Sesame Street Season 47 Episode 4701 - Be Kind to Your Worm

[OscarandTelly]

For some reason. I don't think carroll will be working on the show much longer. I'm not saying he's gonna pass yet but I feel like he will probably retire in the next few years. His age is really starting to show in bb and Oscar's voices. It probably won't be long before matt is big Bird and eric is Oscar on a full time basis.

 

[D'Snowth]

At the risk of being the "negative pessimist" that I'm always accused of being, I've had similar thoughts about Caroll. As I've said time and again, for the past several years, that youthful, childlike quality in Big Bird's voice has been gone - he sounds old and tired. And now Oscar is catching up, as I said previously, that growl/snarl in Oscar's voice and demeanor isn't even present anymore - though, I've always praised how Oscar's voice had gotten better as Caroll had gotten older, as the deepening of Oscar's voice and the stronger snarl really added to the character's personality.

But I feel like that perhaps even Caroll has probably started to realize his own limitations: for years, he's been talking about how he plans on continuing to stay with the show until he physically is no longer able to - but in recent years, I've noticed his tune has changed to he plans to continue at least till Season 50.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Oddly enough, like last week, the cable listing says this episode is 4702 despite being 4701.

Is it just me, or did everybody sound out-of-voice in this episode? I don't know how to describe it, but . . . everybody just sounded off. Oscar aside, Elmo and Slimey sounded deeper than usual, Alan sounded like he was about to lose his voice half the time, and Telly sounded like he was performed by somebody other than Marty.

"Be a Good Friend" with Gwen Stefani was a rather catchy song; I also loved the sort of-MTV-esque ambiece of it, making it feel like a real music video, like we might have seen back in the late 80s or early 90s.

Was surprised to see Murray since this was the first season officially without Joey.

As for Elmo and Telly sounding off, Ryan's almost 30 and Marty's now in his 60s. Maybe their voices are catching up to them. Be a Good Friend aired last year, which is why Murray was in it.

 

[Censored]

At the risk of being the "negative pessimist" that I'm always accused of being, I've had similar thoughts about Caroll. As I've said time and again, for the past several years, that youthful, childlike quality in Big Bird's voice has been gone - he sounds old and tired. And now Oscar is catching up, as I said previously, that growl/snarl in Oscar's voice and demeanor isn't even present anymore - though, I've always praised how Oscar's voice had gotten better as Caroll had gotten older, as the deepening of Oscar's voice and the stronger snarl really added to the character's personality.

But I feel like that perhaps even Caroll has probably started to realize his own limitations: for years, he's been talking about how he plans on continuing to stay with the show until he physically is no longer able to - but in recent years, I've noticed his tune has changed to he plans to continue at least till Season 50.

The important thing is that he is allowed to use his own judgement.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

As for Elmo and Telly sounding off, Ryan's almost 30 and Marty's now in his 60s. Maybe their voices are catching up to them. Be a Good Friend aired last year, which is why Murray was in it.

Well, I haven't seen the episode yet, but I have noticed Marty does seem to be sounding a bit older recently. His Snuffy voice seems to have gradually gotten deeper and more gruff over the years, while Telly's is deeper but has lost a lot of it's gruffness.

 

[Censored]

As for Elmo and Telly sounding off, Ryan's almost 30 and Marty's now in his 60s. Maybe their voices are catching up to them. Be a Good Friend aired last year, which is why Murray was in it.

Almost 30 would be a problem?

 

[Oscarfan]

I didn't notice much on Telly; I actually thought Marty's puppeteer skills were slipping back due to his age in 2011, but he's since proved me wrong. He seemed fine; most of his scenes in the garden were done by Tyler Bunch instead, with Marty either looping later or doing it live on set.

And I fully expect them to re-use Murray material. They have tons of archive footage to pull from, his segments easily fit the whole "themed show" they're going for now. Plus, he's still in the opening titles, so they'll have to reshoot the ending if they want to stop using him.

Almost 30 would be a problem?

Seems like an invalid argument to me, but one does wonder how long he can keep that falsetto. I'd say, "Kevin could do it!," but that's apples and oranges.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I didn't notice much on Telly; I actually thought Marty's puppeteer skills were slipping back due to his age in 2011, but he's since proved me wrong. He seemed fine; most of his scenes in the garden were done by Tyler Bunch instead, with Marty either looping later or doing it live on set.

