Top 5 Retired Sesame Street Muppets

[superboober]

1. Sherlock Hemlock
2. Guy Smiley
3. Herry
4. Don Music
5. Forgetful Jones

 

[Drtooth]

I still look at silent characters as retired kind of like how Scooter and Rowlf were treated for so long until several years ago. How long has it been since Herry has spoken in a new segment?

Yeah, I feel it's inbetween. But then again, SS is a special case. While the character is semi-retired they do use older segments featuring him. And some of them are pretty recent. I believe a couple seasons back he had one line at the opening of the first episode. But that was about it. I can't call him current, but I can't call him retired. he's in between that.

But if that's the case, I might as well pull Guy Smiley out of the list, as the was used 2 times recently. Not too recent, but he was in a Ready to Learn commercial as well as something in a children's museum.

 

[twasbrillig12]

1. The Yip Yips, loved those guys
2. Kermit of course, everyone needs a little green
3. Don Music, for all us frustrated people out there
4. Guy Smiley, I wish all gameshow hosts could be as enthused
5. Forgetful Jones, who could ever forget Oklahoma? I loved that sketch as a kid

 

[minor muppetz]

It would also be great if Little Jerry and the Monotones were brought back.

 

[Drtooth]

It would also be great if Little Jerry and the Monotones were brought back.

Someone else would have to do his voice. I don't think Jerry can hit the really high voices anymore.

 

[ISNorden]

My top 5 picks:

5. Guy Smiley. The newer Muppet game-show hosts don't hold a candle to him; relegating him to that "Double GetWordy" spot between PBS Kids shows is a terrible shame.

4. The Amazing Mumford. Yes, Abby Cadabby has taken over the "botched magic" street stories now; but I miss the chemistry he had with Grover and Maria.

3. Don Music. A guy who can't even write the alphabet song without someone dropping hints is hilarious...especially since the first letter he forgets in that sketch (G) is also the name of a musical note. ;-) I also love the way his house band always pops out of nowhere to perform the finished rewrites; how many real-life composers are that lucky? Yes, Don had a temper and inspired a few real kids to imitate his head-banging...but CTW had the sense to cut that back in the character's later years.

2. Roosevelt Franklin. Class clowns existed in elementary schools long before this guy appeared on Sesame Street; did CTW really think banning one character was going to make such a huge difference? As for racial stereotypes, there've been far worse ones on TV: Roosevelt Franklin was articulate, intelligent, and willing to tell his classmates the whole truth.

And the number-one Muppet character I'd love to see back on the Street...

[SFX: David Letterman-style drum roll]

1. Kermit the Frog may never completely be the same with anyone besides Jim Henson performing him. Still, he was the most versatile and three-dimensional of the original Muppet cast--at home with nearly anyone, able to teach almost anything the show demanded, and never spoiled by his time in the spotlight.

 

[Son of Enik]

Kermit would have to top my list and then in no particular order...
Roosevelt Franklin
Forgetful Jones
Herry (ah...memories)
Sherlock Hemlock
Frazzle (the Gene Simmons of Muppets!)
Osvaldo the Grouch (has a place in my heart since I am half Latino)
and we'll round it out with the Honkers and Yip Yip Martians.

 

[SSLFan]

In no particular order...

Roxy Marie
Alice
Barkley
Don Music
Benny Bunny

 

[dwmckim]

Posted my thoughts on the overexposure of Elmo in the retired Muppets list thread before i discovered this one (quick summary - it's not so much that he's been overexposed but it's been his personality/design changes that have annoyed me in the past decade more than his screentime), so here's my list...with one exception, nothing that hasn't been mentioned already...

(in no particular order)
Herry - not only do i miss him, but i miss his old design but i miss some of his older personality traits (clumsiness, his simulaneous love for things like barbells and dollies, being a bit more initially intimidating than other monsters but completely sweet once you got to know him - that to me defines the essence of what the Sesame Street monsters - well actually all the Muppet monsters are about)

Guy Smiley - he's made baby steps out of retirement but let's see him more of the show proper and in the higher profile specials/video released.

Benny Bunny - way too classic of a character that was a casualty of the show's getting back to its roots and away from the Around the Corner crowd in season 30.

Frazzle - but he needs to be brought back in his original characterization - he did enjoy a revival around the early 90's (as did a lot of Jerry Nelson's characters) but they started to ruin his character by defining that he was a "younger" monster than the others and that his monsterish-ness was more a result of his younger age.

Lord Chatterly. Again i'm thankful that he got a temporary revival in the early 90's with the resurgence of Jerry Nelson characters since that was a character i thought would NEVER be brought back at all - but i would love to see him yet again.

(Honorable mention at place #6 Don Music - i know the child psychologists/PC crowd at Sesame Workshop don't like him, but he could be brought back without his head banging tendancies (even with his "I'll never get it right - never" catchphrase just without that last "punctuation") and done well by someone like David Rudman. In fact i would go so far as to say he could be a valuable part of the curriculum by using him as an example of how frustration is a legitimate and valid emotion and how it can be dealt with in different ways - showing Don's defeatist tendancies which is then countered with other characters in the Kermit role (if not the frog himself) showing him that he can still reach his goals if he doesn't give up.

 

[ploobis]

MY LIST OF THE TOP 5 RITIRED SESAME STREET MUPPETS

1. Guy Smiley

2. Roosevelt Franklin

3. Sam The Robot

4. Don Music

5. Harvey Kneeslapper