I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story. Documentary, 2014. Directors Dave LaMattina, Chad N. Walker. (9 out of 10)

Last year a documentary was released that I tried to get to in the theatres, but was there so briefly I didn’t make it. Now that “I Am Big Bird” is available free on Amazon Prime, I made a point of watching it as soon as I could. The doc is subtitled “The Caroll Spinney Story,” following the life and career of a puppeteer who has found a way into most of our hearts. The Caroll-as-a-kid stuff is pretty standard, especially for artists — an encouraging mother who fostered his talents, a domineering father whose lack of understanding for the kid pushes him out of the house as soon as possible. Very quickly, we get into Caroll’s work as a puppeteer, on the “Bozo the Clown Show.” This gave him experience both as a puppeteer and a performer wearing large suits, which would serve him well. 

Caroll was “discovered” by Jim Henson at a puppetry festival in my hometown of Salt Lake City — Spinney describes it as a performance where everything went wrong, and yet Henson approached him anyway, saying “I like what you were trying to do.” There’s a gentleness that comes most of the time Caroll is talking about Jim Henson — not a reverence necessarily, but certainly a love and a respect for what Henson was able to do. Jim wanted Caroll to be a major player on “Sesame Street” of course, and he’d be performing two iconic characters: Big Bird and (improbably) Oscar the Grouch. The two characters are the Muppets we saw most often on the street in the 1970s and 1980s; Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, Grover — they were all usually in filmed segments that were like commercials airing between the street segments. So if Maria, Gordon, Susan, Bob, etc. were interacting with a Muppet character, it was likely Big Bird or Oscar the Grouch. 

The documentary does a good job of explaining the technical details of puppetry — how exactly Big Bird works, for example — through diagrams and animations. The animation also highlights certain key moments in Caroll’s life (the meeting with Jim Henson above), and reminds us of Caroll’s own considerable skills as a cartoonist and artist. 

In this era of Elmo-dominated “Sesame Street,” and at a time when the show has had to resort to partnering with HBO to sustain itself, it’s hard to remember when the show was producing more than a hundred episodes per season. Each episode featured Big Bird. Seriously, Season 6 (1974-75) had 130 episodes. The nature of the series meant a lot of things were reused of course–you didn’t see “Rubber Duckie” just once, after all–but the street segments were always new. Big Bird was on the cover of Time Magazine. Big Bird was conducting symphony orchestras. Big Bird was the center of a theme park in Pennsylvania. Big Bird was…big. 

“I Am Big Bird” gets into the fame that Caroll found. It was an anonymous fame of sorts, because with any of the puppeteers, his character was famous, but no one knew his face or name. The documentary looks at the relationships that came and went through his life, both professionally and personally. There were challenges, but no real unexpected tragedies in his story. There are a few stunning what-ifs, including one I won’t spoil, but would have basically traumatized every adult and child in the United States. Like…no one would get over it, ever. Overall though, this is a very sweet story. Unexpectedly, a very sweet, romantic story. You will cry. 

I came into this as a Muppet fan, and one that had already read “The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch),” so I already knew a lot of these stories. My wife didn’t, and my sons didn’t. In between the human stories, the Muppet stories, and the always-interesting behind-the-scenes of movie and television production, this made for compelling viewing. Caroll Spinney is Big Bird. And I love him. 

Today is Jim Henson’s birthday. I just wrote a big thing that was a timeline of his life, about how he went from rural Mississippi to DC to New York to London and became a big star and all his characters are great and blah blah blah…I wrote a lot. And I deleted it. 

Jim Henson is my hero. He’s been my hero for as long as I’ve known his name. I’d see his name in the credits for “Sesame Street” and “The Muppet Show.” I would sometimes ask my parents who different people were in the credits for shows, because I was starting to figure out that Luke Skywalker was actually a fictional character, performed by Mark Hamill. With Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog it was different, because you couldn’t see Jim at the same time you’d see Kermit on tv. I knew the Jim was the performer. But not seeing him–it gave it a sense of magic that I didn’t see with other live action performances. The magic went beyond just Kermit, and Jim Henson was one of the few people I consider a true genius. 

He’s had a profound impact on my life. I’m a teacher, and a big part of my teaching philosophy is that teaching can be, and should be, fun. Jim was only one of the many people involved in making “Sesame Street” what it was in the early 1970s when I was immersed in it, but the message was clear. The combination of humor and music and kind adults and obsessive compulsive monsters that ate your cookies — it’s how education could be. It wasn’t reading a textbook and answering the questions at the end of the chapter. It wasn’t a standardized test. It was personal, and weird, and fun. Jim Henson and his creations influenced the way I teach more than any class I took at a university, more than any book I read, more than any teacher I had in school myself. 

