before me.

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if it's more work to give live-hand puppets lower halfs. Probably. But a number of live-hand characters have been seen with legs many times. I don't think Telly looks weird in full body shots, and his legs seem to be shown alot. There's also been many full-body shots of Ernie and The Count.

Though it seems for three decades they avoided showing Cookie Monster's legs (the cover sort of has a full-body shot of Cookie Monster, but he's wearing clothes including pants). But then in the early 2000s they began showing Cookie Monster with legs on occasion.

It also seems they've tried avoiding showing Rowlf's legs, though they have been shown. In a Vets Hospital sketch in which the characters sink under the operating table, Rowlf went under without any legs, though they did put legs on Miss Piggy (whose legs had been shown a number of times) and Janice's (whose legs first appeared in the Elton John episode) legs. A Muppet Show Fan Club newsletter points out a number of characters whose legs were first shown in The Muppet Movie, and yet Rowlf was not among the characters to finally have legs, though nearly every other major character had gotten legs by then. But then they showed Rowlf's legs in The Great Muppet Caper, and then Rocky Mountain Holiday, and they were shown in many scenes. Then in The Muppets Take Manhattan for some reason when the Muppets are in lockers, all live-hand characters (Rowlf, Fozzie, Dr. Teeth) are sitting in positions where their legs can't be seen (though I think Rowlf's legs might be shown later at the end of the You Can't Take No for an Answer montage, and the storybook includes a photo where his legs are clearly shown). Their legs had previously been shown, so why hide them this time?

 

[D'Snowth]

I've noticed in more recent years, it seems like almost all new puppets built include legs, as opposed to the old days, when it seemed like the rod monsters were the only ones with legs attached, and sometimes other various animal characters, but never the humanoid puppets.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've noticed in more recent years, it seems like almost all new puppets built include legs, as opposed to the old days, when it seemed like the rod monsters were the only ones with legs attached, and sometimes other various animal characters, but never the humanoid puppets.

And in the past few years there's been this trend where on the spine of the DVD releases a character is always shown full-body. The spine of the Best of Sesame Street Spoofs! release shows a full-body shot of Guy Smiley (not sure if it's a new photo or if they added legs to an existing photo, though I feel I've seen the top half of that Guy Smiley image before).