(THEME MUSIC PLAYING) HOST: Number One, what is your name, please?

My name is Caroll Spinney.

HOST: Number Two.

My name is Caroll Spinney.

HOST: Number Three.

My name is Caroll Spinney.

Funny.

I watch him all the time and I don't recognize him.

But here is Caroll Spinney's story.

If he were performing 100 years ago, he'd be the king of vaudeville.

He is a master.

Everyone recognizes that.

You can't argue with that.

He is a master.

WOMAN: Number Three, what were you before you were Big Bird?

I was in a series called Bozo The Clown.

JERRY NELSON: He goes right to the heart of the bird, you know.

There is something about Caroll that has that... Also that child-like innocence.

How did you get that job?

Jim Henson saw me performing at a puppet festival.

I mean, just look at the legacy.

It's like, 43 years.

And Caroll has been doing it from day one.

NORMAN STILES: He is Big Bird.

There is no question in my mind that Big Bird is him and he is Big Bird.

You'll look inside and you'll see feathers.

He has made an extraordinary worldwide icon with that bird.

And Number Two, how many times do you appear on Sesame Street?

On every show?

All but the three in this last season.

MAN: Who doesn't know who Big Bird is?

From my two-year-old niece to my eighty-something-year-old grandmother, like, and everywhere in between, everyone knows who he is.

I like being miserable.

That makes me happy.

MAN: It does now?

But I don't like being happy, so that makes me miserable.

(MAN LAUGHING) J. MILLIGAN: There's this sort of Yinyang thing going on with Big Bird and Oscar and that the bird certainly comes from him, from his soul, from his childhood and Oscar is part of him too.

HOST: And that does us in.

We must form an opinion and we must decide.

Is it One?

Or is Two?

Or is it Three?

LAURENT LINN: Big Bird and Oscar are two of the most known and famous characters on planet Earth.

Yet, Caroll... People don't know who he is.

The votes are all in.

Will the real Caroll Spinney please stand up?

(PEOPLE APPLAUDING) CAROLL: I saw a puppet show when I was a little boy.

And I thought, "That was great."

I thought that was the greatest thing that they could tell stories with their little striped puppets on their hands.

That little... Yeah.

MAN: That one?

Okay.

Thank you.

I never got to Ireland.

MAN: Yeah.

I was looking for it.

I regret that.

I'm not traveling anymore, you know.

CAROLL: Yeah.

JERRY: You travel for me.

Send me pictures.

Okay.

CAROLL: Not long after that, I found a puppet for five cents at a rummage sale.

And so I made a sign that said, "Puppet show, two cents."

Everybody went away smiling.

I can't imagine what I used for a story or a show.

But I thought, "Wow, I'm gonna be a puppeteer when I grow up."

Oh.

Good morning, Lars.

How are you?

My mother was delighted that I was interested in puppets.

She was an artist.

And she encouraged my art.

She made a whole Punch and Judy set for me.

And she built a puppet theater with the help of my brother.

She would get inspired and write me a new story.

So, I ended up with twelve different stories.

JUDY VALENTINE: She was a little, huggable lady.

She was fun.

So you know where Caroll got some of that.

And she was so excited about what he was doing.

CAROLL: She didn't realize that she was giving me my career.

She was a great mom.

My father didn't feel that I was gonna make a living.

As being an artist, I was going to starve in a garret.

He did have a rather bad temper.

And I seemed to know how to trigger it.

I was only six and I knocked a can of paint.

He went nuts.

I squirmed out of his arms, he grabbed me by my leg and he swung me around and threw me across the room.

He picks up the clothes rack over the hot air register.

He brought it over his head and he started swinging it right at me.

Just then, my mother managed to get between me and the rack.

It gave her the worst bruises I have ever seen in my life.

It wasn't the last argument that I had with my dad.

He let me borrow his car.

He insisted that he had half a tank.

He didn't.

He had just over a quarter tank.

And he said that I had cheated him.

It was such an awful argument.

I thought that it'd be good to go away.

That day I went off and enlisted in the air force.

I count the four years I had in the air force as some of the great years of my life.

I even had my own television show.

And it was only eight years after television had begun in the U.S.

So, I was feeling pretty good that I had broken in TV that quickly.

When I got out of the service, I was now 23, so I started going out looking for jobs.

I went to Walt Disney to get a job.

And I said "What will be the pay?"

Fifty-six dollars a week.

And I walked out.

(CHUCKLES) I tried to get back into TV in Boston.

And I teamed up with a lovely girl named Judy Valentine.

JUDY: With one hour, we had no script.

We just did it, just the three of us.

CAROLL: They had double the Nielsen rating of the show we were replacing, so it seemed like they'd wanna pick it up, but they didn't.

JUDY: But it didn't happen, except that they moved us to The Bozo Show.

But we were lucky because we stayed together.

Woo-hoo-hoo!

FRANK AVRUCH: We're talking in the '60s.

A low budget show.

We didn't have a script.

We'd all get together at a production meeting in the morning.

"Okay, what are we gonna do today?"

CAROLL: It was so much fun playing many different characters on the show.

AVRUCH: He just has a knack of creating characters and making them come alive.

Billy Bill dogdern.

Got this big juicy pie.

Hey, how about saying, "So long," boys and girls, to Kooky Kangaroo?

AVRUCH: And just, he's very creative.

He is a wonderful artist.

He created the animation for the actual Bozo Show.

Hey, Butch.

What's up, Bozo?

JUDY: I know he thought he had more to offer.

Hey, this is just like Shakespeare.

It's so...

He was just too talented to be so stuck.

CAROLL: I loved working with Frank Avruch on The Bozo Show.

But I didn't feel it was particularly important.

It was mind candy.

I wanted to do something more important with puppets.

So I decided to go to a puppet festival.

And it was a case of being in the right place at the right time.

So, first we'll have, guess who, Jim... (CHUCKLES) (ALL LAUGHING) Jim Henson's here.

(CROWD CHEERING) Uh, I was just looking in, uh...

I keep a little notebook of what I did and when, you know.

And so, it was in August of 1969, and there was a puppetry festival in Salt Lake City.

And that was where I first met Caroll.

CAROLL: I had use of a beautiful Acme animation stand.

Made a beautiful film to be projected onto a theater I built with a rear screen projection.

ANNOUNCER: In 30 seconds.

CAROLL: Then, at the last minute, I hear that Jim Henson was in the audience.

My name is Jim Henson and I am a puppeteer.

And I am called a puppeteer because I work with puppets.

I am working the left hand and the head.

And I am working the right hand.

CAROLL: I had first seen The Muppets in 1960 and said, "Now, "that's puppets that really speak to me."

My show was introduced and I briefly explained this was experimental theater.

The curtains open and I look up and to my horror, I can't see the screen.

