Sesame Seeds (Episode 1): Elmo

 

This is something new I’m trying out, so please let me know what you think of it.

One of the reasons we love TV is character. It doesn’t really matter what your premise is, as long as you have good characters that your audience can watch and connect with, your show is gonna do great.

But, as TV shows go on, these characters change, in either design, personality, maturity, or sometimes all of the above. And our lovable friends on Sesame Street are definitely no exception.

For 51 years and counting, Sesame Street has created over a thousand characters generations have grown up watching, and while a good chunk of them don’t have that much significance, most of them do, and that’s what we’re here to talk about.

My name is Noah, and this is Sesame Seeds.

For this series, my objective is to spotlight one, possibly even two Sesame Street characters, either muppet or human, and go over how they started out, their history, my experiences with them, and where they are now.

And I’m starting off the series with everyone’s favorite friend. The character people think of the most when they think about Sesame Street. Someone who’s friendly, cuddly, and makes you feel good inside. It’s the one, the only… B-Elmo!

Yeah, sorry Old School SS fans, we’re starting with Elmo. Big Bird will come later, I promise.

Now, like I just said, Elmo is pretty much the face of Sesame Street, and the one pretty much everyone first thinks of when talking about the show in present times. But contrary to popular belief, Elmo wasn’t the first character made, he wasn’t introduced when the show began, and he wasn’t even named when he was introduced.

Elmo was designed in 1979 by Caroly Wilcox, and built a year later by Leslee Asch. He was made to be a background monster, used for bits and sketches. And like many of his kind, he was passed around from puppeteer to puppeteer. Most of them gave him a sort of gruff/nasally voice sort of like Sumo from Clarence.

You can hear it in segments like when he sang about being a monster with three other anything monsters.

The time he claimed he was Claudius in Monsterpiece Theater.

And when he played the cymbals in a marching band.

It was like this for a while, until season 11, where Elmo made his first appearance on the actual street with Maria and the letter H, where he introduced himself as a monster who mumbles and grunts, rather than saying words, being puppeteered concretely by Brian Muehl.

This went on for a few more seasons, until eventually, in season 16, Richard Hunt took over puppeteering duties, and gave him a change in personality. Whereas Muehl’s voice was quiet and mumbly, Hunt gave Elmo the voice and personality of a loud, boisterous caveman.

Richard Hunt did not like performing Elmo. At all. He found it uncomfortable, hard, and it hurt his voice, or at least that’s what I assume was the case.

Then one day, on November 26, 1984, After taping an episode, Hunt went to the green room, where a new puppeteer, named Kevin Clash was, tossed the Elmo puppet to him, and said:

“I don’t like this character. You do him.”

So Kevin did. At first, he tried to emulate the previous Elmo voice, but after brainstorming for a while, he came up with the idea that Elmo should represent the thing the Beatles told us was all we needed: Love.

It made sense. Elmo’s fur was red, the color love was most associated with, so why not use him to project one of the most important lessons Sesame Street wanted to teach?

So eventually Clash found his version of Elmo to be a young, excitable monster, with a falsetto voice, who loved pretty much anything and everything, and along the way developed a habit of speaking in the third person.

And it worked. It really worked. Throughout the rest of the 80s, Elmo made more and more appearances on the street, and shared more and more interactions with the other main characters. He even helped Big Bird finally prove to everyone that Mr. Snuffleupagus was real and also got the great honor of being ring bearer at Maria and Luis’ wedding. Of which he did NOT drop the rings.

He also made up this song, which would contribute to his popularity, in a big way.

Eventually the 80s became the 90s, and not only was Elmo getting more time on the street, he was also getting more time to interact with many celebrities guest starring. Like Whoopi Goldberg, Ellen DeGeneres and Mel Gibson just to name a few.

And then Christmas came.

In 1996, Tyco made a doll called the Tickle Me Elmo. A doll that shook around and laughed like crazy when its tummy was pushed, and had it just been released without any promotion, it probably wouldn’t be such a big deal, but Tyco sent a bunch of TMEs to famous tv show host, Rosie O’Donnell, which she put on her show, which got more people interested, and come Black Friday, there was only one toy parents were after, and it was Elmo.

After all of the tickle me craziness, Elmo was now cemented as the most popular Sesame Street muppet, Sesame Workshop realized this, and as the 2000s began, so did Elmo-mania.

