Something they should have done much sooner

[BooberFraggless]

Everybody knows that back in the 70's it was common to see Charachters like Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover and Kermit out on the street interacting with the show's Human charachters and with Big Bird and Oscar. Sometime in the late 70's or early 80's they stopped doing this and those Muppets were only seen in between the street parts of the show. They were no longer involved in the main stories, and you would only see them either in repeat clips from years back, or new short clips that were made with them in them, but they rarely if ever took place on the street set. In 2002 when the new Format began, they were brought back into the main storylines. Once again we saw them there with Maria, or having Lunch at Hooper's Store, or banging on Oscar's Trashcan. The reason for this was because they all got new performers. Steve Whitmire took over Ernie, Eric Jacobson took Grover and Bert, while David Rudman took over as the new Cookie Monster. It was really great to see them back. But the thing is. I think that Frank Oz and Jim Henson should have looked for some replacement performers sometime in the late 70's or early 80's when they first stopped working on the show full time. It would have been much better if Bert, Cookie, Grover, Ernie, and mabye even Kermit were part of some of the storylines that took place during the 80's and 90's. Now we have a gap of 20+ years when they were nowhere to be seen but in short little clips that were often repeated. It's really to bad they didn't get some back up performers earlier. How does everybody else feel about this?

 

[ssetta]

You know, I never thought of that, but yeah. That would have been a good idea.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

During the 80's, diddn't they start to come up with new charecters to fill the street, such as Elmo,Telly,Ruby,Hoots,Natasha,Ervine,Grungetta,Shelldon,Julia,flo and a whole list of others. A lot of these charecters led to charcters like chicago,monty,Roxie Marie,Ingrid,Humphy,Rosita,Kinston Livingston The Third,Zoe,Marry Monster,Baby bare,Elizabeth,Little Murry Sparkles,Lulu,and a number of checters to numerous to name off the top of my head

I remember Richard hunts Charecters being on the show in the 80's such as Gadys, Forgetful,placido,Don and either Chip or dip.(correct me if I'm Wrong on this)

Did Fran Brill do a lot of street scenes in the 80's because I know she did a lot of them in the 90's at least between three charecters.

 

[BEAR]

To answer your question, Ilikemuppets, I think Fran Brill was very often in street scenes during the 80s performing Prairie Dawn.

I dunno. I see what you all mean. I am happy that those characters have atleast been on the street with everyone else during movies and specials.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I'm happy those charecters have been on specials over the years also. I guess that while some of the older Puppeteers at that time period (the 80') became peroccupide with other projects, a new generation of pupperteers were starting becoming more important to the show. (one of the most notable being Kevin Clash, who was discoverd by puppet bulider Kermit Love, and mentored by Muppet Veteran Richard Hunt)

But I have to admit, I'm glad some of the original charecters are on the street again, and somtimes the storie lines are even about them.The most suprising one to me was the episode from season 35 about King Cookie where 41 Year Muppet Legend, The graeat, and arguably only out done by the muppet master hinself (Being Jim Henson) Muppet wizard Frank Oz, of all peole, Preformed cookie in the street story about King Cookie In which he wrote with gabby.

As you may know, about 13 Year muppeteer and under study Eric Jacobson was asked to preform some of Frank's charecters (Bert And Grover) in the his absents in 2001 during the thirty second season of the show, and in my opion he dose a really good job.

In season 33 Frank Oz made a triumphant return to the show. I accutally think that the first letter of the day segments were pertty interesting, because they have had.

Frank: Cookie and Grover

David: Cookie
Eric: Grover

David: Cookie
Frank: Grover

Frank: Cookie
Eric: Grover

and frank and david as both Cookie Monster in a two part segment