Anyone visit Sesame Street?

[travellingpat]

Hey All, This is my first post here so I wanted to start it with a question:
Has anyone else visited the set on a taping day?
I did in November (of last year), my avatar is one of pix from the amazing trip... I just wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this amazing trip down memory lane?



PC

 

[jeffkjoe]

Hey All, This is my first post here so I wanted to start it with a question:
Has anyone else visited the set on a taping day?
I did in November (of last year), my avatar is one of pix from the amazing trip... I just wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this amazing trip down memory lane?



PC

Hey, can you show us more of your pics?

And also: How did you get access to the set?

 

[travellingpat]

Yeah how do you load pictures on? In response to your oter ? here's a article I wrote for my fam and friends:

My Day On ‘The Street’
By Travelling Pat

In November of 2003, I got a once in a lifetime chance to meet one of my heroes, Caroll Spinney at the UCONN School of puppetry; he was promoting his book, ‘A Life In Feathers’. Ok, now flash-forward a year, I get a postcard in the mail, it was from Caroll. He invited me to come see a taping of Sesame Street. My dad got in contact with Leigh Gallagher, an employee of Sesame Workshop who set up a date for me to go pursue my lifelong dream. Here is what happened…
My dad and I got up around 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 2, 2005 to drive to the New Haven Train Terminal. It took about an hour to get to there; we got on the 6:30 train to Grand Central Station. From there (Now it was about 7:30a.m.) we got on two other trains and got off at the Broadway stop, where there were signs for Kaufman-Astoria Studio in Queens, New York. The studio was then six blocks away from the stop so we got to the studio around 8:30.
My ‘1 hour tour’ was supposed to begin at 10, so dad and I figured we would just sit out there for an hour and a half, listening to Olamide Faison, who plays Miles, wander the halls and play his guitar. Lining the walls were pictures of famous actors, actresses, and singers who have worked there, Milton Berle, George Burns, Bill Cosby, Diana Ross, and Jerry Orbach just to name a few. We thought we would wait for hours until someone came out and get us. We were wrong! Leigh Gallagher came right out, within, and brought us into the Green Room, on the way passing racks of costumes (Trash Gordon!) and lockers labeled Gordon, Maria, Luis, Alan, Susan, Gina, Miles, etc. In the waiting room with us was a cameraman (operator of Camera 1), Frankie Biondo who was on the phone trying to solve a Su Duku puzzle out of the New York Times.
Leigh came back in and told Dad, he could get some coffee at the cast and crew’s breakfast table. I was standing behind Dad when Caroll Spinney walked by behind me. I spun around and smiled. He said, “Hi, how are you?” I said that I was good, and he went into his dressing room. About 10 minutes later, Caroll came into the green room and we introduced ourselves, he then let us leave all of our stuff (my coat, my dad’s bag, my copies of ‘Of Muppets And Men’ and ‘Jim Henson: The Works’ in his dressing room (The room a huge TV, a mirror, full bathroom, chairs and a couch, and of course: Big Bird’s Legs!).
He then brought us onto Stage G, passing more lockers labeled Ernie, Bert, Oscar, Elmo, and Grover, where the street is. He gave us a grand tour all around, showing us Big Bird’s nest, Oscar’s trash can, a back room that can be used for any insert segments (Caroll told us that it used to be used for some Busby Berkley musical numbers, underneath the floor is a drained swimming pool that hasn’t been used since), 123 Sesame, a green screen room (I assume they use this for Elmo’s World, Journey to Ernie, or any other needs they have) Hooper’s Store, and the Fix-It Shop (Yes, for all you concerned, crazed fans out there, it has changed back from the Mail-It Shop). It was amazing. About a half an hour later they started taping, that is when more magic happened.
Here’s a short synopsis for the episode: Big Bird wishes that Gordon, Maria, and Alan could be kids again so that he could play with him. The Fairy Godperson hears his wish and comes to the rescue and changes them all into kids. But then Big Bird realizes that there is no one to help Luis, make Bird Seed Milkshakes, etc…