Ah I see, I guess because Marty was doing Slimey? That's something i've wondered about though. Why does a consistent performer have to play Slimey anyway? It's not like he's also doing the voice, plus the other puppeteers clearly know how to work with worms.

Is Marty just so good that his spry performance is hard to replicate?

I actually thought Marty's puppeteer skills were slipping back due to his age in 2011, but he's since proved me wrong

Oh man, it would be a shame if the guy never won an Emmy for his work. If nothing else, he definitely deserved an award after that "Telly is Jealous" episode. Although, I think he was at least nominated.

 

[D'Snowth]

Almost 30 would be a problem?

Just so you know, I can attest to this personally. When I was younger, I was great at doing falsetto, high-pitched, and squeaky voices. After I finally hit puberty during my mid-teens and continuing up till today (and I'm almost thirty as well), I've never quite been able to do those kinds of voices as well, and in fact, they've become nearly a strain trying to do. Those kind of voices aren't necessarily easy for just anybody to achieve, and in fact, Kevin Clash has even said that many people were surprised to discover Elmo was performed by a tall and athletically-built black man, because they often invisioned someone more along the lines of a short, balding, bespectacled white guy who naturally spoke in a higher voice, as little people often do. But different people have different voices that change differently during different times in their lives, and sometimes because of different factors as well. Take Jim Varney, for example: he was a heavy smoker in real life, and it clearly affected his voice overtime, because it progressively got weaker-sounding and raspier as the years passed - just listen one of his earlier Ernest commercials from the 80s and compare it to an Ernest movie from the 90s, and you'll hear a difference.

So yeah, again, attesting from personal experience, depending on the kind of voice a character requires, and the range of voices you're able to do, it can be a problem regardless of age. Up until I was fifteen, I could do a pretty mean Elmo imitation . . . since then, about the best I can do is a Mickey Mouse-esque kind of falsetto, and even then that can be painful and hard on the throat.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Was surprised to see Murray since this was the first season officially without Joey.

Yeah. I was surprised that Murray showed up as well. Makes me wonder if he'll be recast and shown in new material as well or if they're doing with him what they did with after Henson's death, just using him in earlier segments. (Recall Steve's Kermit didn't appear on SS until years later.)

About the voices, I noticed Oscar sounded different, so I wonder if it was Eric performing him there or it was just Carroll not being able to do the same voice he used to. But I thought the other voices sounded okay for the most part.

I recall Slimey speaking in complete sentences by Season 38, but even by then, it seemed to be a slow, yet progressive process since Season 32 or so . . . maybe Slimey was still learning how to talk during that time.

I was thinking about that too. I guess it's hard to tell since few episodes actually focus on Slimey. I guess he'll speak in full sentences if the episode calls for it.

For some reason. I don't think carroll will be working on the show much longer. I'm not saying he's gonna pass yet but I feel like he will probably retire in the next few years. His age is really starting to show in bb and Oscar's voices. It probably won't be long before matt is big Bird and eric is Oscar on a full time basis.

Yeah, I can imagine that day is coming soon as well. Sad that when that happens they'll have to remove that credit 'And Carroll Spinney as Big Bird and Oscar." That's been a staple on the show for decades.

I've noticed his tune has changed to he plans to continue at least till Season 50.

Yeah. If he can make it that long. We'll see.

Almost 30 would be a problem?

Yeah. In Ryan's case I don't think, it's so much the age. I think it's the fact that he's still sort of new to performing , so he may still be trying to decide what he wants to do with the voice. I recall when he started performing Elmo, his voice sounded a bit more like Kevin's early Elmo from the 80s, but now it seems to come closer to Kevin's Elmo of later years. So it may take time for him to fully be settled into performing the character if that makes sense.

most of his scenes in the garden were done by Tyler Bunch instead, with Marty either looping later or doing it live on set.

Yeah. I was thinking that since Marty performs Slimey as well. I guess he was doing more "hands-on" work with him.

Take Jim Varney, for example: he was a heavy smoker in real life, and it clearly affected his voice overtime, because it progressively got weaker-sounding and raspier as the years passed - just listen one of his earlier Ernest commercials from the 80s and compare it to an Ernest movie from the 90s, and you'll hear a difference.

Wow! I almost got a DVD of Ernest's commercials from the old days at Wal-Mart. Now I'm wishing I had gotten it. I'd like to listen and make that comparison. "Know what I mean, Vern?"