There's a big floodlight has been put on.

I look up and I can see this giant spot of light which I had not put on.

And it was washing out my screen so extremely, I couldn't see anything on the screen, so I couldn't stay in sync.

There was no sense in going on with it.

So, I walked between the projector and my screen and I started pantomiming pulling my hair out.

Then, I suddenly hear a voice.

"Hi, there."

And it was Jim Henson.

He said, "I liked what you were trying to do."

And I thought, "Gee, that's very neat."

JANE HENSON: (ON TAPE) "And actually, the idea that Jim first saw him "handling a lot of mishaps in his own show, "actually, it was to his advantage, because "that's the kind of quality that Jim wanted in a Big Bird."

CAROLL: He had said, "Why don't you come down to New York "and talk about The Muppets?"

And I just thought he wanted to talk shop.

So he said it again.

I said, "What do you mean?"

He said, "Work for The Muppets."

Open up new worlds on a street... Hey, Rowlf.

Hmm?

Why don't you call your show, Sesame Street?

You know, like, "open sesame."

It kind of gives the idea of a street where neat stuff happens.

We want to emphasize that the children's television workshop is an experiment.

Research is woven into the total fabric of the show.

There was no question in my mind that television could teach little children.

The trick was to make it entertaining.

It was the end of the '60s when Sesame Street came into being.

The times they were a-changin'.

The world was waiting for a change, I think.

And we were part of it.

Kermit, why, you are a genius.

(KISSING) Yuck.

Sesame Street.

I love it.

The kids will love it.

(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY) After he goes toes then I went to hands.

After the hands went back.

CAROLL: First day of taping came.

And I was going to be working with Frank Oz and Jim Henson.

Stand by.

Tape is rolling.

Of course, I had great tension over it.

Jim Henson was a true genius in every way.

He and Frank had been working together for some years already.

And they could tell each other's thoughts practically.

Jim and I were very, very aggressive performers.

You have to be kind of aggressive and selfish to have a main character.

He wasn't that kind of guy.

CAROLL: It was all good fun.

But I was worried about doing good puppetry.

We were doing a song where we're all singing, "Ice cream, ice cream, we all scream for ice cream."

CAROLL: My problem has always been with the rhythm getting into each song.

Well, I would miss the first syllable every time.

And so I'm starting to feel pretty bad 'cause I miss it.

The third time I could just feel I didn't get it.

Jim looked over and saw that there was a monitor over there.

And he could go look at it by himself and not have to crane over people's heads.

And he didn't see me walk up and watch just behind him.

And he just quietly says, "Garbage."

And I said, "Oh, God."

I said, "I'm not good enough to be a muppeteer.

"I'll resign "and you can get somebody who can do it right."

Jim was very, very gentle and understanding.

He didn't yell at me.

He just showed that he was a patient and gentle, nice guy.

FRANK OZ: I remember a feeling that I have of Caroll that I feel bad for him that he was not committing himself to the characters enough because he was kind of in awe of Jim.

I think he didn't fulfill his full talent at that point.

CAROLL: At first, I didn't have an awful lot to do.

Big Bird was barely in the show.

He was just being introduced and Oscar was too.

So, I did a lot of right hand work.

I did Ernie's right hand.

Because, with puppets like Ernie, it takes two people to do the puppet.

He didn't fit in and he knew it.

CAROLL: I thought, "I don't think I can stand coming here anymore."

I didn't have enough money to rent an apartment.

For a while, I was sleeping on a foldout couch up in Spanish Harlem.

There was still trash in the streets, and I'm stepping over trash.

Boston wasn't like that.

So, I had the problem of what to do.

Silly doors.

MAN: That's Big Bird.

(CHILD CHATTERING) CAROLL: I decided to quit.

I was going up the stairs to Jim's office.

And Kermit Love was there, who was the builder of Big Bird.

He'd become a good friend.

He saw my grave-looking face and he said, "What are you doing?"

I said, "I'm going up to quit."

He said, "You'll never get another opportunity like this again."

I said, "Yeah, but I can't stand New York."

He said, "It will get better.

"Just give it another month."

Look, she's eight feet tall.

No, she's not.

She's only four feet tall.

I'm holding her up, Big Bird.

CAROLL: Big Bird, at first, he was a very goofy guy.

Kind of a country yokel.

You're not a bird.

I'm a bird.

Birds are big.

CAROLL: And I said, "You know something?

"I think that maybe, he should be a kid.

"He just happens to be a big kid."

The producers agreed.

Oh, hello.

MAN: Big Bird, why are you doing that?

Just because.

CAROLL: The scripts suddenly were all Big Bird and Oscar.

And they were terrific.

I couldn't even imagine how I could even have thought about leaving such an opportunity.

And then I really got into it.

The second year I began to sail.

ANNOUNCER: All rehearsed, all ready to go to see somebody special.

One of our biggest yellow feathered friends.

Who is it?

ALL: Big Bird.

ANNOUNCER: You got it.

BOB McGRATH: I think it was most apparent to us the first time we really got out and performed for kids.

Every time we mentioned Big Bird, the place erupted.

It was like a mini Woodstock.

(PEOPLE APPLAUDING) One of the stars of Sesame Street, Big Bird.

Caroll has become, and has created a, I think, a superstar, but everybody in the world knows who Big Bird is.

You are writing for a very naive, every-kid.

Here I am.

(SINGING) There's nothing to compare him to.

He has managed to learn how to speak directly to the hearts of probably anyone from two to five, six, seven-year-olds and to grownups, as a matter of fact.

I think it would be quite unbearable if we did not know that Caroll is also Oscar the Grouch.

(ALL LAUGHING) Oscar, in his own way, was a breakout character.

I think if the show was being created today, you probably wouldn't get a character like Oscar approved.

(CHUCKLES) Listen, it's fun to be a grouch.

NORMAN: What he really is about is testing the limits of different perspectives and how we accept somebody with a totally, totally different perspective.

He is not evil, he is not cruel.

He's just really grouchy.

Gosh, Oscar, you know, deep down, you're really a nice person.

I am not.

When we wrote Oscar in the beginning, Oscar is a totally negative character.

He is the dark side of everybody.

He is what children are constantly told they must not do.

CAROLL: I've had a running battle with Jon Stone, a fabulous director, and the original head writer.

He didn't like that I gave Oscar a heart of gold.

He fights very hard against my concept of Oscar.

You're a sweetheart.

No, I'm not.

I'm terrible.

...do think that why we care so much about Big Bird and Oscar too, is that we know inside those creatures beats the heart of a great human being.

My first wife didn't care for me being in show business at all.

Didn't care for me being an artist either.

She never looked at my work.

We were married for eleven and a half years.

He was married to somebody who didn't appreciate Caroll, who didn't appreciate his work.

