Light Bird and Dark Grouch

The Taoist concept of "Yin and Yang" refers to the interconnectedness of lightness and darkness.  One cannot exist without the other.  While this concept had been expanded by other cultures to involve similar dichotomies (good/evil, positive/negative), the core idea that both qualities must exist is essential.

Big Bird could not exist without Oscar the Grouch.  Oscar could not exist without Bird.  And neither could exist without Caroll Spinney.

Light, dark, and the bond that holds them together.

Born on December 26, 1933 (Happy 79th Birthday!), Caroll was so named because it was so close to Christmas.  Like a traditional song, Caroll grew up to be one of the most reliable and trustworthy people to ever go into entertainment.  Caroll's interest in puppetry led him to perform on Bozo's Big Top where he showcased his original puppets, Picklepuss and Pop.

The revamped, Muppetized-versions of Picklepuss and Pop that Spinney later revisited.

Henson admired his work, and asked him for the role on the upcoming Sesame Street.  Spinney wasn't sure what he was getting into, but one does not say no to Jim Henson without a lifetime of regret.  Spinney ended up portraying two characters that would immortalize him forever.  Unlike other Muppet performers, who had a handful of signature characters (and played dozens more), these two were all Spinney needed, and it could have worked out more perfectly.

One was a dim-witted giant, small-headed, yellow bird who would play the fool to the humans on the street (both children and adults alike).  The other was an orange, trash-can dwelling monster who would antagonize the neighbors.  Both characters rapidly evolved into the Big Bird and Oscar we know today, but there was more than just a change in the puppets' appearances.

Eventually, it was decided that having the puppeteer visible was just to unsettling.

Oscar, as we know, was based on a child's tendency to be moody, self-centered, and complaining.  Armed with the voice of an unfriendly cab-driver that Spinney witnessed on the way to the studio, Oscar represented all that was wrong with life.  His pessimistic attitude rained on every pleasant occasion, and only the unwanted and disgusting elements of life gave him pleasure.  This may sound unbearable, but frankly, having someone playing devil's advocate to the bright, sunny world of Sesame Street allowed for intelligent conversations and observations.

We love you, you grubby, filthy, ill-tempered beast!

Big Bird, meanwhile, became less of an imbecile and more of a child.  He lacked knowledge, but he was curious and encouraged other children to persevere.  He became the face of optimism, always ready to sing and be merry.  As a result, troubling instances, such as death, unexpected changes and destruction, would hit even harder for the bird, showing that producers were aware of how to approach sensitive topics.

Big Bird ponders his own existence.

The fact that both of these characters are such permanent fixtures to the show is no mystery.  At times in our lives, everyone can identify with Oscar and everyone can identify with Big Bird.  Both even have their own fan clubs (the Grouchketeers and Birdketeers respectively), implying that neither character is inherently "better" than the other.  If the world were black and white, Big Bird would be the hero, Oscar the villain, and that would be final.  But both need to remain on Sesame Street to give the show its necessary depth.

In 2003, Spinney wrote an autobiography explaining what he has learned about life through the viewpoints of these two characters.  It's called The Wisdom of Big Bird (and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch) and is well worth your time.

Although we rarely see the man behind these characters, it is clear that he is a wonderful human being.  He has landed one of the best jobs in the world and, at 79, he still feels like a kid every day.  In 2013 a documentary titled I Am Big Bird shall premiere, and judging by the trailer, life behind the scenes is just as magical as life in front of the camera.

At a time when all other original puppeteers are retiring, he is remaining strong, vowing to continue playing these characters "as long as [he] can keep [his] hand in the air."  Happy Birthday to this wonderful legend, who reminds us to embrace our inner grouch and our inner child.

A hero in bird's legs.

The Ghost of Christmas Specials Past

In 2006, Sesame Street produced yet another Christmas special, one that went straight to DVD.  A Sesame Street Christmas Carol promised to tell the story of A Christmas Carol with Oscar the Grouch filling in for Ebenezer Scrooge.  It's not a highly original concept, but it made sense and it was a surprise that it hadn't been done before.  Oh wait... it had been done before.  But A Special Sesame Street Christmas only loosely referenced the Dickens classic.  And it was terrible.  This was their chance to set things right!

