Countess Dahling von Dahling

PERFORMER	Brian Muehl
DEBUT	1980
PATTERN	Large Lavender Live Hand

The Countess Dahling von Dahling causes rain in Hooper's Store (Episode 1447).

Countess Dahling von Dahling appeared on Sesame Street during Season 12. She first appeared in Episode 1447, making additional appearances in Episode 1474 and 1482.

She is the 5th cousin of Count von Count, taking residence at his castle in her debut episode while he tends to a counting emergency back in Transylvania. Much like her cousin, she has an affinity for counting. However, instead of thunder and lightning punctuating her counts, she causes a rainstorm (even when indoors). This is reversed simply by counting backwards. She is typically accompanied by her dog Masha, who helps remind her of certain numbers when counting.

One of her appearances was a musical insert set in a cabaret, where she demonstrated to the customers her ability to count forwards and backwards.

Although she refers to herself in dialogue as Countess von Dahling, she is listed as Countess Dahling von Dahling in a season 12 press release, in Sesame Street Unpaved, in a 2014 trivia tweet from the @sesamestreet official Twitter feed, and on the Sesamestreet.org character profile (including image and character description of Countess Dahling von Dahling, but linking to clips of a different Countess).

In a 2017 video interview with Mona Chalabi for The Guardian, The Count reveals that he and the Countess "don't talk anymore," as they lost each other's phone numbers.

Errata

• Sesame Street Unpaved erroneously claims that Fran Brill "plays her" and is quoted describing the character's personality, but with no explicit dates or performance details. She did voice her for the audiobook version of Oscar's Grouchy Day.

Book appearances

• I Have a Friend (1981)
• Seasons of the Year (1982)
• Oscar's Grouchy Day (1991)

See also

• other Countesses