1.
Fox Broadcasting Company
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The Fox Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group subsidiary of 21st Century Fox. It is the third largest major network in the world based on total revenues, assets. Launched on October 9,1986 as a competitor to the Big Three television networks, Fox and its affiliated companies operate many entertainment channels in international markets, although these do not necessarily air the same programming as the U. S. network. Most viewers in Canada have access to at least one U. S, the network is named after sister company 20th Century Fox, and indirectly for producer William Fox, who founded one of the movie studios predecessors, Fox Film. Fox is a member of the North American Broadcasters Association and the National Association of Broadcasters, 20th Century Fox had been involved in television production as early as the 1950s, producing several syndicated programs. Following the demise of the DuMont Television Network in August of that year after it became mired in financial problems. 20th Century Fox would also produce original content for the NTA network, KTTV in Los Angeles, KRIV in Houston, WFLD-TV in Chicago, and KRLD-TV in Dallas. In October 1985, 20th Century Fox announced its intentions to form a television network that would compete with ABC, CBS. The plans were to use the combination of the Fox studios, organizational plans for the network were held off until the Metromedia acquisitions cleared regulatory hurdles. Then, in December 1985, Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay $325 million to acquire the remaining equity in TCF Holdings from his original partner, Marvin Davis. These first six stations, then broadcasting to a reach of 22% of the nations households. Except for KDAF, all of the original owned-and-operated stations are part of the Fox network today. Like the core O&O group, Foxs affiliate body consisted of independent stations. The Fox Broadcasting Company launched at 11,00 p. m. Eastern and its inaugural program was a late-night talk show, The Late Show, which was hosted by comedian Joan Rivers. By early 1987, Rivers quit The Late Show after disagreements with the network over the creative direction. The network expanded its programming into prime time on April 5,1987, with Children and the sketch comedy series The Tracey Ullman Show. Fox added one new show per week over the several weeks, with the drama 21 Jump Street. On July 11, the network rolled out its Saturday night schedule with the premiere of the drama series Werewolf
2.
Kmart
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Kmart Corporation is a chain of big box department stores headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The chain purchased Sears for $11 billion in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation, the Kmart name was incorporated in 1916 while the first store didnt open its doors until 1962. At its peak in 2000, Kmart operated 2,171 stores including 105 Super Center locations, for the 2005 fiscal year under the new company, the Kmart store count was at 1,416 with only 55 Super Center locations. Currently, the chain is operating 734 stores with only 1 Super Center location remaining and this number will decrease further due to the previously announced closings that will take place in Q12017. It operates stores in 49 states, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and it also used to operate stores in Canada, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. At the height of Kmarts popularity, the phrase Attention Kmart shoppers. Entered into the American pop psyche, appearing in films and other such as Troop Beverly Hills, Six Days Seven Nights, Rain Man, Beetlejuice, Madea Goes to Jail. Kmarts world headquarters were located in Troy, Michigan, in Metro Detroit, but since the purchase of Sears, it has relocated to Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Kmart also exists in Australia and New Zealand, although it now has no relation to the American stores except in name, in 1912, Kresge incorporated the S. S. Kresge Corporation with eighty-five stores. The company was first listed on the New York Stock Exchange on May 23,1918, during World War I, Kresge experimented with raising the limit on prices in his stores to $1. By 1924, Kresge was worth approximately $375 million and owned real estate of the value of $100 million. Early century growth remained brisk, with 257 stores in 1924 growing to 597 stores operating in 1929, Kresge retired as president in 1925. The Great Depression reduced profitability and resulted in store closings, with the reduced to 682 in 1940. After the war shopping patterns changed and many moved out of the cities into the suburbs. The Kresge company followed them and closed and merged many urban stores so that by 1954 the total number of stores in the US had declined to 616. Under the leadership of executive Harry Cunningham, S. S. Kresge Corp. opened the first Kmart store on March 1,1962, in Garden City, Michigan, just four months before the first Walmart opened. This store is still in operation as a Big Kmart store but will be closed in March 2017, eighteen Kmart stores opened that year. Kmart Foods, a chain of Kmart supermarkets, opened in that decade
3.
Telly Monster
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Telly Monster, known usually as just Telly, is an eternally worrying, red-violet monster Muppet on Sesame Street. He is puppeteered by Martin P. Robinson, on his debut in 1979, he was known as the Television Monster, a character that was fixated on television. He was violet-red and had antennae standing out of the top of his head and his first appearance on Sesame Street, after the Television Monster season, was with guest star Itzhak Perlman playing the violin, while Telly played the tuba. His name is derived from the British slang term for a television, Telly is a triangle lover, and he has a pet hamster, Chuckie Sue. He has been known to pogo stick uncontrollably around Sesame Street and this segment is shown on Sesame Street Unpaved. Baby Bear is his best friend and appears occasionally in many of the plots in the later series. Telly also has something of a friendship with Oscar the Grouch, personality-wise, Telly is a fidgeting, nervous wreck, prone easily to manic behavior and paranoia. In contrast to Kermit the Frog as a reporter for the Sesame Street News Flash, Telly also has been a roving reporter for his own segment. In Tellys first Sesame Street appearance, when he was performed by Bob Payne, a T. V. obsessed Telly, enters Hoopers store, suddenly, Telly runs out of the store, leaving Mr. Hooper nervous. David then enters the store, and Mr. Hooper tells him about how he let Telly use his outlet, afterwards, both Mr. Hooper and David become puzzled with Tellys strange name. Telly Monster on Muppet Wiki, an external wiki
4.
Grover
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Grover, also known as Grover Monster, is a Muppet character on the popular television show Sesame Street. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a monster who rarely uses contractions when he speaks or sings. Grover was originally performed by Frank Oz from his earliest appearances until 2001, eric Jacobson began performing Grover in 1998, he has performed the character regularly since 2001, although Oz still performs him occasionally but not usually. A prototype version of Grover appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in a Christmas Eve appearance in 1967 and this puppet had greenish-brown fur and a red nose. He also had a voice, and was played a bit more unkempt than Grover would later behave. The monster was referred to as Gleep, a monster in Santas workshop and he later made a cameo appearance in The Muppets On Puppets in 1968 with the Rock and Roll Monster. In 1969, clad in a necktie, he appeared in the Sesame Street Pitch Reel in the board room sequences, during the first season of Sesame Street, the character was nicknamed Fuzzyface or The Hairy One, though neither would be used for his actual name. In an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on May 31,1970, the character acquired his present name and his appearance was changed to the more familiar puppet with blue fur and a pink nose. In this appearance, Kermit the Frog tried to sing What Kind of Fool Am I. the true Grover officially debuted in the second season of Sesame Street. Another of the more frequent sketch segments featuring Grover involves him taking a series of service jobs. One of his customers is always Mr. Johnson, a balding, Johnson series of sketches, set at Charlies Restaurant, aired in the early 1970s, here, Grover is employed as a waiter and Mr. Johnson is his customer. Repeats of the Charlies Restaurant series of sketches aired for years on Sesame Street. In the years since, new Grover-Mr, Johnson sketches have been produced, with Grover taking other customer service jobs and Mr. Johnson as his hapless customer. Every time, Mr. Johnson recognizes Grover as that waiter from Charlies, Grovers jobs have ranged from that of a taxi driver and a photographer to a flight attendant and singing telegram artist. One sketch parodied the ABC television series Extreme Makeover, Home Edition in a segment where Grover began remodeling Mr. Johnsons home against his express wishes. In another one, Mr. Grover also has a persona who wears a cap and gown to provide educational context for simple. His lessons are often wrong, leaving himself open to correction by a group of children or Muppets and this, combined with the failings of the Super Grover character, means that Grover can be very self-conscious and timid. He is often a source of humor and often accidentally injures himself
5.
