Jerry, Jim, Frank and Richard in season 12

[muppetshowguy]

Something I've noticed from watching the sesson 12 shows that have recently surfaced. It seems like it was during this time that the core group of muppeteers was the least available for sesame street. Now I do know it was probably a few years before this, I'd say season 10, when Frank and Jim stopped working on street scenes (with a few exceptions from what I've read on the season 10 guides) but by season 12 it seems like Jerry and Richard's charachters were just as scarce. There are some interesting ways they dealt with their absence.

1. The Countess was introduced as the female count, due to the fact Jerry wasn't around to perform the count as much.

2. Deena and Pearl were created as the female Ernie and Bert, since Jim and Frank probably weren't even able to do as many Ernie and Bert inserts as they were previous seasons.

3. Forgetful Jones was originated by Michael Earl Davis, not Richard Hunt.

4. Michael Earl Davis takes over as Snuffy and Poco Loco from Jerry Nelson, although I believe this happened in season 11.

And on a side note, it seems like Northern Calloway wasn't in many episodes this season. His name was removed from the credits, most likely due to the personal issues he was facing in real life at the time, so it seems like he was a part time character this season. Anyways out of all the 45 seasons I'd have to say season 12 was the most unique. Seems like a ton of new Muppets were added, but the majority were gone by season 13.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've been thinking about this lately as well. I believe I even mentioned it somewhere on the forum this past week.

I don't think Forgetful Jones being originated by Michael Earl rather than Richard Hunt would necessarily mean they weren't available. When interviewed for Tough Pigs, Michael Earl said that they had a meeting to figure out characters for him to perform, and he informed them that he could do a cowboy voice.

Michael Earl has said in season 10, his first year as Snuffleupagus while Jerry still provided that voice, that Jerry did the voice live on the set, but when Jerry Nelson was interviewed for Tough Pigs, he said that somebody suggested he stop performing the character because he was busy with The Muppet Show and Snuffy was primarily a street character. With that in mind, it would have been hard to do the voice live. I wonder if facts were mixed up, like maybe he did the voice live on set when he was available but also pre-recorded the voice.

This season also featured reporter Warren Wolf, who seemed to be a substitute reporter for Kermit.

And of course, none of the new characters from season 12 were performed by Jim, Frank, Jerry, or Richard. They were all performed by Michael Earl, Brian Meehl, Karen Prell, and even Kevin Clash, a few years before he was a full-time performer with the Muppets. I wish I knew more about the circumstances allowing him to perform in season 12 was, particularly the fact that he had a few regular characters. This fact is rarely acknowledged in any official publications from Sesame Workshop (Kevin Clash did mention visiting the set and lending a hand when he could before season 16 in his book, but he seemed to be kind of vague about it).

But there are segments with Jim, Frank, Jerry, and Richard that do have official sources saying they are from season 12 (not sure if any of those sources are incorrect). I believe Hulu lists the Sesame Street News segment involving the first day of school as a season 12 segment. Old School Vol. 3 lists the "beginning, middle, and end" segment with Cookie Monster and Kermit as from this season. If I Were is copyrighted 1981, which could be from season 12 or 13 (the copyright dates for most Sesame Street songs are the year that each season ended at). I think Fuzzy and Blue is also from this season (I've seen it with a 1981 copyright, can't remember if it's on Hulu or not).

And on a side note, it seems like Northern Calloway wasn't in many episodes this season. His name was removed from the credits, most likely due to the personal issues he was facing in real life at the time, so it seems like he was a part time character this season.

I was just watching the street scenes from a season 12 episode, which had the end credits included, and I saw Northern Calloway credited.

Slightly off-topic, but back in 2009, when I saw part of a season 12 press release talking about the new characters being introduced that season (though not all of them were introduced that season), I figured they'd all be fairly major and introduced at the beginning of the season. Now that the first few weeks have surfaced, it seems like they actually took their time with several of these. There's a few that do not yet have full pages on Muppet Wiki, and the copy for one episode has some sort of error preventing it from including the full episode, but I am amazed by how some characters appear sporadically, and a few still haven't shown up in any of the episodes in the guides (but as I said, there's still a few left).

Telly is the most-used of these characters. While Forgetful Jones, Clementine, and Buster were all in the first episode of the season, Forgetful and Clementine didn't return until later in the second week. Countess Dahling von Dahling and Masha both appeared twice in the first week, but so far the Wiki doesn't note any other appearances by them (though one of these episodes has The Count with a Countess, who I assume is a different Countess, though both were performed by Brian Meehl).

