If Frank Oz had agreed to play Big Bird....

[BEAR]

Really? So Jim Henson had never envisaged Big Bird in the role of a kid himself eh?

That certainly changes everything. If Frank had performed Big Bird with a Fozzie-ish voice then he would have been playing the character as someone more grown-up and perhaps a bit naive in the way of humans as opposed to Carol's genuine juvenile perceptions of our BB's childish personality.

No. Originally he was just a goofy hillbilly like character.

 

[minor muppetz]

Also I wonder since Frank and Jim were always more or less set to play Ernie and Bert as minor muppetz posted earlier, how then would Bert's voice have differed?
After all Bert as we have always known and loved him basically has the "Fozzie-ish" voice

They might have had the same voice. Another voice Frank could have used for Big Bird (which I think is just slightly different) that would have been appropiate (for first season Big Bird, anyway) would have been Harvey Kneeslapper's voice.

If Jim Henson performed Big Bird then I think he would have had Big Bird sound like either Kermit and Ernie or Link Hogthrob. Link's voice would have been appropiate for the first season, but I am thinking that the Ernie voice also would have fit even though Big Bird was dumber back then (Enie kind of sounded a bit more like a hillbilly in earlier sketches like Rubber Duckie).

In fact, according to the book The Story of Jim Henson: Creator of the Muppets, Big Bird was originally built with Jim Henson in mind to perform Big Bird. However, Kermit Love didn't think Jim Henson was walking like a bird was supposed to walk when Jim tried the outfit on, and then Jim decided that walking like a bird wasn't his style of walking.

 

[D'Snowth]

In fact, according to the book The Story of Jim Henson: Creator of the Muppets, Big Bird was originally built with Jim Henson in mind to perform Big Bird. However, Kermit Love didn't think Jim Henson was walking like a bird was supposed to walk when Jim tried the outfit on, and then Jim decided that walking like a bird wasn't his style of walking.

You're talking about Big Bird's original concept to have knees that bend back like a real bird, right?

 

[minor muppetz]

You're talking about Big Bird's original concept to have knees that bend back like a real bird, right?

No, I'm talkign about how Jim Henson had planned to perform Big Bird, so I'm not really sure if his knees were meant to bend that way when Jim Henson was going to perform Big Bird or not. The fact that Jim Henson was originally going to perform Big Bird rarely get's acknowledged, while the fact that Frank Oz was originally offered the role get's mentioned a lot in refference books and such.