Cookie Monster
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Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the long-running childrens television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases, Me eat cookie. and Om nom nom nom. He often eats just about anything, including ice cream, hot dogs, cake, pizza, doughnuts, lettuce, apples, bananas, watermelon, however, as his name suggests, his preferred food is cookies. Chocolate chip cookies are his favorite kind, oatmeal cookies are his second favorite, in a song in 2004, Cookie Monster revealed that, before he ate his first cookie, he believed his name was Sid. He is known to have a mother, a sister, and an identically-designed cousin. He also has a father, who appeared in a Monsterpiece Theater sketch promoting energy conservation, water conservation, both Cookie Monsters mother and father share his enormous appetite and craving for cookies. He and his Sesame Street friends are popular motifs on T-shirts, each snack was represented by a different monster. The Wheel-Stealer was a short, fuzzy monster with wonky eyes, the Flute-Snatcher was a speed demon with a long, sharp nose and windblown hair. The Crown-Grabber was a hulk of a monster with a Boris Karloff accent and these monsters had insatiable appetites for the snack foods they were named after. Each time the Muppet narrator, a fellow, fixes himself a tray of Wheels, Flutes and Crowns. One by one, the monsters sneak in and zoom away with the snacks, as it turns out, these commercials were never aired — but all three monsters had a future in the Muppet cast. The Crown-Grabber was used in a sketch on The Ed Sullivan Show, known from then on as the Beautiful Day Monster, he made a number of appearances on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. The Flute-Snatcher turned into Snake Frackle, a monster from The Great Santa Claus Switch. In 1967, Henson used the Wheel-Stealer puppet for an IBM training film called Coffee Break Machine, in the sketch, called The Computer Dinner, the monster devours a complex coffee making machine as it describes its different parts. When he is finished, the machine announces the monster has activated the machines anti-vandalism system and this sketch was also performed in October,1967 on The Ed Sullivan Show. It was also performed on the George Burns episode of The Muppet Show using the Luncheon Counter Monster. Two years later, Henson used a similarly-designed and equally ravenous monster for three commercials selling Munchos, a Frito-Lay potato chip and this time, the puppet was called Arnold, the Munching Monster. After the three ads were produced, Henson had the opportunity to renew the contract and he chose not to, because at that point he was working on Sesame Street — and that monster puppet was moving on to the next stage in his career
6.
Kathy Najimy
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Kathy Ann Najimy is an American actress and comedian. Prior to her work, Najimy was best known for two Off-Broadway shows with Mo Gaffney working as the duo Kathy and Mo. One of the shows became an HBO comedy special and garnered Najimy her first nationwide fan base, Najimy was born on February 6,1957 in San Diego, California, the daughter of Lebanese American parents Samia and Fred Najimy, a postal worker. She was raised Roman Catholic and attended Crawford High School, najimys film career began in the early 1990s, with a number of off-beat minor roles, but her first major role was in the 1992 comedy Sister Act, in the role of Sister Mary Patrick. She reprised this role in 1993 in Sister Act 2 and she also starred in Hocus Pocus with Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker as the Sanderson sisters. In 1997, she lent her voice to Warner Bros, in 1998, she made a cameo in Bride of Chucky as the maid who discovers Diane and Russ bodies. In 1999, she played the Stepmother in CinderElmo a primetime special for Sesame Street, in 2001, she co-starred in the hit comedy film Rat Race alongside John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson, Cuba Gooding, Jr. Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz and Seth Green. She guest starred in Thats So Raven and she has made four movies with Goldberg. From film, Najimy expanded into television roles, including a recurring role on Chicago Hope. Najimy was part of the cast of Veronicas Closet from 1997 to 2000 and she co-created and starred in the hit Off-Broadway show and HBO specials Kathy & Mo, with friend and actress Mo Gaffney. She appeared as Mae West in the Broadway hit Dirty Blonde and she also portrayed Dr. Mildred Finch on Numb3rs. Najimy also provided the voice of the teacher, Miss Thespius, in the 1998 Disney show Hercules. In 2003, Najimy provided the voice of Margalo in Stuart Little, The Animated Series, taking over from Melanie Griffith. She is the co-creator and director of the musical revue Back to Bacharach and David, which ran in New York City in 1992 and 1993, and she also appeared in Drop Dead Diva. In October 2009, Najimy played a police investigating an attack on Wisteria Lane on an episode of Desperate Housewives. In March 2010, she appeared in the Ugly Betty episode Million Dollar Smile, portraying Bettys new orthodontist, in July 2011, Najimy appeared in TNTs Franklin and Bash episode Bangover, playing a judge. Premiering in August 2015, Najimy appeared in Disneys Descendants as the Evil Queen, in the movie, she makes references to her previous role as Mary Sanderson in Hocus Pocus. Najimy, an outspoken feminist, is noted as an activist for human rights
7.
Oliver Platt
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Oliver James Platt is a Canadian-born American actor. He has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award, as well as multiple Emmy and he has an older brother, Adam Platt, a New York Magazine restaurant critic, and a younger brother, Nicholas Platt, Jr. His family moved back to the United States when Platt was three months old, Platts paternal great-grandfather was artist Charles A. Platt. Platt is also a great-great-grandson of diplomat and lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate, when asked about Diana, Platt said, I never met her. Id love to tell you we were confidantes, the truth is I dont know much more about it than you do. Platts family made frequent trips back to Washington, where they held Redskins season tickets, Platt is also a fan of the Boston Red Sox. When he was nine years old, Platt and his family visited the Kennedy Center in Washington, One of the performances that really made me want to be an actor started out with this probably 20-minute rambling, drunken monologue by this bum. And it was a young Morgan Freeman and this guy was just so riveting. He stood there on stage alone before the curtain went up, according to Platt, drama departments gave his childhood some stability, It was something of a survival mechanism, in that it gave me a little subculture to plug into wherever I ended up. Platt attended a boarding school named Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale. Platt majored in drama at Tufts University, where he met, Platt travelled with Shakespeare and Company, based in Lenox, Massachusetts, touring schools to earn his Equity card, before moving to New York. He obtained an agent while working at Manhattan Punch Line Theatre, Murray attended Platts show and recommended Platt to director Jonathan Demme, who cast him in Married to the Mob in 1988. Platt attributes his breakthrough to appearing at the Punch Line Theater, Platt makes his decisions about accepting acting roles based on the role being different from what I just did. I do have to be interested in the role. After Married to the Mob, he appeared in Working Girl, Flatliners, Beethoven, The Three Musketeers, A Time to Kill, in 1998 Platt and Stanley Tucci played two deadbeat actors who improvise with unsuspecting strangers in The Impostors. Tucci and Platt developed the characters while working on a play at Yale University in 1988, Tucci later completing the screenplay, in 1999 Platt played the wealthy and eccentric crocodile enthusiast Hector in David E. Kelleys Lake Placid, alongside Bill Pullman and Bridget Fonda. Platt described Hector as pretty abrasive and obnoxious at times, but, I hope, I think David originally thought of him as a great white hunter sort of guy, but when I signed on for the role he sort of wrote him in a different direction. The short-lived drama Deadline provided Platts first lead role on television, created by Dick Wolf, who also created Law & Order, Deadline focused on the lives of newspaper journalists in New York City. Platt starred as Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Wallace Benton, an unlikely hero, the strong cast, which also included Bebe Neuwirth and Hope Davis, could not compensate for sub-standard writing and the series was soon canceled
8.