The promise of ghosts and trips to various stages of Oscar's life?  Sign me up!

The opening has that warm, familiar feeling.  Actually, it's a little too familiar.  In fact, it's just the opening to Elmo's World: Happy Holidays in black-and-white.  That's strange...but I'll let it slide.  After all, this is about Oscar.  I guess we are supposed to infer that this story is happening on the same night as that previous special.

As Oscar prepares to sleep and makes sure his "Do Not Disturb Until After Christmas" sign is in place, a nervous mailman named Joe Marley arrives to deliver the first of Oscar's three letters.  Okay, so that's how they're setting up the story.  Shouldn't be too bad.

He's less frightening than the original Marley.   And more alive.

Oscar opens his first package, a rusty old can of beans and unleashes the first ghost, Rhubarb the Grouch.  Despite being a cartoonish CGI effect, Rhubarb is a fun character, having apparently been a famous British grouch who lived in the queen's trash can in 1843.

Wait, shouldn't he be the Marley character?  Ah, nevermind.

Rhubarb states that he's going to show Oscar some old home movies of Christmases past, but promises the grouch that he doesn't have to enjoy it and can even make fun of them if he wants to.  Now I'm getting excited.  What is the first movie?  Why it's...Bert and Ernie's Gift of the Magi story from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street...again!  I just relived this story a couple days ago!  What's going on?!  This doesn't even have anything to do with Oscar the Grouch.  Oh well, Rhubarb gave Oscar permission to make fun of the film.  Maybe it'll be like Mystery Science Theater 3000 meets Sesame Street.  This could still be interesting.

But as minutes pass without commentary from Oscar, it becomes abundantly clear.  THIS IS A CLIP SHOW.  And the clips aren't even about Oscar!  The next "home movie" is from Elmo Saves Christmas where Big Bird sings "All I Want for Christmas is You" to Snuffy over the phone.  And since I didn't discuss it last time, I can at least show it here.

I do like how Big Bird has to describe his obligatory dance routine via phone.  That's a funny moment.

Wait a second...why is Oscar seeing this?  Wasn't this an alternate reality created by Elmo's wish?  What kind of trans-dimensional trickery is going on here?  Before he can answer our existential questions, Rhubarb leaves and Marley delivers the next ghost in the form of a Kristin Chenoweth Christmas tree known as "Christmas Carole."

The Ghost of Christmas Present, folks.

Okay, so remember how earlier, I mentioned that this night is probably coinciding with the same night that Happy Holidays occurred?  Well, what clips do you think Christmas Carole will show Oscar?  That's right, Elmo meeting Santa Claus asking for a gift for Dorothy (even though this was implied to happen solely in Elmo's imagination).  And then she shows Elmo singing about how every day can't be Christmas from...Elmo Saves Christmas, which just caused five new plot holes.  So, Elmo's alternate universe wish thing is happening at the same time as Elmo visiting Santa in his imagination?  Why does Oscar need to see this paradox?!

Christmas Carole also shows the Chanukah and Kwanzaa segments once again, for good measure.  And things close off with the finale of Elmo Saves Christmas where the cast sings "Keep Christmas With You," even though I thought this special was supposed to have occurred in the past since Rhubarb showed a clip from it.  Nothing is making any sense!

Finally, Oscar meets the final ghost, the ghost of Sam the Robot.  Okay, what clips could the Ghost of Christmas Future possibly show us?  Clips from the Ben Stiller Christmas episode that aired two years later?  Clips from a special that hasn't even aired yet?  Clips from Elmo Saves Christmas again?!

Please, redeem this special!

Nope, we get no clips.  Instead we get a faux-retro cartoon about the "Christmas of Tomorrow," where penguins send a family on an amusement park ride through the various elements of Christmas's future, including self-decorating houses, dinners in pill form, and more cost-effective ways to deliver and make toys.  It's...something.  At least it's original.

In the morning, Oscar wakes up and decides that these spectral visitors have convinced him to appreciate Christmas.  Yecch!

The point of adapting A Christmas Carol is to show how one miserly, miserable individual can change their ways and learn not only to respect themselves, but to value others and become more charitable and kind.  Oscar is never once shown the "error of his ways."  If anything, these clips should just make him hate Christmas more!