CAROLL: I had a divorce in 1971.

My son was only a year old when it happened.

One day, I was waiting for a scene to begin.

Then, this woman came over and started saying things of praise about Big Bird.

I had tears streaming down my face, but I'm inside the bird, so she had no idea how absolutely miserable I was at that moment.

And so Big Bird said, "Thank you very much."

But inside, I was dying.

EMILIO DELGADO: It was very sad to me because Caroll was, you know, very distraught and we just felt for him.

CAROLL: When I'd go home, it was the worst time.

One morning I got up and it was a fog and terrible storm in my head of how unhappy I was.

Suicide came strongly in my mind.

And that it might be a refuge.

And I opened the window and looked down the nine stories.

I closed the window quickly and I walked away from it and said, "It isn't that bad.

"You will find another day that is better."

I think no matter how black a day is, if you can just hold on, the sun will eventually come out for you.

It was really good when we were doing Sesame Street 'cause it kept me busy.

Mickey?

Yeah.

I've heard of a mouse of the same name.

OSCAR: I hate birthdays.

The trick's on me.

You're such an angel.

(KISSING) Yuck, yuck.

WOMAN: I know we like that... CAROLL: They're all good people and good friends.

(PEOPLE CHEERING) Hey, I had to drive from New Jersey.

All the people involved...

It was like a big family.

BOB: Pick your best friend, pick your brother and just go have a wonderful time doing extraordinary things that are gonna be shown all over the world.

CAROLL: They helped me a lot all through the pain of my divorce.

I was single for a while and I was walking through headquarters and there was a girl typing.

And I said, "Oh, my gosh, I'm in love."

One look at her and she was the person I needed to have in my life.

So I said, "Well, I was wondering if you'd like to go out to dinner some night."

She said, "Oh, thank you for asking, I'd love to, "but I have other obligations."

And I said, "Well, naturally she'd be taken."

Near Christmas, they had a wonderful party for Sesame Street workers.

I saw another pretty girl.

She had longer hair.

Same story.

She was obligated otherwise.

Almost six months go by and we're doing a special.

DEBRA SPINNEY: I went to that.

Brought my niece, little three-year-old Megan, 'cause she wanted to meet Luis.

The minute that I held Megan on my hip to introduce her to Luis, Caroll popped up.

CAROLL: And I said, "Would you wanna go out to dinner?"

I said, "Yes."

And I remember when we crossed the street at Central Park West, it was very crowded and he took my hand.

And honestly, at that moment when he held my hand, it was very protective and really lovely.

I knew I would be with him for the rest of my life.

CAROLL: So we were sitting there.

She raised a glass and said, "Here's to your persistence."

And I said, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know, remember, you asked me out when I was typing, "then you asked me out at the Christmas party "and then again, of course, at the recording studio."

I said, "You were all those girls?"

(CHUCKLES) I had no idea that I was asking out the same girl.

Thirteen days later, we were walking down Broadway and it suddenly occurred to me, if she is not in my life for the rest of my life, I don't know what I would do.

So, I suddenly whirled her around.

I said, "You will marry me, won't you?"

And I was like, (STAMMERING) "Yes."

I was so nervous, but I said yes.

JESSICA: They are so in love that some people actually tell me that they are just faking because it can't be real.

They can't get enough of each other.

And that's inspiring to me.

He brought her home and I said, "Mom?"

"Yep."

And that was it.

She was mom.

OZ: What Debbie, I think, did is actually appreciate his work.

She appreciated and supported all the things that he loved.

If you are around people that you love and care about, that part of that goes into your art.

LAURENT: She holds it all together and it frees him to be the free spirit that he is.

(CAROLL SPEAKING) (JANE HENSON ON TAPE) "When Debbie came into the picture, "Caroll was so much more solid.

"And it was so obvious that Caroll just worked "so much better when Debbie was with him "and I just felt like "if it was put in place in the beginning "that she had to always be allowed to travel with him, "that it would be all so much better."

BIG BIRD: Hey, everybody.

This is the Great Wall of China.

DEBRA: We love to travel.

And Big Bird and Oscar take us around the world.

Ist das Deutschland?

CAROLL: I never realized the puppet shows I was doing as a kid would open doors to me all over the world.

It is so wonderful to be back here in Vancouver.

Such nice weather.

(PEOPLE LAUGHING) Never mind, you can have this for gratis.

Yeah, but can I have it for free too?

(CHUCKLES) That, too.

And of course, meeting people is really great too.

It's got a driver, right?

And lots of seats for people to sit on, right?

Yeah, you got it, shorty.

We haven't met Paul McCartney yet, though.

That's still the bucket list.

(LAUGHING) So, just putting it out there.

CAROLL: One time, Deb and I...

The phone rang and by gosh, it was Jim.

And he said, "I've been awfully busy.

Wanna go to a movie?"

Amongst the puppeteers, amongst the Muppet family, there is a real closeness.

And Caroll often isn't part of that.

I just think that he is so happy with Debbie and their world.

CAROLL: Gradually, it got more and more, so we would spend more time with him.

He just acted like a friend, not like a boss.

I think my dad found Caroll delightful.

Caroll is delightful.

They had a real, genuine friendship and would spend time together.

I don't think Caroll ever had that kind of friendship with some of the others.

CAROLL: He was just unlike anyone else.

To do nothing with Jim was probably the most fun.

You could see him just kind of come down from it all, 'cause, you know, he's such a genius, he's always thinking.

Did you wish to see me about something?

CAROLL: The day he hired me, he hadn't had a vacation in three years and he didn't care.

He said, "I'd much rather work then go on a vacation."

I'm sort of the opposite.

Super nice to have you here.

But unfortunately, we have to keep going and you get to go home.

So... CAROLL: I never lost my awe for the man.

He was awesome.

KERMIT: Caroll is leaving.

JIM: Yes.

The rest of us are working, but Caroll is leaving, but that's okay.

Bye, Caroll.

CAROLL: Goodbye.

Bye, Caroll.

ALL: Bye, Caroll.

Bye, Caroll.

See you.

Nice working with you.

ALL: Bye.

CAROLL: We were driving home from New York, and I put the radio on.

And they said, "It's a Hollywood minute.

"It's Bob Hope.

What's up, Bob?"

He says, "I'm going to Beijing, Red China, "and I'm gonna walk arm in arm with my big buddy, Big Bird."

I looked at Deb and said, "Oh, my God."

Bob Hope, He's asked me to go perform with him.

Guess where.

Peking, China.

Really?

You've wanted to go.

CAROLL: Yes.

DEBRA: Going to China with Bob Hope was probably one of the highlights of our whole lives.

We're the first television show to be allowed in once it was opened up.

It looked like 1930s.

CAROLL: It was an unknown at the time.

