Episode 4060

Season 35 (2004)

Guest Star: Natalie Portman as Natalie.

Performers:
 * Caroll Spinney as Big Bird.
 * Joey Mazzarino as The Elephant.
 * David Rudman as Baby Bear.

Humans:
 * Alan Muaoka as Alan.

Plot
Alan plans to have a vacation, and puts an ad in the paper looking for a temporary replacement to watch the store while he's gone. However, Big Bird does not like the fact that Alan is not going to be watching the store for awhile. Alan needs to leave for a minute and asks a customer, Natalie, to watch the store. Alan likes how Natalie handled the store and asks her to take over while she is on vacation.

Trivia

 * Natalie portman was originally going to appear in three episodes as Natalie, but after this episode was taped, she lost her voice, so Gabbi took over Hooper's Store for the remaining episodes that Natalie was supposed to be in.


 * Big Bird is worried about somebody else watching the store besides Alan, but Hooper's Store had already had three previous owners: Mr. Hooper, David, and Mr. Hanford.