Caroll Spinney during the break between seasons 1 & 2

[minor muppetz]

In Caroll Spinney's autobiography, he mentioned that during the break between the first two seasons of Sesame Street, Jim Henson didn't have any work for him. But as far as I know, The Great Santa Claus Switch was made before production on season two began. I wonder why Caroll wasn't asked to work on that project. Spinney could have performed Thig, since he had plenty of experience as full-body characters (and I'm sure that he would have been more enthustiastic to perform a full-body monster than Frank Oz was).

I've also read that the cast went on tour between the first two seasons, and Daniel Seagren performed Big Bird during that tour.

So it's odd that there wasn't any work for Spinney, because it seems there was plenty.