Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: Who was the original voice of Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street?
Oscar the Grouch is a character on the television program Sesame Street. He has a green body, no visible nose, and lives in a trash can. His 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. His birthday, as noted by Sesame Workshop, is on June 1. The character is performed by Caroll Spinney, and has been performed by him since the show's first episode. Since 2015, Eric Jacobson has been the understudy for the character.
Brand also served during the 1960s as a board member of the Children's Television Workshop and participated in the development of Sesame Street. Because of some mild disagreements that had occurred between Brand and the board members regarding the appropriate setting for the show, it has been reputed that as a playful joke, the character of Oscar the Grouch was named after him, although there are dueling tales as to the origin of the character.
Slimey the Worm is a light and dark orange striped worm that is the pet of Oscar the Grouch on Jim Henson's Muppet show "Sesame Street". Introduced in Season 2 (1970–1971), he is played by Martin P. Robinson and is the smallest of all characters on "Sesame Street", being only 7 cm (2¾in). His small size does not affect his attitude of being one not to wince at the sight of extreme activities. As Lou Berger, head writer for "Sesame Street", put it, "Slimey shows viewers that even the smallest creature can be the most heroic, and that's an important thing for kids to see." Slimey has done many extreme things on "Sesame Street", including winning a gold medal in the Worm Olympics, skydiving from a plane, being shot out of a cannon whilst kissing girlfriend Glo and becoming the first worm in space. At first Slimey and his family did not talk, communicating by squeaking and wriggling, Slimey would be held up to Oscar's ear to talk to him. He and his family now, however, have digitally enhanced squeaky voices. Slimey's voice is currently provided by Dick Maitland. His birthday is on September 19th.
Pam Arciero (born May 8, 1954), is a puppeteer and voice-over artist who portrays Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend, Grundgetta, on the PBS children's television series "Sesame Street".
Oscar made what he called "a very brief cameo" in the 1981 Jim Henson movie The Great Muppet Caper. When Miss Piggy threw a truck driver (played by Peter Ustinov) into a pile of boxes and a pile of trash cans, Oscar emerged from his trash can and demanded "Hey, what's all the racket?" The driver asked him, "What are you doing here?" Oscar replied, "A very brief cameo." The driver muttered, "Me, too." Oscar also appeared in the Jim Henson holiday special, A Muppet Family Christmas, when the Sesame Street Gang comes to the Grizzly Farm House for the holidays, in the film he befriends Rizzo the Rat (whose name parodies that of the Midnight Cowboy character Ratso Rizzo) who asks the Grouch if he could stay in his trash can for the night. Oscar agreed saying that he'd never had a rat in his trash can before.
Tartaglia joined "Sesame Street"s puppetry team at the age of 16 part-time, making him one of the youngest Sesame Street puppeteers in the show's history. He performed as a right hand and many minor characters, including Phoebe and being the understudy for Kevin Clash's Elmo. He performed as Ernie for the second season of "Play with Me Sesame" and as Oscar the Grouch for "Sesame Street 4D". He became a full-time part of "Sesame Street" at the age of 18.
On November 12, 2009, Oscar appeared on CNN to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Oscar reveals that he would still be orange if he bathed; his green exterior is apparently moss.
Mrs. Grouch lives in Illinois. Oscar remembers her gift of a tattered sneaker to him as a baby fondly enough to sing about it in his signature song, "I Love Trash". Her name is mentioned in "Sesame Street Magazine" issue 249 (November 1995).
Mrs. Grouch has visited Sesame Street various times over the years, including in episode 3141, to make sure that her son is still Grouchy, and hasn't been turned nice. That same year, she also appeared in the special "Sesame Street Stays Up Late!", communicating by telephone with Oscar and other relatives. In a later visit to Sesame Street, she was performed by Leslie Carrara-Rudolph. After she arrives in that episode, she & Oscar greet each other in a very normal Grouchy way (Oscar: "Rotten to see ya, Ma." Mrs. Grouch: "Ah, rotten to see you too, son. Heh heh heh!"), which is how Grouch families tell each other that they really are happy to see each other.
Fans of "Sesame Street" have complained that Elmo's prominent status has caused roles to be greatly reduced for some older characters, such as Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird, Count von Count, Prairie Dawn, Grover, and Cookie Monster. Some fans also blame Elmo for the permanent departure of Kermit the Frog from Sesame Street. Elmo has been referred to as the "Little Red Menace" by Sesame Street traditionalists.
During the first season of Sesame Street, the street set was arranged in such a way that Spinney, who is right-handed, was forced to operate Oscar's head with his left hand. After the set was redesigned, Spinney was able to switch hands.
"Nasty Dan" is an American folk song written by Jeff Moss, who also wrote "Rubber Duckie". It was first recorded and released by Johnny Cash in 1975. A version of the song is on his album "The Johnny Cash Children's Album". Cash performed the song for Oscar the Grouch on "Sesame Street", telling The Grouch, "You'll like this."