We hadn't been exactly cordial in either direction with them.

Our translator was a spy.

He actually had to make reports on everything we did.

Turned out they are awfully pleasant people to visit.

DEBRA: When Big Bird walked down the street, many, many people thought he was a real big bird.

It was just magical.

'Cause we had such a good time in China with Bob Hope, when we came back, we were determined to get Big Bird back there.

Selfishly, so we could get back there.

We came up with the idea that maybe he could go on a quest and look for the phoenix, 'cause it's a bird.

Seemed to make sense.

We went to Jon Stone, and we said, "This is something we really got to do and, you know, "give you this idea and I hope you can run with it."

Which he did.

It was difficult.

It was a difficult shoot.

We were way under-staffed.

There were people like Frank Oz carrying cases onto boats and across canals because there was no one else to do it.

CAROLL: We had to get on a boat.

They had a monsoon rain.

And the Li river was churning.

And I am in the bird.

If I fell in, we'd have to abandon the bird.

It'd be the end of the production.

That was terrifying work.

VICTOR: Caroll was amazing.

He was in essentially every shot in this thing.

But he is such a trooper that he just did what he had to do.

Xiao Foo, we found it.

The monkey with the clue.

We found it, Xiao Foo.

Oh, gee.

What's the matter?

CAROLL: Jon Stone was the writer-director.

And he introduced the little girl into the story.

DEBRA: Xiao Foo is the most adorable thing.

She was kind of the little girl who goes on the quest with Big Bird.

I communicate with Caroll in a spiritual way.

Because I don't know about English.

But I can kind of feel what he wanted me to do.

She turned out to be a remarkable child.

She was perfect for it.

The three of us were like this little group, you know.

We gave them nicknames.

So, Big Bird is Da niao.

Means Big Bird.

And Deb is Xiao niao.

Means small bird.

I still remember it all the time.

Nobody ever gave me that much love.

DEBRA: When we had to leave China, it was...

It was horrendous.

LISA: I cried.

I cried all the time.

And I love them so much.

And they suddenly just disappeared.

CAROLL: It was very, very disappointing when we got to the airport and found that we couldn't find her.

It was terrible because we hadn't said goodbye.

LISA: Even for a small kid, I had still gotten the feeling, how harsh it was.

DEBRA: One point, I think they kind of allowed her to come out of this back room and then she came into our arms and we hugged and we kissed and we cried and she cried.

The whole place was crying.

And then they separated us and we had to go through.

And we waved goodbye and we hadn't seen her again or heard from her.

CAROLL: We wrote letters to her.

Never heard any answers.

And the government was nervous about us getting close to each other, I think.

MICHAEL DAVIS: Jon Stone and Caroll Spinney had a fascinating relationship and when they were filming Big Bird in China, it was a very difficult shoot.

Jon was really the key person on Sesame Street.

He was really, I'd say, the father of Sesame Street.

He was my hero, I must say that.

He gave me many opportunities that I would not have gotten without him.

He was brilliant as a writer, as a director, as a producer, there was nothing that Jon could not have excelled at.

He was able to pick up a script in the morning and then shoot the thing as if it was nothing.

And utterly brilliant in his creativity.

But very difficult.

Nobody would deny that.

(STONE SPEAKING) (CAROLL SPEAKING) DAVIS: He wasn't an angel.

He did not suffer fools gladly.

And he had his moments with Caroll Spinney.

It seemed bigger to us because we didn't really have much of that.

We were a family.

CAROLL: When I began, we had a wonderful relationship.

Somehow, I don't know what happened.

It kind of soured.

DEBRA: For example, in China, at the end of the day, Jon would go around, pat everybody on the back, "Great job, great job."

And he walked right by Caroll.

I never could quite understand why there was a little bit of tension and friction at times there.

But there was.

CAROLL: One morning, I was poised with Oscar in hand, hunched behind the trash can.

Oscar pops up, and I blew a line.

It's not unusual.

It's not like it was a flaw.

It's just... Everybody does that.

CAROLL: He goes on the big speaker system and saying, "Stop.

You're clowning around, making mistakes."

That was the only mistake I had made.

So, I stood up and said, "I can't work like this."

It was so...

I was in shock.

Jon was yelling at him when I went into the booth and, you know, reprimanded Jon.

I mean, I could have lost my job, I don't know, but Luis is very protective of Big Bird, you know.

JON: So, camera two has got this.

Camera three picks up the bird going back.

Arnie will have to be cleared.

So, camera two picks up Madeline, carries her over...

They challenged each other to be even better.

That dynamic actually helped the performance an enormous amount.

I really feel that he is the best director ever for Big Bird was him.

But I often felt when I worked with him that I...

I was back in school, because I didn't have a great time going to high school.

DEBRA: I know that his childhood was so frustrating for him 'cause he... His personality is such that, I think, he really just wants to be liked, which reminds me of Big Bird, 'cause that's very, very much what I think of Big Bird.

CAROLL: You don't get treated great when you're the littlest guy in a class with big ears.

And having the name Caroll didn't help.

Some would say, "Oh, Caroll, you playing with your dolls?"

'Cause I had puppets since I was eight years old.

DEBRA: When Caroll talks about anything that's emotional, even if it happened sixty years ago, it's as if it's happening right now.

You know, I think he's one of those people that, that, that feeling doesn't go away.

CAROLL: When I was in the tenth grade, I remember getting badly bullied and a story told around that I was... Well, the word gay wasn't used then.

And the story just progressed into this awful tale.

And I went through the worst misery of my life.

And I was so hurt.

I was so angry.

I looked out the window with tears burning in my eyes, I said, "Someday, "those bastards are gonna brag they knew me."

JON: And cut.

Okay... And then, if we have time...

So, you're over here, closed up on Snuff.

MAN: All righty.

JON: And two is a close-up on Bird.

Do the next two seconds that way and then we'll do the dance.

MAN: Whatever your heart desires CAROLL: So, we start over here.

JON: Let's do one more for safety.

JON: And... MAN: Ready, Bird?

CAROLL: Yeah.

JON: Five... CAROLL: Big Bird is actually low-tech.

You have to do it by putting your hand up into the head.

My right hand operates the mouth of the puppet.

CAROLL: With my little finger, I could push a lever up and down and it raises his eyebrows.

This is just a couple of pounds and like, while you are talking to somebody, hold it above your head.

Also, do it blindfolded and wearing like, a down coat.

CAROLL: The left hand is strictly just in the left wing.

And there is a fishing wire that goes up through the neck of Big Bird down to the right wing and operates as a counter balance.

SCHUPBACH: There's the Big Bird legs, which Caroll wears like pants.

Couture pair of giant orange pants.

Inside, it is completely disorienting.

Because, everything inside glows yellow.