Keri Russell
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Keri Lynn Russell is an American actress and dancer. She came to fame for portraying the role of Felicity Porter on the series Felicity, which ran from 1998 to 2002. Russell has since appeared in films including Mission, Impossible III, Waitress, August Rush, Extraordinary Measures, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. She currently stars as KGB agent Elizabeth Jennings in the FX television series The Americans for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award, Russell was born in Fountain Valley, California, the daughter of Stephanie, a homemaker, and David Russell, a Nissan Motors executive. She has a brother, Todd, and a younger sister. The family lived in Coppell, Texas, Mesa, Arizona, russells dancing earned her a spot on The Mickey Mouse Club. Russell first appeared on television at age 15 as a cast member of the All-New Mickey Mouse Club variety show on the Disney Channel. She was on the show from 1991 to 1994 and co-starred with future actor Ryan Gosling and future pop stars Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, JC Chasez, Justin Timberlake, and Tony Lucca. In 1992, Russell appeared in Honey, I Blew Up the Kid alongside Rick Moranis and in 1993, with Children in a 1995 episode. She subsequently starred in film and television roles, including the 1996 made-for-television film The Babysitters Seduction. That year she also had a role on the soap opera series Malibu Shores. In 1994, Russell appeared as the woman in Bon Jovis music video Always with Jack Noseworthy, Carla Gugino. In 1997, she appeared in two episodes of Roar alongside Heath Ledger, from 1998 to 2002, Russell starred as the title character on the successful WB Network series Felicity. She won a Golden Globe for the role in 1999, russells long and curly hair was one of her characters defining characteristics. A drastic hairstyle change at the beginning of the second season was thought to cause a significant drop in the shows television ratings. During the shows run, Russell appeared in the films Eight Days a Week, The Curve and her next role was in the film We Were Soldiers, playing the wife of a United States serviceman during the Vietnam War. The film was released two months before the end of Felicitys run, when Felicity ended, Russell moved to New York City and made her off-Broadway stage debut in 2004, appearing opposite Jeremy Piven, Andrew McCarthy, and Ashlie Atkinson in Neil LaButes Fat Pig. Directing Mission, Impossible III in 2005, J. J. Abrams asked Russell to join the cast and she was screen tested for the role of Lois Lane in Superman Returns but lost the role to Kate Bosworth
9.
Kevin Clash
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Kevin Jeffrey Clash is an American puppeteer, director and producer whose characters include Elmo, Clifford, Benny Rabbit, and Hoots the Owl. Clash developed an interest in puppetry at an age and began performing for local TV childrens shows in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. In the early 1980s, he working in Captain Kangaroo. He was the puppeteer to perform Elmo, the character he became the most famous for and became an executive producer. Clash worked in productions for the Muppets and Jim Henson Productions. He resigned from Sesame Street on November 20,2012, after allegations of sexual impropriety, Clash wrote an autobiography, My Life as a Furry Red Monster, which was published in 2006, and also featured in the 2011 documentary Being Elmo, A Puppeteers Journey. Clash developed an interest in puppetry at an age, inspired by childrens shows like Kukla, Fran and Ollie. He made his first puppet, a version of Mickey Mouse, when he was twelve, he created a monkey puppet out of the lining of his fathers coat. His first performances were for his mothers daycare children, by the time he was a teenager, he had built almost 90 puppets, which he based upon commercials, popular music, and his friends. While still in school, Clash performed at venues throughout Baltimore, including schools, churches, fundraisers. Clash also built puppets for the Romper Room franchise, when he was 17, he contacted and met puppeteer Kermit Love, who became Clashs mentor, after seeing Love featured in an episode of the documentary Call It Macaroni. When he was nineteen, Clash became a puppeteer for Captain Kangaroo, initially as a guest performer, the producers of Captain Kangaroo used some of Clashs puppet creations for the show. Captain Kangaroo was cancelled in 1984 after 29 seasons, and Great Space Coaster ended, freeing up Clash to work on projects with Henson such as the film Labyrinth and Sesame Street. Clash started working at Sesame Street for ten episodes in 1983, mostly performing nondescript, some of his earliest characters included the saxophone-playing Hoots the Owl, the infant Baby Natasha, and inventor Dr. Nobel Price. After 1985, Elmo, a red monster, became his main character. Four puppeteers, including Richard Hunt, had performed Elmo previously, but it was Clashs development, with a falsetto voice and he based Elmos character on the preschool children that attended his mothers daycare in Baltimore and upon his own personality and the personality of his parents. Clash followed the advice of fellow puppeteer Frank Oz, who told Clash to always find one special hook for each character, Clash decided that the central characteristic for Elmo should be that he should represent love. After the height of Elmos popularity, especially the Tickle Me Elmo craze in 1996 and he recruited, auditioned, and trained its puppeteers, and became the senior Muppet coordinator, a writer, director, and co-producer of the Elmos World segment of the show
10.
Prairie Dawn
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Prairie Dawn is a fictional character, a rather mature seven-year-old Muppet girl on the childrens television program Sesame Street. She is similar in appearance to a character from the Anything Muppets and she is famous for writing school pageants for her friends, mostly Bert and Ernie, Herry, Grover, and Cookie Monster. She also plays the piano during these pageants and she has appeared on Sesame Street since early in the shows history. Prairie was originally puppeteered and voiced by Fran Brill who also performed the more recently introduced character Zoe and she can also be seen on the TV series Play with Me Sesame, which airs on PBS Kids Sprout. A younger version of Prairie appeared in Sesame Beginnings, according to the website of Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, who voices Prairie Dawns mother in Sesame Beginnings, her mothers name is Delta, a reference to the song Delta Dawn. Since Season 46, Stephanie DAbruzzo took over the role of Prairie Dawn, Prairie Dawn on Muppet Wiki, an external wiki
11.
Mr. Snuffleupagus
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Aloysius Snuffleupagus, more commonly known as Mr. Snuffleupagus, Snuffleupagus or Snuffy for short, is one of the characters on Sesame Street, the educational television program for young children. He was created as a mammoth, without tusks or ears. He has long brown hair and a trunk, or snuffle. He is Big Birds best friend and has a sister named Alice. For many years, Big Bird was the character on the show who saw Snuffy. Before that happened, the adult characters teased Big Bird when he said he had seen him, because they did not believe there was such an animal. This concept was meant to echo the existence of imaginary friends some young children have, Snuffys fur in the earlier years was light brown as it is today, but not exactly the same shade, he also had yellow almond-shaped eyes with thin pupils and shorter eyelashes. This appearance was deemed frightening for children, so later it was revamped to have his eyes look round. By the late 1970s, the lines had the adult characters becoming increasingly frustrated with Big Bird using Snuffy as a scapegoat whenever something went wrong while they were out of the room. In one episode, newspapers on Sesame Street carried the front page headline, some adults gradually began to believe Big Bird, the first being folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie who sang Big Bird a song about her belief in Snuffy. After Buffys departure from the show, Linda, Maria, and this running gag ended with the Season 17 premiere of Sesame Street, episode 2096. He chooses this word because he knows the grown-ups will not believe him if he tells them his real reason for inviting them to his nest, and food is a more credible lure. When Big Bird calls out the word, Snuffy runs off to tell his mother about the meeting, Gordon, wanting to help, suggests to Big Bird that he needs someone to help him keep Snuffy in his nest, and Elmo offers to be the one. Snuffy returns, then tells Elmo he had better go home and brush his fur to prepare for the grown-ups arrival, Big Bird yells, Food. and one by one the adults come and see Snuffy for the first time ever. After viewing Snuffleupagus in stunned disbelief, then cautiously approaching, Big Bird does an I told you so routine to the adults, susan apologizes on behalf of the group for disbelieving Big Bird for so long. Bob then tells him, From now on, well believe you whenever you tell us something, Linda then suggests that Big Bird introduce Snuffy to everyone one by one. The entire Sesame Street cast henceforth sees Snuffy regularly on the show, in an interview on a Canadian telethon that was hosted by Bob McGrath, Snuffys performer, Martin P. This was seen in the documentary Sesame Street Unpaved, according to sources such as the Sesame Workshop website and Sesame Street Unpaved, the characters name is spelled Snuffleupagus
12.
David Rudman
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David Rudman is an American puppeteer, writer, director, producer and musician, best known as a performer of many of Sesame Streets Muppets. He originated the role of Baby Bear and has been nominated for four Emmy Awards for his work replacing Frank Oz in the role of Cookie Monster, however, Oz still comes in to record new material with Cookie Monster occasionally, as well as Grover and Bert. Rudman also took over as Richard Hunts half of the Two-Headed Monster after his death, along with Sonny Friendly, and also he took over for Sully to Jerry Nelsons Biff, the construction workers. He has also taken over two roles once held by Richard Hunt, Scooter, and Janice of Dr. Teeth, Rudman has also written for Hocle and Stoty and Curious Buddies. Rudman was the speaker at the 2005 graduation ceremony for the Illinois Institute of Art—Chicago and he attended Highland Park High School and graduated in 1981. He has been a speaker at the schools biennial Focus on the Arts program since 2003 and he attended college at the University of Connecticut. He has written and produced cartoons for MTV, Disney Channel and he also created Spiffy Pictures, which was in 1991. His cousin is Max Joseph, host and cameraman from MTVs Catfish, david Rudman at the Internet Movie Database Spiffy Pictures
13.
