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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
season 3 Mama Bear
Adrienne in "A, You're Adorable"
Recurring characters shared among performers.
Ancillary characters
Unnamed Anything Muppets, monsters, etc.
Mother in "Consider Yourself"
(dialogue only)
(dialogue only)
sibling in "Five People in My Family"
son in "Children Song"
Pumpkin pilot in "Yellow Submarine"
Purple AM in "Everyone Likes Ice Cream"
"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
the farmer in "The Magic Apple"
postman Rubber Ball
Pumpkin AM in "Surprise!"
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
Lavender AM in baseball sketch (First: Episode 0193)
Polly's mother in Episode 0217 Scene 2
Lavender AM in Episode 0219 Scene 6
Lavender and Pumpkin AMs in Grover and Monotones WALK sketch (First: Episode 0221)
The King in "Cutie and the Beast"
AM in "Mad"
sneezing AM in Episode 0589
Lavender AM in Episode 0559
Wendy's mom (First: Episode 0121)
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
voiceover in Episode 0194, Scene 7
voiceover in Episode 0600, Scene 4
voiceover in Episode 0909, Scene 3
AM in Ernie Learns to Skate
Slinky in Oscar Builds a Snake House
Fisherman in Going to the Beach
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 characters — 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. 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 0277 — AM lady
- Episode 1083 — AM mechanic
- Episode 1126 — AM mailman