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Guy Smiley | |
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Sesame Street character | |
First appearance | 1969 (as Sonny Friendly) |
Created by | Jim Henson |
Performed by | Jim Henson (1969–1990) Eric Jacobson (2005–present) |
In-universe information | |
Gender | Male |
Guy Smiley is a fictional character on Sesame Street who was dubbed "America's favorite game show host". His skits are among those on the show that parody commercial media. [1] Smiley has also hosted This Is Your Lunch and Here Is Your Life, a parody of This Is Your Life . Guests who were profiled included a loaf of bread, a tooth and a tree (all aimed at teaching children how things are made). He has also hosted pageants for numbers and letters.
Joan Ganz Cooney cited the role as one of her favorite roles from his original performer Jim Henson, [2] although it was his least favorite to perform, as the character had a boisterous voice which proved too hard on his throat. [3] Due to this, the character's dialogue was usually pre-recorded so that Henson could do multiple takes without straining his throat.
The character was mostly discontinued upon Henson's death in 1990.
Smiley has hosted many game show skits, such as:
In Sesame Street's premiere season (1969–70), Smiley sang Allie Wrubel and Herb Magidson's 1937 song "Gone with the Wind" while a strong wind was blowing away a tree, a house, a woman, and ultimately his clothes. [11] This segment was also dubbed in Spanish for international broadcasts. [12] [13]
Also that season, Smiley hosted the first segment of "The Answer Lady", featuring an elderly woman named Granny Fanny Nesselrode who claimed she had the answer to everything but never gave the best answer to any question sent in by a viewer. Smiley was later replaced by a regionally accented Muppet host who bore some resemblance to him. [14]
Smiley did make some appearances that didn't have anything notable to do with his hosting career. When Cookie Monster was in a bakery chewing up items that rhymed with the word "buy", Smiley came in announcing he was "Guy Smiley, star of daytime television". At this point, Cookie couldn't remember that it was a pie he was after, and the repeated use of words that did rhyme with "pie" did nothing to jog his memory. The scene ended with him wrongly realizing that the rhyming item was "GUY!", and chasing Smiley around the bakery, trying to eat his hand off. [15]
He also appeared in a sketch featuring Grover as an Elevator Operator. It was to teach kids to face the front of an elevator. In this sketch, "Mr. Smiley" (as Grover calls him) is also voiced by Jim Henson, but with a different voice than that of his game show personality. [16]
In one movie theatre skit with Bert and Ernie, using Smiley as a one-line extra, the character is puppeted by Richard Hunt. [17]
In a counting skit, Guy Smiley also took his entire studio audience to lunch, hoping there would be a big enough table. While there was a table for the 39 members of the audience, there was no available table for 40, forcing Smiley to sit outside and be sent the bill later. [18]
Guy Smiley also appeared in Alphabet Chat doing a commercial for Bow Wow Chow while Mr. Chatterly was trying to do a lecture about the letter R. [19]
He also appeared in On Vacation With Guy Smiley, in which he tried to photograph various animals in the jungle, but his loud voice kept scaring them off. At least until a tiger (Martin P. Robinson) came along, roaring and scaring away Guy's guide (Richard Hunt), but the tiger took the camera and took Guy's picture with the other animals. His pith helmet was provided by Zimbabwe After Six. [20]
Smiley shows up as a non-speaking background extra (wearing an odd, unusually stern expression) along with many other Muppets in the musical skit "Some/None". [21]
Guy Smiley also hosted the banquet meeting of things that begin with SH sound. Including a shirt, a shovel, a shrimp, a sheep with a shepherd, and even a short sized king. [22]
Sesame Street is localized for international markets, where Smiley is often renamed. In Portugal, for example, he's "Carlos Luz", a play on words with the name of television presenter Carlos Cruz. In the Netherlands, he is called "Henk Glimlach", "glimlach" meaning "smile". In Germany, he appears simply as "Robert", possibly after Robert Lembke, a game show host.
Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character created by Jim Henson and Jon Stone for the PBS/HBO children's television program Sesame Street. He has a green body, no visible nose, and lives in a trash can. Oscar's favorite thing is trash, as evidenced by the song "I Love Trash", with a running theme being his collection of seemingly useless items. Although the term "Grouch" aptly describes Oscar's misanthropic interaction with the other characters, it also refers to his species. The character was originally performed by Caroll Spinney from the show's first episode until his retirement. Eric Jacobson began understudying for the character in 2015, and in 2018 officially became the primary performer of the role following Spinney's retirement.
Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the children's television show Sesame Street. An eight-foot-two-inch-tall (249 cm) bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skate, ice skate, dance, swim, sing, write poetry, draw, and ride a unicycle. Despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as a single word. He would refer to grocer Mr. Hooper as "Mr. Looper", among other mispronunciations. He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and right next to Oscar the Grouch's trash can. In Season 46, the nest sits within a small, furnished maple tree, and is no longer hidden by used construction doors. He has a teddy bear named Radar.
