Waiting for the video chats, I felt like Gordon in episode 2042, where he sets up all he needs while waiting to meet Mr. Snuffleupagus so he’d be sure to see him. I was making sure I had all with me so I wouldn’t miss the calls.
of course I logged in to both, with two windows open, and I got a call from the GalaxyCon people, telling me to just have one of the windows open, as it made it hard for them to get the video chats started.
I talked with Emillio DeGardo first. He asked what years I watched Sesame Street, and I told him there were periods when I would watch a lot and periods when I wouldn’t watch that often, citing some of those periods being 1984-1992, then 1993-1994, then 1997-1999, and said that there was a period when, even if I didn’t watch the show much, I’d make an effort to catch the first week of the new season.
he asked me about my favorite Sesame Street character, and I listed a number of them - Cookie Monster, Grover, Herry, Ernie, Biff and Sully, Kermit, Oscar, Slimey, and Bruno. He did talk a bit about those last two as I mentioned them.
I asked if he was absent from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street because of his role on Lou Grant, which he confirmed. There were also some things I tried asking about or bringing up but he seemed to think I was talking about something else, pointing out he was barely in Follow That Bird or Elmo in Grouchland, and also pointing out that, in the years before Luis and Maria were a couple, the two sometimes appeared as a couple in sketches like Hola and Sing Your Synonyms. I also mentioned I liked his reactions to Herry destroying the store in “I Can’t Help It”, and mentioned I remember seeing the Luis and Maria get married Episode when it aired. We also talked about the Ernie and Bert Sing-Along album.
With Debbie, we obviously talked about Caroll Spinney (I thought about asking what year they got married but forgot). I showed her my copy of The Wisdom of Big Bird (and mentioned I got it on the day it came out) and I am Big Bird. I mentioned that I like Oscar better than Big Bird, we talked about Bruno a bit, we also talked about Shivers the Penguin and Sam the Robot, and we talked about Caroll performing Picklepuss and Pop in Wow, You’re a Cartoonist. I also mentioned it was interesting how Caroll often said he didn’t make much money in the early years, yet was able to afford film to shoot home movie footage during the 1970s, I think I was stuttering a bit then so she had trouble hearing me on that.
When both chats started, they asked where I was calling from. I guess they did that with all guests. Maybe it is a common thing when notable people interact with people online. I know Frank Oz seems to also want to know where the people he’s talking to are from, he asked for that in his Reddit AMA chat, and during promotion of Muppet Guys Talking seemed to want to know that from people sending questions during live video chats.
I was excited, and the opportunities still ended up a lot more exciting.