Any Uncle Wally fans?

[Snuffylover]

Anyone remember Uncle Wally? He was Bob's Uncle and was on the show from Seasons 16-23. I thought he was a great charachter. He was a good replacement for Mr. Hooper, who had died just a year before Uncle Wally joined the cast. Even though he didn't run the store or even ever work there, but he was a good grandfather figure to the kids and Muppets on the show. I remember a funny episode from Season 22, when Telly wanted to play with Oscar and Oscar finally agreed to play with a game with him. He told Telly to go home and get a tennis racket, a net, a football Helmet, and his Tuba. Very excited Telly runs home and gets everything. He comes back and Oscar says he's not gonna play with Telly, but he sure looks ridiculous like that. Telly's then dissapointed, and Uncle Wally comes by and says "Hey Telly, your'e all dressed up to play my favorite game, Rackettubanetball''

 

[minor muppetz]

It's a shame that all the Uncle Wally clips included in the 40th anniversary DVD only include him in the background. I don't think sesamestreet.org has any clips where he's the main character, either.

Did he even have any lines in the episode where Snuffy was finally seen by the adults? He just seemed to be there. It's been said that Wally claimed to have met some Snuffleupaguses in the past, yet when the adults see Snuffy, Gordon mentions that Gordon, Linda, and Maria all believed Big Bird, without mentioning that Uncle Wally also believed him. And Wally even hesitated (along with the other adults) to go through Big Bird's doors to see Snuffy.

 

[D'Snowth]

While Uncle Wally was a part of my generation of SST for a short time, I don't even remember him that well, and I can't really give a justified opinion on him as a character, because of the limited times I've seen him... and like minor muppetz pointed out, most of what I've seen him in he was reduced to an extra, pretty much... matter of fact, I have Big Bird's Birthday, or Let Me Eat Cake, and even though he's in that special, he only has one line for the entire hour, which is where the gang start to panic over Cookie possibly getting to Big Bird's birthday cake, but when Maria assured them he didn't, Uncle Wally asked "Then where is it?"

Same with Mike, he's also in the special (with quite a few lines), and I remember seeing him as a really little kid from time to time, but again, what I have seen of him was so limited, that I can't give a solid opinion on the character either.

 

[BuddyBoy600alt]

I remember Uncle Wally

He was so nice. BTW, He was also on Magic on Sesame Street video game for View-Master Interactive Vision. I also remember on the Sesame Street Special (AKA Put Down the Duckie), He told Phil Donahue that Ernie's Rubber Duckie has something to say. And his nephew, Bob says "The Duckie does say anything he just squeak." So Uncle Wally says to Phil "Then I say, Let the duckie squeak." And David agrees with Uncle Wally.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Yep. That's what I remember most about Uncle Wally:

"Let the duckie squeak."

Let's see, what else do I remember about him. I know he used to play tricks on Bob. I recall one of them was that he gave Bob a package which was in a box, in a bag, in wrapping paper or something, then it ended up that the gift was the word 'in.'

He also had a close relationship with Olivia. I recall that they often had coffee together at Hooper's.

 

[Snuffylover]

He also had a close relationship with Olivia. I recall that they often had coffee together at Hooper's.[/quote]

I remember a scene where they had a record player in the arbor area, and Olivia played some new dance music and was showing Wally how to do the dance, and Uncle Wally played a record with old fashioned music and Uncle Wally showed olivia an old fashioned dance. I think this was in Uncle Wally's first season (1984-1985)

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if maybe they had trouble writing for Uncle Wally, or maybe if his old age prevented him from doing a lot (of course he was on the show for at least six years). I'm not familiar with Bill McCutcheon's other acting roles so I could be wrong about that. But I wonder if there were any kinds of problems in later years making him reduced to a glorified extra (or maybe more glorified an extra than Willy or Mr. MacIntosh, since he was credited). Then again, in all the clips from episode 2096 (a year after his debut) he's pretty much an extra there as well (does he do anything significant in the Noggin broadcast of that episode?).

I also notice that at the end of the 20th anniversary special, his only line is in the finale, singing with David and Gina but not getting any solo lines (and the other two didn't get any solo lines as well in the special, and with the exception of The Word is No the special didn't have any cfeatured clips that featured them).

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I remember Uncle Wally pretty well (along with Mike, for that matter- as someone else mentioned.)
I just remember that he's Bob's uncle and he was there as part of Sesame Street. I can't think of any major times he's prominently been part of an episode, but I feel pretty sure he must have been at least sometimes. A lot of times he may have been just a background character though. Did he not have any sketches or songs that were used as inserts though?
I don't know much more about Bill McCutcheon's resume, but I do have to mention this about him- when I finally saw the hilariously bad/stupid 1964 film "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians" (yes, this is a real movie)- whenever I saw Dropo on screen, I just thought- "It's Uncle Wally from Sesame Street".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058548/ (You can watch the whole movie at this link.)

 

[GonzoLeaper]

According to Muppet Wiki, (http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Uncle_Wally)
Uncle Wally brought his pet seal Wolfgang with him to Sesame Street and Wolfgang stayed around even after Uncle Wally had left.
I can definitely see Uncle Wally as grandfatherly. I also always saw him as a bit gullible though this isn't really the right word I want to use here. It's more like he had a very childlike faith and thus was willing to believe Big Bird about Mr. Snuffleupagus. I always liked that because as a kid, you were naturally drawn to this fun-loving older adult who was willing to listen to you and go along with your games and such. (Not that the other adults weren't necessarily, but it seems you just knew you could always count on Uncle Wally to be available.)

 

[minor muppetz]

Did he not have any sketches or songs that were used as inserts though?

He was in a three-part soap opera parody sketch with the humans. I can't remember the title or if I've seen it, but it had to do with feelings, and I think Gordon played a doctor (when the cast appears in other roles, is it the characters playing the roles or the actors playing different characters?).

Uncle Wally was also in "I Heard the Dog Bark", making horse sounds.