Abelardo and Paco from Plaza Sesamo

[MUPPETMONKEY]

This picture might have been posted here before but I found it on the net today and it brought a lot of memories:

That's the very first Abelardo from 1972's Plaza Sésamo. He was a gargantuan stiff dragon. His beak moved with string that was attached to his hand.
It was weird because you could see the guy moving up and down his hand so the beak could move as he asked for "semillas de calabaza" to eat.

Paco was a puppet. He was always screaming out from a window.
An interesting fact from the humans on the show was that the man who played Toño was the spanish voice for Fred Flinstone and Bert. Also, the "woman" on the street was the spanish voice for Wilma.

Now that was a walk trough latinamerican memory lane.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Thanks for sharing that. I guess they didn't decide to model "Alberdo" after Big Bird until later on.

I have another question while we're on this subject. Did Alberdo the bird once have a different name? I remember Bill Cosby calling him something else (I don't remember what it was) on the 20th Anniversay Special.

 

[MUPPETMONKEY]

Thanks for sharing that. I guess they didn't decide to model "Alberdo" after Big Bird until later on.

I have another question while we're on this subject. Did Alberdo the bird once have a different name? I remember Bill Cosby calling him something else (I don't remember what it was) on the 20th Anniversay Special.

The very first Plaza Sésamo worked somehow independently from Henson and CTW by that time. My guess is that they bought the Henson puppets segments from CTW and created this "hybrid" of Sesame Street.
Later on they refined the concept by creating "Montoya"; The latin equivalent of Big Bird. He looked very much like the actual Abelardo only that he had a parrot-like voice and acted dumb. "Bodoque"; the latin equivalent of Oscar the Grouch, was always fooling him into stupid situations which the humans had to clarify later on.
The mexican Plaza Sésamo became very famous so eventually CTW took charge of it and Henson re-created Montoya,( named Abelardo Montoya now),making him look somehow "shorter" and playful. Also a blue hairy monster called Pancho substituted the brown Bodoque. Lola also joined the cast as a female Elmo.
I haven't seen the anniversary show yet but my guess is that Bill Cosby mentioned Montoya. That of course if he didn't quoted Abelardo.
It's sad because I read online that the new Plaza Sésamo became too expensive and didn't actually recovered the first investment quickly.
Plaza Sésamo has so many possibilities of being bigger but the money factor has it financially controlled.
If only I had a chance to add my two cents to improve it! Sigh...

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I'd never seen those before. Kinda scary to me, but I'm sure he's as sweet as Big Bird! That's neat stuff.

 

[MUPPETMONKEY]

I'd never seen those before. Kinda scary to me, but I'm sure he's as sweet as Big Bird! That's neat stuff.

Scary indeed!! But what the heck, when one is a child even the scariest monster can be cute. Abelardo's voice was slow and dumb and it wasn't performed by the person inside the costume.
I can't remember if he sings or not but I do remember him being scramed away by the screaming Paco many times.
Paco was even scarier because he didn't had a sweet side like Oscar the Grouch has.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

HA HA! That's cool.

It's so cool to see how things work in other cultures like that.

 

[MUPPETMONKEY]

Yeah, I was born watching both shows and wondering why they look so different one from the other.
Another funny thing is that...I don't know... but these 72's Plaza Sésamo producers had some sort of black humor in their hearts. They used to scare kids everytime that Paco appeared on the window because he slammed open the doors screaming everytime. It was funny because you could see the scared faces of the kids before he did that.
I imagined them saying something like "Man, not Paco! Why me?? Does my father hates me that much?....I wonder when will the stupid puppet....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHH!!!"

LOL!

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

The very first Plaza Sésamo worked somehow independently from Henson and CTW by that time. My guess is that they bought the Henson puppets segments from CTW and created this "hybrid" of Sesame Street.
Later on they refined the concept by creating "Montoya"; The latin equivalent of Big Bird. He looked very much like the actual Abelardo only that he had a parrot-like voice and acted dumb. "Bodoque"; the latin equivalent of Oscar the Grouch, was always fooling him into stupid situations which the humans had to clarify later on.
The mexican Plaza Sésamo became very famous so eventually CTW took charge of it and Henson re-created Montoya,( named Abelardo Montoya now),making him look somehow "shorter" and playful. Also a blue hairy monster called Pancho substituted the brown Bodoque. Lola also joined the cast as a female Elmo.
I haven't seen the anniversary show yet but my guess is that Bill Cosby mentioned Montoya. That of course if he didn't quoted Abelardo.
It's sad because I read online that the new Plaza Sésamo became too expensive and didn't actually recovered the first investment quickly.
Plaza Sésamo has so many possibilities of being bigger but the money factor has it financially controlled.
If only I had a chance to add my two cents to improve it! Sigh...

Oh, I get it, the CTW "Plaza Sesamo" is different from the original Latin American one. I was wondering whatever happened to "Bodoque." Didn't Bill call him "Mazuki Grouch" or something like that?

 

[MUPPETMONKEY]

Oh, I get it, the CTW "Plaza Sesamo" is different from the original Latin American one. I was wondering whatever happened to "Bodoque." Didn't Bill call him "Mazuki Grouch" or something like that?

The original version was a Televisa production and, like I mentioned before, CTW (aka Sesame Workshop now), took charge of the thing later.

Bodoque sadly might be inside of some old trunk or ended up in the hands of some hyperactive kid.
Mazuki Grouch? Now that's new for me.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

The original version was a Televisa production and, like I mentioned before, CTW (aka Sesame Workshop now), took charge of the thing later.

Bodoque sadly might be inside of some old trunk or ended up in the hands of some hyperactive kid.
Mazuki Grouch? Now that's new for me.

Hmmm. Maybe Bill Cosby made a mistake when he was talking about the show.