Caroll Spinney
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Caroll Edwin Spinney is an American puppeteer, cartoonist, author, and speaker most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street since 1969. He has sometimes credited as Carroll Spinney or Ed Spinney. Spinney was born Caroll Edwin Spinney in Waltham, Massachusetts on December 26,1933 and his mother, a native of Bolton, England, named him Caroll because he was born the day after Christmas. He has been drawing and painting since he was a child and he developed a love of puppeteering when his mother took him to see Punch and Judy shows in the British seaside town of Blackpool. She built him a set for Christmas when he was nine. After he graduated from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in Acton, Massachusetts, while in the Air Force, Spinney wrote and illustrated Harvey, a comic strip about military life. He also animated a series of cartoons called Crazy Crayon. In 1955, Spinney relocated to Las Vegas, where he performed in the show Rascal Rabbit and he returned to Boston, joining The Judy and Goggle Show in 1958 as a puppeteer Goggle to Judy Valentines Judy. Through that decade, he was also a commercial artist and animator, Spinney created a puppet of a cat named Picklepuss. This cat and his friends joined Spinney in entertaining audiences of the 1960s. Many years later, Spinneys Picklepuss and Pop puppets were characters in Wow, Spinney first met Jim Henson in 1962 at a puppeteering festival, where Henson asked if he would like to talk about the Muppets. As Spinney failed to realize the question was an employment offer, in 1969, Spinney performed at a Puppeteers of America festival in Utah. His show was a mixture of actors and puppets but was ruined by an errant spotlight that washed out the animated backgrounds. Henson was once again in attendance and noticed Spinneys performance, I liked what you were trying to do, Henson said, and he asked once more if they could talk about the Muppets. This time, they did have the conversation, and Spinney joined the Muppeteers full-time by late 1969, Spinney joined Sesame Street for the inaugural season in 1969. However, he left after the first season because he was not getting acceptable pay. He has performed the Big Bird and Oscar characters in Australia, China, Japan, as Big Bird/Oscar, he has conducted orchestras across the US and Canada, including the Boston Pops, as well as visited the White House multiple times. He has provided the voices on dozens of albums
14.
Big Bird
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Big Bird is a character on the childrens television show Sesame Street. Officially performed by Caroll Spinney since 1969, he is an eight-foot two-inch tall bright yellow canary and he can roller skate, ice skate, dance, swim, sing, write poetry, draw, and even ride a unicycle. Despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as one big long word and he lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and has a teddy bear named Radar. In 2000, Big Bird was named a Living Legend by the United States Library of Congress, as Muppeteer Caroll Spinney has aged, the show has gradually started training new performers to play Big Bird. These apprentices include both Rick Lyon in the theme song of the shows 33rd season on, and Matt Vogel in the shows Journey to Ernie segment. Caroll Spinney was sick during the taping of a few first-season episodes and he also performed Big Bird when he appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969 and on Hollywood Squares in the 1970s. According to The Story of Jim Henson by Stephanie St. Frank Oz was offered the part, the camera was set up for Spinney by technician Walt Rauffer, on the suggestion of director Bob Myhrum. Rauffer rigged the camera to a harness strapped to Spinneys chest, during instances where Spinney is performing on location and cannot get a video feed, a small hole is made in the costume to allow him to see. In such cases, Big Bird must wear a necktie to cover the hole and this can also be seen in the Sesame Street Live shows. As of Season 46, Spinney no longer performs in the bird suit full-time, Spinney continues to occasionally perform in the bird suit, but these are infrequent. Big Bird was originally designed by a drawing from Jim Henson, 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 right hand thus does the opposite of the hand, as the left hand goes down. For some of the Journey to Ernie segments, a second puppeteer controls Big Birds right wing and he is concealed by dressing in a body suit the same color as their chroma key background. Big Birds body suit weighs ten pounds, and his head weighs four pounds, according to writer Louise Gikow, the heat inside the suit is unbearable, and its extraordinarily difficult to hold Big Birds head. Big Bird doesnt look the same in some versions of Sesame Street. For example, in the Dutch version, Big Bird is blue and is called Pino, Big Birds appearance has changed over the years, as has his personality. He originally had very few feathers on top of his head, his feathers were also more shaggy and unkempt. His personality was more dopey and bird-brained than it later became and he gradually got more feathers on top, giving his head a more rounded appearance, and developed a blaze-like crest of lighter yellow feathers above his eyes
15.
Steve Whitmire
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Steven Lawrence Steve Whitmire is an American puppeteer and singer, best known for being the performer of Kermit the Frog and, formerly, Ernie—roles he inherited after Jim Hensons death in 1990. Whitmire first appeared, as an event at Six Flags Over Georgia. He performed with his then alter-ego puppet Otis for the children waiting to see a multimedia show, from there Whitmire appeared on local Atlanta TV with his puppet Otis. WATL was owned at that time by former Atlanta childrens television host Officer Don Kennedy, Otis made appearances on various WATL36 shows with Ludlow Porch, performing with the Georgia Bulldogs Larry Munson, Don Kennedy, and Entertainment Page host Artie Goodman. As Otis, Whitmire interviewed Olivia Newton-John during a tour promoting an album and he worked with puppets after graduating high school, and eventually got a job working on The Muppet Show in 1978. Since then, Whitmire has performed in almost every major Henson company project, including fare such as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth. Whitmire has been the performer of two signature Muppets—Kermit the Frog and Ernie—since the death of their creator and original performer Jim Henson in 1990, Whitmire was personally asked by Brian Henson to be Kermits performer a few weeks after Jim Hensons death. Henson sent Whitmire a Kermit puppet to his residence, however, in 2014, Billy Barkhurst took over the role of Ernie. Whitmire left the role so he could continue focusing on projects by the The Muppets Studio. Muppet characters original to Whitmire include Rizzo the Rat, Lips, Foo-Foo, Fraggle Rocks Wembley Fraggle and Sprocket, following the death of Richard Hunt and the retirement of Jerry Nelson, Whitmire took over the roles of Beaker and Statler. He voiced Link Hogthrob in the Muppet RaceMania and Muppet Party Cruise video games and he also performed Hogthrob for the 2011 film, The Muppets. This was the first speaking appearance of the puppet since the death of Jim Henson, Hogthrob appears in several scenes in the background and gets a moment in the spotlight as part of a barbershop quartet, singing Smells Like Teen Spirit. He also performed him in Muppets Most Wanted, since 2008, Whitmire has also been the new performer of another of Jim Hensons roles, The Muppet Newsman. Whitmire has been married to his wife Melissa Whitmire since June 1978, together, they live in Atlanta, Georgia. Steve Whitmire at the Internet Movie Database
16.
