Little things we've noticed

[D'Snowth]

I was today years old when I first noticed that during the "Together Forever" finale of EIG, Cookie and Telly can be briefly seen dancing together hand-in-hand.

 

[SkyeFan]

I wouldn't be surprised if many haven't noticed any of these observations yet -


In the "Exit" song by Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats, we see various Muppet characters in the audience who are gradually exiting the nightclub where the song is being performed. Apparently, one of the characters in the audience is Harvey Kneeslapper. He's sitting in the front row with two AM kids. I've always wondered who the character was with the light blonde hair, until I looked carefully and noticed his blue sweater (it's hard to notice with the distorted colors in the foreground due to the reddish tinted studio lights). Even though we don't actually see Harvey's face, and much less see him exiting the room during this segment, one other bit of evidence is the existence of the tall orange AM man with a red shirt as an audience patron. He's Harvey's victim in the "sticky 4" bit, which was very likely taped the same day as this "Exit" number.

In the "Some, None, and All" number with the Mahna-Mahna Muppet, there's a part in this segment where various Muppet monsters appear to demonstrate the song's key concept. One of the monsters is a really hideous-looking character with dark colored fur, orange eyes, a large blue pointed nose, and I believe a purple trim of facial fur and fanged teeth. Thankfully this character was never shown in a close up (that would be frightening beyond belief), but for those with a keen eye, you will notice that monster is ACTUALLY the original brown Grover puppet. Somehow, they still kept that puppet after season one, and decorated it with different features for this segment so it looks completely unrecognizable.

Also, has anyone ever noticed this? In Big Bird's home during much of the 1970s, there's a drawing of both Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. It's seen hanging up on a dressing panel near Big Bird's nest. What makes this interesting is the fact that Oscar is colored orange in this picture. I can understand this picture was made during season one when Oscar was orange, but Big Bird's home wasn't seen during that season. It was implied and referred to, but we don't actually see his nest behind the fence of doors until the start of season two. What's interesting is the fact that by season two, Oscar was no longer orange, yet this picture is first seen on the set starting that season (by that time, Big Bird's home is now visible to the audience). I don't know if this is one of Caroll's own illustrations, or if it was drawn by someone else. Perhaps one of the viewers' artwork sent to the show. If not that picture of Big Bird and Oscar, then I have reason to believe this was artwork from one of the show's viewers', or else courtesy one of the children of the show's staff members -
in some of the very first few Bert and Ernie segments for season two, there's a crayon-like drawing of them on the wall. We can see that Ernie is yellow and Bert is red! Sure the colors are botched, but I guess if some youngster drew a picture of some of the shows' characters, then it was nice to include it as part of Bert and Ernie's home for it to be seen on TV.

There's another thing I've noticed in Big Bird's home for some time during the early 1970s. On the door fence scaffolding near his nest, there's a red slat with "123 1/2", which is supposedly Big Bird's home address. The additional fraction is an indication that Big Bird's home is clearly a shared division of the street's primary residence. If he has his own mailbox (it's blue with "B. BIRD" painted in yellow letters), then Big Bird should have his own home address.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Could the drummer for the song “Movin’ On” be considered trans or at the very least gender neutral? Only asking since the puppet has a female design but Marty (in his regular voice) as the voice for the puppet.

 

[TimzUneeverse]

Tried to make this insert look exactly like the Burtlancaster.jpg screenshot on the Muppet Wiki, which Shane updated on 2/3/2021 in order to keep up with the newly-created guide for show 513:

I mean, why update an image for a 52-year-old insert to a screencap found in an episode that aired 48 years ago?

 

[D'Snowth]

Whatever happened to Bert's pigeon coop on the roof? Last time we saw it (to my knowledge) was when Tony Bennett sang "Slimey to the Moon," and since then, whenever we've had scenes up on the roof of 123 (which have been very few and far between), Bert's pigeon coop is nowhere to be found. There were a pair of Muppet pigeons on the roof when Nil Rodgers sang "People in Your Neighborhood," but that's it.

 

[D'Snowth]

It seems like Jerry Nelson's availability throughout the 90s and into the 2000s had really increased a lot more to the point that not only did we see more of Count, but also Herry seemed to become a major character again during this time, and a lot of AMs and other incidental characters were performed (or at the very least, voiced) by him as well, like Big Bad Wolf, Cookie Hood, I.M. Pig, among others.

 

[minor muppetz]

It seems like Jerry Nelson's availability throughout the 90s and into the 2000s had really increased a lot more to the point that not only did we see more of Count, but also Herry seemed to become a major character again during this time, and a lot of AMs and other incidental characters were performed (or at the very least, voiced) by him as well, like Big Bad Wolf, Cookie Hood, I.M. Pig, among others.

Recently I've seen a few fans on Facebook point out that Jerry Nelson seemed less available in seasons 14-18 (the time when he was performing on Fraggle Rock), which I didn't think he was that scarce. I guess after Fraggle Rock ended, he was able to be on Sesame Street a lot more.

 

[D'Snowth]

Given that Jerry was one of the core performers back in the day along with Jim, Frank, and Richard, I just know that after TMS became immensely popular, and other Muppet projects took up a lot of their time, they usually would travel back to New York for one week a year to dedicate to taping new inserts and sketches for SS (Jim was planning on turning it into two weeks after the Disney deal).

Of course, after Jim and Richard's passing, and Frank branching out into directing movies and semi-retiring from the Muppets, it kind of makes sense that Jerry's availability would give him more time for SS.

 

[cjd874]

Given that Jerry was one of the core performers back in the day along with Jim, Frank, and Richard, I just know that after TMS became immensely popular, and other Muppet projects took up a lot of their time, they usually would travel back to New York for one week a year to dedicate to taping new inserts and sketches for SS (Jim was planning on turning it into two weeks after the Disney deal).

Of course, after Jim and Richard's passing, and Frank branching out into directing movies and semi-retiring from the Muppets, it kind of makes sense that Jerry's availability would give him more time for SS.

As a kid growing up in the '90s and early 2000s, I saw a lot of episodes with Jerry's most prominent characters like the Count, Herry Monster, Mr. Johnson, Sherlock Hemlock, and the Amazing Mumford. And during that time, Jerry resumed doing old characters like Biff and Frazzle, and he also got some minor or one-shot characters like Cyranose de Bergerac (the overly sensitive French poet) and Guntag Gelman-Jones (a flea trainer with a unique accent - Swedish, perhaps?).

 

[minor muppetz]

In the 1970s, it seems like Jerry performed 90 percent of the recurring characters, then in the 1980s and later, he didn’t get as many new recurring characters on the show, while continuing to do one-shots frequently (and to an extent this seems the case for The Muppets as well, even as many were used less in the 1990s).

Which could be chalked up to him having so many characters already and then bringing on so many new Muppet performers. Might as well give them plenty.