A Breakdown of the Series' Timeline

[D'Snowth]

They still occasionally did that up through the 90s.

 

[minor muppetz]

I guess now we're going to be at the start of a new era, with the show airing on HBO and being only 30 minutes, in addition to the new set and retirement of Sonia Manzano (and Fran Brill).

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I guess now we're going to be at the start of a new era, with the show airing on HBO and being only 30 minutes, in addition to the new set and retirement of Sonia Manzano (and Fran Brill).

And now the show will certainly be different in season 47 without Joey Mazzirino

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

There were a couple of examples of Big Bird in a more childlike situation that made Caroll realize that Big Bird should be a kid instead of a bumpkin, not just him wanting to visit a daycare, but from what I recall, there was a scene where Big Bird was in the hallway of Gordon and Susan's apartment, and was hearing strange noises, scaring him into believing that there were monsters in the hallway... apparently, Caroll tapped into the emotion and feeling of the scene so well that after they finished taping, those in the studio applauded his performance, and it was here that he began to realize that having Big Bird be a kid would work better for the character, especially so kids watching can actually relate to him, and he approached the producers about the idea, and they decided to try it out and see how it would work... which, of course, it did.

Wow,that scene sounds amazing, I hope somebody finds it and puts it on the internet soon.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Season 39 was my favorite recent season. It had some really creative storylines,a nice mix of characters,the HD filming looked great with the new set,lot's of Big Bird, some great songs,Leela was a great addition to the cast. And while we had some really boring episodes such as "Elmo and Zoe's Hat Contest", "Firefly Show" and ''Max the Magician'' , we also got some very interesting and experimental episodes like "Mine-Itis". The pacing in the street scenes was really good and I really liked the overall format with multiple short street scenes similar to the pre season 33 era,it allowed for more stories to be told and it also allowed for more characters to appear in each episode.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Since, I assume season 47 will be basically the same in format as season 46, should we count it as two different eras because of the change in head writers?

 

[D'Snowth]

It's all subjective to your own personal opinions. Looking over my OP, I would adjust it to say that Whatever Comes After Copper #2 is now 2008-2014/5, and that as of 2016 and present is Whatever Comes After Copper #3, because it's definitely an era all it's own . . . it's almost an entirely different show now, between the new set, the completely different format (hour to half-hour), the move to HBO, the scaling back of characters both Muppet and human, the turnover in staff, what have you.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I guess i'll count it as the same era considering we lump the entire "Around the Corner" period together even though the head writer changed from Norman Stiles to Lou Berger in season 29.

 

[minor muppetz]

You can choose how you want, or maybe you can lump certain eras into parts (like how some of us have included the first season as among the early years, but sort of made the first season a separate "part" regardless).

With my breakdown of the series timeline, I've mostly focused on on-screen stuff. I don't think I thought up many behind-the-scenes things (aside from things about Muppet performers).

 

[mbmfrog]

Another thing about the timeline is that from the 1980s until the very late 1990s, it was rare for Jim or Frank's characters to appear in street scenes, the usual exception being in a movie, special, or book. I noticed this even as a kid (one who not only didn't know they were puppets, but who didn't know they were performed by people who had become very busy with other projects by then). Of course most of Jim's characters except for Ernie and to a lesser extent Kermit seem like the kind who might be out-of-place in street scenes most of the time (can you imagine Bad Bart or Sinister Sam coming to the street for some reason?). I was amazed to see Ernie, Bert, and Cookie Monster at Luis and Maria's wedding (even though they didn't talk) as well as when I saw the Best Friends Blues clip.

And then they started coming back to street scenes at the end of the 1990s, especially season 30. Actually that year while it was fairly common to see Ernie, Bert, Cookie, and Grover on the street, most of them were usually in non-speaking cameos. But then the next season it was common to see Ernie in street scenes again, and then the next Frank's characters were starting to appear on the street frequently, due to the substitute performers.

I first remember hearing about Frank's characters having alternate performers in season 32 (though David Rudman and Eric Jacobson sometimes say that they just consider it filling in for him, I think I've performed them long enough and frequently enough to be considered their main performers now, especially since Frank hasn't performed Cookie or Bert in at least five years), but Muppet Wiki says that Eric started performing them in 1997. Muppet Wiki doesn't cite a source for that, so I don't know where 1997 comes from. Maybe they were just preparing to take over then, maybe Frank dubbed their voices a few times when they performed, maybe they were just performing them in non-speaking background appearances. I'd like to see an interview with Eric Jacobson where he clears up when he started performing them (he doesn't get interviewed much).

I've read that Eric Jacobson performed Grover in the Ding-a-Long episode from season 30. I remember seeing that one and don't remember Grover getting any lines of his own, but others on Muppet Wiki say that he did (well, it's their video copies against my memory). In fact Cookie Monster did talk in some street scenes in the season 30 episode where Big Bird gets C is for Cookie stuck in his head. I wonder if Frank performed him there or if somebody else did.

If I may add about the Maria and Luis clip by saying that maybe it was a special moment in the Show's history and that they required to have most of the majority characters making an appearance during the ceremony and that includes Frank and Jim's major characters.