Ernie (Sesame Street)
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Ernie is a Muppet character on the long-running PBS childrens television show, Sesame Street. He and his roommate Bert form the comic duo Bert and Ernie, one of the centerpieces, with Ernie acting the role of the naïve troublemaker. Ernie has a distinctive, chuckling laugh, in addition, Ernie has no visible eyebrows, while Bert displays a unibrow. Ernie is well known for his fondness for baths with his Rubber Duckie, many Ernie and Bert sketches involve Ernie wanting to play a game with Bert, who would much rather do something else. Ernie keeps annoying Bert with the game until Bert joins — and usually, by the time Bert starts enjoying the game, Ernie is tired of playing the game and wants to do something else. Other sketches have involved them sharing some food by dividing it equally, only for one of them to have a bit more than the other and he has regularly appeared in skits with Cookie Monster, Sherlock Hemlock and Lefty the Salesman. From season 33 until season 36, he and Big Bird starred in a segment called Journey to Ernie. Ernie was one of the hosts of the show Play with Me Sesame, one regular segment that he hosted was Ernie Says, a variation of Simon Says. Ernie sang about his affection for Rubber Duckie in a skit, the song from that skit – titled Rubber Duckie – became a modest mainstream hit, reaching No.16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1970. Ernie has appeared in both of the Sesame Street movies, in Follow That Bird, he and Bert searched for Big Bird by plane. Ernie piloted the plane, and eventually, after they found Big Bird, he flew the plane upside-down, however, after they lost Big Bird, Ernie blamed Bert. In The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, Ernie and Bert served as hosts, Bert was worried about the bad bits, but Ernie clammed him by saying Bert, nothing bad is going to happen. Ernie reveals in Sesame Street Episode 257 that his activities include watching parades, circuses. A typical Bert and Ernie skit has Ernie coming up with a hare-brained idea, the age of Bert and Ernie is regularly discussed on forums. Nothing official has ever said, but most consider the duo adults. Helping suggestions of the characters being young is a comment by Sesame Street Live performer, Morgan said to the Macon Telegraph that I just kind of try to think like a 6–year–old or a 7–year–old, because thats how old Bert is. However, Berts twin brother Bart is depicted as a traveling salesman, Ernie also appeared in the finales of The Muppet Movie and The Muppets Take Manhattan, in the last of which he got a line. In Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Ernie decided to buy Bert a cigar box to store his paper clips in, however, as he did not have any money, he traded his own Rubber Duckie for it
17.
Kermit the Frog
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Kermit the Frog is a Muppet character and Jim Hensons most well-known creation. Henson originally performed Kermit until his death on May 16,1990 and he was voiced by Frank Welker in Muppet Babies and occasionally in other animation projects. Kermit performed the hit singles Bein Green in 1970 and Rainbow Connection in 1979 for The Muppet Movie, the latter song reached No.25 on the Billboard Hot 100. The earliest trace of Kermit first appeared in 1955 on WRC-TVs Sam and this prototype Kermit was created from a discarded spring coat belonging to Hensons mother and two ping pong ball halves for eyes. Initially, Kermit was a lizard-like creature and he subsequently made a number of television appearances before his status as a frog was established. His collar was added at the time to him seem more frog-like. The origin of Kermits name is a subject of some debate and it is often claimed that Kermit was named after Hensons childhood friend Kermit Scott, from Leland, Mississippi. Joy DiMenna, the daughter of Kermit Kalman Cohen who worked as a sound engineer at WBAL-TV during Jim Hensons time with Sam and Friends. Both were NBC affiliates then, and WBAL carried the show, Mr. Henson was introduced to members of the sound and camera crew, including Mr. Cohen. When he heard his name, Jim turned around, snapped his fingers and said to his wife, as Sesame Street is localized for some different markets that speak languages other than English, Kermit is often renamed. In Portugal, he is called Cocas, o Sapo, and in Brazil, his name is similar, Caco, in most of Hispanic America, his name is la rana René. In Spain, he is named Gustavo, in the Arabic version, he is known as Kamel, which is a common Arabic male name that means perfect. In Hungary, he is called Breki, in Turkey, although he is known as Kermit on The Muppet Show, in Sesame Street episodes, he was called Kurbağacık. With the release of The Muppets in 2011, most of the countries have begun using Kermit as the characters name. Jim Henson originated the character in 1955 on his television series, Sam. He continued to perform the character until his death in 1990, Hensons last known performance as Kermit was for an appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show to promote The Muppets at Walt Disney World. Henson died twelve days after that appearance, following Hensons death, veteran Muppet performer Steve Whitmire was named Kermits new performer. His first public performance as Kermit was at the end of the television special The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson and he has remained Kermits principal performer since then
18.
Jerry Nelson
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Jerry L. Nelson was an American puppeteer, singer, and musician, best known for his work with The Muppets. Renowned for his range of characters and singing abilities, he performed Muppet characters on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock. On Sesame Street, Nelsons longest-running character was Count von Count, Nelson did the voice and puppetry for the Count from 1972 until 2012 and continued to provide the Counts voice until his death. Nelson was the first puppeteer to perform Mr. Snuffleupagus, keeping the role from 1971 to 1978. But the reasons for giving it up were because at that time we were doing The Muppet Show and he was a part of the show. So they asked if Id mind giving it up and he also performed many characters on The Muppet Show, including Sgt. Floyd Pepper, Pigs in Space star Dr and he performed Statler in the pilot episode but was replaced by Richard Hunt when he could not perform full-time in the first season. He was a performer for the rest of the shows run. Nelson was also selected to play Statler after Hunts death, after the end of the show, Nelsons Muppets on The Muppet Show were all only supporting roles, but they did occasionally play a central role in an episodes plot. Nelson performed the puppet and voice of Emmet in Emmet Otters Jug-Band Christmas and he later performed the signature song from that show, When the River Meets the Sea, as Robin, in a duet with John Denver for a Muppet Christmas special. That version of the song gets frequent radio airplay during the Christmas season, on Fraggle Rock, he performed Gobo Fraggle, Pa Gorg, and Marjory the Trash Heap. Frank Oz did not perform on Fraggle Rock, and Jim Henson and Richard Hunt limited their time on the show, for this reason, Nelson was asked to perform Gobo, the central role on the show. Nelsons characters were often singers or musicians, Most of his main characters in all three shows sang songs at one time or another. He reprised the role of the announcer in The Muppets and his final performance as the said announcer was part of the Jim Hensons Musical World concert at Carnegie Hall. Archive audio of his role was reused in Muppets Most Wanted. Nelson also performed the voice of General Public in the Cartoon Network animated series Sheep in the Big City. In December 2009, Nelson, who summered in Truro, Massachusetts on Cape Cod, released Truro Daydreams, Nelson had a daughter named Christine from his first marriage to Jacqueline Nelson Gordon. Christine had cystic fibrosis and died from the disease in 1982, caring for her limited Nelsons involvement in the The Muppet Shows first season
19.
Mr. Johnson (Sesame Street)
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Mr. Johnson is a Muppet character on Sesame Street. He is Grovers regular customer at Charlies Restaurant and other restaurants as well, Johnson is a fat blue Anything Muppet who has become increasingly frustrated over the years with the service Grover provides. Mr. Johnson is always called Sir politely by Grover, except for one time Grover referred to him as a weirdo in Grover And A Fly In My Soup. Mr. Johnson was mainly performed by Jerry Nelson, and is seen as a customer at Charlies Restaurant. In the restaurant sketches, Mr. Johnson goes to Charlies Restaurant, Johnson is a nice and pleasant fellow, but can still be a bit impatient. He is usually in a hurry and has no time to wait, while Grover, as a result, Mr. Johnson is eventually turned into the angry victim. However, in sketches, Mr. Johnson and Grovers roles were switched. Sketches typically end with Mr. Johnson either walking away in a huff, getting hurt, or fainting out of frustration, despite the fact that Grover ruins his dining experiences, Mr. Johnson always goes back to Charlies. Other sequences with Grover and Mr, in the sketches, something usually drives Johnson to lose his patience and get very infuriated with Grover. In two other sketches, Mr. Johnson attends the park, with Grover showing up to annoy him, in one sketch, Mr. Johnson wants to eat his lunch all alone but Grover plays the guitar and sings. In another, Johnson wants one long hot dog or two hot dogs with mustard. In one skit, Mr. Johnson attends the Birdland concert/nightclub and is pestered by the Squirrel Nut Zippers singing Put a Lid on It, several sketches take place in Mr. In one sketch, Simon Soundman goes to Charlies for lunch and he also mentions that Johnson is his brother. It was revealed that Mr. Johnson will appear in a role in an episode of Sesame Street season 46 in 2016. Mr. Johnson on Muppet Wiki, an external wiki Grover and Mr. Johnson on Muppet Wiki, an external wiki Tough Pigs, Grover the Waiter skit collection [[Category, F
20.