But you have a monitor on your chest that shows you what people see at home.

CAROLL: We call the device I wear an Electronic Bra.

LAURENT: The puppeteers all read the script while they're puppeteering.

CAROLL: I figured out a way to take my scripts inside.

I call it "script origami."

So, Caroll inside Big Bird has the script right here with his little glasses reading the lines while he's looking at the monitor while he's doing all these other things.

The confusing thing about looking at a monitor is you at home see Big Bird walk off to your right, I have to actually walk to my left.

WOMAN: Sorry.

Stop, there's a cable.

Come to your left.

Here I am.

MILLIGAN: So, like, with his right hand, he is worried about eye line and lip sync.

With his left hand, he's just trying to keep the thing alive, you know, with his feet, he's trying not to trip over a monitor or you know, Carmen, and meanwhile, he's supposed to be looking at this little monitor which is his only window out to the world.

Taped around the monitor is his script.

It is really quite an amazing dance and coordinated effort to pull that thing off.

SCHUPBACH: And you just totally take it for granted that he is doing it and it seems like an easy gig.

Um, it's not.

(DEBRA SPEAKING) I think I saved his life at least once.

Being Big Bird can be hazardous to your health.

When you do this over and over, there is a tendon here, a muscle that heats up and you can feel it getting hotter.

All of a sudden, it just dropped.

It just turned off, like you had turned off a button for that arm.

MATT VOGEL: I've had, you know, injuries in my neck and back.

We've even had to stop production so I could lay down on the floor.

I thank goodness, Caroll wasn't there that day.

I would have been very embarrassed.

Wait a minute.

Look at this.

The horse's head is completely missing.

Whee!

(LAUGHING) Oh, that is wonderful, Bird.

Uh-oh.

JON: Action.

OSCAR: Hey, whoa, I don't know what's going on out there.

But I like what's going on in here.

Wow, I feel like a milkshake!

LAURENT: What a wrangler does is really working with the puppeteers extremely closely.

Good, how are you, Big Bird?

Hello.

It's so nice to see you.

We're sort of like the NASCAR pit team, but for The Muppets.

Constant maintenance because there are 4,000 feathers on Big Bird.

LARA MacLEAN: That's a big part of it, and then, you know, I feel like, I am always watching for Caroll's safety.

God forbid, you're on a live event.

Oh, those are the worst.

CAROLL: One time, we were doing a remote show.

DR. LORETTA LONG: He had one of the first wireless mics.

We didn't know that you were supposed to clear a channel.

And all of a sudden, we were picking up the trucker CB like, coming out of the bird.

LORETTA: Girlfriend was hooking up for a date.

"Hey, Big Daddy.

18 wheeler.

"Your mama's waiting for you at Exit 18 in a Winnebago."

(LAUGHING) So, we said, "Wait a minute, it's gonna be an X-rated show."

I sort of panicked.

LORETTA: Mr. Fix-it McGrath gets a wired mic and shoves it through the suit to Caroll's mouth.

Without really thinking what it looked like, I kind of just shoved it right through his neck.

And of course, I am standing in front of 14,000 children.

Bob just stabbed Big Bird in the heart.

(LAUGHS) We just... We left the stage.

We just walked off.

One time when we were on the road, this is years and years ago, and we were doing a live show.

CAROLL: We left Big Bird alone in a storeroom.

The ROTC students were supposed to watch him while we went out for lunch.

Big mistake.

CAROLL: I was sitting on the lawn eating a sandwich.

And all of a sudden I see all these ROTC students and they all got a yellow feather in their hat.

We came back, his whole quarter was bare.

They decided that it'd be nice to have some bird feather souvenirs, then they plucked a whole chunk out of him.

It was like a desecration.

CAROLL: Somebody tried to take one of his eyes.

It was broken and hanging off.

And he was lying in the dirt.

And I saw that, I burst into tears.

It was like seeing my child raped and thrown on the ground and destroyed.

EMILIO: He was crying like somebody had done that to him.

That's when I knew that Big Bird and Caroll were one.

They were one and the same.

Big Bird.

I kind of have a a great opportunity which is to be Big Bird.

And I think it's both a privilege and kind of exciting to do, because I kind of get lost within the thing.

Well, I just drew pictures of all of my grown-up friends on Sesame Street.

And I am gonna give it to you.

I'm gonna be an artist when I grow up.

SONIA MANZANO: When we shot the Goodbye, Mr. Hooper show, we were all heartbroken that Will Lee, our beloved cast member who played Mr. Hooper passed away.

Caroll, through Big Bird, had to go through the feelings that a child would go through if he lost someone.

Ta-da.

WOMAN: Oh, look at that.

It's nice.

ALL: So beautiful.

That's nice.

So great.

JERRY: When we do a character, much of that character is us.

Where is he?

I wanna give it to him.

I have always loved Big Bird because he is complicated.

So, he has a lot of emotional qualities that a lot of the Muppets don't have.

Big Bird, don't you remember we told you.

Mr. Hooper died.

He's dead.

Oh, yeah.

I remember.

Well, I'll give it to him when he comes back.

MATT: He can really key into those emotional moments and make them feel very real.

DAVIS: There is something about Carol.

Not many people have it.

He can go back in time almost and recreate the feelings and the thoughts, the questions and the fears of a youngster.

Oh, he's gotta come back.

Who's gonna take care of the store?

And who's gonna make my bird seed milkshakes and tell me stories?

We can all be very happy that we had a chance to be with him.

And to know him.

And to love him a lot when he was here.

When he steps in the bird, he is the bird, when he steps out, he is Caroll.

And there is very, very little difference between those two characters in my mind.

And Caroll is brilliant at making Big Bird real.

You know, I am gonna miss you.

Mr. Looper.

That's Hooper, Big Bird, Hooper.

Right.

(PEOPLE SINGING CHEERFULLY) LAURENT: In Oscar, a different part of Caroll comes out in Oscar.

WOMAN: Is everything...

Doesn't look like much to me.

Eh, let's go home.

TV HOST: Birds really like to watch other birds make love.

(PEOPLE GIGGLING) Hey, listen, I'm from a kids' show, you know.

(PEOPLE LAUGHING) CAROLL: Oscar is pretty much the same other than the fact he is no longer orange.

Oh, come on now, Oscar.

Actually, if I took a bath, I'd still be orange.

TV HOST: Really?

But this is moss.

At first, they had no idea how to play this character when Henson proposed it back in '69 and I was rather scared.

I had just joined Muppets.

But a taxi cab driver said, "Where to, Mac?"

It was on the way to the rehearsal and it was just in time.

So, I kept saying, "What a great voice."

Where to, Mac?

Where to, Mac?

Where to, Mac?

I said, "Go over to the trash can and knock on it "and Oscar will come up."

