When Sesame Street premiered, Big Bird’s characterization was entirely different- Big Bird was originally a clumsy character who would often trip or get stuck and spoke in a hillbilly-like voice. (If you’ve ever heard the original recording of ABC-DEF-GHI- which appeared on a lot of the Sesame Street albums even after the character’s voice changed- you’ve heard the original Big Bird.) Eventually, Big Bird’s head became larger and his voice became more childlike, as did his personality. He still did silly, childish things- like forget Mr. Hooper’s name, for instance- but he was no longer clumsy, but rather curious instead- much like a child.
For anyone interested in the life story of both Big Bird and Caroll Spinney, I highly recommend Spinney’s book The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch), a part-autobiography, part-self-help book which is all about Spinney’s life with the Bird.
“Big Bird” is both, actually. Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point has a very informative chapter about how Sesame Street is tested with children that tells about a story in which Big Bird realizes that other people have unique names, like Oscar or Elmo, but his name- Big Bird- is descriptive of himself and isn’t unique. Thus, he decides to change his name to Roy- until he discovers that Big Bird isn’t such a bad name after all. The show didn’t test well, as young children didn’t understand that the phrase “big bird” could be both descriptive of the character as well as its name.
One of the first things Vogel said when he started doing Big Bird was that it was a perfect role for him, as “Vogel” means “Bird” in German.
I live for the day when Big Bird will reveal his true nature as a terror bird, the apex predator of South America during the Cenozoic, and Sesame Street will flow with blood! (From Wikipedia: “Their wings had evolved into meathook-like structures that likely could be stretched out like arms to perform a hacking motion which theoretically would help in bringing down prey.”) That would give Oscar something to be grouchy about.
Raptors at least are fully grown by the time they leave the nest. There’s usually a plumage change from juvenile to adult, but size-wise they’re full grown. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that we could have a 6’ big bird who’s still a baby. A five year old bald eagle still has juvenile coloration.
There have been three Gordons, although the current Gordon, Roscoe Orman, has been playing the role since 1974. Most of the Sesame humans have been there for years, and it is amazing that they don’t really look that weathered (although the newest human appears to have had some plastic surgery done since I last saw her on television).
Ah, okay. I heard that awhile ago, and I didn’t realize it was the original Gordon (I wasn’t born until 1978, so I obviously Roscoe was the only one I was familiar with)
One of my clearest memories is that whenever Big Bird walked into the little alcove where his nest is kept, he’d forget about the little cross bar above the door and it would hit him in the neck “Wagh!”. I realise now it was probably a genuine mistake by Carroll Spinney, who couldn’t see that bar either and kept forgetting to duck.
Here’s a picture of the Terror BirdTitanis walleri found in Florida during the Pleistocene. I’m convinced that will be what Big Bird will turn into once he undergoes his last subadult molt.
Well, at least this gives us an explanation as to why Leela joined the cast: she was sent to the past to destroy the Terror Bird. And when your other only choices out of the pool are Zapp Brannigan and piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigs iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin spaaaaaaaaaaaace, you’ve got to go with the one person who isn’t likely to kill everyone else in the process.
