Oh man, what happened to?

[Drtooth]

The Professor Hastings sketch I remember seeing was "What's My Part? - The Foot." He won the game by accident when he said that his foot fell asleep. It was a 1969 game show sketch featuring Guy Smiley. According to MuppetWiki, The skit was last seen on episode #2621 (Season 21).

I don't think I've ever seen that one. Maybe it wasn't heavily in rotation. I stand by my main point though, the character was quickly abandoned in the 70's. He's not as well remembered as say, Don Music, Guy Smiley, and Sherlock Hemlock, all who had been featured heavily, even in rerun segments through the 90's.

Oh wow, I had no idea! About Wolfgang, that is. I haven't seen him on the show for *years*, so it's good to see that he's making an appearence every now and then.

He may not be referred to by name, but how many seals have been on Sesame Street? And it's not like he has a distinctive voice... he just barks. So anytime they have a seal, it's the same Wolfgang puppet. Until they build a new, different looking one.

Yet, Kingston came around recently, and actually was African American, an no one complained...Maybe he was typed as a stereotype cause of his deep voice and his purpleness?

I still don't see anything outside of the classroom that was so offensive that they had to abandon him. But that's the problem with adding diversity to a cast. No matter what you do to a character, some wiseguy's gonna whine that he's a stereotype one way or another, and then if you make him dull and a token character, they complain about him having no personality.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

This raises a question. If Roosevelt Franklin and Kingston Livingston III are meant to be "black" characters and Harvey Kneeslapper and Prairie Dawn and Betty Lou are meant to be "white" characters- what are orange-colored Ernie and yellow-colored Bert supposed to be? Don't tell me they represent a Native American and Asian.
What about Mr. Johnson? Is he a Smurf or one of the alien race on Avatar? ('Cause I don't think he represents Krishna.)
Anyway- the point is that Sesame Street has had a number of Muppets who are obviously meant to be human but also have obviously non-existent skin tones.
I thought I read somewhere that this was purposely done to avoid any particular racial stereotypes and prevent kids from associating a character with only one particular race. I mean, what race are Sherlock Hemlock, The Count, and Ernie?

 

[D'Snowth]

Hoots still appears on occassion. Remember the famous 'Cookie is a Sometime Food' song?

Or his duet with John Legend, or the "It Takes a Street" song when Gina left to adopt Marco.

What about Mr. Johnson? Is he a Smurf or one of the alien race on Avatar?QUOTE]He's a smurf with gland trouble.

 

[LamangoNumber2]

What happened to Bruno and Shivers the Penguin as well?

 

[D'Snowth]

What happened to Bruno and Shivers the Penguin as well?

Bruno was built out of foam plastic, as opposed to foam rubber, which deteriorates even faster, and worse than foam rubber does, so when he literally fell apart, the Muppet Workshop simply never rebuilt him.

As for Shivers the Penguin... don't know, never even saw him. Maybe the penguin that pops up from time to time played by Joey replaced him?

 

[GonzoLeaper]

What about Mr. Johnson? Is he a Smurf or one of the alien race on Avatar?QUOTE]He's a smurf with gland trouble.

LOL! Nice.

Okay, so I know Bruno literally fell apart and all that. But surely Sesame Workshop still has the design for the puppet. He could be rebuilt at some point, right? It would make for a really awesome surprise cameo in Season 41.

 

[Drtooth]

Okay, so I know Bruno literally fell apart and all that. But surely Sesame Workshop still has the design for the puppet. He could be rebuilt at some point, right? It would make for a really awesome surprise cameo in Season 41.

That's not the whole story. A LOT of these puppets fall apart from time to time. The real problem wasn't just that the foam disintegrated, but the cost was astronomical to rebuild him. And they could make that sacrifice for, say Big Bird or Snuffy... but Bruno was never all that major a character, so there was just no call to spend all that money to rebuild a smaller character. Any cameos made would either be existing puppets that are still in good enough shape or something with an anything Muppet base. Like the case this season where we saw Forgetful Jones and Biff and Sully etc. They have all the basic AM bases, and making a new puppet of those characters is as simple and cost effective as putting eyes and hair on a base. At least compared to rebuilding something as expensive and complex as Bruno. Let's not forget, he also has a LOT of hidden mechanisms inside so Carol could perform BOTH him and Oscar at the same time.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Okay, well, I didn't know all that then. If Sesame Workshop ever decided to splurge though, that is one character I'd love to see come back. (Along with a lot of others really...)

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm happy that I even remember Bruno, because he fell apart not too long after I was born.

Luckily I had Big Bird's Birthday, or Let Me Eat Cake on tape (and posted it on YouTube with SW's permission), as well as Sesame Street: Follow that Bird, two projects Bruno shines in, lol.

 

[minor muppetz]

As for Shivers the Penguin... don't know, never even saw him. Maybe the penguin that pops up from time to time played by Joey replaced him?

All that's known about Shivers is what's at Muppet Wiki (which doesn't even have a picture of the character), and that's that he was performed by Caroll Spinney and designed in a way to sit on Big Bird's lap (a situation similar to how Oscar and Bruno were performed). Oh, and the two sang a song together and Shivers was aroudn from late-1970s to early-1980s.

Shivers should be on a list of characters so obscure that we hardly have any photos or english video footage of, like Aristotle, The Mudman, and Leslie Mostly.