So, Jim walks over, then, clang, clang.

And I pop it open.

"Get away from my trash can!"

He said, "That'll do fine."

It really allows Caroll to fully be himself in both characters.

Well, anyway, you've seen the best part of this movie.

So, sit back, relax, and have a rotten time.

OZ: We work as an ensemble so much.

You know, a character does not grow in a vacuum.

A character grows because of playing with the other character.

You got to play catch with somebody.

Thank you!

(LAUGHING) The puppeteers are gonna sit in a row next to each other.

The puppets are here, their faces are exposed.

When they're working, they can take cues off each other.

Caroll, the way he has to work is just different than the way all the other puppeteers have to work.

The characters that Jim had designed and was thinking about required a solo puppeteer to just pull the whole performance from himself.

MATT: It's a very surreal experience to be inside and you can hear everyone outside.

And it's almost... You feel a little alone.

And the trash can works in a similar way because he's in there, so Oscar is up there and he's in this metal can.

It's just a different way of working and a different experience.

I'm not coming out at all until I'm back on the plane to Sesame Street.

LAURENT: Big Bird, he lives by himself in his nest.

He's his own creature and there's no one like him.

Oscar the same way.

There are other grouches but Oscar lives by himself in his trash can, very happy to live by himself in his trash can.

MILLIGAN: He's drawing on a slightly different skill-set or just the performance has to come from a slightly different place than the other guys.

LAURENT: He's not a loner at all.

But there's a part of him, I think, that...

He does enjoy doing his own thing.

And kind of marching to his own drummer.

And it does come out with Big Bird and Oscar.

It sort of echoes my childhood.

When I was a child, I guess I wasn't...

I didn't play on any teams or anything, so everything I did was rather solo.

And so fortunately, both characters that Jim gave me to play are solo characters.

In other words, he selected characters that worked out just right for what I can do.

OZ: This is his strength.

His strength is, maybe not ensemble, because these two characters are stars.

And Big Bird, of course, became iconic.

DAVIS: Without Big Bird, Sesame Street would not have been what it became.

If you think that John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever have taken the country by storm, wait till you hear the album that's being cut on the other side of this door.

MAN: Robin, what is a BeeGee doing on Sesame Street?

ROBIN: Well, Sesame Street Fever is the answer.

DAVIS: You couldn't walk down a street in America without seeing a Big Bird toy in the stroller.

MAN: Today, ladies and gentlemen, I proclaim this Big Bird day in Hollywood.

(PEOPLE CHEERING) I'm sure that Big Bird is the most well-known children's character in the world.

And it's really neat, and I think it's really due to Caroll and his talent... MAN: Bravo, yeah.

You're the biggest chicken I've ever seen.

Oh, I'm not a chicken actually.

I'm a bird on the run.

CAROLL: They decided it was time to make a feature film.

MARTIN BAKER: It was the first time they'd made a feature and it was clearly all about Caroll and Big Bird and it was great fun to work on.

He left his nest in Ocean View, Illinois last night and is reportedly heading east for a place called (MISPRONOUNCING) Sesame Street.

BIG BIRD: ♪ La la la la ♪ Wa wa wa wa (SNORING) CAROLL: At the height of Big Bird's popularity, I got a wonderful letter while I was on set.

And it was from NASA.

It said that they were worried that children of America weren't particularly interested in NASA's program.

But Big Bird was so popular, they thought that if he went up in the shuttle that everybody would watch a lot more.

So, would I be willing to orbit the earth?

He really kind of looked at me and said, "Should I say yes?"

Because it's scary.

You know, it could be the last thing he ever does.

But on the other hand, who is ever gonna get that chance?

So, of course, we both agreed that you have to take it.

It's something you have to do.

And I said, "I'm willing to do it."

About a month later, we heard from them that there was no room to put Big Bird on the ship.

We had to cancel.

We were filming Sesame Street the day that it went up.

I stopped production, said, "We gotta watch the take-off."

So, they switched all our monitors to the broadcast.

And we could see the ship take off.

ANCHOR: This is a special report from Channel 4 News.

CAROLL: They decided to have a teacher go in my place.

And so, the children of America would be watching a teacher.

MAN ON RADIO 1: And lift-off.

Lift-off... MAN ON RADIO 2: Challenger go in throttle up.

MAN: The shuttle mission will launch... My God, there's been an explosion.

We must assume that the crew is not alive.

This is unheralded in the history of the space program.

This is WRN news with Jessica Spinney.

Today, we are going to interview Caroll Spinney.

Hello.

Nice to meet you.

It wasn't your traditional family upbringing, you know.

I didn't see him for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Today, we are going to ask him about his career playing Sesame Street.

He'd be gone traveling a lot.

BENJAMIN: I only saw him on the weekends, so, thought about him all week, you know.

Finally get here and... And hang out with Dad.

We generally saw our children at least every other week.

Once a while, it had to be three weeks because of a job or something.

BENJAMIN: During the week, I could watch Sesame Street twice a day and there's Dad, you know?

And we miss him, turn on the TV and, you know, you close your eyes and Big Bird sounds just like Dad.

Oh, Snuffy.

Where are you?

But when they came for the weekend, it was nothing but us and them.

No, but no, I had more I wanted to say.

You wanna try...

But then, Sesame Street... Well, no, my hobbies... What did I say?

Help, help.

I wanted to...

I can't remember a bad time with him.

JESSICA: He was hysterical.

He was... We did a lot of stuff together.

He's an amazing person.

He could do anything, you know?

MAN: High flying.

BENJAMIN: He was always fun, always funny, always doing something for you.

I think he had a very strict upbringing, and he vowed he wasn't gonna be like that.

Whenever he talked about his father, it was always about the past, because it was really traumatic.

I had such a great relationship with my dad, that I couldn't imagine not loving your dad.

And so we talked about it a lot and I said, "That's not the way it is anymore.

"Your father isn't that man."

And so I think Caroll started to let it go.

It was a crystal clear, gorgeous day in Los Angeles, which almost never happens.

I've never seen it happen before.

DEBRA: And once he did that, then he learned to love him.

Again.

CAROLL: We'll see you soon.

Love you.

CAROLL: And when he was getting very old, in his late 80s, I said, "You are a wonderful dad, "You've always been a wonderful dad to me."

He says, "Son, I think you have a very poor memory."

And I think that was a real apology, you know?

DEBRA: It was 7:30, about, in the morning and Caroll answered the phone.

And at the time, Caroll's father was very ill and we were kind of expecting, maybe, that that call was gonna come.

And I see him say, "He died?"

And he just looked at me and he said, "It's Jim."

We just fell to the floor.

We just...

It was, it was horrible.

The whole world just turned upside down.

It was just so sad.

He was only 53.

And the finest guy.