Of all the recently-surfaced season 12 episodes, the only material with Elmo seems to come from the previous season (that press release referred to Elmo as a character who talks in sounds instead of words, it'd be great to see a segment where this applies to the character). Poco Loco appeared a fair bit in the first two weeks, it seems like he had four scenes. While Deena was in the background in the second episode of the season, a Deena and Pearl sketch did not appear until late in the second week (but after that we've found a few street scenes with Deena, still no return of Pearl). And looking at these guides in order, it wasn't until tonight that I found season 12 episodes with Dr. Nobel Price and The Honkers.

Of all the characters promoted as new characters for the season, the only ones who have not yet shown up in the season 12 guides are Warren Wolf and Ferlinghetti Donnizetti (the latter being the only character mentioned who was not in the group picture of new season 12 characters).

I don't know how far production of that season came when the press release was made. Maybe the press release came after the first several episodes were edited and completed (and maybe Ferlinghetti Donnizetti was created after the group photo was taken). Maybe they didn't think they needed to introduce all of these characters at once (looking at the first two or so weeks of episode guides, it also took awhile for Michael Earl's Snuffy to show up, while most of the other classic main characters showed up, in classic material, quite a bit in those weeks). Maybe with the large amount of new characters they felt they needed to not introduce them all in the first week (especially with a large number of classic characters).

 

[minor muppetz]

Something else that I wondered. There's a season 12 press release that refers to Ferlinghetti Donnizetti as a new character that season, and we still haven't seen any season 12 material with him. Kevin Clash performed him in most of his appearances we've seen, and for awhile there was some speculation that Clash did originate the character (since his book refers to him as if he was an original Clash character, and he did perform at least a few times in season 12), but then we found a season 15 episode with Ferlinghetti, where he was performed by Richard Hunt. But now I wonder if Kevin Clash did perform him in season 12, then Richard Hunt took over, and then Clash got the role again after joining the show full-time.

I also wonder about Poco Loco. Before season 12, he was performed by Jerry Nelson. During season 12, Michael Earl performed him. I wonder if he continued with a new performer after season 12. In the season 13 premiere, it's briefly mentioned that there's a parrot in the Fix-It Shop, so it's possible they were still using him as a character then (of course, such a mention of a parrot in the Fix-It Shop sounds really funny if you don't know that he lived at the Fix-It Shop for a season). And I wonder who would have performed him (I'm guessing either Richard Hunt or Martin Robinson). And yes, I'm aware that Poco did continue to be seen as a generic parrot for many years after the show.

And on a similar note, Michael Earl has said that he performed Polly Darton, but the one Polly Darton sketch known to be from seasons 10-12 is "Waving Goodbye to You with My Heart", where she's performed (or at least voiced) by Fran Brill. It's listed on Old School Vol. 3 as a season 12 sketch, and I believe I saw it listed with a 1980 or 1981 copyright date. Makes me wonder if she took over before he left, or if he just did the puppetry (would he have listed her as one of his characters if he was just doing the puppetry?), or if maybe the song was remade and the people doing the DVD features got the year wrong. Or maybe Fran Brill redubbed the vocals after he left and they included that version on the DVD (though would they have redubbed an earlier segment because a minor character was recast?).

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Michael Earl has said in season 10, his first year as Snuffleupagus while Jerry still provided that voice, that Jerry did the voice live on the set, but when Jerry Nelson was interviewed for Tough Pigs, he said that somebody suggested he stop performing the character because he was busy with The Muppet Show and Snuffy was primarily a street character. With that in mind, it would have been hard to do the voice live. I wonder if facts were mixed up, like maybe he did the voice live on set when he was available but also pre-recorded the voice.

Yeah. I think that was when "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" came out, so it was probably Michael Earl in the Snuffy costume there (though he was uncredited) with Jerry looping in the voice.

And on a similar note, Michael Earl has said that he performed Polly Darton, but the one Polly Darton sketch known to be from seasons 10-12 is "Waving Goodbye to You with My Heart", where she's performed (or at least voiced) by Fran Brill.

I think you kind of answered your own question there with the phrase (or at least voiced). My guess is that maybe Fran wasn't available when that one was made so he may have done the puppetry with Fran looping in the voice later. On a side note, I think Camille Bonora performed Polly in a song or two in the late 80s. I sort of wonder what was up with that.