Has the 2000s Been a Big Decade for Modern Evolution?

[D'Snowth]

During the early 70s and such, a lot of the Muppet characters on SST evolved on the show, but that was to be expected, as the characters were new then, and the show was (and still is) an experiment in the works; not to mention I'm sure over the time, Jim and his crew were testing different methods of design and constructions. We've seen Big Bird go from a pitiful, brainless looking bird to the plump, large-headed bird we all know and love; Ernie used to have a dark red nose with a pink and orange sweater while Bert had a droopy nose with a permanent angry eyebrow, yet now they're more rounded off with Ernie having his bright red nose and his red and blue sweater, while Bert's nose is more subtle and a moving eyebrow; Grover went from being a nameless grayish green monster to our favorite lovable blue pal; Oscar went from being a bright toxic orange to his trademark grundgy green.

It's like they've all remained mostly stable like this, but it seems as if the 2000s have seen a fair amount of more character evolution as well, which I kind of find just a little odd, considering that by this time you'd think they'd have designing and construction figured to a science... for instance, Hoots went from have shaggy monster-like fur for his body, with realistic-looking owl eyes, though now his body has a more feathery appearance with more generic looking yellow (or orange) eyes; Rosita recently lost her wings (which still confuses me, considering that episode where other residents helped her realize how useful her wings can be despite she can't fly); that character of Lulu went from being light blue with a blonde mop-top haircut, to dark blue with the same hair cut, to lavendar with a head full of feathery purple hair; Prairie Dawn's got a new outfit and haircut; and look what happened to Zoe!

It's still rather interesting that there'd be quite a fair amount of character evolution, even on modern-day SST.

 

[SSLFan]

Yeah, I would say that this decade was definately a period of that, lol. I would say another example, though it occured way before, was Baby Bear's drastic makeover. Another would probably be the new Grover puppet we got in S35, with the added fur and all. And, while its quite nitpicky, the Elmo puppet with it's fur brushed down, which quite frankly annoys me. Almost every muppet got reconstructioned in some form, espicially to fit in with the "cleaner look" approach SS has been taking since S33-34.

And I agree, that whole Rosita thing still freaks me out.