I was 17 when Jim Henson died. He died unexpectedly, he died young. That single event scarred me more than almost anything had up until that point in my life. Something broke inside me. I really should have therapized it out, but I never did. Instead of healing properly, it turned into an obsession with the Muppets and a love of the characters that took me from the normal kid of the 70s-80s who “loved” the Muppets into someone who was always drawing them, thinking about them, practicing voices.

That sudden loss made a lot of us realize what we had taken for granted — that Jim Henson, and his characters, would be around forever. Considering the tragedy that shook them, the Muppets actually picked things up pretty quickly. Things like “A Muppet Christmas Carol,” “Muppet Treasure Island,” and “Muppets Tonight” were all made within ten years of Jim’s passing — but each may have been a little too…reverent. Trying too hard to do exactly What Jim Would Have Done. Without Jim being there. I think too much of Jim’s legacy connects back to his tragic death. Muppet fans look at 1990 as this defining line like everything done before 1990 was pure genius distilled from the dews of heaven, and everything since has been crap. When really, there was a lot of trial and error in Jim Henson’s career. Some things are beautiful from a technical standpoint, but didn’t tell the best story. And yet, dude puts a sock on his hand, and magic happens. There are these ineffable qualities that real creators find, and for Jim, as much as he wanted to put the Muppets behind him, they were a part of him. 

There was a lot of trial and error in Jim’s career

With the premiere of “The Muppets” on ABC this week, I’ve had at least a dozen conversations with people in person, and double that online with friends and colleagues who know I would watch it, and know I’d have an opinion on it. Here’s the quick version: 

They’re going for funny instead of sentimental, which is going to alienate a lot of viewers. They’re going for a “30 Rock”/”The Office”/”Parks and Rec” thing, which I like. There are some tonal things like ‘we’re on later, we can say “hell” and “god”‘ …which the Muppets have said before, certainly, but stacked up several times in the first two episodes, it comes across as crass. But

1. I do think it’s funny. We watched it as a family, and each of us were laughing at different things. I love that there were jokes that Melissa and I got that my boys didn’t. 

2. Issues that One Million Moms have with it are ridiculous. They’re the same people that got mad at Mister Rogers for stripping at the beginning and end of each episode. 

3. If you’re younger than me, you’re comparing it more to “Sesame Street” and “Muppet Babies” and post-Jim movies (squeaky clean Disneyfied adaptations and worlds) than “The Muppet Show” (which got freaky sometimes with Alice Cooper, and murder, and ) and the Jim movies (which had drinking and swearing in them and Janice talking about how she can walk around on the beach naked if she wants to). Basically you think that this is the first time Muppets have been adults. And it’s not. 

4. I love having an entire cast of characters back, with Scooter and Janice and Rowlf and Dr. Teeth and Muppet Newsman everyone I love, instead of just the Big Four.

5. I really don’t know if this will find its audience. I hope so. If it doesn’t, I’m pretty sure Disney will box up the Muppets forever. So I’m scared. 

“Would Jim like it?”

The other conversation I keep having is “would Jim like it?” Truthfully, I think he’d be excited. Excited for something new. If Jim Henson’s career has any through-line, it’s that he was always trying something new and different. Puppets were a big part of that career from 1955-1990, but he was constantly trying to do new things with technology, with different kinds of puppet, with different formats. He would not want to do “The Muppet Show: 2015” as a 1970’s variety show with a single guest star and the whole vaudeville thing. If his characters lived on, had a life of their own, I can see him putting them in a workplace comedy. The Muppets in our real world, just like they were in the three Muppet films he was involved with. Not on a cartoony set, not playing other characters. Being themselves, sometimes awkwardly, always weird, but with a connection to each other that won’t ever be lost. 

I may go back and delete all that too. It’s not exactly what I want to say. It’s too wordy. My feelings about him are complicated, and as I grow as a dad and teacher and creator myself…they just get more complicated. It comes down to this. Jim Henson is my hero. I love him. It’s his birthday. Happy Birthday, Jim. I…uh…I made this for you.

Over forty years ago, puppeteer and animator Carol Spinney began performing one of the most iconic characters on television—Big Bird. Making his appearance on Sesame Street in its first season in 1969, Big Bird has become a beloved character to both children and adults, capturing hearts across the generations.

Over forty years ago, puppeteer and animator Carol Spinney began performing one of the most iconic characters on television—Big Bird. Making his appearance on Sesame Street in its first season in 1969, Big Bird has become a beloved character to both children and adults, capturing hearts across the generations.