I don't revisit the memorial 'cause it's just too difficult.

It was such a swirl of complex emotions, especially loss.

♪ It's not that easy being green ♪ Having to spend the day ♪ the color of the leaves ♪ when I think it could be nicer ♪ being red or yellow or gold or something ♪ much more colorful like that ♪ It's not easy being green ♪ It seems you blend in ♪ with so many other ordinary things ♪ and people tend to pass you over ♪ 'cause you are not standing out like ♪ flashy sparkles on the water ♪ or stars in the sky ♪ But green is the color of spring ♪ And green can be cool and friendly-like ♪ And green can be big like a mountain ♪ or tall as a tree ♪ or big as a sea ♪ When green is all there is to be ♪ It could make you wonder why ♪ But why wonder, why wonder ♪ I am green and it will do fine ♪ It's beautiful ♪ And I think it's what I want to be ♪ Thank you, Kermit.

OZ: It was extraordinarily moving, you know, 'cause that character is so sweet.

It, you know, tore people up.

You know, it was just coming from that kind of sweetness.

Inside, I was crying, but I didn't break down in the song.

I broke down later.

OZ: The question after many, many months was, you know, okay, now it's time to figure out who is gonna do Kermit.

Well, to begin with, uh, do the take.

CAROLL: We had a wonderful puppeteer in-house that Debra and I happened to discover named Steve Whitmire.

And he was selected to do Kermit.

Hi.

CHERYL: It is difficult for a new performer to take on a role that is so established and is so much a part of one person's personality.

They always seemed to start out as kind of an impression.

You know, it's the performer trying to get the voice right.

I think it takes a deep understanding of the motivations of the character to be able to carry it on.

With Caroll and Big Bird, it's that sense of wonder and awe, that child-like sense of wonder and awe that Caroll has.

(DEBRA LAUGHING) It was about 1996 and they were looking for someone who would come in to double for Caroll as Big Bird.

CAROLL: It was sort of intimidating to think that someone else is playing Big Bird.

I know I don't own him or anything, but I own his soul, I feel.

CHERYL: He'd been seeing a number of different performers, quite a few and getting a little bit dismayed of, "Oh, how is this really gonna work?"

And then he met Matt Vogel.

Hi, everybody.

Hi.

Uh, everybody?

He was so excited and he came away and he said, (GASPS) "Matt Vogel.

"You know, Vogel means bird in German."

You were born for this job.

That bird.

(CHUCKLES) So he became the person who will certainly be the inheritor of the bird when I can't do it any longer.

But he is a very patient man, because that was at least fifteen years ago.

MATT: I mean, my job really is this, if Caroll doesn't wanna do something, then, I am the guy that does it for him.

So, if he does not want to do the green screen, I am more than happy to do that for him.

(MEN SPEAKING) MATT: I see Caroll as a mentor, a teacher...

He's a friend of mine.

I'm very protective of the character because I'm very protective of Caroll.

But I know that my Big Bird is different than Caroll's Big Bird.

No matter what I do, I can't not make it be somewhat more me than him.

The important thing is that these characters, that they live on past the performer.

LARA: Big Bird will live on forever.

What an amazing thing that Caroll knows now that Big Bird will live on.

Big Bird, he's my child, and someday he'll be adopted.

I've noticed something lately.

It all started about eight years ago, so some people on set when they were handing me something, "This is the thing you wanted, sir."

I realized that kind of made me a little feel separate from them.

Rectangular dollar bill.

MAN: Four sides.

Four sides.

MAN: Four corners.

Four corners.

When four of us were doing 130 shows in the early years, to be only involved in a handful of shows, you know, I think of it more as almost like a hobby.

EMILIO: I miss those days in the early years when we had actually gone out on the road with everybody, you know, because, we all got to know each other.

We were getting to know each other personally, you know.

Luis, everything make me think of cookies.

Now, that's what I miss, that camaraderie.

You know, everybody has grown up, gotten older.

VICTOR: My family grew up, we all grew up, some of them are passed on, some of them have left and, you know, I was kind of the...

The last of maybe three people that were there from the very beginning.

(CREW CHATTERING) It's still a terrific show.

But it's a very, very different kind of show.

Eventually, the writing just shifted to the younger characters.

Became a show for two-year olds and three-year olds.

And Big Bird isn't necessarily a character that two-year-olds and three-year-olds could get right away.

Chase Elmo, Big Bird, chase Elmo.

(PANTING) Wait, wait, wait, I'm... Oh, whew, let's take a break, Elmo.

DAVIS: Elmo, on the other hand, is so understandable to a two-year-old or a three-year-old, they just get it.

Everybody, Snuffy, Big Bird, come see what Elmo did.

What have you done, Elmo?

Elmo just works.

Kids respond, people respond to Elmo.

Elmo wrote his own song.

BIG BIRD: Really?

What's it called?

Elmo's song.

Oh, clever title.

Did it supplant Big Bird?

In a way, it did.

And I'm sure that was maybe a little tough for Caroll, because, you know, he had been king of the road for a long, long time.

DAVIS: It's just so hard to sustain a level of popularity for any kind of character.

Somebody else or something else comes along.

CAROLL: He turned out to be in everything.

Didn't take me too long to realize that he was working far more than I'd want to.

DAVIS: Caroll was a little weary already of the demands on his time and what those appearances take out of you.

DEBRA: He enjoys it just as much.

But he also enjoys not doing it.

He enjoys doing nothing or drawing or, you know, having picnics and all that kind of stuff.

MAN: And wind, and that's a wrap.

Thank you.

(CREW CHEERING) DEBRA: Hello.

DAVIS: He has a life beyond the studio, beyond the character.

DEBRA: He's still drawing.

Couple of hours actually.

(CHUCKLES) CAROLL: At first, as a child, I'd say, "I'm gonna be a puppeteer when I grow up.

"That's it, I'm gonna be an artist when I grow up."

So, I decided to try to do both.

It's almost like he's not putting it there, it's almost like he's uncovering it somehow.

I...

I can't describe it.

CAROLL: Mostly now, I draw Big Bird and Oscar.

Put him into events that he never gets to do on the show.

That's what I do when I draw him.

DEBRA: And what is this one?

CAROLL: Twelve gorillas in the closet.

(DEBRA LAUGHING) Norman, we dedicate this to you.

MILLIGAN: If Jim didn't tap him to be Big Bird, his life would be the same.

He's absolutely a unique figure who has a tremendous sense of who he is and what he wants and what makes him happy.

And I really don't think he needed Big Bird to do that.

He's, in a way, blessedly normal.

Here's our chef.

Yeah.

Look at this food.

It looks like... DAVIS: He loves his wife, he loves his home.

He's worked hard to have this balance.

Good for him for making that life choice.

DEBRA: Here we are at suite 2316.