Count von Count
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Count von Count, often known simply as the Count or Count Count, is one of the Muppet characters on Sesame Street. The Count is a vampire modeled after Bela Lugosis interpretation of Count Dracula, the Counts main role in the show is to educate children about simple mathematical concepts, most notably, as his name implies, counting. The Count loves counting obsessively, and other characters can be sometime be quite annoyed by this and this could imply that the character suffers from Arithmomania. In Season 6, for instance, he once prevented Ernie from answering a telephone because he wanted to continue counting the number of times the telephone rang. Another time, while serving as an operator, he refused to let Kermit the Frog get out at his selected floor so he could count every floor in the building. The Count lives in an old, cobweb-infested castle which he shares with many bats and he spent his childhood in the Carpathian Mountains, which makes it clear he is Romanian. Perhaps not surprising, he speaks in an accent from that area of the world and his pet bats tend to have Slavic names, such as Grisha, Misha, Sasha, and Tatiana. He views the bats as his children and sometimes counts them, as a running gag, his castle has a squeaky door, which visitors always point out, only for the Count to instantly change the subject to his counting addiction. The Count drives a car, the Countmobile, designed to look like a bat. The Count has been shown with a number of girlfriends, who tend to be vampire Countesses and these include Countess von Backwards who counts backwards, Countess Dahling von Dahling, and one simply named The Countess. The von Count family includes a brother and mother as well as an Uncle Uno. According to BBC News, during an interview with the More or Less teams Tim Harford, the Count was quoted as saying, Its a square-root thing. 34,969 is a square, being 1872. The Count mentions 2,30 at any chance he can get and this number may represent an inside joke. During the afternoon, his segments of the show always come on at exactly 2,30 p. m. or during the fashionably late segment, the Counts signature song is The Song of the Count. The Count debuted on Sesame Street in Season 4, and was conceived by Norman Stiles, the Count was performed by Jerry Nelson, who brought the character to life. He was originally out of the Large Lavender Live Hand Anything Muppet pattern. Nelson voiced the Count until his death on August 23,2012, at that time, Matt Vogel had taken over performing the puppetry of the Count
21.
Rosita (Sesame Street)
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Rosita is a bright blue-green 5-year-old Hispanic monster Muppet character on the childrens television series Sesame Street. Fluent in both English and Spanish, she is the first regular bilingual Muppet on the show, Rosita comes from Mexico and likes to play the guitar. Rosita was originally designed to look similar to a bat and bore the name Rosita. However, her wings were removed in 2004, Rosita was introduced to the series in 1991. Rosita is performed by Carmen Osbahr, who worked on Mexicos Plaza Sésamo. On July–August 2012, they appeared on Barrio Sésamo, Monstruos Supersanos
22.
Frank Oz
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Frank Oz is an English-born American puppeteer, filmmaker and actor. His career began as a puppeteer, where he performed the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in The Muppet Show, and Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover in Sesame Street. He is also known for being the puppeteer and voice of Yoda in the Star Wars films and his work as a director includes Little Shop of Horrors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob. In & Out, Bowfinger, The Score and Death at a Funeral, Oz was born in Hereford, England, the son of Frances and Isidore Oznowicz, both of whom were puppeteers. His father was also a window trimmer and his parents moved to England after fighting the Nazis with the Dutch Brigades. Ozs Dutch/Polish father was Jewish and his Flemish mother was a lapsed Roman Catholic, Oz left England when he was six months old and lived in Belgium until he was five. Oz and his moved to Montana in 1951. They eventually settled in Oakland, California, Oz attended Oakland Technical High School and Oakland City College. He worked as a puppeteer at Childrens Fairyland as a teenager with the Vagabond Puppets, a production of the Oakland Recreation Department. Oz is known for his work as a puppeteer, performing with Jim Hensons Muppets and his characters have included Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle on The Muppet Show, and Grover, Cookie Monster and Bert on Sesame Street. In addition to performing a variety of characters, Oz has been one of the primary responsible for the development of the Muppets over the last 30 years. His puppetry work spans from 1963 to the present, although he retired completely from the Muppets in 2000, in 2001, his characters were taken over primarily by Eric Jacobson (with David Rudman as Cookie Monster. Oz is also known as the performer of Jedi Master Yoda from George Lucas Star Wars series, Jim Henson had originally been contacted by Lucas about possibly performing Yoda. Henson was pre-occupied and suggested Oz to be assigned as chief puppeteer, while Stuart Freeborn designed and fabricated the Yoda puppet, Oz performed the voice and puppet for Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace. Oz also provided the voice of the computer-generated imagery Yoda in Star Wars, Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars, the conversion to CGI was met with some criticism among fans but Oz himself said that was exactly what should have done. Oz had a deal of creative input on the character and was himself responsible for creating the characters trademark syntax. Inspiration as a film-maker came to Oz upon a viewing of the film Touch of Evil, I think it opened up my view of film—that theres so much more that could be done. Actually, by breaking so many rules, he allowed other people to say, Hey, I can maybe think of some stuff and he just opened up the possibilities more for me
23.
Bert (Sesame Street)
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Bert is a yellow Muppet character on the long-running childrens television show, Sesame Street. Bert was originally performed by Frank Oz, since 2000, Muppeteer Eric Jacobson has been phased in as Berts primary performer, although Frank Oz still performs Bert occasionally. Bert has also made cameo appearances within The Muppets franchise, including The Muppet Show, The Muppet Movie and he and his roommate Ernie form a comic duo that is one of the programs centerpieces, with Bert acting as the world-weary foil to Ernies naive trouble-making. Bert, though kind and intelligent, is grumpy, boring. His catchphrase is Yes, I do mind and he enjoys activities such as paper clip and bottle cap collecting, cooking oatmeal and watching pigeons. Producer Arlene Sherman has called Bert everyones idea of a blind date, in one sketch, Bert reads a book called Boring Stories and chuckles, Wow. These boring stories are really exciting, in the book Sesame Street Unpaved, Frank Oz says, I was never really happy with Berts character until about a year in, when I realized. That he was a boring character, and Id use that weakness as a strength for him. Bert has very boring foods as his favorites and he loves oatmeal, unflavored fizzy water, and other bland related foods. In addition, Bert has visible eyebrows, while Ernie doesnt, Bert has a pet pigeon named Bernice, and he created a dance called Doin the Pigeon. In one sketch, Bert gets dressed and says he is going to a pigeon lovers party, Bert serves as President of the National Association of W Lovers, a club dedicated to the letter W. Two conventions held by the W Lovers have been shown on the show, Bert has pet goldfish, two of whom are named Lyle and Talbot. Berts favorite number is 6, and he has a song he wrote himself about the number 6 My Favorite Number Is 6 and his favorite instrument is the tuba. All of these interests are opposed to Ernies whose favorite number is 8,243,721, and Ernies favorite instrument is the Saxophone, which he is unable to play because he cant put down the Duckie. In Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Bert decides to get Ernie a soap dish for Rubber Duckie not to fall in the tub anymore and sink and he offers Mr. Hooper his paper clip collection as a trade but sadly walks off afterward. Then Ernie decides to trade Rubber Duckie for a box for Berts paper clips. Mr. Hooper however can see by their sad expressions that they do not want to give up their possessions so he gives back to them as gifts and lets them keep the cigar box. Others involved Bert preparing a snack for himself and goes somewhere before coming back to find that Ernie has eaten it up, despite Ernies attempts to cover up the crime Bert knows Ernie is lying
24.
Rick Lyon
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Richard Rick Lyon is an American puppeteer, actor, puppet designer and builder. He has worked for the Jim Henson Company as one of the operators of Big Bird, in the fall of 2005 he reprised his roles in the production of the show in Las Vegas for eight months before returning to the Broadway cast. Rick was a puppeteer on Sesame Street for 15 seasons, from 1987 to 2002 and he also worked with Nickelodeon on the Stick Stickly project and on the Me + My Friends pilot. He was a puppeteer for the first season of Comedy Centrals television program Crank Yankers. Lyons company The Lyon Puppets, maintains a permanent workshop outside New York City in New Jersey. Rick frequently coaches actors in puppetry for productions of Avenue Q for which he provides puppets and he studied theater at Penn State University and puppetry at the Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts in Connecticut and the Institut International de la Marionnette in France. - television Me and My Friends - television Rick Lyon at the Internet Movie Database Lyon Puppets
25.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
26.
