Alphabet Chat

[cjd874]

I doubt Twin Beaks was the last one. That's from season 22, and I'm pretty sure they continued making new Monsterpiece Theater segments during the late-1990s. Not sure if any debuted in 2000 or 2001. The last time a Monsterpiece Theater segment aired was in 2002, I think it was the "Guys and Dolls" segment from season 20.

I think "The Horse Whisperer" is one of the last Monsterpiece skits...probably 1997 or 1998, when Frank was still a regular performer on SS.

 

[minor muppetz]

I think "The Horse Whisperer" is one of the last Monsterpiece skits...probably 1997 or 1998, when Frank was still a regular performer on SS.

How does one determine when Frank stopped being a "regular performer" on the show? He began directing movies in the 1980s which had already limited his schedule (he points this out in 1989's An Evening with Jim Henson and Frank Oz), and the 1998 book Sesame Street Unpaved mentions that at the time Frank was performing four days a year, getting in around 15 new segments with his characters on those days. And now he only comes to the set one day per year.

 

[cjd874]

For me, I believe he stopped being a regular performer in the mid-1990's...I mean, after Jim died, most of Frank's characters returned to SS, mainly Grover and Cookie Monster, and occasionally Bert. In the late 1990s, Eric Jacobson took over Bert and Grover while Frank did other projects, and David Rudman began performing Cookie. Then Frank left the Jim Henson Company in 2002 (I think) and stopped performing his MS characters...but for some reason he chose to make a few appearances as Bert and Grover...did he ever officially leave Sesame Workshop?

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if Frank's characters really did start to get recast in 1997 like it says on Muppet Wiki (regarding Eric's characters). I first heard about the occasional recasts (which have become more frequent, in a way Frank's performances could be seen as occasional now) in 2001. Of course I first read about Matt Vogel being the understudy for Big Bird around the same time, and the 40th anniversary book (not to mention a number of interviews) state that he began as Big Bird's understudy in 1996, while his earliest-known vocal performance (on the show itself) was a season 30 episode (where Vogel and Spinney actually alternated the role in the same street story). Though I know that the original purpose for Caroll Spin ney having an understudy was because Sesame Workshop wanted Big Bird to make more live appearances than Spinney wanted to (I wonder if any of these were televised), and they didn't want Big Bird to be silent.

But I haven't read anything official that cites Eric Jacobson performing Bert and Grover earlier than 2001*. Maybe he performed while Frank dubbed the voices, or maybe he was just practicing as the characters then, maybe even doing them in non-speaking appearances. I recently read that in 1999's "CinderElmo", Frank dubbed most/all of his characters lines, with Steve Whitmire and Kevin Clash alternating as Grover (not sure who performed the other characters). It's a wonder Eric didn't perform them in that (was Eric credited for that special?).

Of course the recasts of Big Bird and Frank's characters happened rather quietly, and of course the recasts are awesome (well, Eric's Miss Piggy started out not as good but has improved over time). So I guess there could have been earlier performances that slipped past our radar (or that we just don't remember seeing).

*Actually I read that Eric Jacobson performed Grover in the "ding-a-long" episode from season 30. I remember seeing that episode, and for years I had thought that Grover was silent in that episode, only talking when he was singing along with the others (in other words he didn't have any lines of his own). I brought this up on the talk page and somebody who had the episode mentioned that he did talk. I wonder if it was brief enough for me to miss it the first time I saw it.