Well, he should be thankful.  At least they didn't show any clips from A Special Sesame Street Christmas.

Another Man's Treasure

While I referenced this song earlier during my analysis of grouches, sometimes it helps to recycle old material.

3. I Love Trash - Oscar the Grouch

Oscar's signature song is not only memorable for being a rare occurrence of grouch joy, but it also has the distinction of being the most un-educational song on the show.  No talk about letters or numbers or manners or pleasant life concepts.  Just a celebration of trash.

To a child, everything in the world is a new experience.  It is through conditioning and experience that the child learns not to touch the stove or not to eat what the dog is eating.  And one area of the house that children learn to avoid is the trash can.  Once something goes into the trash, it should remain there forever more.  Kids learn that they are doing a "good job" when they throw their litter away and get reprimanded when they drag that refuse back out into the open.

So here comes a song that contradicts everything they have learned up until this point.  Trash = Bad, to a child.  But here is a song that highlights and recognizes the beauty in that which is, by it's very nature, unsanitary and unwanted.  They have now learned about perspective.

Just because their culture has brought them up to consider certain aspects of life good or bad, right or wrong, it doesn't mean the entire world subscribes to this point of view.  Not everything is so black and white.  There is room for change, for new appreciation, for new experiences.

Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to throw things out.

Give trash a chance.

Random Muppet #12: Mary Mary Quite Contrary

On the Muppet Wiki, there is a "Random Muppet" button which sends you to the page of one of the thousands of Muppets in existence. I will press the button and discuss the importance of the Muppet that comes up, no matter how obscure. No skips. No redos. This is the Random Muppet Challenge.

Random Muppet #12: Mary Mary Quite Contrary

 

The argumentative gardener who you can't live with or without.

Performer: Stephanie D'Abruzzo

Muppet Universe of Origin: Sesame Street

Most Significant Appearance: Sesame Street, December 7, 2009, "Episode 4198"

It's a typical day on Sesame Street, which means that a nursery rhyme character is going to appear and wreak havoc on everybody's parade. Today's victim is Oscar, who finds his trash can surrounded by piles of dirt. At first, he is pleased with the change, but he soon learns that the dirt is just the starting point for Mary Mary Quite Contrary's new garden. Just as in the original poem, Mary Mary has some interesting ideas for what constitutes a garden, and, with her partner Mother Goose, she starts planting silver bells and cockle shells, refusing to accept conventional garden norms.

  

So, now it's just a pile of dirt with junk in it.  Oscar should be pleased.

Once Gordon teaches Mary Mary that a garden, by it's definition, must be used to grow things, she decides to make the most beautiful, lush garden in the world. And why does she decide to do this? Because Oscar doesn't want her to.

 

Oscar's trash can has never looked better!

In order to run Mary Mary out of town, Oscar calls up her grouch-counterpart, Hairy Hairy More Contrary, to plant a grouchy garden. Hairy Hairy brings smelly plants and weeds and dirty pigs to create an absolute mess. But Mary Mary, being ever so contrary, sees beauty in the squalor, which causes Hairy Hairy to leave in a huff (since a grouch's work must never be appreciated).

 

I wonder if everyone has a grouch counterpart, somewhere in the world.

The new stinky garden causes anguish for all the neighbors and they plead with Mary Mary to take it down. But she remains firm, refusing to leave. Enjoying the new grossness, Oscar praises the new garden and welcomes Mary Mary onto the block, allowing her to stay.

And with that, she promptly dismantles her garden and leaves. Though, she does leave behind her maids all in a row, to ceaselessly torture Oscar with their singing.

 

Women are hard to understand. 

Why Is She the Best Muppet?

People are complicated. So when two or more people inhabit the same area, conflict is bound to arise. Likes and dislikes are at odds with one another and the only way to survive is through patience and compromise.

Grouches are anti-people. They strive to bring about the absolute worst in humanity. If you choose too interact with them, they will do all in their power to make it the worst experience ever. Usually, people try to combat a grouch's pessimism with overwhelming niceness. They feel that if they can teach them good manners, then the grouch will become a better person.

