Who is Dexter?

[muppetsliveon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9he1-7YEtDs&feature=related

 

[HeyButtahfly]

Haha I thought I was delirious or needed to stop going on YouTube so late at night the first time I watched that video.

 

[muppet_dk]

Sesame Street's "most spectacular failure." according to Kevin Clash

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Dexter

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Dexter looks like a kinda cool and kinda freaky Muppet at the same time. lol

 

[JJandJanice]

Dexter is just one a many SS Muppets that just wasn't meant to be on the street for very long.

The trick of getting a puppet character like that to juggle is neat, but after that he really didn't have much to offer. A sort of "one trick pony" if you will.

 

[Drtooth]

Sesame Street's "most spectacular failure." according to Kevin Clash

http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Dexter

Reading that story really give you insight on to why this sketch is so amazing. This is all the good footage you see. I couldn't even imagine how many takes it took just to get a couple minutes right. Of course, the character IS a one trick pony, and his only gig is that he can juggle. I'm sure he was planned to be used in several counting segments or something... but really. Even if everything went off without a hitch, and they were able to get flawless take after flawless take, what kind of shelf life could that sort of character have. Sure, it's interesting to look at, but not really as super fun as Cookie Monster eating everything in sight or Sherlock Hemlock or Mumford messing stuff up and failing at the only thing they're good at.

 

[minor muppetz]

In Kevin Clash's autobiography, he calls the character Juggles the Juggler.

 

[Blue Frackle]

I have to bump this. I just discovered this character for the first time today, and this has to be one of the oddest, if not the oddest thing in SS history. I couldn't even imagine the mess going on inside that character. I would assume Kevin is behind the character performing the head, while the juggler is inside.

Something that struck me as odd is this is one of the few times I've ever seen the Muppet teaching the human. Like he shakes his hand at the end like "it was pleasure doing business with you sir", lol.

Do they talk about him in 'Being Elmo'?

Even if everything went off without a hitch, and they were able to get flawless take after flawless take, what kind of shelf life could that sort of character have. Sure, it's interesting to look at, but not really as super fun as Cookie Monster eating everything in sight or Sherlock Hemlock or Mumford messing stuff up and failing at the only thing they're good at.

Yeah, you're right. This character is more of an interesting spectacle/science experiment than anything really valuable, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

Juggling is just not that interesting, especially for a character that has nothing else interesting going on. I don't see why they felt they needed a character that could do that for any other reason than trying to push the boundaries of what Puppets can do. If a character doesn't have any tension, he's hardly a character at all. There's no way this guy could have been used outside of anything but exhibition. There's no sketch potential for him, no character interactions of note. He's all flash and no substance. But it's a pretty impressive flash.

 

[Blue Frackle]

Juggling is just not that interesting, especially for a character that has nothing else interesting going on. I don't see why they felt they needed a character that could do that for any other reason than trying to push the boundaries of what Puppets can do. If a character doesn't have any tension, he's hardly a character at all. There's no way this guy could have been used outside of anything but exhibition. There's no sketch potential for him, no character interactions of note. He's all flash and no substance. But it's a pretty impressive flash.

Probably they had Fred Garbo around and were like "Why not take advantage of this?".

I watched bits and pieces of Being Elmo yesterday and was shocked to see there is yet another street scene featuring this character (he is with Big Bird and Snuffy by Big Bird's nest), so I wonder how many times this character appeared in total. It's just amazing how this stuff gets lost over time, and how CTW really does have everything in their vaults, like the rare clips of Richard's Elmo; that's what really stuck with me from the documentary.

I think I asked this before, but I can't help but wonder... how much Sesame Street footage are we missing? 50%?

Yeah, there was no chance this character was gonna last. Definitely an interesting, rare and forgotten footnote in SS history.