I love this topic!
Big Bird
My favorite Bird is the one who seems to have been used in the mid to late 70s (including
Christmas Eve), when the feathers on his head were shaped in a somewhat triangular way. In the 80s they rounded the feathers out into a more conventional round shape, and that's how he's stayed since. I think in the 70s he was also a little bit skinnier, i.e. a less thick coat of feathers.
Ernie
MF: Definitely the Season 3 (1971) puppet, no contest. I love his expression and his general head shape. It's hard for me to tell if the Season 4 Ernie had slight modifications---his body seems a bit thicker, but it could be my imagination---but in general I love the way he looked from '71 to whenever it was later in the decade that they premiered the puppet seen in
Christmas Eve, which I really don't like. I like the faces of the puppets that followed in the 80s, but I don't like that they plumped him up a bit.
LF: And like some others here, I
really dislike the newest one. He looks all wrong, like he's made out of candy. And his expression is altered, since they've placed his eyes further from his hair than usual. It makes a big difference.
Bert
MF: Season 3 and Season 4 are both my favorites (with Season 4 maybe having a slight edge because I think that's when they first gave him movable eyebrows). Ernie and Bert in 1972, to me, are at their most appealingly funny. However, when they began to make Bert less grumpy and a little more open, they new puppet seemed to reflect that in the later 70s, as in
Christmas Eve. I don't dislike that puppet (though I hate its accompanying Ernie of the time), but its friendliness makes it less funny than the earlier ones.
LF: The one that showed up early in this decade. Yow! I don't know how they could have gotten him so wrong this time. Way worse than the current Ernie. His neck is much too thick and his mouth is too low---it really changes the character. I really am confused as to why, in general, they seem to be much less good at remodeling the characters faithfully than they were even during the 90s.
Oscar:
MF: I admit I have trouble telling Oscars apart as much as others. I can tell that after the two orange ones, they went through at least three green designs before settling on the current look in 1974. If indeed, as someone said, it IS the same puppet today, with only modifications over time, then I'll have to say I like him best in the early 80s. His eyes seem to have been opened up a little wider than before, which upped the cuteness quotient. And for a grouch to be lovable, it needs all the cuteness it can get.
I also liked it during he brief period when his fur seemed to be messier and more "spinachy" than usual. I'm not sure when this was. Sometime in the early 80s?
Cookie:
MF: The one seen in year 3 (1971) that was a duller blue and had a smaller back of the head than now. I don't dislike the fuller, more fleshed out versions that came later (it's hard to go wrong with Cookie!), but I think the first head was more interesting just because it looked a little "off".
Elmo:
MF: Definitely the one in the late 80s. I think it was an upgrade from the first one, making him a little bigger and less shaggy. And I think maybe that one was replaced once during the 90s before "Elmo's World" came along. That one was okay, but a little less interesting than the 80s one because it was more polished.
LF: It doesn't seem to be consistent lately (it's hard to tell because Elmo's World is always recycling itself), but I strongly dislike that "combed down" version, like some others have called it. It also has a somewhat duller expression than the others did, to my eye.
Prairie Dawn:
MF: She's harder to keep track of, but I love the way she looked in every appearance of hers I've seen that was from the 90s. It was a more developed version of her 70s self (or what I've seen of it).
LF: They slightly redesigned her recently, and I didn't care for it. Though, to be fair, I guess they finally figured her old dress was too dated. Changing her hair was unnecessary, though.
Hoots:
MF: First one. I don't exactly when they did this, but they replaced his original "sleepy" eyes with piercing, more birdlike eyes sometime in the early 90s. I never liked those as much as the droopy ones, but they were all right.
LF: The totally unecessary and odd-looking redesign that dampered my initial excitement at seeing him return. 2005, was it?
Count:
Also hard to keep track of. All I know is that I could always tell when it was an earlier one. Just subtle differences I have trouble describing. I don't see much difference between his mid to late '80s self compared to now. (Though maybe his eyes are slightly bigger---not sure).
Snuffy:
After the 70s, I have trouble spotting differences on him. I don't think he's changed noticeably for about 25 years. He's defintely more expressive than his 70s incarnation.
Herry:
MF: 1972 (Jon-Jon) and his 90s selves.
LF: As someone else mentioned, the version that appeared alongside grown-up Jon-Jon in '89.
I'm not sure what he looks like now....
Grover:
MF: The version seen around 1978 or so, from what I can make out. I'm thinking for example of the sketch where he was trying to push the number 2 and no one was cooperating. (and where Kermit turned the tables on his "Hey, froggy babeeeeeee!" routine).
LF: It seems like there are two different puppets being trotted out lately. There's a strange, small-headed, overly shaggy version that's a lighter blue than usual (and whose eyes seem to be somewhat off), and another version whose face looks better but is a much more saturated blue than any other has been. The second one's okay except for that blue, but the small-headed version is all wrong.
Kermit:
MF: I like the Kermit that was being used around 1971. They fixed his eyes from that strange cross-eyed look he had the first year. I also like the puppet seen in the later 70s (
Christmas Eve, the Grover "2" sketch I mentioned above).
LF: There seems to have been another version seen in the earlier 70s. One place you can find it is the immortal "A-B-C-D-E-F-Cookie Monster" sketch that everyone loves. I just don't like the head shape on that Kermit.
I saw something somewhere where Henson said there were always three or four Kermits in existence at one time, I think.
BTW----Drtooth, I just wanted to say that I agree with every single word you said in that post that talked about things getting too overperfected in general, and where you touch on the utter blandness of the 70s/early 80s Looney Tunes merchandise (limited animation watered-down Friz Freleng* look----yep!). In the Looney Tunes' case, it's interesting to me how the current favored look is almost the total opposite of that, yet it's replaced one kind of blandness with another. Now I would call it "corporate" blandness---cartooniness and energy with no real personality behind it. No point of view. Ya know what I mean?
*as opposed to what Freleng's stuff looked like in the middle '40s, which included what happens to be my favorite Bugs Bunny design.
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