Classic Sesame Clips on YouTube

[MuppetSpot]

Everything you mentioned and how Caroll Spinney hated this segment.

 

[minor muppetz]

Everything you mentioned and how Caroll Spinney hated this segment.

This is the first I heard about Caroll Spinney hating the segment (I guess that’s why they didn’t have him play Blue Bird).

i don’t really remember the character from when I was a kid though I was actively watching the show then (and it seems like the kind of thing that should have stood out, even if I only saw it once), but the opening sequence does look familiar. Or maybe it’s too similar to other animation/chromo key segments of the era.

 

[D'Snowth]

Reading Muppet Wiki, it says that it was perceived that Caroll hated the segment, that doesn't necessarily confirm that he actually did.

It does say, however, that the perception was due to Caroll supposedly being unhappy with the presence of another big bird character on the show, but I find this just a tad hard to swallow: the Blue Bird character was born of Big Bird's imagination, and was of Big Bird to live out fantasies of things he normally can't do but would like to (i.e. flying, for one thing) . . . that sounds like it would actually be right up Caroll's alley having Big Bird's imagination conceive a superhero alter-ego for himself. Granted, Caroll has expressed his distaste for superhero cartoons and shows where violence (even light-hearted, comical violence) was utilized in battles between good and evil, but even so, they surely could've figured out a way for Blue Bird to solve problems without violence, and still be the superhero alter-ego Big Bird could enjoy fantasizing about.

 

[minor muppetz]

I should check Muppet Wiki because that was not on the page last time I checked (which was a while ago).

Blue Bird kind of sounds like a Kevin Clash character, though I know Clash didn’t do the voice. I wonder why they had it be a separate voice actor as opposed to Rick Lyon.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I mean, Rick didn't really do much on Sesame Street, sooo.....

 

[minor muppetz]

I mean, Rick didn't really do much on Sesame Street, sooo.....

Could have been his opportunity to do more (I don’t think the voice actor did much on Sesame Street, either).

 

[minor muppetz]

Looking at the page and editing history for Blue Bird, I feel I should have clicked on the sourced link, as the page previously only mentioned a little of what Rick Lyon said about Blue Bird. Though the whole quote has been there for months.

Back when I only knew of him being dropped because the segments were expensive, I thought that made sense, while also sensing something wrong with that info. Like, couldn't they have made them less expensive (and since the fans couldn't see the segments, we didn't exactly know what made them so expensive)? They were too expensive to do on a regular basis, but many of the recurring segments have only had one or two installments a season, with some going years before the next installment of the recurring segment (Monsterpiece Theater initially had one new segment every few seasons, only doing them on a more regular basis per season after a bit of a back catalogue had been produced). And couldn't they have repeated the segments in multiple episodes to help recoup their expenses (is "recoup" the right term here?)? The second one seems like it could have easily been repeated (and I feel this first one could have also been repeated, if they reshot the wrap-around scenes). But I guess maybe they didn't want to create a fan base for a dropped character by repeating the segments (though there are plenty of characters with only a small number of segments whose segments were often repeated for years - Sinister Sam, Bad Bart, How Now Brown, Little Jerry and the Monotones, etc.).

But the other info does make sense. As I was watching the first one, I did think it seemed odd for a Sesame Street segment to show a bad guy getting defeated like that (though I guess it's not too different from Huxley's defeat in Elmo in Grouchland). And maybe it's just me, but I feel the segment was kind of long for a classic segment (though I didn't keep track of the run time). I wonder if it would have been better to have an entire street story revolve around Big Bird writing a Blue Bird adventure (though that might have been a lot more expensive).

 

[RadioWizard]

Can I just say that Blue Bird's face makes me feel uneasy?

 

[LittleJerry92]

The other Blue Bird appearance:

 

[minor muppetz]

I say that I don't really remember the Blue Bird segments from when I was a kid, but he pretty much sounds the way I was expecting (and he wasn't voiced by any of the main performers or anyone whose voice I am familiar with). Must be sudden instant recall effect.

Speaking of an instant recall effect, when watching the part where Luis and Maria announce they're having a baby, Big Bird's line "today you're fixing toasters, and tomorrow you're having a baby" sounds very familiar (and I'm pretty sure that part is cut from when the clip was included in 20 and Still Counting). Or maybe that kind of line is a common stock line (similar to Big Bird's "one day, babies aren't here, and the next, they are" line from episode 1839).

I think Big Bird's "hey, everybody!" when he tries to announce the pregnancy was sampled in 50 Years and Counting during the transition to "There's a Bird on Me". I had been thinking that line appeared in episode 796 during the Headline Howie segment. Or maybe he said the same line in both scenes.

Man, both Blue Bird segments are quite long when it comes to classic segments. Seems like for Maria announcing her pregnancy, the first street scene goes on for a long time before the inserts start. It would be interesting to determine which pre-season 33 episode holds the record for longest time an episode went before the first insert segment was shown.

I like how Gina seems to view Blue Bird as a hero, almost like how she might react to seeing Little Jerry (okay, so not so excited). I also like the gag how in both segments, his disguises are pretty lame but good enough that nobody else can find Blue Bird.