Sesame Street
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Sesame Street is a long-running American childrens television series, produced by Sesame Workshop and created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. The program is known for its content, and images communicated through the use of Jim Hensons Muppets, animation, short films, humor. The show has undergone significant changes throughout its history, with the creation of Sesame Street, producers and writers of a childrens television show used, for the first time, educational goals and a curriculum to shape its content. It was also the first time a shows educational effects were studied, the show was initially funded by government and private foundations but has become somewhat self-supporting due to revenues from licensing arrangements, international sales, and other media. By 2006, there were independently produced versions, or co-productions, in 2001 there were over 120 million viewers of various international versions of Sesame Street, and by the shows 40th anniversary in 2009, it was broadcast in more than 140 countries. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was the childrens television show in the United States. A1996 survey found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched the show by the time they were three years old, in 2008, it was estimated that 77 million Americans had watched the series as children. As of 2014, Sesame Street has won 167 Emmy Awards and 8 Grammy Awards—more than any other childrens show, Sesame Street was conceived in 1966 during discussions between television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett. Their goal was to create a television show that would master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them. The program premiered on television stations on November 10,1969. It was the first preschool educational television program to base its contents and production values on laboratory, initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy, and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was broadcast in over 120 countries, Sesame Street has evolved from its initial inception. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become an American institution, the cast and crew expanded during this time, with emphasis on the hiring of women crew members and the addition of minorities to the cast. The shows success continued into the 1980s, Sesame Streets curriculum has expanded to include more affective topics such as relationships, ethics, and emotions. After the turn of the 21st century, Sesame Street made major structural changes, for example, starting in 2002, its format became more narrative and included ongoing storylines. After its thirtieth anniversary in 1999 and due to the popularity of the Muppet Elmo, upon its fortieth anniversary in 2009, the show received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy at the 36th Daytime Emmy Awards. In April 2017, Sesame Street will introduce a new puppet called Julia with Autism to the show, and will be voiced by Stacey Gordon, who started Puppet Pie and has a son on the autism spectrum. From its first episode, Sesame Street has structured its format by using a visual style, fast-moving action, humor
27.
Sesame Workshop
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They spent two years, from 1966 to 1968, researching, developing, and raising money for the new series. Cooney was named as the Workshops first executive director, which was termed one of the most important television developments of the decade. Sesame Street premiered as a series of Public Broadcasting Service PBS in the United States during November 1969, gerald S. Lesser and Edward L. They also hired a staff of producers and writers, after the initial success of Sesame Street, they began to plan for its continued survival, which included procuring additional sources of funding and creating other television series. By 2005, income from the CTWs international co-productions of the series was $96 million, by 2008, the Sesame Street Muppets accounted for $15–17 million per year in licensing and merchandising fees. Cooney resigned as CEO during 1990, David Britt was named as her replacement, during 2014, Ming was succeeded by Jeffrey D. Dunn. During the late 1960s, 97% of all American households owned a television set, early childhood educational research at the time had shown that when children were prepared to succeed in school, they earned better grades and learned more effectively. Children from low-income families, however, had fewer resources than children from families to prepare them for school. The topic of psychology had grown during this period. During the winter of 1966, Joan Ganz Cooney hosted what she called a little dinner party at her apartment near Gramercy Park, attending were her husband Tim Cooney, her boss Lewis Freedman, and Lloyd and Mary Morrisett, whom the Cooneys knew socially. Cooney was a producer of films at New York public television station WNDT. Cooney was committed to using television to change society, and Morrisett was interested in using television to reach numbers of needy kids. A week later, Cooney and Freedman met with Morrisett at the office of Carnegie Corporation to discuss doing a feasibility study for creating a television program for preschoolers. Cooney was chosen to perform the study and she reported her findings in a fifty-five-page document entitled The Potential Uses of Television in Preschool Education. For the next two years, Cooney and Morrisett researched and developed the new show, acquiring $8 million funding for Sesame Street, due to her professional experience, Cooney always assumed the shows natural network would be PBS. Morrisett was amenable to broadcast it by commercial stations, but all three major networks rejected the idea, Davis, considering Sesame Streets licensing income years later, termed their decision a billion-dollar blunder. Morrisett was responsible for acquisition, and was so successful at it that writer Lee D. Mitgang later said that it defied conventional media wisdom. Cooney was responsible for the creative development, and for hiring the production
28.
Sesame Street characters
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A wide variety of characters have appeared on the American childrens television series Sesame Street. A large number of the characters are Muppets, which are made in Jim Hensons distinctive puppet-creation style. Most of the characters are human characters, but there are a few characters that are animated. Jim Henson created many Muppet characters for the purpose of appearing on Sesame Street and his involvement with the show began when he and one of the creators, Joan Ganz Cooney, met in the summer of 1968 at one of the shows five three-day curriculum planning seminars in Boston. Author Christopher Finch reported that director Jon Stone, who had worked with Henson previously, felt that if they could not bring him on board, Henson was initially reluctant, but he agreed to join Sesame Street for social goals. The Muppets were a part of the shows popularity and it brought Henson national attention. In early research, the Muppet segments of the show scored high, the Muppets were effective teaching tools because children easily recognized them, they were predictable, and they appealed to adults and older siblings. During the production of Sesame Streets first season, producers created five one-hour episodes to test the appeal to children. Not intended for broadcast, they were presented to preschoolers in 60 homes throughout Philadelphia, the results were generally very positive, children learned from the shows, their appeal was high, and childrens attention was sustained over the full hour. However, the found that although childrens attention was high during the Muppet segments, their interest wavered during the Street segments. This was because the producers had followed the advice of psychologists who were concerned that children would be confused if human actors. As a result of decision, the appeal of the test episodes was lower than the target. The Street scenes were the glue that pulled the show together, the producers decided to reject the advisers advice and reshot the Street segments, Henson and his coworkers created Muppets that could interact with the human actors. These test episodes were responsible for what writer Malcolm Gladwell called the essence of Sesame Street—the artful blend of fluffy monsters. Since 2001, the rights for the Sesame Street Muppets have been owned by Sesame Workshop. Oscar and Big Bird were specifically created for the reshooting of the Street scenes with the idea that they would be able to interact with the human characters. Big Birds best friend is Aloysius Snuffleupagus, who was portrayed as the imaginary friend until revealed to the human cast in 1985. For his part, Oscar has several friends of his own despite his pessimism, these include the Grouchs pet worm, Slimey, the Three Bears from the story of Goldilocks appear in Muppet form on Sesame Street
29.
