Herbert Birdsfoot

[mikebennidict]

i remember a coupl of HB and Grover segments. 1 where they'd say the alphabet. Herb says a letter, Grover repeats it, For some reason Grover gets emotional and screams the last 4 letters and his voice echoes in the room. they also counted to 20 in another 1 and now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I recall it though I'm sure Grover did or acted out just like in the letter segment.

 

[BEAR]

This character has always confused me. I know who he is, and eventually I got to see a picture of him, but I don't think I have ever actually seen a sketch with him. What years was he on? It was probably before my time. I have heard several recordings of him but never saw him. He was the mysterious man to me.

 

[Ziffel]

i remember a coupl of HB and Grover segments. 1 where they'd say the alphabet. Herb says a letter, Grover repeats it, For some reason Grover gets emotional and screams the last 4 letters and his voice echoes in the room. they also counted to 20 in another 1 and now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I recall it though I'm sure Grover did or acted out just like in the letter segment.

This reminded me of when it was brought up in a thread several months ago. Fuzzgobo had a pretty hilarious post in it!

 

[Censored]

This character has always confused me. I know who he is, and eventually I got to see a picture of him, but I don't think I have ever actually seen a sketch with him. What years was he on? It was probably before my time. I have heard several recordings of him but never saw him. He was the mysterious man to me.

They made sure that Herbert Birdsfoot would stay mysterious to those too young to remember him by not including him in the Sesame Street Unpaved book. He really was conspicuously absent from it, which I never could figure out. Granted, he wasn't the most popular muppet on the show, but he was significant enough to have a place in Sesame Street history. He would have been perfect for the "Whatever Happened To" section.

Most of his sketches involved giving a lecture with Grover as an assistant and were pretty much like the skits with Kermit and Grover. I think some people speculated that Herbert was used as a substitute for Kermit after the Muppet Show began, but this is not correct. Herbert was around long before the Muppet Show. I remember seeing skits with Kermit and Grover as well as Herbert and Grover in the same era and Grover even made reference to Herbert Birdsfoot in one of the Kermit skits.

Occasionally, Herbert would be in different types of skits. He was in a street scene with Big Bird, a very funny skit with Ernie, and a few other miscellaneous ones, but he was best known for his lectures.

I couldn't say exactly when Herbert stopped appearing, but he seems to be a character who faded out somewhere along the line.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Herbert Birdsfoot has definitely been around for quite a while. I'm not sure if he was there at the start in 1969, but I think he must have been there by at least 1970. At an antique mall one time, I found the first 2 issues of Sesame Street Magazine!!! This was really cool to look at because there were so many classic Sesame Street characters in there! On one of them, (I think it may have been the 2nd. issue) Grover and Herbert Birdsfoot were prominently featured on the cover! I'm pretty sure that was copyrighted 1970. I've heard Herbert Birdsfoot's voice before, on songs like the original version of "Imagination"- available on the Sesame Street Platinum Too album
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/103-3232137-7955010?v=glance&s=music

I don't recall ever seeing any video clips of him or anything though. Does anyone know if there are any Herbert Birdsfoot appearances on any of the Sesame Street home videos?

 

[BooberFraggless]

Herbert Birdsfoot first appeared on the show in 1970 and was only there for a couple of years. He was originally made to replace Kermit. Kermit actually left Sesame Street during the second Season, and came back at the beggining of the third. A lot of people don't know that, but it's true. Herbert Birdsfoot stayed on during Kermit's first season back (Season 3) but he left either after that, or at the end of the 4th Season. I think he was originally supposed to be a more popular charachter, becuase he is included in many old Sesame Street recordings. Especially in group scenes with all the other charachters. Believe it or not, they actually reaired some of his old skits during the 80's and 90's on the show. So in a way he was there for a lot longer than he really was. The last time he was ever on the show was in a 30th Season episode in an old skit when Ernie throws a surprize Party for Bert. It's the same episode when it was Linda's Birthday and Snuffy goes into Oscar's Can. It's funny how even though he only lasted a few years, they continued to air his old skits for over 25 years. While charachters like Roosevelt Franklin, and Profesor Hastings, they pulled all the old skits with them when they no longer appeared in any new material.

 

[Splurge]

Jerry Nelson once wrote in a post years ago (sorry, it's not accessable anymore) that he himself liked the character, whose voice he based on Jiminy Cricket. However, Jim Henson and Frank Oz didn't care for the Herbert as much as Jerry did, and felt the character just wasn't working. As a result, well, there you go.

That's just one of those things that can happen in TV.

 

[Rosewood]

The thing I remember most........

Concidering I was 3 when the show first aired, I must have been 4 or 5 when "Herbie" was on the show. And the thing I seem to remember most about him is that he and Grover seemed to be inseperable. I was always under the impression that he was Grovers best friend! I guess I was just to young to understand, when he ultimately "got the axe", that he wouldn't be comming back.

 

[BEAR]

Concidering I was 3 when the show first aired, I must have been 4 or 5 when "Herbie" was on the show. And the thing I seem to remember most about him is that he and Grover seemed to be inseperable. I was always under the impression that he was Grovers best friend! I guess I was just to young to understand, when he ultimately "got the axe", that he wouldn't be comming back.

And then Kermit became his "best friend".

 

[Rosewood]

Yeh, I remember that.......

And then Kermit became his "best friend".

I do remember the fact that Kermit basicaly took over for old Herb, taking grovers back-slaps and all. I never thought of this before, but mabey Herbie just got tired of getting the wind knocked out of him all the time! (LOL!)