But sometimes, you have to fight fire with fire.

 

Well, they fought with water, but you get the idea. 

Mary Mary Quite Contrary is the world's worst roommate, for people and grouches alike. She isn't inherently evil. She just always wants to do the opposite of what others want from her.

And this desire is genuine. Throughout the entire episode (save for the very end), Mary Mary is always able to come up with reasons to validate her contrarian behavior. She comes to her own decisions and they just always happen to be contrary. The episode handles this imbalance carefully. One could assume that Mary Mary simply doesn't have free will. Whatever one character says, she is destined to do the opposite. Yet she can always explain her actions.

She wants a garden with bells and shells because she thinks they are pretty. She then wants a garden with flowers because she learns that a garden should have flowers. She then wants a garden with weeds because, to her, they are beautiful. Mary Mary is always getting the garden she wants, and everyone else must deal with her decisions.

The only point in which she breaks is during her final contrary decision, where she leaves Sesame Street for good, claiming it is only because Oscar wanted her to stay and she must remain contrary. "Aha!" you may say. "This proves she has no free will!"

Does it though? Let's examine why she arrived on Sesame Street in the first place. When the dirt arrives, Oscar is happy. When the flowers arrive, Oscar is sad. When the weeds arrive, Oscar is happy. When Mary leaves, Oscar is sad. And he'll continue to be sad because she left behind his least favorite part of the garden. Mary Mary spends the whole time manipulating Oscar's emotions. He likes her, then he hates her, then he loves her, then she leaves.

If this sounds familiar to you, then I'm sorry. But this type of relationship happens all too often. At the end of a break up, we can find ourselves hating the other person for long after they've left. Little things they left behind remind us of the past and cause us to get upset all over again. We try to rationalize their behavior, and unfortunately, many people end up settling on some less-than-kind words to describe their exes. We make them into terrible people because it helps us understand the situation better.

But people are complicated. There is no on/off switch, no black and white categories. Like Oscar, we'll just have to accept that people can hurt you, but their reasons will remain forever unsaid. It's best to move on and let them go.

The Moonworm

43 years ago today, man first walked on the moon.  Four months later, Sesame Street premiered.  1969 was a big year.  It's a shame that Sesame Street barely missed witnessing one of the most important historical events of the century.  So, in 1998, the show decided to stage its own version of the moon landing so that it's characters may experience the splendor that was man walking on the moon.

We've already seen one character achieve lunar orbit, and we've learned that the moon is no place to live, but that wasn't enough.  The second half of Season 29 was devoted to one character's trip to the moon.  Even though the original Apollo 11 took 8 days total, this character was so small that the voyage took 5 months.  Yes, one lowly worm managed to travel almost 239,000 miles away from the Earth, going where no worm has gone before.

In a tiny, tiny spacesuit.

Slimey was Oscar the Grouch's pet worm and the only creature he would voluntarily be nice towards.  When Slimey first saw the moon, he became to enamored with it that he would stay up all night just watching it.  Oscar decided he would help Slimey achieve is dreams of one day walking on the moon.

Looking through a tiny, tiny telescope.

After going through WASA training, Slimey rose to the head of the group, with his abilities to withstand the pressures that space travel would place on him.  Finally, he left orbit, with a tearful goodbye from Oscar.  And while they hit a few snags along the way...

...such as hitting the "Wrong Way" button with their bowling ball, forcing them to go outside to fix the problem...

...Slimey and his team finally made it to the moon.  Many episodes chronicled this journey, but Tony Bennett was kind enough to summarize the trip in a single song, "Slimey to the Moon."  Womp womp.

After collecting as much space dirt as they could handle, the worms headed back home.  Their module was supposed to land in the Atlantic Ocean, but thanks to the Count summoning a thunderstorm when he began counting down for their return, the spacecraft veered off course, heading straight toward Sesame Street.

Fortunately, they had a bucket full of water handy to catch them, just like the Apollo 11 mission.

Back safe and sound, Slimey greeted his dear friend Oscar, who had been worried about him, yet also proud of him, causing a slew of new emotions he had often avoided.  Slimey presented Oscar with a picture of the Earth from the moon, and Oscar finally saw things in a new perspective.

Such a tiny, tiny Earth.