For the show’s 30th anniversary, Elmo starred in both the anniversary special, Elmopalooza, and a different special on FOX, CinderElmo. But that wasn’t all, he was also the star of his own movie: The Adventures Of Elmo In Grouchland, in which he loses his special blanket in Oscar’s trash can and goes on an epic quest, with giant chickens, trash queens, and Mandy Patinkin, to get it back.

But that still wasn’t all. For starting in season 30, the show introduced a new 20 minute segment: Elmo’s World.

Elmo’s World revolved around Elmo, and his new pet goldfish, Dorothy, as they spent every segment in a crayon colored room, learning about a specific topic, with the help of Mr. Noodle, a silent man who lives next door, and his family, as well as the many crayon colored inanimate objects that inhabit the room.

Now, this was around the time I was growing up and first discovering Sesame Street, so I grew up watching Elmo and Elmo’s World very frequently, and so did many many others, because Elmo’s World became the most popular part of the show. It was used to set up the plot of the 35th anniversary special, and Cookie Monster even made his own parody of it in 2006.

Also, that year, we were formally introduced to Elmo’s parents: Mae and Louie (played by Fran Brill and Bill Barretta, and later Stephanie D’Abruzzo and Tyler Bunch), and they would provide as excellent parents for our favorite little red 3 ½ year old.

Elmo’s World aired its last new episode in season 40, but still continued to air until season 43, where a new Elmo segment was created: Elmo the Musical.

In this segment, Elmo would make up a musical story with the help of his sentient curtain friend, Velvet, and of course, the audience. While not achieving the same popularity as Elmo’s World, kids still enjoyed it, and it had a decent run.

I’d like to point out that during this season, Kevin Clash had been accused of sexual allegations (Which were soon disproven), so to keep Sesame Workshop out of the controversy, he resigned in 2012, and Elmo was passed on to a new puppeteer named Ryan Dillon.

Dillon nailed Elmo’s falsetto voice, and also gave him more sass and snark, which helped to make his scenes and appearances more enjoyable.

Now that Elmo had a new voice, he was ready to transition to HBO. Previously, he and his family lived in an apartment building, located in the arbor, but starting in season 46, they moved into Gordon and Susan’s old apartment in 123 Sesame Street, to be closer to the action.

From there, Elmo would not just continue to appear in street stories, but also in a new rebranded, five minute version of Elmo’s World.

In this version, Elmo found himself in a drawn version of his new room, and still learned about a specific topic each episode, but this time featuring an animated smartphone named Smartie (Voiced by Deborah Grausman), and more of Mr. Noodle’s family members.

I’ve already said I wasn’t a big fan of this version, but it was good, and there was effort put into it, it just couldn’t live up to the original segment.

Later on in 2020, when Sesame Street moved to HBO Max, a new spinoff just for that platform was made called The Not Too Late Show With Elmo. Where Elmo hosted his own talk show, right before his bedtime, with Cookie Monster as his co-host, and the rest of his friends as the cast and crew.

And now in the present day, Elmo still remains as popular as he was years ago. He continues to star and appear in many new episodes and still connects with so many kids.

Now there are still a majority of people out there, who did not get on board the Elmo train. Most people find Elmo to be annoying, unnecessary, and a spotlight stealer, none of which are true. Well, okay, the last one is true, Elmo does get more screen time and coverage than all of his co-stars combined, but that’s only because so many kids love him to death, if I could quote my friend Ezra for a minute:

People who don't get into him (namely those who didn't grow up with him) seem to misunderstand that he's only three and a half years old. But a lot of kids around that age tend to act as friendly and imaginative and even excitable and hyper just like Elmo does.

And that’s the absolute truth. Most grown-ups don’t understand that Elmo is supposed to represent the little kids who are watching the show the most. Sure they may enjoy characters like Cookie Monster, Oscar, and Ernie and Bert, but at the end of the day, it’s Elmo they’re gonna relate to most, because he is them. When I was growing up, Elmo was my favorite character, because I didn’t see him as a puppet who was teaching me stuff, I saw him as a really great friend who I enjoyed spending time with.

But I’ll tell you what, even if Elmo appears way more than I think he should, I’ll still love anyway. You know why? Because he’s such a good character. He’s kind, he’s funny, he’s imaginative, he just makes you feel good and loved. And that’s what he was meant to do. To represent the love inside us all. And that’s why he deserves to be held as one of the greats along with Big Bird, Grover, and the rest. He didn’t ruin Sesame Street, he made it even better.

Well, that’s my first episode. This was actually really fun to do. It doesn’t really take that long, either. But what do you guys think? Should I do more? Any feedback is appreciated.

But anyway, it’s time to go. And remember, Elmo loves you. And so do I. :)