He never imagined the show held a job he could do, much less that of the iconic yellow 8-foot-4-inch tall Big Bird. Mild-mannered and patient, Vogel said he was inspired by master puppeteer Jim Henson and watched the show that icon helped produce. “We try to come up with the best methods so our directors can get the shots that they want.” “Can we throw a chicken through the frame? How many ducks can we fit in a wheelbarrow? Things like that,” he said. That means he sits in on production meetings and lets directors and producers know the limits of puppetry. On the set, Vogel’s main task is Big Bird, but he has also inherited voicing and manipulating for the Count and the title of puppet captain. “You know Joseph Gordon Levitt is the perfect example because he’s watching it with his kids now, but you can see he’s a fan.” “I think a lot of people who work on ‘Sesame Street’ are here because our mission is to make kids smarter, stronger and kinder and that those lessons that we impart to them stay with them,” Lehmann said. It’s start-stop work but everyone seemed cheerful. Sometimes a full day of filming produces just 10 minutes of show. More than once, the whole parade was stopped and restarted after a stray arm was spotted by the director. They practice the sequence once or twice before the celebrity is brought in and the heaviest costumes are put on the puppeteers. Puppeteers perform holding their puppets high in the air while sitting on little round scooters on wheels - they call them “rollies” - and watching monitors on the ground to make sure they’re keeping their creatures in the frame. In one segment, Levitt walks across the set surrounded by around 10 or so animals, monsters and Grover. On this day, the cast and staff are recording segments for a star-studded prime-time special in honor of the show’s 50th anniversary hosted by actor Joseph Gordon Levitt. It takes a lot of work to create a season’s worth of 35 zesty episodes, each 26 minutes long. (The Snuffleupagus suit is so massive it hangs from the rafters when not being used). While some rod puppets like Elmo require one puppeteer, it takes two to manipulate Ernie, Rosita, The Count, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, Telly Monster and Snuffleupagus.
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