The MuppetCast celebrates Mother’s Day with Johnny Fiama, Johnny’s Mama, and Sal…but more importantly, with Muppet fan Nick Bertch and his mother Christina! Nick comes on the show to talk about his good friend Caroll Spinney (whom you may have heard of). Caroll is the longtime performer of Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and is the subject of the recent documentary I Am Big Bird.
Nick’s Muppet fan story made local news when Caroll invited him to the Sesame Street set – not once, but twice – and Chad & Dave of Copper Pot Pictures even filmed a IABB featurette involving Nick, titled “Big Bird’s Best Friend.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=197NvNLLj5A
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Have a great week!
Steve
About 2 months ago, I found myself in the ER for the first time in my life. 22 years old without one single trip to the hospital was quite the accomplishment. I’m all good now, but while there I found myself reverting to a state of childlike wonder with everything surrounding me. One video I used to watch as a child came to mind as I sat in the ER room with my mom and sister waiting on test results: “Sesame Street Visits The Hospital.” This 1990 direct-to-video special helped kids understand that the hospital is where you go to get better, and that it’s ok to be scared. But it’s also important to be brave and focus on getting healthy again. As a 22-year-old college student, riding the hospital bed to the X-Ray room brought back memories of watching Big Bird doing the same. I realized from watching that video as a young child, I never had any fears or worries about going to the hospital. All because of what I learned from Sesame Street.
The song “Busy Getting Better All the Time” features Big Bird meeting new friends in the hospital play room, as he begins to discover they aren’t just playing, but getting healthier as they play. One of my favorite characters in the song is the Grouch girl who is in the hospital because she’s feeling happy. The second song, titled “You Gotta Be Patient (To Be a Patient)” happens when Big Bird wants desperately to go home, so Maria and Orderly Jim explain that he needs to be patient and do what the doctors tell him, and pretty soon he’ll be able to go home.
Big Bird continues to help ease children’s fears of a trip to the hospital at the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital. There, a Big Bird statue was purchased from the Briarwood Mall and donated to the University of Michigan’s children’s hospital. It’s a beautiful statue of Big Bird and a really nice nod to Big Bird’s trip the hospital. He is still helping kids feel peaceful during what can sometimes be a scary time in life.
While there was talk of having human characters go though a divorce on Sesame Street to highlight that important issue, it was instead decided to use Muppet characters, feeling children had grown too attached to the human characters on the show. With pregnancy, however, the idea of making a human character pregnant was more natural. Especially since star Sonia Manzano was pregnant herself at the time, which became a primary reason for introducing it into the show. They could incorporate Manzano’s own real-life pregnancy into the character of Maria. 
The story arc continued a few episodes later, when Maria’s mother came to visit Sesame Street and an ultrasound of a baby is shown to kids. It is a special device that allows the baby to be seen on a small monitor, with Maria’s doctor even pointing out the baby’s parts and Luis snapping pictures of a pregnant Maria. Maria’s mother also sings a sweet song called “My Baby’s Going to Have a Baby.” Later on in the season, Maria and Luis decorate the baby’s room with help from Big Bird, once again allowing for there to be a character in the story to whom children can relate. Another episode has dream sequences of Maria and Luis imagining what it will be like to hold their baby when it arrives, again putting special attention to the love of a parent to their child in the womb. 
Towards the end of the season, Maria goes into labor, an important moment for children to understand (including a special part where Big Bird witnesses Maria doing breathing exercises). The season finale was dedicated to the birth of Luis and Maria’s daughter, Gabi. Telly Monster helps answer an important question many children have, when he has a sweet conversation with Susan and Gordon while they read a book to their son Miles. Telly asks how they could be doing something so normal when there’s so much going on around Sesame Street, with everyone being so excited for the arrival of the baby. Susan explains to Telly that even though having a new baby around will change things, many things will stay the same, a simple lesson that many children who are anticipating the arrival of a sibling need to understand. Even Oscar gets a special part of the episode when he realizes he’s happy the baby is coming (something grouches should never be). The episode ends with the cast visiting Maria and Luis in the hospital and meeting the new baby, with Maria even saying that the experience of giving birth was an adventure. 
In Season 34, Sesame Street showed how children can adjust to having a new baby in the home, with the addition of a new character: Curly Bear, the baby sister of Baby Bear. Throughout the season, Baby Bear learns to adjust to no longer being the baby in the family, while also dealing with Curly Bear’s disinterest in porridge and her ability to growl louder than her big brother. What I love about this storyline is the sweetness of the relationship between brother and sister, with Baby Bear protective of his baby sister and Curly Bear being so fond of “Bebo” (her name for Baby Bear). It begins with a three-part episode focusing on the arrival of the baby, including Mama Bear pregnant and leaving for the hospital, and Gina taking care of Baby Bear while his parents are away. When Gina takes Baby Bear to the hospital to see his parents and new baby sister, Baby Bear sings a cute little song to his new baby sister called “I’ll Show You the World,” all about what kind of big brother he’ll be to her.
I personally love how Sesame Street approached the topic of pregnancy, and how much heart they included in helping kids understand and learn to adjust to having a new baby in the family. They used both human and Muppet characters to help highlight the story and, over the years, allowed viewers to watch Gabi and Curly Bear grow up and adjust to the challenges of going from baby to child and, for Gabi, from teenager to adult.