Since this is a thread about the Count, may I ask a few questions that have been on my mind lately? I think it is safe to say that (atleast by now) The Count is considered to be a pretty major Sesame Street character. He is very well-known and pretty popular. How come his presence in a lot of the Sesame Street films and specials has been so minimal? This question actually came from me viewing Don't Eat the Pictures for the first time in forever. I'm not even sure if I have ever seen it because I didn't remember anything about it before. I absolutely loved it, but noticed the Count's role in it. He is there with everyone at the museum and has a few lines, but he hardly does anything compared to everyone else (atleast compared to every other Muppet in the special) He was seen at the very beginning and the very end, but nothing in between. He was the only one not shown looking for Big Bird and didn't even have a song. Atleast Bert and Ernie had a little scene in the middle. At first I thought that maybe he had a minor role because he was new and they didn't want to give him too much, but wasn't he around for a while before that special was made? Then I thought about other Sesame Street projects that gave him similar casting.
Christmas Eve On Sesame Street--He is only at the very beginning in the ice skating sequence and only had a few lines, and that wasn't even the puppet, it was the big full sized costume version with a mouth that doesn't move! He was also in the group during "True Blue Miracle", but was never seen after that. He was the only one who was there but not really given much attention too.
Follow That Bird--This was a little different. For the first time, I think his role has grown and given more purpose, but was still pretty small.
My main question is, what was the point of putting Count in Don't Eat the Pictures, if they aren't going to use him? Is he just hard to write for? Is he only a one-joke guy and it gets old after a while? What is it? Any thoughts?