Puppets in beds

Schfifty

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2009
Messages
963
Reaction score
675
I've been curious for a while on how they make this illusion. They've done this a lot on Sesame Street both with beds on high-rise stands and on floors. Do they use like a real mattress but make a big hole in it for the performers, or do they have bed sheets that cover up prop boxes...(you can see the side of the mattress under the pillow sometimes)? And how do they make the blanket move? Is someone's hands moving it underneath the cover or something?

For examples on the show, there's all the E&B sketches, the ends of episodes #3239, #3508, #3793, etc.

I wish I knew how they do this, because this is like a magic trick where you have to figure it out (unless it's been published somewhere and I haven't seen it).
 

D'Snowth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2003
Messages
40,651
Reaction score
12,811
This may be the closest clue we'll get for the time being:

Safe to say there's some kind of opening in the mattress and bed frame since Bert's hands are just dangling.
 

muppetperson

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Messages
3,719
Reaction score
402
From underneath is one way, and working from the side is another. Usually, they aren't real mattresses. Just a board, with sheets and a pillow. In the above photo, there would be a hole in the board. If the puppet is being worked from the side, then the puppet just lies on the bed, like when the puppets get out of bed. This cant be done from underneath because the puppeteer cant free their hand from the hole in the "mattress".
 

muppetperson

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Messages
3,719
Reaction score
402
Making the blanket move can be done with the puppet's hand via rod control or hand if a live hand like Ernie.
 
Top