Moving Up the Ranks

[D'Snowth]

When I met Steve this summer, he explained that's why Jim Lewis hasn't been too involved with Muppet projects in recent years, to spend more time with his family. Which is all well and good. There's been plenty of people in various aspects of show business who choose family over career (most notably Rick Moranis); gotta respect that.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

This is actually a really intriguing thread, I read through the whole thing (which I rarely do, regardless of the length).

But, Jerry Nelson is another interesting case. He joined in about 1965 and went from having almost no speaking roles, to 1970 where he played almost all of the new characters in the second season of Sesame Street. I imagine that was to take the place of Caroll who mostly stopped doing inserts after season 1.

 

[D'Snowth]

I feel like as Big Bird and Oscar were becoming more prominent fixtures on the street itself is one of the main reasons why Caroll gradually stopped doing other inserts. And given that neither Jim and Frank wanted to spend every working day on SS, bringing in additional performers was the logical choice.

But actually, Jerry did have speaking roles prior to that: he was Featherstone and one of the step sisters in HEY, CINDERELLA!

 

[MuppetSpot]

It’s interesting until about 1969 how Frank Oz and Jerry Nelson didn’t do any voices for their puppets.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, Frank admits that he was always afraid of doing voices . . . not sure why Jerry didn't do voices, though.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Well, Frank admits that he was always afraid of doing voices . . . not sure why Jerry didn't do voices, though.

Hm, I think Jim was too at first. That's one of the reasons why Sam & Friends characters would often lip-sync to old records instead of using their actual voices.

 

[MuppetSpot]

I was thinking recently about Michael Earl Davis and how he got Snuffy right away and how John Stone got him fired.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I was thinking recently about Michael Earl Davis and how he got Snuffy right away and how John Stone got him fired.

I remember Karen Prell saying in an interview that she and a few others like Michael were fired from SST, supposedly because they hadn't improved enough as performers, but I didn't realize Jon Stone was directly responsible. I was watching an interview the other day with Marty Robinson, and I find it interesting how no one ever mentions Michael Earl when talking about Snuffy's passed performers. I wonder why that is. Of course, it could just be that he played him for such a short time, but I kind of wonder if he didn't get along with the others on set and that was one of the reasons for his firing. Or, it could be that Jon Stone had a personal grudge against Michael, which wouldn't surprise me, given his sour relationship with Caroll Spinney.

 

[MuppetSpot]

Michael Earl only did Snuffy for like two years and it wasn’t as grand for him.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Jon Stone must have been very difficult to work with I imagine.