The Early Big Bird Voice

[BigBirdABCDEFGH]

What did you all think of the early voice Caroll Spinney had used for his Big Bird character? You know, the one that's reminiscent of the likes of classic cartoon characters such as Bullwinkle J. Moose and Dynomutt: Dog Wonder, as well as the Muppet Kermit the Frog? That early vocal style didn't last long - too bad, I thought he sounded cool that way.

Here's how the voice of BB in my opinion should have sounded (listen to the dialogue of the title character):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxxL2YvNkzE

He only voiced BB that way from the show's inception until before the episodes that aired in the early spring of 1970.

~Ben

 

[minor muppetz]

What did you all think of the early voice Caroll Spinney had used for his Big Bird character? You know, the one that's reminiscent of the likes of classic cartoon characters such as Bullwinkle J. Moose and Dynomutt: Dog Wonder, as well as the Muppet Kermit the Frog? That early vocal style didn't last long - too bad, I thought he sounded cool that way.

I don't think Kermit's voice sounds like a dumb voice, though a lot of people I know think that his voice sounds that way. Most impressions of Kermit's voice that I've seen were dumb-sounding (sounding more like Baby Kermit), and once I did an impression of Bullwinkle and somebody thought I was doing Kermit's voice.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yeah, AmIAnnoying.com lists one of these reasons Jim Henson was annoying was that "the goofy sounding" voice he used for Kermit was his natural voice.

I agree, Kermit's voice isn't goofy-sounding at all, but Jim did say in an interview that Kermit's voice is so close to his own that he'll find himself losing the voice during a take, and I'll have to admit, I've had similar problems with Steve, because basically all I do is pitch my natural voice to a higher, slightly panicky tone and there's Steve... but then again, my impression of Jerry Seinfeld sounds exactly the same.

 

[BEAR]

The main reason why Big Bird's voice changed is because after the first season, they completely changed the character's whole personality from being a goofy dumb guy (like Disney's Goofy) to being an inquizitive 5-6 year old child. The "Everychild" of Sesame Street. I think he has worked out better that way.