The Muppets on set that day were: a Blue Mustached Anything Muppet Customer for Luis to deal with while Maria is gone (Martin P. Robinson, the right hand was Pam Arciero), Baby Bear (David Rudman, his right hand was Matt Vogel [I didn’t get to meet either of them, they kind of ducked out after they were done; Baby bear is a lot smaller than he looks like he looks…oh well)], and Big Bird (of course, the living legend, Caroll Spinney). We also saw stuck on racks in the workshop area: some Anything Muppets and Monsters, Super Grover, 2 Different Elmos (One with live hands sometimes used in Elmo’s World, and one with the regular hands attached to the rods), Zoe (in her tutu), The Fairy Godperson, Oscar, and about 5 Slimys. Two ladies from the Muppet Workshop were working on Slimy; he has a lot harder texture than he looks like he would be on TV. He’s not as spongy.
Here’s a little known fact that made me crack up but Lou Berger, the Head Writer, says disturbs some kids: They hang Mr. Snuffleupagus from the ceiling on wires, underneath a sheet. And no, I checked, not one place in the Constitution does it mention anything about Snuffleupagus abuse, so I guess that is o.k.
At one o’clock, the cast broke for lunch. Marty Robinson came over and started talking to me, we probably went on for 15 or 20 minutes. He told me about some of his past work and also gave me some advice about becoming a puppeteer. He is really a nice guy, he signed my book, Jim Henson: The Works, and gave me his e-mail address in case I have any more questions. Since then I’ve been talking to him, asking questions about the Thanksgiving Day parade and how much Mr. Snuffleupagus weighs. Caroll invited us to lunch at ‘The Cup’, a diner right down the street. On the way out, we met Sonia Manziano (Maria), she was getting her hair or makeup done for her upcoming scene, and Joey Mazzriano, he was Croaker in ‘Kermit’s Swamp Years, He also wrote the movie and frequently writes (In Caroll’s opinion, the funniest stuff comes from him) and puppeteers (Joey Monkey, The Fairy Godperson, Stinky the Stinkweed, The Elephant, etc.) on Sesame Street. He told me, when I come back to come and try on some of his puppets, but when we came back he wasn’t there, weird! At ‘The Cup’, I got a BLT and a Sprite, and Caroll got a cheeseburger (no bun, because 10 years ago, he learned he found out that he was allergic to wheat), and a Diet Coke. We stayed there for about an hour, talking about everything from his experiences in China with Bob Hope, to Will Lee, to Oscar’s appearance at last year’s Daytime Emmys. By the way, Caroll received a lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Institution; he’ll be presented with it on next years Daytime Emmys.
After lunch, we walked back to the studios, cutting it very close to the one hour they are given for lunch, when we ran into, Caroll literally, Roscoe Orman (Gordon) and Emilio Delgado (Luis). Caroll introduced me; and we talked for a few minutes. Then, we went back inside where Carrol had to get suited up with the Bird’s legs once again. There was a funny scene walking back onto Stage G, I wish I had gotten a picture of it, Carrol waddling through the hallways and one of the security guards watching him, probably completely oblivious to what was going on. We stayed at the studio for maybe another hour, then left, in my opinion way too soon! When I called my family on the way back to the train no one believed that the ‘tour’ was that long. Some of my doubting friends and family believed my experience could ever come true, but it did, and it was better than ever imagined

This was one of the best days I’ve ever had, and as my mom puts it ‘Maybe a future job interview…’

Ill post the pixs soon ​

 

[travellingpat]

Sorry about the daytime emmys thing i wrote this in like december

 

[travellingpat]

Let me see if these work

file://Carmen and Pat
file://Caroll and Pat
file://Emilio, Roscoe, Caroll and Pat
file://Fix-It Shop
file://Kaufman Studios
file://Lou and Pat
file://Main Kaufman Enterance
file://Marty and Pat
file://Oscar and Pat

 

[travellingpat]

No they didnt-grrrr- let me try again

 

[travellingpat]

If you guys know how to post pix, im new so im not up to spped like that, if one of you wants to PM me I can get them up


PC

 

[Kimp the Shrimp]

Best Bet is upload them at photobucket.com it's free

http://photobucket.com/

 

[travellingpat]

Ohh, well I tried that and Photobucket doesn't work on my computer for some reason...

dissapointed PC

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Thank you for sharing that story, that was really awsome! so the Mail-it-Shop is back to the Fix-if Shop, cool!