{"id":2765,"date":"2020-01-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/lessons\/caroll-spinney-puppeteer-behind-big-bird-and-oscar-the-grouch-dies-at-85\/"},"modified":"2024-03-18T14:43:12","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T19:43:12","slug":"caroll-spinney-puppeteer-behind-big-bird-and-oscar-the-grouch-dies-at-85","status":"publish","type":"lessons","link":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/lessons\/caroll-spinney-puppeteer-behind-big-bird-and-oscar-the-grouch-dies-at-85\/","title":{"rendered":"Caroll Spinney, puppeteer behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, dies at 85"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may not know the name Caroll Spinney. But you know his puppets: an over-sized six-year old bright yellow canary and a cantankerous green garbage dweller<\/p>\n

Hi everyone, it\u2019s Jeff, and welcome to the first episode of Plain English for the new year, 2020, new year, new decade, right? JR is the producer of Plain English\u2014some things never change, no matter what the calendar says! Today is episode number 221 of Plain English, and of course you can find all our episode resources at PlainEnglish.com\/221.<\/p>\n

Have you figured it out yet? The bright yellow canary and the green garbage dweller are two of the most famous characters on children\u2019s television. They are Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. And Caroll Spinney played them both for decades. He died in December, and on today\u2019s episode, we\u2019ll talk about his remarkable career.<\/p>\n

Real quick, before we dive into the main content: Are you part of our e-mail program? If not, then you\u2019ll want to head to PlainEnglish.com\/mail<\/a> and sign up. Twice a week, JR sends out additional episode resources to thousands of your fellow listeners. The emails have a summary of the episode, links to English articles about the main topic, and an explanation of another English word or phrase. Make sure to get all those free resources by signing up at PlainEnglish.com\/mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

So long, Big Bird: Caroll Spinney dies at 85<\/h3>\n

Caroll Spinney was a puppeteer who played two of the most recognizable characters on children\u2019s television\u2014Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, who lived outside the famous brownstone house at 123 Sesame Street. Big Bird had a disposition as sunny as his 5,961 feathers. Oscar the Grouch was the opposite.<\/p>\n

Spinney died in December last year; he retired from the iconic television show \u201cSesame Street\u201d only in 2018 after almost half a decade on the show.<\/p>\n

Spinney played his characters in live performances, at the White House, in the movies, and of course on television, where \u201cSesame Street\u201d has been a fixture for over half a century. It all began when Spinney was a young man. He met Sesame Street creator Jim Henson at a puppeteers\u2019 convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the 1960s. At the time, Spinney had been puppeteering for a decade and was playing a cat on local television in Boston. He joined the original cast of Sesame Street shortly thereafter. Other characters on Sesame Street include Kermit the Frog, Cookie Monster, and Ernie and Bert. Spinney also played minor characters, Bruno the Trash Man, Granny Bird, and Elmo.<\/p>\n

Though Henson was the creator of the Sesame Street, and though the lines of the characters were scripted, the puppeteers all contributed to the development of the familiar characters. Right at the beginning, Spinney helped form his two characters. In Henson\u2019s original plan, Big Bird was supposed to be a funny but dumb and unsophisticated country character. By country I mean, like from a rural area. But it was Spinney who said that the character should reflect the audience, so Big Bird became a perennial six-year old. He made his mark on Oscar the Grouch, too. Henson\u2019s vision was for Oscar to be modeled after a rude waiter at a restaurant, but Spinney modeled him after a rude New York City cab driver.<\/p>\n

And so it was, for almost five decades. Spinney would play both characters, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, on the show. When they appeared in a scene together, an understudy would play Big Bird, but it was always Spinney\u2019s voice.<\/p>\n

Big Bird has always been six years old. The character channels the audience\u2014he has the full range of emotions that six-year-olds have, and the high-pitched voice to match. Sometimes he was shy; other times, he was outgoing. Sometimes he was full of energy; other times, more relaxed. Sometimes serious; sometimes goofy.<\/p>\n

It couldn\u2019t have been easy playing Big Bird. The five-foot-ten-inch-tall Spinney would have to maneuver from inside the eight-foot-two-inch yellow canary. He maneuvered the bird with a series of wires. The only way he knew where to walk was from a monitor strapped to his chest.<\/p>\n

Spinney\u2019s creative streak dated back to his early childhood, when he was interested in painting, drawing, and puppetry. His mother made him a collection of puppets to play with on a homemade stage; when he was 12, he had a collection of 70 puppets.<\/p>\n

Though he loved the performances, he never sought fame for himself, saying that his characters\u2019 fame was quite enough for him. And famous they were: over 4,500 episodes and 50 years, the characters were enjoyed by children around the world. One hundred fifty million children, according to one estimate, in over 70 languages. It has been universally accepted as the ideal of what a children\u2019s television show should be. Generations of kids, myself included, counted Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch among our first friends.<\/p>\n

By 2015, the physical strain of puppeteering became too much, and Spinney cut back on his duties. He still provided the voice-over to his characters, but let his longtime understudy take permanent control of Big Bird\u2019s body. Then, as Sesame Street was about to turn 50 years old in late 2018, Spinney retired completely. He died at his home in Connecticut at the age of 85 last month.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quote I liked from Carol Spinney. He said: \u201cI think most people completely forget what it was like being a kid by the time they grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Ernie and Bert were my favorites. Most people liked Big Bird the best, but my favorite characters were Ernie and Bert, Ernie especially. I think I had trouble saying \u201cBert,\u201d so that\u2019s why I liked Ernie better.<\/p>\n

What an incredible talent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who played Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and other characters on television’s “Sesame Street” died at age 85. For almost half a century, Spinney played the over-sized, six-year-old yellow canary that enchanted generations of children. He maneuvered the eight-foot-tall costume from inside, with the help of cables and a monitor strapped to his chest. Plus, learn what it means to “cut back on” something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"lesson_category":[27],"lesson_number":[374],"terminology_tag":[],"content_tag":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCaroll Spinney, puppeteer behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, dies at 85 - Plain English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/lessons\/caroll-spinney-puppeteer-behind-big-bird-and-oscar-the-grouch-dies-at-85\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Caroll Spinney, puppeteer behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, dies at 85 - Plain English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who played Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and other characters on television's "Sesame Street" died at age 85. 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