Beautiful leis.

DEBRA: We document almost everything.

Breathtaking views.

I think it's like you capture memories and if you have that, you can always go back.

If one of us isn't here, you still get to be together and live it again.

CAROLL: Somebody said, "Are you scared of death "'cause it's closer when you're this age?"

Not at all.

But I can't think of many things other than losing Debbie.

I mean, that's my...

I can't imagine life without this wonderful person in my life.

DEBRA: We have this thing that we kind of say to each other that if one of us goes first, we will meet at the raspberries and what that means is Caroll described it from a dream.

It's this big bush that looks like a raspberry bush but it's not a raspberry bush.

But he calls it "the raspberries," so whenever we talk about, you know, if you go first or I go first, "Don't worry, I'll meet you at the raspberries," and well, that's where we're gonna meet.

MATT: A lot of what I've gained from him, I've gained by watching him.

Watching him in life and watching him as Big Bird.

LAURENT: One incredible thing that Caroll has said to me over the years and in certain key parts of my life, "Never step back.

Always step forward."

It didn't mean financially or go up the ladder of success.

But for yourself, you have this life and every day is precious.

When you confront a brick wall, find a way to keep going forward.

(INDISTINCT STUDIO CHATTER) CAROLL: I can't get over how the years have gone by.

Forty years is a long time.

(MEN SPEAKING) Both characters are pretty demanding Big Bird especially is a physically demanding character.

And even Oscar.

Only because I know the man, did I see when he was taken out of the costume that he was tired.

He was really pushing himself more than he used to have to.

Everything is going wrong.

Gordon?

Gordon, are you okay?

We heard a crash!

Yes, yes I'm fine.

So there's four of us left.

Five... Five of us.

Over the years, it is harder for him to... Would be for anybody who is 79 years old, to hold your hand in the air that long.

Your muscles change.

Big Bird is not standing up as straight and tall as he did when Caroll was in his 30's.

But of course you gain experience of life.

So, it's a balance.

Maybe Big Bird's posture isn't what it once was, but the benefits of Big Bird is that he is a much richer character.

If Caroll's age has affected Big Bird, I haven't seen it yet.

And I think he'd be man enough to stand up and say, "I need somebody to do Big Bird for me," because I think he believes in the integrity of the character.

Looks like an invitation.

Oh, an invitation to what?

You are invited to join the Good Bird's Club.

The Good Bird's Club?

That sounds like a great club!

The shows that I just watched from the last season, the writers found Big Bird again in a really cool way.

Joining the Good Bird's Club, is not that simple.

It...

It's not?

No...

In fact, you do not look like much of a good bird to me.

CAROLL: I'd be willing to do more shows with Big Bird in it than I do now.

It's getting to be a very small amount.

But yet, when they really need him and the chips are down, he's a great example of what they want to say.

And the writers often will deal with serious subjects, in a great way, through him.

You know what buddy?

Who cares what they think.

They are just bullying you.

They are treating you as if you are not good enough.

The question is "What do you think?"

Well...

I kinda think I like the way I was.

I think Big Bird still is the icon of the show.

When people think of Sesame Street, they may think of Elmo in a... (STAMMERING) In a popular way, but in a very grounded way, I think, Big Bird is still the star of the show.

Obviously from the last political convention, we all learned that he is still on the map.

I'm sorry, Jim.

I am going to stop the subsidy to PBS, I'm going to stop other things.

I like PBS, I love Big Bird.

There's been a lot of big talk about a certain Big Bird.

(LAUGHING) (SQUEALING) I really hope, no children are watching that.

DAVIS: Does this man not understand how Big Bird resides right here in your heart?

Mother (BLEEP) fired Big Bird!

And Twitter responded.

Big Bird peaked at 17,000 tweets per minute.

Yesterday, Mitt Romney said that he loves Big Bird.

Which is even more awkward since the question was, "Can you explain your tax plan?"

I said to myself to the screen, "You'll be sorry."

You see what Big Bird did to Romney's car right after the debate?

Show what happened.

Look at that.

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) That's the kiss of death.

(CHUCKLING) Thank goodness somebody's finally cracking down on Big Bird.

You have to scratch your head when the President spends the last week talking about saving Big Bird.

And I really believe that it was a mistake, that helped lead to Governor Romney's defeat.

Big Bird, we can't.

We can't.

We gotta go vote.

We'd like to know how Mr. Spinney feels about Mitt Romney talking about Big Bird on television the other night.

DEBRA: (ON SPEAKER) Oh...

There were many requests we received from every press outlet wanting to talk to Big Bird.

'Cause Saturday Night Live, being a show that very much models the comedy of Sesame Street, felt like the right venue.

During the Presidential debate Wednesday night, Governor Mitt Romney, said he would end the subsidy to PBS adding, "I like PBS, I like Big Bird."

Here now to comment, Big Bird!

(AUDIENCE CHEERING) They weren't sure that it was going to be the real Big Bird, but they all knew from the voice.

The moment that the audience realized that that was the real Big Bird.

Thank you for coming Big Bird.

Well, thanks for having me, Mr. Meyers.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING) They went crazy.

They went (STAMMERING) absolutely nuts.

Big Bird, everyone.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING) (INAUDIBLE) So...

So tall.

People have asked me, "But don't you want to retire?"

And I can't imagine wanting to retire.

DAVIS: He's an artist.

I don't know many artists who retire.

Painters want to continue to paint.

Sculptors want to continue to sculpt.

He said he wants to do it for 50 years.

He wants to do it till he's in his 80s.

You know, he is not quietly going off and retiring.

PRESENTER: The daytime Emmy recognizes Caroll Spinney, a gifted and compassionate man, with a special Lifetime Achievement award for extraordinary contributions...

Thank you, everybody.

(IN BIG BIRD'S VOICE) Thank you (AUDIENCE CHEERING) He's afraid to stop.

He's happy doing it, you know?

I don't think he could stop.

Yup, he's stuck.

(CHUCKLING) CAROLL: You get to meet so many good people.

I hear so many stories, about what Sesame Street has meant to people.

I'm really proud of that.

The last time I saw Caroll was 30 years ago.

Sesame Street, is doing a 30-year retrospective of Big Bird in China.

LISA: So, Xiao Foo is going to reunion with Big Bird.

DEBRA: Can't wait to see her.

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATION) My little girl.

(INAUDIBLE) The love was just pouring out of us.

The tears were pouring down our cheeks.

Debra and I were beyond joy.

It was just like this, uh, wonderful meeting like you found your...

Your long lost child.

He said, "Oh, "Big Bird always loves Xiao Foo."

And I said "Xiao Foo always loves Da niao."

LAURENT: All these decades of pure love, that, of course, is the true secret to Big Bird.

Just unconditional love.