The original moon landing was the stuff of legends.  The world stopped that day as everyone can remember exactly where they were when it occurred.  For the inhabitants of Sesame Street, they were able to relive that piece of history.  By choosing their tiniest member to be their representative, it proved that size doesn't matter when it comes to fulfilling your dreams.  The universe can make you feel really small.  But that didn't intimidate Slimey.  It empowered him, giving him the courage to achieve the unthinkable.  Never underestimate the little guy.

What a tiny, tiny conqueror.

Follow That Bird, Part 5: Bringing It Home

After Big Bird's dismal show, a couple of kids meet him backstage and he tells them to call Sesame Street for him.  They get in touch with Bob who relays the message to the traveling gang who are filling up at a nearby gas station.

Cookie Monster is filling up the most.

The team bands together to break Big Bird out of his cage.  Early in the morning, while the Sleazes are sleeping, Linda manages to swipe the keys to the cage.  Unfortunately, just as they manage to find the right key, the Sleazes wake up and drive off with Big Bird in tow.  Gordon and Olivia take off in hot pursuit, and Gordon decides that it's time for the movie's big action sequence.

Grab on to your seats!  It's going to get crazy.

Gordon decides that the best course of action is to have Olivia drive as close as possible to the cage(!), then he'll stand up in the hoodless trunk(!!), and Big Bird will have to jump from a moving vehicle onto another moving vehicle(!!!!!).  Big Bird and Gordon have a nice long discussion about how unsafe this is and how no child should ever do this and Big Bird shouldn't even be standing, but these are special circumstances and Gordon is giving his permission just this once.  The Nostalgia Critic summed up this moment quite nicely in his review:

Despite looking as if Big Bird is going to fall to his ghastly death, Big Bird manages to make it safely onto Gordon's car.

Seriously, kids, do NOT do this, EVER!

Big Bird finally gets to be reunited with his friends and Officer John Candy pulls over the Sleaze Brothers and sends them to jail for all the crimes they've racked up.  My personal favorite is "impersonating a nun."

It's an SCTV reunion!

We rejoin our friends back at Sesame Street where everyone turns out to see Big Bird's arrival.

Even Elmo showed up with barely any lines!  He'll get his revenge in the next movie...

Everyone is happy, but we still have Miss Finch to deal with.  She arrives to admit that while the Dodos may not have been a right fit for Big Bird, she has found an even better bird family for him.  But the citizens of Sesame Street protest, saying that Big Bird belongs with them.  They are his family.  Maria lists off the many types of creatures who live on Sesame Street in harmony.  Humans, cows, dogs, birds, monsters, grouches, even Bert and Ernie!

Why did she single us out, Bert?

Miss Finch finally relents and states that if Big Bird is truly happy here, she has no right to take him from the people who love him and take care of him.  It's a nice ending, though I which we had gotten a brief scene featuring the new family she had found, living in a bird mansion and being the most perfect family imaginable.

The new family has a swimming pool, but if you want to stay in your trash heap, fine by me.

After Miss Finch leaves, Big Bird goes to reunite with Snuffy who kept his nest warm this whole time. Aww, how nice!

Everything is back to the status quo.

And finally, Gordon and his posse arrives with a lot of 'splainin' to do to his wife.

Why did we even bring Cookie Monster in the first place?

The Count counts the credits for us and Follow That Bird draws to a close.

Follow That Bird is a movie that should and should not exist.  With so many episodes in the Sesame Street library, one grows used to a certain rhythm and flow.  The movie mostly abandons that and aims just to be it's own thing.  We spend very little time on Sesame Street itself, despite the effort that went into recreating the set so it looked nice for the camera.  It's still a good movie for kids, as it has a great message, catchy songs, and familiar characters.

But the movie is really divided into "Big Bird" and "everybody else," which creates a lopsided feeling. Big Bird spends a majority of the film in new locations and meeting new characters.  Like many of the "Big Bird travels" episodes of the show, it's fun to see this character under going new experiences.  Like Peewee's Big Adventure, we get to through this colorful character into the real world and see how he adapts.  Unfortunately, the people he meets are either too nice or cartoonishly evil.  It's as if Sesame Street has spilled out into the real world, rather than being a little haven unto itself.  As such, there is never a real sense of drama.

