the early comedy duos

[minor muppetz]

The first three seasons of Sesame Street had different human comedy duos. First, there was Buddy and Jim, who were replaced in the second season by Larry and Phyllis, who were replaced in the third season by Wally and Ralph. But does anybody know why the first two duos were replaced after only one season? Did Sesame Workshop only give them a one-year contract to appear on the show? Could the actors have left on their own, wanting to move on to bigger things (and of course, Alan Arkin, who played Larry, became a bigger star later on)? Obviously, Sesame Workshop brought in new human comedy duos, so it's not like they weren't working well.

Also, how long were Wally and Ralph on the show? I would have thought that they were only on for one season, but they were listed in the closing credits for the third, fourth, and fifth season. Were they still appearing in new segments in those later seasons, or were their season three segments just repeated in later seasons?

 

[Drtooth]

As I said in another thread, I felt that the human comedy teams were place fillers for more muppet characters in the future. Buddy and Jim were pretty funny, I can't lie. But Larry and Phylis was pretty brutal. I never saw the other.

That said, I wonder how it tested.... I mean, the adults acting very stupid. I know kids love it when kids look smart and adults look goofy. But I can't help thinking some good intentioned educator type saw some subcontext in them that only an educator could concoct.

Or it could be they were just playing about with the show content, and kids responded more to the Muppet and animated segments that lead to their downfall...

 

[mikebennidict]

How do you base your thought on they were just place fillers for for muppet characters in the future?

 

[Drtooth]

Seems.... look that word up.

It seems they didn't do to well, which is why they had 3 different versions.

It seems that they filled the place of the Muppet segments, since they had few muppet characters in those days.

Seems doesn't mean knowing. You can get the impression. But this was the early days when they were tinkering about with the format.

Maybe during the tests, the Muppet and animation segments tested better, so these were thrown out.