Prairie Dawn

[theprawncracker]

I think you're thinking of Betty Lou, Patricia. Not possitive if that's who you're thinking of, but Betty Lou had two long, blonde ponytails, and did indeed look a lot like Prairie.

 

[Erine81981]

In the "Sesame Street Unpaved" book it says that Fran got the name as she was looking through a stack of 8x10 photos on her agent's desk and found an actress by the name of "Prairie Dorn" and she asked Jim if she could use the first name and that's how it went from there. She says that she don't know who came up with the Prairie's last name but i thought that was pretty cool.

 

[Drtooth]

The character of Prarie Dawn gets a lot of things right when a lot of other female roles get wrong. SHe is a character and has flaws. I feel if you give a femal character flaws, someone somewhere will complain about it being sexist or negative. If a character has no flaws or personality, they are unrelatable and not very interresting.

She was able to break free of the one note joke-dome that Elizabeth (owner of Little Murray Sparkles) fell into. I mean, the way she gets frustraited, and feels too dignified for certain bits, classic Sesame. And her little Pagents are the most memorable.

What did Betty Lou do anyway? She was pretty bland as girl characters go.

 

[wiley207]

Betty Lou usually appeared in early skits, performed by Frank Oz and Fran Brill. After that, she was mostly an extra in songs such as "I Want a Monster to Be My Friend," "Exercise" and "Listen to the Bells." She also appeared in many books. During the "Around the Corner" era, she was used as almost a main character, performed by Lisa Buckley.

 

[cherrypotion27]

Dear theprawncracker:

Yeah, it was Betty Lou I was thinking of, thanks .

Patricia/cherrypotion27

 

[Ilikemuppets]

But you got to admit, that with some of their vocal ranges, the Male Muppertees do some pretty good female voices. Especially the Frank Oz, heh!

 

[muppet baby]

Wow that was great to know that prairie dawn came around in 1970, that is what i thought when i watched it as a kid .

It has been bugging me for a while i really like here and the female role as you all say was and is wonderful and it for sure paved the way for woman as puppiters yes .

That was so wonderful , i will always love the caritor though so great and priceless to sesme street .

 

[Drtooth]

But you got to admit, that with some of their vocal ranges, the Male Muppertees do some pretty good female voices. Especially the Frank Oz, heh!

It must be because Males can get away with wilder characatures of women. That, and in the old days they had no female muppeteers. Kinda like Monty Python, how the women are usually portrayed by the cast of males, mainly because they had no regular females.. plus they are just funnier as the old Pepper Pot women than a woman would be... if anything for seeing men in dresses.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Well, Jim actually preferred that his all male troop at the time do female voices. The People at the workshop actually wanted him to hire some females puppeteers. But Jim also felt that the job of the puppeteer was really not right for a woman. You have to bee really tall and like six feet for one thing, and mean have a little more muscle to hold heavy things on there arms and keep then in the air for long periods of time. I guess it was just out of concerned thing. But I guess from the looks of it, that he found some very talented or up and coming showing sighs of talent, female puppeteers.