When I heard Spinney would be attending this year’s DragonCon in Atlanta, I squealed (as I do sometimes). Big Bird?! And not only Big Bird . . . Spinney performs lovable curmudgeon Oscar the Grouch. He kindly answered questions at the annual convention held over Labor Day weekend.

When asked about Big Bird’s age, Spinney explained that because Big Bird couldn’t read or write, he based him on a four and a half year old child, but he’s now taken him up to the age of six, and he’s stayed there. “In some ways he’d be a precocious child at six. He’s traveled by himself with a dog . . . Barkley’s not even his dog. He went to China with him somehow. How he got tickets, I don’t know. There’s nobody who really takes care of him. He’s only six . . . it’s kind of fun to play him as a wide-eyed child. Children identify with him. I get letters from children saying Big Bird you’re my best friend. Please come play with me.”

He also spoke briefly about his visit to the Center for Puppetry Arts, located in Atlanta. He viewed photos of what visitors can expect when the long-awaited expansion opens in November. He also saw rooms where puppets are being built or repaired, which led him to discuss Bruno the Trash Man, who used to carry Oscar around and was the only puppet Spinney created. Based on an idea he got from “The Gong Show,” Bruno eventually “turned to powder. He literally turned to powder. It’s a foam plastic but deteriorates terribly after about eight years. Costs $20,000 to make a new one, so goodbye Bruno. My one puppet that I created.”

Spinney is also an animator, but after doing it for four years in Boston, he said he grew tired of it: He was hired by Disney to be an animator but didn’t take the job since the pay was only $56 a week. Walt walked into the room while he was at Disney, but Spinney didn’t get a chance to speak to him. He had a bucket list of three people he wanted to meet: artist Andrew Wyeth (who he spent an afternoon with once), Walt Disney: “At least I was in the same room with him. And the other one was Jim Henson, who personally hired me. So I guess I accomplished all those.”

And now I’ve added another name to my own bucket list, having met “Big Bird” of “Sesame Street.”

Spinney ended the interview by singing a song in Big Bird’s voice and saying “I love trash” as Oscar the Grouch. 

Sometimes when you don’t actually get nominated for Academy Awards, I guess you take things into your own hands. Your own hairy/furry/felty/fleecy hands. Sometimes with rods in them. So our friends at the Muppet fan site Tough Pigs have decided to do just that. Where 2014’s “Muppets Most Wanted” and “I Am Big Bird” didn’t get any Oscar love (not even Oscar the Grouch for “I Am Big Bird,” which is just sad), the gang at Tough Pigs are making their own awards show. 

Named after Big Bird’s used-to-be-imaginary friend, who’s amazing and loveable and a little creepy, but the eyelashes win me over, and if I ever found one, I would fit him with a saddle and ride him like Battle Cat, the Snuffys (Snuffleupaguses for not-short) are awards that you can vote for. 

They have all the “normal” categories you would expect from a Muppety awards show, like “Best Performance By a Muppet,” and “Best Feature Performance by a Human.” So you can vote for Kermit the Frog or Constantine or Fozzie Bear or Miss Piggy or Walter or Tina Fey or Ty Burrell or Ricky Gervais or Ross Lynch.  But they also have categories like “Best Performances by Muppet Actor/Actress in non-Muppet Movie,” and “Best Performance by an Anthropomorphic Animal in a Non-Muppet Movie.” 

Basically, just go over there and vote. It’s fun, and funny, and if you haven’t seen “Muppets Most Wanted,” you really the hell need to. It’s one of the funniest Muppet movies ever, and even though it underperformed at the box office, I don’t give a hoot. It made me laugh. And at least one of those songs should have been nominated. For reals. 

Boy I love it when fandoms collide. A few weeks back, PBS shared their amazing pics of the day that Tom Hiddleston took a photo op with Cookie Monster, and the internet exploded. Today they shared the entire video, and the world may never be the same.

I will never stop singing praise for PBS as long as I live. They played an immense roll in shaping me into the nerd I am today (thank you PBS and Fifth Doctor), and are probably solely responsible for my lifelong love of learning. Few things make me happier than a mega-celebrity endorsing one of the last remaining outlets for educational programming. 

If I ever get a chance to ask a Muppeteer one question, it will be “how much practice does it take to get Cookie Monster’s cookie spray just right?” It’s brilliant, and if you ever tell me you’ve never been tempted to eat cookies that way I’ll call you a fibber. Also, I think it’s worth noting that no fewer than six people sent me this video, which might possibly signify I have a problem. Does this mean I can sneak a small portrait of Hiddles into my Muppet sleeve?