E-mail from Fred Garbo

[Princeton]

Fred Garbo might not be a household name, but he performed on Sesame Street for a few years in the 80's. I e-mailed him to ask him about his experiences and here is his reply.
"Hello,
I had a great run as Barkley the dog and a brief history with Dexter the juggling monster.
Kevin was the voice and the head of Dexter. I was the arms that juggled. As a Juggler it was my idea to try and make a puppet that could juggle.
The writers really killed Dexter. They made the one thing the puppet could actually do: his enemy.
After so much work it was quite short-lived. Such is showbiz.
I have moved on with the whole inflatable show. And even an inflatable dog that's it Airedale.
Thanks for your note."

 

[Princeton]

Bump

 

[D'Snowth]

I do believe that even Kevin said Dexter was SST's greatest failure.

I think they said it was just far too difficult to try and coordinate anything with Dexter, between Kevin performing the head, and Fred juggling below him. Juggling is hard enough, but I guess trying to juggle with your hands in the air while croutching down with someone else standing over your head is near impossible.

 

[minor muppetz]

I think they said it was just far too difficult to try and coordinate anything with Dexter, between Kevin performing the head, and Fred juggling below him. Juggling is hard enough, but I guess trying to juggle with your hands in the air while croutching down with someone else standing over your head is near impossible.

Whenever I read that part of Kevin's book about failed characters, I can't help but feel like he's saying Dexter was a failed character regardless of him being too difficult to perform. Just because he was a difficult character to perform doesn't mean that he wasn't liked by the kids or was a badly-written character, though it also doesn't mean that it wasn't that case as well.

I was surprised when I first saw him, he looked like a full-body character (though his legs are never shown in anything I've seen him in). Even if he wasn't full-body, I could see Kevin being inside part of the character. And wouldn't being inside protect him from juggling balls in the air a little?

I wonder if the performers wore hardhats when performing him.