Elmo Muppeteer Kevin Clash resigns from Sesame Street

[Mo Frackle]

Tons of people are wanting to audition for being "the new Elmo". I hate to say this to these people, all of whom are quite talented, but that's just not how it works. A fellow Muppeteer who knows Kevin and Elmo extremely well will be chosen (and probably by Kevin himself).

 

[Slackbot]

According to an article in Eurweb:

The four gentlemen missed the prosecution deadline by a couple of months. According to state law, child sex-assault victims have from 18 to 23 years old to present their case. After that, if anything happened, it’s pretty much null and void in the court.

Can anyone confirm or disprove this? I wouldn't know where to start.

 

[Hubert]

Tons of people are wanting to audition for being "the new Elmo". I hate to say this to these people, all of whom are quite talented, but that's just not how it works. A fellow Muppeteer who knows Kevin and Elmo extremely well will be chosen (and probably by Kevin himself).

That's the thing, no one seems to get that you can't just pick up a character and start performing them. You have to truly known and understand all facets of the character's personality. You have to connect to the character and be able to relate to them. Recasting is much more than doing an impersonation with a puppet on hand.

 

[D'Snowth]

Which is why, in so many cases (this not being one of them, mind you), it's better to simply replace a character altogether, as opposed to trying to recast the character with a different actor or performer: that one actor is the one who really breathed life and soul into the character, is if something happens to that actor, and you try to recast the character, you're setting yourself up for disaster. That's why shows like M*A*S*H and Cheers were successful despite their cast changes, because when actors left, they replaced the characters altogether with new characters that, while they differed significantly from their predecesors, still were engaging to the audience. Somehow, nobody minded how Gordon was recast three times, but can you imagine if they tried to find somebody else to play Mr. Hooper after Will Lee's passing?

Again, it's a whole different ballgame when trying to find another performer to take on the role of a puppet, or even a cartoon character, but like Hubert and others have pointed out, you can't just select, at random, a new performer to play Elmo, the performer has to be someone who is invested in Elmo, someone who understands the characters on all levels almost as much as Kevin built up those levels. This is also a different ballgame, where it might not be wise for the new performer to try and make the character his own, this isn't like when Marty took over for Snuffy and Telly and eventually made them his own as opposed to trying to immitate Jerry's Snuffy and Brian's Telly, or even when Kevin virtually reinvented Elmo altogether after he was passed by Brian, and eventually Richard.

Whatever the outcome be, we're in for quite a wait, but nevertheless, we'll still just have to wait and see.

 

[Hubert]

Another thing I also don't like with all the buzz about this is that people just assume that every Muppeteer has like 20 people in training to take over their characters. Everyone in my family has made comments to me about how they're wondering how the new performer for Elmo that Kevin had been training will do. Sure, in some select cases (Caroll Spinney) this is the case, but not for every single performer.

 

[dwayne1115]

Well now they are trying to discredit Sesame Workshop as well. Here is a new artical from Fox News. Take it for what it is worth. A lot of the stuff has already been said, but there may be a trail with a jury.


http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...was-kevin-clash-allowed-to-work-on-kids-show/

 

[D'Snowth]

As soon as you said Fox News, I knew this would be a whole lot of bullcrap.

Fox News has hated SST for YEARS, all this "radical left-wing agenda to brainwash our nation's children".

Automatically dismissed.

 

[dwayne1115]

Yes I know that Fox news loved to hate SST, but still The story alone, and it's headline will make people stop and think. I just hope many people will not read it and take everything for truth.

 

[Slackbot]

Basically, Fox wants to know why Clash continued to work on SST after being accused. Forget all that "innocent until proven guilty" nonsense; they smell blood in the water.

 

[D'Snowth]

But he didn't. Remember, when the first accuser came forward, Kevin immediately took a leave of absense from the show, and then once the second accuser came forward (and prompted the first to recant his recant), then he resigned permanently.