Friday, November 11, 2005

When I was growing up and my imagination was running wild, the best character on Sesame Street was Snuffleupagus. It was a simpler time back then and everyone on Sesame Street believed Snuffleupagus to be Big Bird's imaginary friend. For some coincidental reason, Sunffleupagus (or "Snuffy", as Big Bird called him) only showed up to hang out when no one else was around. It drove Big Bird crazy and he was usually distracted when his friend came over to play. He'd run out of his nest (a back alley of Sesame Street) and try to convince people and muppets to come back with him and meet his friend. Meanwhile, Snuffy would realize that he had left the iron on or some other ludicrous thing and would wander away just as Big Bird came back with Oscar or Maria or any one of his peeps from the Street. "Oh Big Bird," they would say, "You have such an imagination!" And then Big Bird's face would turn beat red and the veins would pop out of his forehead and he’d start kicking over garbage cans and punching walls. … Well, maybe I’m embellishing my memory a little. In any case, everyone thought the bird was nuts, and, as a viewer, we never really knew that he wasn't. It was awesome.


# (1)#
Bryon    Posted by
Bryon
on 11/11/2005
10:15 AM
11/29/2005 8:41:08 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
There's an interesting story behind the Snuffy-Big Bird adventures that you remember from the olden days, Bryon. I used to work at Sesame Street, so I know why Snuffy stopped being the world's biggest invisible friend -- and turned into just a giant, rusty-brown, clearly visible creature...and BB's best buddy.


Here's what happened: In the first years of Sesame Street, the writers of the show thought that kids would enjoy watching the many ways that Snuffy disappeared at the exact moment when Big Bird was going to show him off. And many -- such as you -- clearly did love those moments. But after maybe 15 years, some people started complaining that it wasn't a good idea to show a kid (well, a giant Bird kid) telling adults something that they never believed. Little kids have active imaginations, but they also see and know things that adults should listen to. And not one of the adults on Sesame Street was really listening to Big Bird, or even trying to see if what he said was true.

So the producers and writers of the show got together and decided to change the Snuffy-Big Bird story. One day, Big Bird was finally able to introduce his friend Snuffy to everyone on the street. Suddenly, all the characters were saying things like, "Wow, Big Bird, you were right" -- and Snuffy no longer had to turn the corner every time Maria or Luis or anyone else was coming. And now the writers could use Snuffy to tell more interesting stories than just that same old "Gee, he was here a minute ago!" tale.

What I find most interesting about this is that writing need not ever be frozen in time. Times change; stories can change, too. And for a writer, all it takes is thinking up something new, then making a few marks on a piece of paper.




the writers of the sho
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