Will the Count live on?

[Pinkflower7783]

Only time will tell!

 

[minor muppetz]

Actually that is not entirely correct. Steve has stated that it was never decided he take over Kermit if anything happened to Jim. He said at the time there were talks of letting him be a stand in for Kermit should Jim be too busy to perform him instead. But he never actually heard it from Jim personally. It wasn't officially decided he do Kermit until after Jim past away.

I have seen a quote from Jane Henson from 1990 where she said that Jim told her who he wanted to have perform Kermit if he was no longer able to. That particular quote doesn't specifically mention Steve (I think the quote was from an article regarding "The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson", and Jane mentioned that the company didn't want the identity of Kermit's then-new performer revealed until after the special aired).

But I wonder if anyone on Sesame Workshop had an idea when it came to a scene with both Count and Big Bird, given that Matt does both characters ?

Well, for now at least, Caroll Spinney is still Big Bird's main performer, so there can be interactions for now (assuming they do continue with The Count). Though lately I've wondered if they should have a second understudy for Big Bird because of Matt taking over practically all of Jerry's characters. But with the exception of Snuffy (who's been recast for decades when Jerry was in good health) I don't think Jerry performed anybody who needs to regularly interract with Big Bird.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

I have seen a quote from Jane Henson from 1990 where she said that Jim told her who he wanted to have perform Kermit if he was no longer able to. That particular quote doesn't specifically mention Steve (I think the quote was from an article regarding "The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson", and Jane mentioned that the company didn't want the identity of Kermit's then-new performer revealed until after the special aired).

The only thing Jim told Steve right before he passed away was that despite he was a main Muppet performer he didn't really have any other major characters besides Bean Bunny and Rizzo so then Jim said he was gonna try and come up with another main character for Steve to perform but then Jim past away. Which Steve has joked in saying "When Jim said he was gonna come up with a main character for me to do I had no idea it was gonna be to this extent", when referring on having to take over Kermit. I am only saying from Steve's perspective on what he had heard concerning Kermit.

However I do remember seeing that quote from Jane infact Steve mentioned it in an interview that was done a few years ago. However Steve has stated he's still not sure if it was him Jim was talking about who should perform Kermit.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I wish Matt Vogel the best of Luck with Jerry Nelson's characters, as I'm sure he'll do fine with a lot of pratice.

But I wonder if anyone on Sesame Workshop had an idea when it came to a scene with both Count and Big Bird, given that Matt does both characters ?

I've thought about that too, but I have noticed the two of them don't really interact all that much in general, but it is possible. I know they've interacted in the segment with Snuffy on the trampoline and even recently in the "Wing on a Sling" episode. I guess that's a bridge they'll cross when they come to it.

 

[Oscarfan]

But I wonder if anyone on Sesame Workshop had an idea when it came to a scene with both Count and Big Bird, given that Matt does both characters ?

The same way it's always been done.

 

[Drtooth]

The question then becomes, who's going to do the puppetry for The Count in the offset chance Matt's performing Big Bird at the same time, if the dialogue is looped in?

 

[D'Snowth]

The question then becomes, who's going to do the puppetry for The Count in the offset chance Matt's performing Big Bird at the same time, if the dialogue is looped in?

I'm sure whoever else happens to be on the set that day will perform the puppetry for Count... there's fan-shot footage of a taping (seems to be around 2005 or so) with Kevin performing Count, and I'm willing to bet Joey's had his hands in Count before as well.

 

[D'Snowth]

My question is has there ever been any kind of reasoning behind retiring Herry, or did the writers just get tired of writing for him, or couldn't think of how to utilize him anymore? Herry seemed to be a prominent fixture of the monster ensemble up until about Season 30 or so... there's a few great moments that included him from Season 30 such as Monster Daycare, and a few musical numbers with him, then afterwards, he was pretty much almost completely phased out.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

I say we just let Sesame handle it all since I'm sure they know what their doing.

 

[minor muppetz]

One difference between Jim/Richard and Jerry is that when Jim and Richard died, there hadn't been much planning in the event that they die. They both died at young ages, and Jim's death was very sudden. Jim may have intended on having Steve or somebody else take on Kermit if anything (death or otherwise) happened to prevent him from performing, and I've read that Richard trained John Henson in the role of Sweetums (in fact I've read that there's a quote from 1987 of Jim talking about John having previously performed Sweetums, so he had already taken over the role sometime before then). In the Muppet Central interview Steve even mentioned that at the time of their deaths they hadn't been prepared in regards to taking over characters.

But Matt has been performing most of Jerry's characters, whether voicing them or otherwise. There's been more time for Matt to get used to performing them.