Big Bird longs to get home, yet the America he journeys through is quite pleasant.  Had there been more danger or unusual situations, then we as an audience would have felt Big Bird's pain.  The only negative moment he finds himself in is the "Bluebird" scene, and that's why the scene resonates so strongly with kids and adults alike.  Big Bird is finally in actual peril.

The rest of the cast as very little to do, both humans and puppets alike.  Each puppet does their main schtick, but none of it fits into the overall story.  Part of my issue is that I am confused about Big Bird's relationship with the people coming to rescue him.  On the show, Big Bird is closest with the humans, Snuffy, and, ironically, Oscar the Grouch.  Yet, the humans all behave a single unit of normalcy, and Snuffy stays home.  The reason I enjoy Oscar's scenes so much is because he's actually making the most of a bad situation and having fun.  I mean, it would have been nice if he showed he cared at least once (and he kind of does at the very end, when he takes a stroll around the block), but he still provides the funniest scenes and commentary on the whole situation.

BIG BIRD OR BUST!

On it's own the movie is very solid and it is a great addition to the Henson film canon.  Director Ken Kwapis (The Office, Freaks and Geeks, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) does a great job with the comedic aspects as well as the more tense moments towards the end of the film.  If I were to rank it with the original three Muppet movies, I would place it at #3, above The Muppets Take Manhattan.  I wish the movie had done a lot more with the premise and explored the drama a little more, but what we have is just fine.  It feels like a Sesame Street movie, even if it doesn't necessarily feel like a Sesame Street episode.

Follow That Bird, Part 3: Down on the Farm

The kindly hitchhiker takes Big Bird as far as he can before dropping him off in the middle of nowhere, because that's what you do with a 6-year-old runaway.  Big Bird heads down a dirt road and before long, he comes across a farm filled with chickens.  Not Muppet chickens, just regular chickens, which usually wouldn't be an issue, except with this whole set up of "birds as a race of people," it's kind of weird to encounter the actual creatures.

Oh, and the farm is apparently run by children.

"Get offa my property, pwease!"

Okay, I know that these kids have parents, but we never see them.  The children, Ruthie and Floyd, recognize Big Bird from the TV and they decide to hide him in the barn.  The barn is off-limits to parents, I guess.

That night, Big Bird stares out at "One Little Star" from his hayloft and wonders how his friends are doing at that moment.  And, of course, they are looking at that same star, singing the same song.  It's sweet, but it's kind of weird that Big Bird only thinks about the two people who happen to be singing about him.

I miss Olivia and Snuffy and...the rest.

While everyone else is singing, the cool car decides to stop for dinner at the Grouch-run restaurant "Don't Drop Inn," because Oscar put up with Friendly's for lunch.  That's a good joke.

This was eventually renamed "Denny's."

This is basically a comic relief sketch thrown into the middle of the film where Maria has to suffer from the terrible service, horrible food, and obnoxious atmosphere one comes to expect from a Grouch dining establishment.  This is one of the few times we see human Grouches in the series.

Would you like some attitude with that?

Maria's theoretically safe order of a tossed salad ends with the inevitable food fight.  But at least the lettuce looks edible.

Back on the farm, Big Bird begins helping the children with their chores and becomes used to the country life of apple-pickin', cow-milkin', apple-milkin', cow-tippin', milk-pickin', apple-cowin', and goin' through barn doors.

Where are your parents, you children of the corn?!

And let's not forget the ADR'd song, even though we just had a song one scene ago.

But all good things must come to an end.  While Big Bird feels content in this new home, Miss Finch picks up his scent and soon, Big Bird must hightail it out of there.  As he's hiding, he narrowly avoids being caught by the Sleaze brothers, so that plot point will have to come later.

Instead, we find Big Bird stranded in a cornfield.  After having an imaginary talk with Snuffy, he gets spotted by Bert and Ernie flying their plane.  And that can only mean one thing: a North by Northwest parody!

"We're supposed to take him dead or alive, right?"

Ernie only succeeds in scaring Big Bird because he gets mistaken for Miss Finch (and also he flew straight at Big Bird with a plane!) and decides now is the time for some plane stunts and another song called "Upside Down World."