Format of Sesame Street
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It utilizes the conventions of television such as music, humor, sustained action, and a strong visual style, and combines Jim Hensons Muppets, animation, short films, humor, and cultural references. The show, which premiered in 1969, was the first to base its contents, format, according to researchers, it was also the first to include a curriculum detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes. The format of Sesame Street consisted of a combination of television production elements. It was the first time a more realistic setting, a city street. The popular, fifteen-minute long segment, Elmos World, hosted by the Muppet Elmo, was added in 1998 to make the more accessible to a younger audience. The producers of Sesame Street expanded the new format to the show in 2002. They also used animation and live-action short films, the shows staff produced segments filmed in-studio with their human and Muppet cast and they contracted out the animations and short films to independent producers. Co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney was the first to suggest that they use commercial-like 12–90-second shorts that consistently repeated several key concepts throughout an episode, the studio segments were written to concentrate on the African-American child, a key component of the shows audience. The shows producers and writers decided to build the new show around a brownstone on an inner-city street, a choice writer Michael Davis called unprecedented. They reproduced their viewers neighborhoods—as writer Cary ODell described it, a city street, complete with peeling paint, alleys, front stoops. Director Jon Stone was convinced that in order for inner-city children to relate to Sesame Street, despite its urban setting, the producers depicted the world in a positive way—both realistically and as it could be. They attempted to present a world of learning and play. Director Jim Martin called Sesame Street an urban show kids could relate to, as a result, each episode was structured like a magazine, which made it possible for the producers to create a mixture of styles, paces, and characters. The structure allowed them to have flexibility, meaning that segments were dropped, modified, as Lesser stated, It is unlikely that any other approach would have provided enough room to present material on the wide range of goals we had selected. Producers found that if the segments were sufficiently varied in character, content, style, pace. The shows magazine format accommodated both the curriculum and its production schedule. At first, the street scenes, which referred to the action taking place on the brownstone set, were not story-based. Instead, they consisted of individual segments connected to the curriculum and interrupted by inserts, or puppet skits, short films, by 1990, research had shown that children were able to follow a story, so the street scenes were changed to depict storylines
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Influence of Sesame Street
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The childrens television program Sesame Street premiered in 1969 to high ratings, positive reviews, and some controversy, which have continued during its history. Even though the show aired on only 67% of American televisions at the time of its premiere, it earned a 3.3 Nielsen rating, by its tenth anniversary in 1979,9 million American children under the age of six were watching Sesame Street daily. Its ratings declined in the 1990s, due to societal changes, a survey conducted in 1993 found that by the age of three, 95% of all American children had watched it. By its fortieth anniversary in 2009, it was ranked the fifteenth most popular childrens show, According to writer Michael Davis, Sesame Street is perhaps the most vigorously researched, vetted, and fretted-over program. By 2001, there were over 1,000 research studies regarding its efficacy, impact, two landmark summative evaluations, conducted by the Educational Testing Service in 1970 and 1971, demonstrated that Sesame Street had a significant educational impact on its viewers. Additional studies conducted throughout the history demonstrated that the show continued to have a positive effect on its young viewers. Sesame Street has also been the subjects of many throughout its long run on television. In 1970, a commission in Mississippi voted to exclude the show from its state educational TV programming, the controversy surrounding the show stemmed from cultural and historical reasons regarding children and televisions effect on them. Latino and feminists groups criticized Sesame Street for its depictions of some groups, by 2009, Sesame Street had received 118 Emmy Awards, more than any other television series. When Sesame Street premiered in 1969, it aired on only 67. 6% of American televisions, the Childrens Television Workshop, the organization that oversaw the production of Sesame Street, insisted that its seemingly low ratings were misleading. They found that although a percentage of all viewers watched Sesame Street. Ninety percent of households who viewed the show had children under the age of six. C, the results of the poll were positive in three out of the four neighborhoods and confirmed the shows high viewership. Sesame Streets high ratings increased during its season, and Nielsen reported high audience loyalty. Gerald S. Lesser, CTWs first advisory board chair, reported rumors about the show becoming a fad among college students and its ratings steadily increased for the first five seasons, and Nielsen reported that Sesame Street had the highest ratings of any PBS program. In 1985, the Workshop estimated that 20% of its regular viewers consisted of adults, by the shows tenth anniversary in 1979,9 million American children under the age of six were watching Sesame Street daily. Four out of five children had watched it over a six-week period, According to a 1993 survey conducted by the US Department of Education, out of the shows 6.6 million viewers,2.4 million kindergartners regularly watched it. 77% of preschoolers watched it once a week, and 86% of kindergartners, first-, over 80% of children from all minority language groups watched it before starting school. Children from the poorest communities were most likely to be regular viewers, the shows ratings significantly decreased in the early 1990s, when children viewing habits and the television marketplace had changed
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Joan Ganz Cooney
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Joan Ganz Cooney is an American television producer. She is one of the founders of the Sesame Workshop, the famous for the creation of the childrens television show Sesame Street. Cooney grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and earned a B. A. degree in education from the University of Arizona in 1951. After working for the State Department in Washington, D. C. and as a journalist in Phoenix, in 1961, she became interested in working for educational television, and became a documentary producer for New Yorks first educational TV station WNET. Many of the programs she produced won local Emmys, in 1966, Cooney hosted what she called a little dinner party at her apartment near Gramercy Park. Cooney was named CTWs first executive director, as one of the first female executives in American television, her appointment was called one of the most important television developments of the decade. Cooney remained executive director of the CTW until 1990, when she became the chair of CTWs executive board and she served on several boards, was the trustees of many organizations, and received many awards and honorary degrees. In 2007, the Sesame Workshop founded The Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Joan Ganz was born on November 30,1929 in Phoenix, Arizona, to Sylvan Ganz, a banker, and Pauline, a homemaker. Her father was a native Phoenician who was born in the U. S. so that his mother could receive medical care after his birth, Joan Ganz was the youngest of three siblings. Her father was Jewish and her mother was Catholic and she attended North High School in Phoenix, where she was active in school plays. Brown was later investigated as a Communist and she went to Dominican College, an all-girls Catholic institution in San Rafael, California for a year before transferring to the University of Arizona in 1948. She stopped acting in college because her father refused to support her in that career, after graduating in 1951, Joan Ganz moved to Washington, D. C. where she worked as a clerk and typist at the State Department. She was exposed to Father James Kellers Christopher Movement, which inspired her to become involved with television, Ganz later said, Father Keller said that if idealists didnt go into the media, nonidealists would. She returned to Phoenix and despite no experience in journalism, took a job as a reporter at the Arizona Republic, some of this notable group included Jason Epstein and Norman Mailer. In 1956, after years of depression, Joan Ganzs father committed suicide at his home in Phoenix. While working for the U. S. Steel Hour, a left to work for the educational television station WGBH-TV in Boston, her reaction was life-changing. She later stated, I knew that I was born to be in educational television, when channel 13 became non-commercial two years later as WNDT, Joan Ganz applied for a position as the stations publicist, but the general manager told her they needed producers. I can produce, she told him, even though she had no experience in producing television shows and she later stated, Ive never been qualified for any job Ive been hired for
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Lloyd Morrisett
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Lloyd Newton Morrisett Jr is an American experimental psychologist with a career in education, communications, and philanthropy. He is married to Mary Pierre Morrisett and they have two children — Sarah Elizabeth Otley and Julie Margaret Morrisett. Morrisett was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the son of Jessie Watson, the family moved to New York City in 1933 to escape the hardships brought about by the Dust Bowl and the Depression. Morrisett assumed he was headed for a life of academia like his father, “I was brought up to believe that being a professor was the best job in the world, ” he said. Today, he credits his father with inspiring his lifelong interest in education, Morrisett attended Oberlin College and received his BA in philosophy in 1951. Originally, he had wanted to become a chemist, but after taking a course in his junior year. He became an Oberlin College trustee and was Chairman of the Board from 1975 to 1981. He did graduate work in psychology for two years at UCLA, where he met an assistant professor named Irving Maltzman — whom he describes as “very important, very influential in psychology. ”Morrisett became Maltzman’s research assistant, and together, they co-authored six papers and studies. Inspired by Maltzman, whose area was human learning, creativity and human thinking, There, he met and apprenticed with Carl I. Hovland, a leading psychologist who founded the Yale Communications and Attitude Change program, in later years, Morrisett would credit that apprenticeship with sparking his interest in communications. At Yale, Morrisett wrote a dissertation, “The Role of Implicit Practice in Learning. ”The thesis, Morrisett concluded that in the instance of dart throwing, it is not possible. But in the instance of a two-handed coordination task, it is possible, today, the dissertation is cited as an important early contribution to sports psychology. In 1956, Morrisett landed a job in the School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley. But he was having doubts about academic life and it lacked mystery and excitement, he thought, and he was “unimpressed by the seriousness of his students. ”He joined the Social Science Research Council in New York as a staff member from 1958-59. While there, he met Herbert A. Simon and Allen Newell. ”They based their theoretical models on computer simulations of the thought process and these early computer simulations led to Morrisett’s permanent fascination with computer technology. Morrisett first encountered the Carnegie Corporation, a foundation focused on education. He stayed with the Corporation for ten years, one of the main contributions of Carnegie during those years was the creation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. NAEP is the only representative and continuing assessment of what Americas students know
