Biff and Sully appreciation thread

[Princeton]

Anybody else remember these guys? They were construction workers; Biff was purple and performed by Jerry and Sully was orange and didn't speak but was puppeteered by Richard. After Richard died, Sully was retired (which makes no sense if he was a mute character, anybody could've thrown him on), but Jerry continued to perform Biff. Not sure if Biff's still around now that Jerry's gone.

 

[MuppetSpot]

Actually you got it wrong Sully was briefly retired then David Rudman took over the puppetry work then in the mid 90s both characters were retired but returned in a season thirty episode and a brief cameo in season 40.

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing I've thought about: Although they are construction workers, have they ever been referred to as such on the show? In the song "We Coulda", where Biff sings about jobs they could have taken but "someone's gotta hammer", he never directly says that they are construction workers. He does mention things they do, but doesn't say their actual job description.

It seems like even though they are construction workers, most of the work they're shown doing seems more like typical handyman work, like building a doghouse, fixing a TV set, occasional moving work, and building a birdhouse.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I think my favorite Biff & Sully moments would have to include the following- Biff working for Salvador Dada (

)

and Sully providing music while he and Biff work by building a piano
(

)

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing I've been wondering lately is, when did Biff and Sully get their names printed on their hats? At first, the hats were blank, but then sometime in the 1980s, they both had their names printed on them (I know this would have happened by the time of "Do De Rubber Duck", which I think debuted in season 18). And maybe it's just me, but I feel like they eventually went back to hats that didn't have their names printed on them.

I've seen behind-the-scenes photos for season 47 which show both Biff and Sully on the set. I assume this means they will be making an appearance. I wonder if it'll be a real significant appearance or if they'll just show up in the background, or if it'll be somewhere in-between. Hopefully it won't be cut like Roosevelt Franklin's supposed appearance in season 40.

I don't know if Sully was retired right after Richard Hunt's death and then brought back. I know that Sully did make at least three appearances in season 25, plus a couple of cameos in the "Stars and Streets Forever" anniversary special. There was a year between Richard's death and the 25th season, and I can barely think of anything with Sully from that season (there was an appearance by Tito Puernte where Sully was among the characters dancing to a song he did, I think that was from season 24 but I'm not really sure).

I wonder who performed Sully in Stars and Streets Forever. David Rudman isn't credited, so I assume he didn't perform in the special (and his voice isn't heard in new footage).

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

If i'm not mistaken, I think I read somewhere that the reason Sully didn't appear much in the 90s was because they were trying to gradually phase Biff out of the show. And I heard that at some point, the writers were even going to replace him with his niece, Roxie Marie.

 

[MuppetSpot]

Yeah Roxie Marie was going to be the replacement for Sully but, he returned so that idea got rejected. Now I think the Roxie Marie puppet got turned into a different character on the French production.

 

[minor muppetz]

I think Roxy Marie was introduced around the time that Richard Hunt died, but I think I've also seen some say that the family relationship between Biff and Roxy took a year or two before it was established.

Roxy Marie did stay on the show for most of the 1990s. I remember her being in a season 29 episode where the Furry Arms Hotel gets infested with fleas (or was that episode a repeat from an earlier season?).

As I mentioned, there's at least three season 25 appearances by Sully (where he and Biff have scenes in the park, they demonstrate some, more, and all at Finders Keepers, and they visit the day care center). But then Biff also had quite a few scenes without Sully, though he's always had a lot more solo appearances. There's the episode where he got his thumb stuck in a bowling ball, which featured neither Sully or Roxy Marie (the first half of the episode paired him with Telly, and then his wife Celeste appeared with him for the rest of the episode). There were quite a few segments with Biff and Roxy, and in the season 25 premiere, Biff is involved with building the wall over the new park, with Sully no where to be seen (it's made clear that a construction crew is there with Biff, I'd like to think Sully was there but just not seen or mentioned).

And then after season 25, there was an episode where it's Biff's birthday, and Sully doesn't appear at all. That's kind of sad, though it does make a little sense since Biff didn't want a birthday party and Roxy Marie and Elmo put together a party around the last minute (Sully might have been too busy to go to a suddenly put-together party), though it's good that Sully was briefly mentioned in the episode. And there's also an episode where Biff waits for Sully to show up on Sesame Street, and Sully did show up at the end (after a misunderstanding on what street to meet at). And their last big appearance was in a season 30 episode where they drill on the street.

I also find it a little sad how Biff appeared in both Sesame Street policy films that played at Sony/Loews Theaters, but Sully was nowhere to be seen. Especially "Don't Forget to Watch the Movie", which fits in many characters.

If i'm not mistaken, I think I read somewhere that the reason Sully didn't appear much in the 90s was because they were trying to gradually phase Biff out of the show. And I heard that at some point, the writers were even going to replace him with his niece, Roxie Marie.

That doesn't make a lot of sense. So they were phasing out Sully because they were planning to phase out Biff, but kept Biff without Sully? Why not just phase both out at the time? And then replace him with his own niece, who seems to be an honorary replacement for Sully? Weird.

 

[C to the J]

Has anyone noticed these pictures on Season 47's page on Muppet Wiki?

It's strange the article doesn't have a trivia section yet. And it looks like Sully has the newer build of the Pumpkin Anything Muppet.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Has anyone noticed these pictures on Season 47's page on Muppet Wiki?

Yup, we've been talking about those in a couple of other threads. It'll probably just be a background cameo, but I hope it's more. I think Biff and Sully should definitely return since construction workers have always been a major part of a big city and also something many kids are still interested in.

Maybe they can start bringing back some of the older minor characters like Biff, Sully, Herry and Frazzle to compensate for the loss of Joey Mazzarino. That's just assuming Joey's characters will have a reduced role now that he's gone.