Brian Muehl's Elmo

[minor muppetz]

At first I wondered if that was really Brian Meehl as Elmo, until I saw that interview (though I haven't watched the whole thing, and didn't see that part of the interview). Thought maybe it was an impersonation of what somebody thought Meehl's Elmo sounded like (especially when I heard a little bit of laughter with it). Of course I also thought it was an actual audio clip from Sesame Street as opposed to Meehl doing the voice recently.

Interestingly, it does sound very similar to the voice that Jerry Nelson gave Elmo.

 

[gravy]

At first I wondered if that was really Brian Meehl as Elmo, until I saw that interview (though I haven't watched the whole thing, and didn't see that part of the interview). Thought maybe it was an impersonation of what somebody thought Meehl's Elmo sounded like (especially when I heard a little bit of laughter with it). Of course I also thought it was an actual audio clip from Sesame Street as opposed to Meehl doing the voice recently.

Interestingly, it does sound very similar to the voice that Jerry Nelson gave Elmo.

It's about somewhere in the 20 minute mark or after.

 

[PumpkinJ]

https://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_1439
OH. MY. GOD.
YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS. This episode from Season 11, Episode 1439, has Brian Muehl performing Elmo in this. This one is where Maria finds Elmo in the yard polishing a metallic letter H.
If you pre-Elmo fans haven't heard this, I'm sure y'all are gonna go fangirl-crazy hoping for footage from THIS episode to be leaked online one day.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

https://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_1439
OH. MY. GOD.
YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS. This episode from Season 11, Episode 1439, has Brian Muehl performing Elmo in this. This one is where Maria finds Elmo in the yard polishing a metallic letter H.
If you pre-Elmo fans haven't heard this, I'm sure y'all are gonna go fangirl-crazy hoping for footage from THIS episode to be leaked online one day.

Yeah, that's definitely a neat find. Would be cool to see more major pre-Kevin clips resurface. LOL

 

[LittleJerry92]

I mean, we still got a small sample of Brian's Elmo at least.

 

[PumpkinJ]

I mean, we still got a small sample of Brian's Elmo at least.

I know. I have it on my YouTube channel.

 

[PumpkinJ]

Now that we've got several episode guides compiled from trusted sources, here's two episode numbers I know of where Brian Muehl performed Elmo in: There's Episode #1439 (from Season 11) where Maria finds Elmo in the yard polishing a metallic letter H, and Episode #1475 (from Season 12) where Luis teaches Elmo Spanish words like "casa".

 

[PumpkinJ]

Along with that, I emailed Brian Muehl about the two episodes he performed Elmo in. I bet he's gonna be surprised about reconciling some of his memory on Elmo.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was excited to see two of the earliest known uses of Elmo's name, and was surprised that he was referred to by name in season 11*.

The Muppet Wiki page actually notes Brian Meehl as Elmo's performer in the guide (in the scene rundown), I wonder if the script actually notes the performer (I know the scripts to sometimes note who plays who, does it do that with the Muppet characters?). I kinda thought Meehl would have started performing Elmo near the end of his time on the show, since I assumed that's why Richard Hunt took over and Meehl has said that he only remembers performing Elmo five or six times (of course Norman Stiles said that he only remembered Deena being in three or four scenes but we've found that she's been in quite a few more than just four, unless he was referring to the Deena and Pearl sketches and not street scenes; maybe he did perform the character a lot more than he remembers), and we know there are other instances in the early 1980s of other performers as the character (Jerry Nelson was Elmo in "Handful of Crumbs" which first aired in either season 13 or 14, and probably didn't have him mumbling there). But another appearance by this early incarnation of the character was posted, with Elmo learning the word "casa". I once e-mailed Brian Meehl, and he said that was the only specific scene with him as Elmo that he could remember.

*Based on the fact that he was identified by name in a season 12 press release talking about several new characters, by now I've learned that most of them actually did appear in season 11 or earlier, I knew a handful were around but figured they weren't counting them whether they were just extra utility characters before then or maybe just made one appearance before. In fact I figured Dr. Nobel Price might have just made one season 11 appearance, or maybe most of his season 11 appearances were in news flashes and season 12 brought him to the street, but I recently found on Muppet Wiki that the one Dr. Nobel Price segment that had been officially listed as being from season 11 actually made its first broadcast in season 12 (maybe it was produced for season 11 and held over a season?).

 

[minor muppetz]

Looking at one Muppet Wiki user's main page, I saw that Richard Hunt performed Elmo as late as episode 2018. It's great to know that in 2018. I kinda hope episode 2018 gets a page this year just because it matches the year (and kinda want episode 2019 to be held off on a page until next year....).

At first I thought it was known Hunt performed Elmo there because it was noted in the script (like I wondered with the Brian Meehl episodes given guides yesterday), before I saw it was pointed out one of the Elmo clips there was in Being Elmo, so that's how it's known.