Caroll Spinney most notably performed Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street for fifty years.
What is not as well known, however, is that Spinney also performed a number of other characters, usually Anything Muppets, in the earlier seasons of the show. Spinney also performed Muppet versions of his pre-Sesame Street characters Picklepuss and Pop in a Muppet production, and made several cameos on the show.
Named characters[]
Mama Bear (season 3)
[]
Recurring characters shared among performers.
Ancillary characters[]
Unnamed Anything Muppets, monsters, etc.
Mother in "Consider Yourself"
(dialogue only)
(dialogue only)
son (singing voice) in "Brotherhood of Man"
sibling in "Five People in My Family"
pig in "Swinging on a Star"
son in "Children Song"
Pumpkin pilot in "Yellow Submarine"
Purple AM in "Everyone Likes Ice Cream"
"Can You Guess?" panelist #2
"Can You Guess?" panelist #3
little boy and man in "Lulu's Back in Town"
Reddish-Magenta AM in "Goin' for a Ride"
Fat Blue man in Kermit looks for clues
Wendy's mom (First: Episode 0121)
the farmer in "The Magic Apple"
postman Rubber Ball
Pumpkin AM in "Surprise!"
Green AM in "Before and After" season two remake
son in SUN
AM girl in "Wonderful/Yucchy"
Pumpkin AM in "Wonderful/Yucchy"
AM in "Cookie Monster Goes to School"
King in "The Princess and the Cookie" (First: Episode 0152)
AM girl in Episode 0165 Scene 9
boy in Salesman "ME" sketch
Polly Watson's mother in Episode 0217 Scene 2
Lavender and Pumpkin AMs in Grover and Monotones WALK sketch (First: Episode 0221)
ensemble in "No Matter How You Count Them"
AM in "Mad"
AM girl in Episode 0433
cow in Episode 0437
AM girl in Episode 0454
Lavender AM in Episode 0486
Lavender AM in Episode 0559
sneezing AM in Episode 0589
Audio voices[]
Characters performed in non-motion media and other voiceovers.
Strange Little Man in
"The Magic Cookie"
"The Magic Cookie"
announcing the sponsors in Episode 0006
Hooper's Super Alphabet Maker in Episode 0031
voiceover in Episode 0194, Scene 7
Farley's teammate in Episode 0497
voiceover in Episode 0600, Scene 4
voiceover in Episode 0694, Scene 2
voiceover in Episode 0909, Scene 3
voice of hungry Grouch heard inside Oscar's trash can in Episode 1226
AM in Ernie Learns to Skate
Slinky in Oscar Builds a Snake House
Fisherman in Going to the Beach
Grocer in The Grouch Market
Fireman Frank in The Alphabet: The Great Alphabet Play
Honorary Mentions[]
- In the audio cassette version of the book A Sesame Street Christmas, Caroll Spinney as Big Bird reads a story that includes his imitations of Bert, Ernie, Betty Lou, and Grover. Earlier in the story, Spinney narrates as Oscar imitating Ernie, The Count and Cookie Monster. Another story on the tape finds Spinney as Oscar imitating Big Bird and Betty Lou.
- Spinney narrates several of the audio adaptations of the Sesame Street Start-to-Read Book series, sometimes doing other character voices. Other examples can be found on Sesame Street records including Big Bird presents Hans Christian Andersen.
- Spinney voiced a zookeeper and a firefighter in the adaptation of "Everyone Makes Mistakes" for the video, Three Sesame Street Stories.
- Spinney dubbed the voice of the human cab driver (portrayed by Lorenzo Giliberti) in Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.
- In 2012 Spinney puppeteered various transformations of Big Bird — including a penguin, a lamb, and a chicken — for "The Lobby Project," a welcoming video screen display for the lobby of Sesame Workshop's offices at Lincoln Plaza.[1]
Notes[]
- Despite his claims to the contrary, Spinney never performed Elmo.
- Daniel Seagren once filled in as Big Bird when Spinney was sick in Episode 0083 and Episode 0086. Similarly, Jim Henson filled in as Oscar for Episode 0084.
Scripts[]
Scripts that credit Spinney as playing various characters for which no a/v evidence is available.
- Episode 0239 — AM boy
- Episode 0277 — AM lady