As Oscar, Spinney has written "How to Be a Grouch", a Whitman Tell-A-Tale picture book. With J. Milligan, he wrote the 2003 book "The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch): Lessons from a Life in Feathers" (). Spinney narrated the audiobook "Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street" by Michael Davis. His work has been studied by other international puppeteers who structure their performance styles after his, most evidently with full-body puppet costumes. The Chinese performer of Da Niao on "Zhima Jie" is most evident of this, as the character is an exact physical replica of Big Bird.
Initially, the Puppet characters on Sesame Street did not actually appear on Sesame Street itself, but were relegated to the intermediary segments. Muppets creator Jim Henson wanted them to be integrated into the series, suggesting a giant bird and creature living in the neighborhood's trash can. The character was developed by Sesame Street head writer Jon Stone and Henson, based on the personality of a “magnificently rude” waiter.[1] Puppeteer Caroll Spinney found inspiration for the voice in the driver of a New York City taxi he took to the studio.
"Mutts" has a character that resembles Oscar the Grouch, but it is a cat who lives in a trash can, who appears in some strips of the comic.
Mrs. Grouch is the mother of Oscar the Grouch in the long-running American children's television series "Sesame Street" (1969–).
Also living outside of the building is Oscar the Grouch, a trash can-dwelling creature belonging to his own unique species, who is portrayed as a habitual pessimist and was designed to give children "permission to feel grouchy—and to demonstrate differing opinions". Oscar and Big Bird were specifically created for the reshooting of the "Street" scenes with the idea that they would be able to interact with the human characters. For his part, Oscar has several friends of his own despite his pessimism; these include the Grouch's pet worm, Slimey, and his girlfriend Grundgetta.
In a Season 29 episode, Oscar sang "Grouches Love Trash" a variation of this song to his niece Irvine. In episode 3891, his old friend Felix the Grouch sang a variation called "I Love Cleaning" while Oscar sang "I Love Trash". Yet another variation occurs when Oscar's Trash Can was grown to a larger size and the lyrics were adjusted to accommodate (a clip can be seen in "Sesame Street All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever!").
Grundgetta is a Grouch character from "Sesame Street" and the girlfriend of Oscar the Grouch. Oscar occasionally calls her Grungie, while she generally calls him Oskie. In addition to being a "couple", they're best friends too. Oscar and Grundgetta, as stated by Oscar and Gordon's sister Olivia, have been friends for "a very long time". Grundgetta first appeared on "Sesame Street" in 1980.
The Street scenes were "the glue" that "pulled the show together", so producers knew they needed to make significant changes. The producers decided to reject the advisers' advice and reshot the Street segments; Henson and his coworkers created Muppets that could interact with the human actors, specifically Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird, who became two of the show's most enduring characters. These test episodes were directly responsible for what writer Malcolm Gladwell called "the essence of "Sesame Street"—the artful blend of fluffy monsters and earnest adults". Since 2001, the full rights for the Muppets created for "Sesame Street" have been owned by Sesame Workshop.
Moishe Oofnik (Hebrew: מוישה אופניק, lit. Moishe the Grouch), is a main character in "Rechov SumSum", the Israeli version of the children's television series "Sesame Street". He is the Grouch equivalent of "Sesame Street"'s Oscar the Grouch. He is also Oscar's cousin. He was portrayed by Gilles Ben-David.
While Oscar receives new names in international dubs, Sesame Street international co-productions have often created their own version of the character.
In 1978, Gibb performed on the "Sesame Street Fever" album for the Sesame Street children's TV program. He was one of the singers on the "Sesame Street Fever" title track, he sang a song called "Trash" for the character Oscar the Grouch, and spoke with Cookie Monster at the beginning of "C is for Cookie".
Oscar the Grouch's Trash Can sits in front of a fence made of salvaged doors and is where Oscar the Grouch lives. Oscar the Grouch's Trash Can is deeper than anyone suspects. In the first episode, Gordon mentioned that the Trash Can had three and a half bedrooms. The seemingly bottomless domain houses a variety of diverse Grouch amenities and luxuries. Oscar's girlfriend Grundgetta is his most recurring visitor to his Trash Can. In "Sesame Street Visits the Firehouse", Gordon mentioned that in Oscar's Trash Can lived, "Two elephants, a puppy, a rhino, a goat, and a worm." The only time when the interior of Oscar's Trash Can was explored as a setting was in the 1999 film "The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland", when Elmo impatiently enters the Trash Can in search of his blanket. In Season 46, as part of the set redesign, the Trash Can was moved to the other end of the front of 123 Sesame Street, along with a recycling center and a compost bin.
As Stewie and Brian watch a recorded episode of "Jolly Farm Revue", Stewie notes the introduction of several new characters to the show. The television screen is then shown, as Karina reveals the characters to his co-star, Julie. The new characters include parodies of the "Sesame Street" characters Big Bird, who describes himself as a "big bird," and a self-described "grouch" named "Moody Green Garbage Creature", who resembles Oscar the Grouch, and butch and femme versions of Bert and Ernie, who try to protect Karina and Julie from Oscar.