These quick behind-the-scenes clips show what lengths these talented Muppeteers go through to bring the Sesame Street Muppets to life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8JdFFgZX0o

(Steve Whitmire as Ernie, Marty Robinson/Pam Arciero as Telly, Eric Jacobsen as Bert)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTU2L_GjIuk

Sesame Street outtake

That's gotta be the best job in the world.

Thanks!

Thanks, jeffkjoe.


Thanks for RAPING MY CHILDHOOD.

Wow. That was neat. Thanks for sharing.

Funny how the Yip Yip Martians are just puppets on sticks. The Muppeteers don't wear them on their hands like a glove.

Wait...you mean the Muppets aren't REAL?!

Maybe I'm the only one who think it would suck. Keeping my arm up, trying to keep the top of the head flopping back and just having the lower jaw move, kneeling down and walking like they were in that video would be VERY TAXING. And I imagine that it's just like any other show, where it takes several takes to get it right. The pay would be awesome, but I doubt I'd seriously enjoy it.

I'd love to see an outtake where the guy playing Elmo blows a line, issues a stream of profanities, and storms off the set.

You sure about that? It's public television. It's not like a puppeteer would get Tickle Me Elmo royalties.

"Kevin Clash on strike! Kevin wants to be duly compensated, motherfuckers!"

I read that the Muppeteers don't pay that much at all. They mostly do it for the love of the craft. (Everyone except, for say, puppet captain Kevin Clash "Elmo").

They're freelance, so they get paid per gig.



That's why you see so many of the Sesame Street Muppeteers doing jobs on the side: Between the Lions, Jack's Big Music Show, Avenue Q, Blue's Room....

And Sesame only tapes 26 shows per season now, as opposed to 150 episodes as they did in 1969, so Sesame only needs them for a short period of time.

I found these videos linked from the ones posted, above. It's a Muppet Show behind-the-scenes, called, "Of Muppets and Men." I think it was from the final year of the Muppet Show. It's very interesting, narrated by Jim Henson. It's six parts, the links are in order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRkmhJRl0Ec
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0v2D46qaRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiBsoB3KWes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVYqaTdDA4U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gU6vv5KhEJg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLtBIrpwWZc

So how exactly do Bert and Ernie have sex?

In the butt.

You guys do know we can embed videos here, right?

I've always been interested in how puppet shows get made, and I actually hung out on the set of IFC's Greg the Bunny a couple years back. It was really fascinating to see how Dan (the creator and voice of Greg) does his characters. He basically has to lie on the ground watching a monitor, holding his arm up the whole time. There's a water-based cooling system that runs up his arm into the puppet to help keep it cool. And as mentioned, NUMEROUS takes. It's a very difficult process. I'm sure it's the same for Sesame Street (can't even imagine how hard it is to do Big Bird, must get hot as shit in there).

Here's a pic I took that day that shows how Dan was situated for like an hour straight or more:

Yeah, but I didn't want to embed six of them and take up that much space. I hate long posts!

No fair, the bunny got to sit on Seth Green's lap.