Sesame Street puppeteer Carroll Spinney dies at age 85

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Steve Timko

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Dec 8, 2019, 1:33:25 PM12/8/19
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Joe Hass

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Dec 8, 2019, 1:41:51 PM12/8/19
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Spinney only retired the puppeteering part of Big Bird in 2015, and keep doing the voice until last year.

I've always believed the primary reason us old schoolers are so aggressively anti-Elmo is that the role that Elmo is designed to play already existed on the show in Big Bird. And it was Spinney who made that magic happen.

I'm literally in tears as I write this. Stupid television.

On Sun, Dec 8, 2019, 12:33 Steve Timko <steve...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Kevin M.

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Dec 8, 2019, 1:46:58 PM12/8/19
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Big Bird was the voice of childlike wonder and innocence. Oscar was the voice of a cynical adult who, despite his cynicism, still found a way to be joyous in the stuff most people rejected. It is beautiful that both were played by one man. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

PGage

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Dec 8, 2019, 1:56:59 PM12/8/19
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My younger brother was a core SS child; by the time we had a TV that could receive PBS I was a bit too old for it, but watched it with him a lot. Over this most recent Thanksgiving we spent a solid hour with him and cousins of his age talking and laughing about SS, and singing the songs. We also shared some tears, thinking of family members who shared those memories but are no longer living.

We also laughed and cried over memories of 70s prime time network shows that we watched with and without parental approval, singing those songs and talking about what they meant to us growing up, and life and family events they were associated with.

Yes indeed; stupid television...

On Sun, Dec 8, 2019 at 10:41 AM Joe Hass <hassg...@gmail.com> wrote:
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David Bruggeman

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Dec 9, 2019, 2:06:30 AM12/9/19
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While I can't argue against any of what Joe wrote here, I feel my anti-Elmo feelings result from what I see as Elmo taking screen time from Grover.  I don't know if there's even correlation for my hypothesis, but it feels right to me.

That said, I adored every single use of "Gitmo" on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

David

M-D November

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Dec 9, 2019, 10:36:54 PM12/9/19
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Joe - I echo your anti-Elmo stance, but I realized something after my kids were born - the average age of the Sesame Street viewer has (seemingly) dropped. When we were kids, it made sense for Big Bird (age 6) to be the audience proxy, but as the audience got progressively younger, it made sense to employ a new character (in this case, Elmo, age 3 1/2). We hated it because of how cloying Elmo felt (especially from a show that made a point of not pandering to its audience), and the aggressive marketing (Tickle-Me Elmo, anyone?) just rubbed salt in the wound. 

Coming back to the show now, I don’t find Elmo as bad as I once perceived him to be. It helps that, due to the new 30 minute format, “Elmo’s World” is much shorter (and doesn’t wear out its welcome quite so quickly).


On Sunday, December 8, 2019 at 10:41:51 AM UTC-8, Joe Hass wrote:
Spinney only retired the puppeteering part of Big Bird in 2015, and keep doing the voice until last year.

I've always believed the primary reason us old schoolers are so aggressively anti-Elmo is that the role that Elmo is designed to play already existed on the show in Big Bird. And it was Spinney who made that magic happen.

I'm literally in tears as I write this. Stupid television.

On Sun, Dec 8, 2019, 12:33 Steve Timko <steve...@gmail.com> wrote:

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