Why was Dave Goelz not very involved on Sesame Street?

[Stumpos]

I notice how among the performers from The Muppet Show (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, and Steve Whitmire), Dave Goelz is the only one of the main 5 who didn't get that much involvement on Sesame Street.

His only Sesame Street performances were as the Humungous Chicken in Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland and a handful of segments in season 24 from 1992-93.

Surprised Dave didn't do that many segments on Sesame Street, despite being the last man from The Muppet Show standing right now. Like, why wasn't he on Sesame Street as much as the other 4 main Muppet Show Muppeteers?

Was season 24 some sort of test run for Dave that didn't get off the ground beyond a test run? Or was his involvement in season 24 a means of picking up the slack after Jim Henson and Richard Hunt passed away (being the first season filmed after Richard passed away)?

 

[datman24]

I think because he mainly was involved with the Muppet Show/Fraggle Rock side of things, similar to Steve Whitmire (until he ended up taking over for Ernie).

 

[minor muppetz]

Dave did talk about this in an interview Toughpigs did, I recall he said he didn't know why they had him do the show and he was just on for a day or two.

 

[Muppet Master]

Good question here. I guess they just didn't have a place for him, kinda like how Caroll Spinney worked primary with Sesame and rarely interacted with The Muppet Show.

 

[LittleJerry92]

He only performed 8 characters outside of “Elmo in Grouchland.” I think they tried to give him a spot on the show and it just….. didn’t work out in the end.

 

[Xerus]

Dave did talk about this in an interview Toughpigs did, I recall he said he didn't know why they had him do the show and he was just on for a day or two.

After the deaths of Jim Henson and Richard Hunt, SS invited Dave to do some Muppet skits on Sesame Street to help bring morale to the staff.