
Caroll Spinney Leaves ‘Sesame Street’ After Nearly 50 Years - uptown
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/arts/television/sesame-street-big-bird.html
======
emptybits
Nothing but respect for Sesame Street and everyone involved. Thank you to
Caroll Spinney for being part of an enriching but entertaining cultural
institution. Similar to Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street is/was TV at a different
pace with different goals.

Since Caroll Spinney played Oscar The Grouch, here are some fun Oscar facts:
Oscar's favourite desserts are spinach sardine chocolate fudge sundaes and
mashed bananas with ice cubes and cold beef gravy. Oscar is Canadian, born in
New Brunswick.[1]

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7TDiqoH5LE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7TDiqoH5LE)

~~~
acct1771
He is also known for bringing life to Big Bird, and, by extension, Granny
Bird!

Not exactly hacker news, but Sesame Street stuff is pretty closely tied to
hacker ethos...RIP.

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noobermin
I'm not even 30 yet everyday the news is reminding me how I'm actually aging.
I still remember watching Sesame Street as a young kid on PBS, and I remember
over the years being surprised how the series is still on going, especially
when my nephews were born and my sister soon started watching Sesame Street
with her son. Seems like a retirement well-deserved.

~~~
TomMckenny
I grew up on it too but a full generation earlier. Even now when some unlikely
coincidence surfaces the number 12, sometimes this song[0] still pops into my
head.

[0][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZshZp-
cxKg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZshZp-cxKg)

~~~
sanj
Sung by the Pointer Sisters!

~~~
dang
I had no idea.

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mlosapio
Thank you Caroll Spinney for helping teach generations how to be
compassionate, patient and respectful of your neighbors. You brought to life
custumes and characters that will forever define Americana

------
overcast
fifty, FIFTY YEARS! Ah ah ahhhh!

Enjoy retirement, many fond childhood memories thanks to you and your crew.

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avip
I'm just gonna put it here because I can:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE)

~~~
krapp
Sesame Street had so many great creative and musical segments before it turned
into the Elmo show. It didn't talk down to children or insult their
intelligence. It inspired children rather than just try to hypnotize them with
colors and repetition to shut them up for an hour.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acBixR_JRuM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acBixR_JRuM)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWwOzEDGss](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWwOzEDGss)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG1nCrnUim4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG1nCrnUim4)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg71djeZfos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg71djeZfos)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3N8ZW6fCa4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3N8ZW6fCa4)

~~~
MisterOctober
I love most of the old musical bits, but there was an animated short music
video called "Carefully" that scarred me for life. In it, a kid is running
down the hall and then a dracula pops out at him from a broom closet or
something.

Of course, it was meant to be just one of a long list of situations in which
one must proceed 'carefully,' but I was deathly afraid of vampires and closed
doors for years.

~~~
aaronharder
Ah yes! The great Tom Lehrer.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB2Ff8H7oVo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB2Ff8H7oVo)

~~~
MisterOctober
1) Amazed that someone recognized and located this, especially considering how
inaccurate my recollection was

2) Couldn't help but watch it, now fully re-traumatized

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wnissen
If you're into a long biographical documentary, check out
[http://www.iambigbird.com/](http://www.iambigbird.com/) which you'll have to
rent or buy (at least in the US).

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antidaily
I had assumed he already left. His voice seems pretty different from the 80s
when I watched.

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damontal
Seems like a lot of the content is not create in-house. There’s a lot of
filler between scenes with the cast and muppets. Always wondered if they were
projects submitted by college students or artists.

~~~
ameliaquining
It's all created in-house. The "commercial break" segments have been part of
the show from the beginning, and are there because the target audience has a
naturally short attention span and needs something to break it up.

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em-bee
congratulations to a lifetime achievement. give the man a cookie!

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golemiprague
I don't think kids watch sesame street anymore as they used to, at least from
what I have seen with my kids, it is just another tv show among many others
and not that influential.

~~~
latj
It just depends. If you dont have cable and can only receive one broadcast
channel its probably PBS. If you keep the younger ones away from electronics
they will watch PBS Kids and love it.

Once they get older and they get their hands on electronics they would much
rather watch the seizure inducing fast cut shows on disney or nickelodeon
because those shows are designed to appeal to kids instead of teaching them
something.

The worst thing (IMO) though is youtube. They'll watch those horrible toy
channels of parents pimping out their kids or the creepy ones where the adults
pretend to be children playing with the toys. Hundreds of hours of toy
commercials.

Then when they get a little older they start watching youtubers doing
"challenges". And before you know it they are watching logan paul ching-chong-
ping-pong his way around asia or watching fortnite on Twitch.

And at that point, your kid is ready to graduate to uninformed barely-literate
ignorant citizen with no attention span and no ability to think critically.

 _whew_ Ok... got that out. I feel a little better.

~~~
hnzix
I mean YouTube is bad but nothing can compete with the existential horror of
Barney or the Teletubbies. Again again! _three minute video loops to infinity_

Plenty of my fave 80s cartoons were basically extended toy commercials. He-
Man, Voltron...

~~~
viraptor
It was interesting to watch those in eastern Europe. I knew he-man but never
saw any commercial. They'd be wasted time as well, because you couldn't buy
those toys anyway, so only the show itself remained.

I actually haven't learned about the toy part of those shows until my 20s.

~~~
Brockenstein
That is fascinating. The lends of other people's experiences.

Although living in a rural area in the U.S. there were a lot of shows I was
aware of but never really got to see all that much because they were on cable
and having only a handful channels limited options. He-man being one of them.
But it is interesting how much a kid picks up with those shows with just the
most minimal amount of content.

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david_at
Don't get me wrong; this man's a U.S. national treasure. But when I come to
Hacker News, I expect to see hacker news. The mods really need to start
clamping down on this stuff. I can go to reddit or nearly any other site on
the internet to have learned about this. What does this even have to do with
startups?

~~~
alcover
You're right. And it's not really rewarding to be down-voted when you and me,
and others point this out.

There is a slow but steady trend towards plain news on HN.

~~~
david_at
It's like opening a kitchen drawer to get a fork and seeing that someone in
the house is replacing the forks with cups. And they can't seem to understand
why they're just slowly making this drawer completely redundant.

