Big Bird

For other uses, see Big Bird (disambiguation).

Follow that Bird feature film poster

Big Bird meets first lady Pat Nixon, 1970

Big Bird is a full-body Muppet, featured on the children's television show Sesame Street, which airs on PBS. He is sometimes referred to as "Bird" by his friends.

Officially performed by Carroll Spinney since 1969, the six-foot yellow bird can roller skate, ice skate, dance, sing, write poetry, draw and even ride a unicycle. But despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as one big long word, pondering what it could ever mean. He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and he has a teddy bear named Radar, which is a nod to Walter "Radar" O'Reilly of M*A*S*H, who had a teddy bear and was also lovably naive and innocent. Also, Radar was given to Big Bird by Gary Burghoff (who played Radar on M*A*S*H) when he guest starred on the show. Later on, however, it was said that Big Bird got the bear as a gift from Mr. Hooper.

Character description

Big Bird helps children feel okay about not knowing everything because he himself does not know everything, and encourages them to inquire: a common Big Bird phrase in recent years has been: "Asking is a good way of finding things out!". In addition to letters and numbers, he also teaches other life lessons: "I guess it's better to be who you are. Turns out people like you best that way, anyway."

He is a light yellow color and has lots of feathers. He was designed in part by Kermit Love, who made the costume shed feathers every so subtly, "Not unlike a tree shedding leaves in the fall." He believed this made Big Bird appear more natural. Later versions of the Muppet eliminated this feature, securing all feathers in place. For many years his best friend Aloysius Snuffleupagus was deemed as imaginary by the human cast. Every time Snuffy would visit, he would coincidentally leave just before the adults arrived. Despite not being believed by the adults, Big Bird continued to assert that Snuffy was real. In the early 1980s The Children's Television Workshop eliminated this running gag.

Big Bird took center stage on Sesame Street in the early 1980s, when the show dealt with the death of storekeeper Mr. Hooper (necessitated by the death of Will Lee, the actor who played the role). Big Bird's realization that Mr. Hooper wasn't just gone temporarily, and Big Bird's acceptance of Mr. Hooper's death, have been hailed as a milestone in children's programming.

In Big Bird's second big screen appearance, Sesame Street presents Follow That Bird, he is sent by a bird social worker to live with a foster family of dodos. He soon runs away from his new home to get back to Sesame Street but he is kidnapped and dyed baby blue by two ratty circus-owners.

Big Bird also had a role in the feature film Elmo in Grouchland and several other movie-length features such as Big Bird in China and Big Bird in Japan.

While Big Bird is generally deemed a canary, when he visited the Neighborhood of Make-Believe in episode 1483 of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (which aired on Wednesday June 3, 1981), when King Friday XIII asked him if he was related to the cassowary, Big Bird replied that he is in fact a Golden Condor.

Performing

Big Bird's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

As Muppeteer Caroll Spinney has aged, the show has gradually started to train new performers to play Big Bird. These apprentices include both Rick Lyon in the opening theme song of the show's 33rd season on, and Matt Vogel in the show's Journey to Ernie segment.

Caroll Spinney was sick during the taping of a few first season episodes, so Daniel Seagren performed Big Bird in those episodes. He also performed Big Bird when he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969. According to The Story of Jim Henson by Stephanie St. Pierre, the costume was built for Jim Henson to perform, but when Jim Henson tried it on, Kermit Love, who had built the costume, didn't think that Jim Henson was walking like a bird is supposed to walk, and Jim decided not to perform Big Bird. Frank Oz was offered the part, but since he hated performing full-body characters, he turned down the job.

The Big Bird performer is completely enclosed within the costume, and extends his right hand over his head to operate the head and neck of the puppet. The Muppeteer's left hand serves as the Bird's left hand, while the right hand is stuffed and hangs loosely from a fishing line that runs through a loop under the neck and attaches to the wrist of the left hand. The right hand thus does the opposite of the left hand: as the left hand goes down, the right hand is pulled up by the fishing line. For some of the Journey to Ernie segments, a second puppeteer (usually Jim Martin) controls Big Bird's right hand. He is concealed by dressing in a body suit the same color as their chroma key background (something that obviously can't be done on the main Sesame Street set).

Costume

The costume is partially assembled by company American Plume & Fancy Feather, using the tail feathers from turkeys; as the feathers are rarely clean, company owner Anthony Trento calls the Big Bird costume his "toughest customer". Sesame Workshop is said to reject roughly 90 percent of all the feathers selected for use on the costume.[1]

Trivia

• The original Big Bird had fewer feathers, making his head and body look smaller.
• Big Bird's birthday is March 20.[2]
• Two former NHL hockey players, Larry Robinson and Don Saleski, were nicknamed Big Bird, because of their height and curly hair.
• Big Bird's physical address is 123 1/2 Sesame Street (Zip Code unknown)
• In the Netherlands Big Bird is known as Pino and is not yellow but blue.

Appearances in popular culture

• The Animal Planet program The 50 Greatest TV Animals included Big Bird at number 16 in their list.
• Big Bird's best friend is Mrs. Babsy
• Big Bird is the only Muppet to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. In 1977, he posed with pitcher Mark "the Bird" Fidrych.
• Big Bird appeared on an episode of Between the Lions entitled "Tweet, Tweet."
• Big Bird appeared in the episode "Eppur Si Muove" of The West Wing.
• Big Bird also made an appearance in The Muppet Movie as a wandering bird on the highway. He was offered a lift by Kermit and Fozzie, but declined, stating that he was trying to break into public television in New York City.
• Big Bird has also appeared on a few game shows over the years. Some notable examples:
  • On an episode of What's My Line?, Big Bird appeared as the "Mystery Guest".
  • On several occasions in the 1970s, Big Bird appeared as a semi-regular panelist on The Hollywood Squares. He also made a week-long appearance on the John Davidson version of the show in the late 80s. He even appeared on Tom Bergeron's version in the late 90s and early 2000s.
  • Big Bird also made an appearance on a special episode of Deal or No Deal, on Christmas Day (December 25), 2006. [3]
• Big Bird appeared at the end of a Ford commercial saying to youngsters, "Remember-in the back seat!" The kids get in and say, "And buckle up!"
• An animated version of the Big Bird character appeared in the Family Guy episode A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks.
• On the TV show, Full House, Michelle refers to Big Bird, particularly in the episode 'Rock the Cradle' when she draws Big Bird in Pictionary. She also suggests that Uncle Jesse calls the new baby Big Bird.

External links

• Muppet Wiki: Big Bird