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This is part two in a multiple part series. Make sure and read Part 1.

When the 1986 season came to a close Sesame Place had a small variety of walk around characters. Bert & Ernie, and Big Bird had arrived and would stick around forever. Green Honker and Pink Honker also had showed up at the park, and stayed at the park until 1992.

 

For the 1987 season Sesame Place brought in Cookie Monster. The early Cookie Monster walk around character appeared to have darker fur than the current costume, but otherwise looked very similar. Cookie Monster had an animatronic likeness at the park early on and had his own ‘play element’ at the park, a climbing attraction called Cookie Mountain.

Prior to the opening of Sesame Place, costumed Sesame Street characters had appeared on traveling ice shows, Ice Follies and Holiday on Ice, and shortly after Sesame Place opened they began appearing in the traveling stage show Sesame Street Live, which still tours today. This meant that the work deciphering the full bodied character had often been done prior to the inclusion of the character at the Langhorne, Pennsylvania park.

This is a bigger deal that it sounds. After all, before this no one knew what Cookie Monster’s feet looked like.

1988 Sesame Place decided to add another monster, this time lovable furry Grover. The 1988 season also introduced Prairie Dawn. It was a very big year at Sesame Place. The park had really started expanding and had added Sesame Neighborhood, a giant outdoor main street. It is a wonderful replica of Sesame Street, right down to Oscar’s trashcan and Big Bird’s mailbox.

Grover had existed as a Muppet prior to the debut of Sesame Street. Like many Muppets he started with a different name and voice and eventually they found the character we know and love. By season two of Sesame Street he was the lovable character we are all familiar with on television and when he was introduced at Sesame Place he was one of the most popular (and merchandised) characters on Sesame Street.

Prairie Dawn debuted on television in 1971 and started appearing in Sesame Street Live productions in 1981. Her addition at Sesame Place was a very welcome one, as she was the first undeniably female character at the park. Prairie’s role on the Sesame Street television show has diminished over the past decade or so, but she remains an integral part of the line up of characters at Sesame Place. Prairie is known on Sesame Street for her talents at putting on shows, and it isn’t any different at Sesame Place. Right now, if you see the Sesame Place ‘Neighborhood Birthday Party Parade’ you will not only see Prairie, but you will hear her in between songs saying things like “places everyone!” and “cue the next number” which tends to bring a small bit of nostalgia back to many of the moms and dads as they remember her elaborate pageants where Herry Monster would play the sun and Cookie Monster would play a cloud.

In 1994 she had her own stage show at Sesame Place, The Perils of Miss Prairie.

1989 brought Sesame Place a third Honker, Purple Honker. Since the Honkers had the same head and body, this was just a matter of trying out a new color.

Purple Honker appeared alongside his Honker friends for meet and greets as well as the performances of the Big Bird and Company stage show which would feature 2 Honkers.

As 1991 came to a close, Sesame Place had 9 characters at the park. Ernie, Bert, Big Bird, Grover, Prairie Dawn, Cookie Monster, Purple Honker, Pink Honker and Green Honker all called Langhorne home, but there are more to come. Count on it.

 

Thanks to Jenn Martin, Greg Hartley, Jeff Davis, and Donna Viola Beck for providing information for this article.

 

 

 

This is part one in a multiple part series.

Sesame Place opened in Langhorne, Pennsylvania in 1980. At the time there were no costumed characters in the park. I have heard several reasons for this, and perhaps all of them are true. Or it’s a combination of some of them.

I have heard that there was contractual language specifying that the television puppeteers had to provide the voices in the park, there was a desire to have the characters be able to move their mouths, and there were questions revolving around if only puppets should be used at the parks.

Regardless, before the costumed characters made their debut at the park, there were “Automated Muppets.” Animatronic versions of Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch appeared in the park starting in the 1981 season. These characters were voiced by Frank Oz and Caroll Spinney, respectively.

Oscar was located in his trash can, which was situated inside of a cart that was covered in fabulous junk, including an old tire. The cart looked similar to a theme park beverage cart and could be set up in multiple locations.

Cookie Monster was also inside of a cart which was usually situated in The Food Factory restaurant. He appeared inside of a cookie jar.

These characters would talk, sing, laugh, and tell jokes. Micheal Firth, creative vice president of Henson, said in 1982 that these were “a perfect reproduction of each character.”

The first batch of costumed characters debuted the following year and included Ernie, Bert and Green Honker and Pink Honker.

These characters would perform in a show entitled “The Bert and Ernie Show.” A special stage was built for them in front of Mr. Hooper’s Emporium and the show lasted at that location for two years.

An aside: these character costumes were equipped with controls to move their mouths and lip sync. Sesame Place had characters with movable mouths from the very first day they added character interaction! It has taken a few decades for the Disney parks to add that to the stage shows they run. There is something great about having a character move his or her mouth, rather than pantomime a show.

In 1986, the next character was added to Sesame Place. It was the most obvious choice: Big Bird. The cast of “The Bert and Ernie Show” now joined him in The Big Bird Theater for a show called “Big Bird & Company.”

The Big Bird of Sesame Place operates differently than the one on television. As most Sesame Street fans know, Caroll Spinney holds the 5 lbs Big Bird head up with his hand and looks at a small monitor inside the costume. The Big Bird costume at Sesame Place has a solid cone neck and the performer can see through eye holes in Big Bird’s tie.

Now the park needed some monsters. But we’ll get to them next time.