Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan - Kermit

1570 Carl Sagan

Extraterrestrial Othmar the Grouch traverses the vastness of space to get in a dig at Carl Sagan.

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences.

In 1990, Candice Bergen introduced Sagan in a segment for The Earth Day Special in which he explains to a crowd how global warming works. The Muppets also appeared in the special in a segment about pollution and animal extinction.

For television viewers, Sagan is remembered both for his recurring appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and his PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, written with his wife, Ann Druyan. The couple worked together on many occasions to communicate science to the public, and Druyan still does to this day, having fielded a comment from Sesame Street writer Emily Perl Kingsley on one occasion. (VIDEO)

Sagan was the author of several books, only one of which was a work of fiction. His 1985 novel Contact was made into a movie in 1997 starring Jodie Foster, but not before several years of trying to turn it into a television series with Francis Ford Coppola, which was to have been produced by Children's Television Workshop.

References

• Othmar the Grouch, an alien who has traveled to Sesame Street in Episode 1570, bids farewell to its residents after taking Oscar the Grouch for a ride to the Moon. He announces it's time for him to return to planet Zircon, "Sailing through the stars, across the vast universe... Carl Sagan, eat your heart out."

• In a March 18, 2014 video for the New York Daily News, a viewer asks Kermit the Frog, "why do you sound exactly like Carl Sagan? Or is it that Carl Sagan sounds exactly like you?" Kermit responds, "the reason that Carl and I sound alike is because... we are one and the same."

Notes

• In 1982, Sagan was the guest of honor at the George Pal Lecture on Fantasy Film; two years later, that role was filled by Jim Henson.