Talk:Kippi Ben Kippod

Kippi's performer speaks English, so she doesn't have a dubbed voice for English performances. -- MuppetDude 14:58, 1 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Actually, I was fairly sure of it. In Shalom Sesame anyway, the performer seems to be Kathryn Mullen (and articles I could find on the series only stressed Tzuriel being in the suit). Are you conversant enough with the two series to be sure? (And for that metter, Sesame Street Stays Up Late!)--Andrew, Aleal 15:00, 1 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, 100%. I've got the tapes of some of the episodes, and the voices are very in sync (otherwise the voices, if they were dubbed, would have a much clearer sound to them). Some of the foreign segments from the Shalom Sesame series have dubbed voices, but are provided by the Jewish performers because they dubbed part of it in English (since half of the Shalom series is in either one language or the other).


 * The same can be said for the German performers of Tiffy, Finchen, and Samson in the New Year's Eve special (however, the other foreign characters on the show, were dubbed; Tita the Cat was dubbed by Ivy Austin, and Jim Martin and Kevin Clash dubbed the Norway segment, but I don't know who played Alfa). The performance and the voices were very precise, but one can easily note how in the Norway segments the lip sync is off, and how Bjarne sounds like a young Kingston (but Moishe's mouth sync is based on the performer's puppeteering skill; his mouth sometimes rapidly moves, but the voice is always in sync with the character in the newer inserts shot specially for the new Shalom Sesame segments).


 * And Brian Muehl stopped performing before he did a few things in the 1990s (while the Shalom Sesame series originated in the 1986, so he was busy on other projects). -- MuppetDude 17:31, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Thing is, there were two distinct eras of Shalom Sesame, the 1986-1987 episodes, which I haven't seen, and a new batch from 1990 and 1991. Both credit Mullen and Muehl in every episode I've seen, despite their having no apparent character roles in the dubbed inserts (yeah, they could have been doing assisting, but a few episodes used inserts almost entirely from the 70s and periods when they wouldn't have been doing *anything* on Sesame Street). Muehl was sort of a guess on my part, but Kippi sounds remarkably like Cotterpin Doozer in these episodes. Which ones do you have? It could just be a natural vocal similiarity, but I'm not entirely sure yet. --Andrew, Aleal 20:51, 1 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I've got "Tel Aviv" (from 1986), "Journey to Secret Places", "Aleph-Bet Telethon", "Chanukah", and "Passover" (all from the 1990s); I've seen their names in the credits as well, but they're all credited under the specific SS insert segments, and not for the specific Shalom Sesame segments. (And there may be at least one that don't list either of them in the credits.)


 * Maybe we need another opinion to find out the answer. -- MuppetDude 21:01, 1 March 2006 (UT

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 * Yeah, we probably do. Do you have any tapes of the original Rechov Sumsum? That would be one way to check. Regardless, for now, while I kept the reference in the article, I removed Kathy from the performer box, since even if it's correct, it's misleading upon reflection. We don't include the Spanish dubbed voices for Bert and Ernie in their pages, so it seems unfair. Actually, I'm really curious about the male performer who took over for Shara'a Simsim (which I may do a page move on, as it's both a bit misleading given most articles refer to it as Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim, and the "Israeli/Palestinian" bit doesn't match the format of the rest). --Andrew, Aleal 22:09, 1 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Hold on kids! This has gone far enough. I was there (not bragging). Yes, I agree that Kippi could sound a bit like Kathy Mullen but it was the woman from Israel that did that annoying giggly nervous voice. They did not overdub with American performers. They used their own people. Moishe too. Kathy & Brian must have been credited for any US participation in the program.,,,and futhermore, Kippi is not being used anymore - she's G-O-N-E.....Vard 3/1/06


 * That's more than good enough for me. And yeah, I knew Kippi had been dropped (though came across several fascinating articles about how, prior to the current "Sesame Stories" format with Jordan in the mix, there was some conflict because Kareem the rooster was smaller than Kippi). --Andrew, Aleal 01:42, 2 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Kippi's gone? Aw, and I liked her...


 * But at least we've got the answer now. Thanks, Vard! -- MuppetDude 16:05, 2 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah, after 70 episodes, the Palestinian/Israeli co-production ended, and while the Palestinians kept Kareem and [{Dafi]], Israel dropped Kippi and Moishe Oofnik entirely, replacing them with Noah and Brosh. It's a long and complex but fascinating story, tracing Rechov SUmsum through Shalom Sesame and then the co-production and its hopes as well as controversy and adverse reactions, not yet fully or accurately explained on these pages, though I'm doing my best to gradually add it all in. And according to the same articles, Kippi was meant to be male all the time! For Rechov Sumsum/Shar'a Simsim, in addition to receiving a redesign with more traditional Muppet eyes instead of the dot eyes, Kippi was given a new performer, an unnamed male puppeteer, to end confusion amongst children as to Kippi's intended gender. That seems to happen a lot with the International muppets, actually. --Andrew, Aleal 17:51, 2 March 2006 (UTC)