But we just had two songs!

Ernie sings of the joys of flying upside down as Bert loses his bottle cap collection.  The two then switch positions and Bert begins singing and flying while Ernie becomes the clearheaded one, telling them that they've misplaced Big Bird during all their tomfoolery.  Oh, Ernie, you scamp!  The duo flies on with out Big Bird, because we've still got two-fifths of the movie to go.

Tomorrow, Big Bird finds himself trapped and feeling blue.  Get out your tissues now!

Follow That Bird, Part 2: On the Run

After reading Big Bird's depressing letter, Snuffy decides now is the time to visit his friend and lift hist spirits.  He sends a massive postcard detailing his plans and Big Bird is overjoyed.  He shares the news with his family, but hits a roadblock when they inquire about the type of bird Snuffy is.  When Big Bird tells them the truth, they forbid Snuffy from visiting, because birds are only supposed to be friends with birds.

So, Big Bird does what anyone would do in this situation and runs away in the middle of the night.

I'm sure he'll be just fine.

Soon, the news of Big Bird's disappearance hits the airwaves and that means it's time for our first celebrity cameo! Chevy Chase appears as the anchorman and, like Steve Martin and John Cleese before him, he makes the most of his one scene.

  

Never before has saying the name "Sesame Street" been so funny.

As the Sesame Street inhabitants watch, the report is turned over to our favorite reporter Kermit the Frog who explains that Big Bird has run away and intends to head back home.

 

I'm not sure if this counts as a cameo or not.

He interviews the Dodo family who are completely distraught over the loss of their new child. Wait, I meant they are completely excited to be on television and they leave the interview in order to watch themselves on TV. Yeah, we aren't supposed to care for these characters one bit.

 

The hatred of birds among children ages 3-7 increased 500% after this movie premiered.

Kermit then interviews Miss Finch who swears to hunt down Big Bird and kill him, I mean, return him to his "proper" family if it's the last thing she does. Big Bird watches her threat on a store's television set and psychs himself up for his "three-hour" journey (because it took two hours to fly there, and he knows walking will take longer, obviously).

I miss the days when all store windows had multiple TV sets showing plot-relevant news stories.

The gang on Sesame Street decide that the best course of action will be to split up and drive across the country in order to intercept Big Bird's path. Akin to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, we get five wacky modes of transportation to follow:

1) Gordon, Olivia, Linda, and Cookie Monster are taking Gordon's VW, because it's smart to bring a monster that devours everything in sight on a rescue mission.

2) The Count heads off in his Countmobile alone, probably because no one wants to be stuck on a 24-hour car ride with the Count.

  

That's one! One person counting out loud the entire time! Ah-ah-ah!

3) Super Grover is going to fly by himself. Um, we don't want to end up with two missing Muppets, Mr. Movie!

4) Bert and Ernie take their biplane that they always have that Ernie knows how to fly like always.

5) And Maria and Telly Monster join Oscar in his Sloppy Jalopy, which comes with Homer the Honker, since the car's horn doesn't work. Oscar's only agreeing to help because he's sure they will end up coming home empty handed. Does that mean he thinks Big Bird is going to get killed? Probably.

 This is the cool car, by the way.  Shotgun!

As the gang fans out, Big Bird continues teaching all sorts of great lessons to the viewing audience, like it's a good idea to hitchhike with random turkey farmers because they'll probably turn out to be kindly country music sensation Waylon Jennings. And he'll sing you a nice tune encouraging you to stick to your decision to run away from your home.

"Ain't No Road Too Long" is this film's "Movin' Right Along."

But lurking on the sidelines is a pair of ne'er-do-well brothers named Sam and Sid Sleaze who run a shoddy carnival that swindles kids out of their well earned nickels.  Played by Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas of SCTV, the Sleazes get an idea as to how to increase revenue at their crappy park.  They need to get their hands on that missing bird and make him their main attraction!

Now these guys are just what Sesame Street villains would be like: pure evil without any sense of realism.

Uh-oh!  Hopefully Big Bird will manage to stay far away from these two.  Tune in tomorrow to see if he does!  (Spoiler alert: he doesn't.)