Ernie is an orange Muppet character created and originally performed by Jim Henson for the children's television show Sesame Street. He and his roommate Bert form the comic duo Bert and Ernie, one of the program's centerpieces, with Ernie acting the role of the naïve troublemaker, and Bert the world-weary foil.
Sherlock Hemlock is a Muppet character on the PBS series Sesame Street. His catchphrase is "Egad!" which he exclaims whenever he makes a discovery. Sherlock Hemlock was performed by Jerry Nelson.
| network = PBS | first_aired = April 25, 1978 | last_aired = May 5, 1999 | related = Dinner Theater
Masterpiece }}
Vila Sésamo is a Brazilian co-production of the first preschool television programme Sesame Street. As of 2009 it airs on TV Rá-Tim-Bum. As of 2016, similar to Plaza Sésamo, new seasons air under the title Sésamo. The series debuted on October 12, 1972, moving from TV Cultura to SKY Play on June 25, 2020.
"C Is For Cookie", by Joe Raposo, is a song about the letter C performed by Cookie Monster, a Muppet character from the preschool television series Sesame Street. It was first performed in Season 3, although it had been released on The Muppet Alphabet Album. Along with Kermit's "Bein' Green" and Ernie's "Rubber Duckie", it is one of the show's most recognizable songs. The original version was made in 1971 and was one of the few Sesame Street sketches directed by Jim Henson.
Joseph Guilherme Raposo, OIH was an American composer and songwriter, best known for his work on the children's television series Sesame Street, for which he wrote the theme song, as well as classic songs such as "Bein' Green", "C Is For Cookie" and "Sing". He also wrote music for television shows such as The Electric Company, Shining Time Station and the sitcoms Three's Company and The Ropers, including their theme songs. In addition to these works, Raposo also composed extensively for three Dr. Seuss TV specials in collaboration with the DePatie-Freleng Enterprises: Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You? (1980), and The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982).
The Muppet Alphabet Album is a Sesame Street learning album based on the children's television series. It was first released in 1971 by Columbia, then reissued in 1976, and by Golden Music in 1990, and by Sony Wonder in 1996, and by Koch Records in 2008. Sony Wonder and Koch Records's reissues included Elmo singing a version of the song, "ABC-DEF-GHI", and called it "Sing the Alphabet". The album features one song for each letter in the alphabet, performed by a variety of Sesame Street characters. Each of the songs uses a different musical style.
The Sesame Street News Flash is a recurring segment on the children's television show Sesame Street. First aired in 1972, the series starred Kermit the Frog as a trench coat-dressed roving reporter who interviews Muppet versions of characters from fairy tales, Mother Goose nursery rhymes and key moments in history.
Braingames is an American educational program shown on HBO in the mid-1980s. It was a half-hour program consisting of brain-teasing animated skits designed to make the viewers think. It was HBO's first attempt at a show focused on educational skits, predating Crashbox by 15 years.
Cookie Monster is a blue Muppet character on the PBS/HBO children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating catchphrases, such as "Me want cookie!" As his name suggests, his preferred food is cookies, though he eats almost anything, including inedible objects. Chocolate chip cookies are his favorite kind. His speech is often grammatically nonstandard; for example, he always uses "Me" to refer to himself in place of "I", "My", and "Mine". Despite his voracious appetite for cookies, Cookie Monster shows awareness of healthy eating habits for young children and also enjoys fruit and vegetables.
A wide variety of characters have appeared on the American children's television series Sesame Street. Many of the characters are Muppets, which are puppets made in Jim Henson's distinctive puppet-creation style. Most of the non-Muppet characters are human characters, but there are many characters that are animated.
There have been a variety of Sesame Street video games released for video game platforms. Most of the Sesame Street video games were published and developed by NewKidCo.
Joseph Mazzarino is an American puppeteer, writer, director and actor. He is best known for his roles on Sesame Street as Murray Monster, Stinky the Stinkweed and other Muppets, and being Head Writer and Director on Sesame Street, winning 22 Emmy Awards for his work.
Sesame Street: 25 Wonderful Years is the home video version of Sesame Street Jam: A Musical Celebration, a special aired on PBS during their pledge drive on March 6, 1994, that commemorates Sesame Street’s 25th anniversary in 1994. This program was originally released on October 29, 1993, under the title Sesame Street's 25th Birthday: A Musical Celebration!25 Wonderful Years focused on celebrity segments, many coming from segments filmed for the show's upcoming 25th season, of artists such as En Vogue and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration is a 2019 musical television special to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sesame Street. Hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the special aired on November 9, 2019, on HBO, followed by a November 17 airing on PBS. It stars the cast and Muppets of Sesame Street, including Kermit the Frog, from the past and present. Many retired cast members and characters reunited on the street for the first time in years since their last appearances. This is the final Sesame Street special to feature long-time Muppet performer Caroll Spinney, who performed Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for 50 years as well as the cast members Emilio Delgado and Bob McGrath, who played Luis and Bob, respectively, for 45 years.