Changes: Noel MacNeal

Revision as of 05:02, 14 June 2015

Noelmacneal-sbeginnings — Noel and Mattie in *Moving Together*.

Noel MacNeal (b. September 15, 1961) is a performer who has worked on several Henson productions since the 1980s. Born and raised in New York City's Central Harlem, he began his career as a puppeteer on the television series The Great Space Coaster and later made his way to Sesame Street, joining the show in 1982 as a "puppet wrangler".^[1] His most well-known work has been in his portrayal of Bear, the lead character in Bear in the Big Blue House in 1997. During his time on the show, he served as principal performer, director, and wrote a few episodes. In 2005, he reprised the role for Breakfast with Bear.

The first Muppet he performed was a store clerk in a sketch for Sesame Street; he had one line, to tell Grover that his register was closed and to go to another line, which he flubbed.^[2] Other characters have included the full-bodied Mommy Snuffleupagus and various Snuffleupagus relatives on Sesame Street (including Daddy Snuffle from the unaired Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce), as well as Madame Chairbird in Follow That Bird. He also doubled for Caroll Spinney puppeteering Big Bird in a scene when he's running from Bert and Ernie's plane.^[1] Years later, he puppeteered Big Bird again in the 2010 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.^[3] In addition to performing, he has played an active role in hiring and training puppeteers for local Sesame Street productions in Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Jordan, Palesitne, and India.

His more prominent non-Henson credits include the baby dragon Magellan on Eureeka's Castle, Leon MacNeal in Puzzle Place, and Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.

MacNeal is sometimes incorrectly credited as "Noel McNeal".

He is nephew to legendary musician Cab Calloway. [cite]

Credits

Non-Henson Credits

Performer

30 Rock
Blue's Room
Oobi- Kako
Eureeka's Castle
The Puzzle Place: Leon
The Great Space Coaster: Knock-Knock
Chappelle's Show: Knee High Park
Oz : Miss Sally's Schoolhouse
The Good Night Show: consultant (Season one)
Between the Lions: Lionel Lion (Season 9), Monkey (Under Construction), Beetles Member, Squeaky the Wheel
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Writer

PBS Kids Sprout: The Goodnight Show
PBS: Cyberchase, The Puzzle Place
Nickelodeon: Eureeka’s Castle, The Magic Schoolbus, Gullah Gullah Island, Nat the Great

Sources

External links

[mindset-1] 1.0 ^1.1 The Muppet Mindset interview with Noel MacNeal

[2] ToughPigs.com: Noel MacNeal video interview

[3] Workman: Can you spot the Workman Author at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?

[1]

[2]

[3]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Image:Performer.noelmacneal.jpg|frame]]
+[[Image:Performer.noelmacneal.jpg|thumb|300px]]
 [[Image:Noelmacneal-sbeginnings.jpg|frame|Noel and Mattie in ''[[Moving Together]]''.]]
-'''Noel MacNeal''' (b. September 15, 1961) is a performer who has worked on several [[The Jim Henson Company|Henson]] productions since the 1980s. Born and raised in [[New York City|New York City's]] Central Harlem, he began his career as a puppeteer on the television series ''[[The Great Space Coaster]]'' and later made his way to ''[[Sesame Street]]''.
+'''Noel MacNeal''' (b. September 15, 1961) is a performer who has worked on several [[The Jim Henson Company|Henson]] productions since the 1980s. Born and raised in [[New York City|New York City's]] Central Harlem, he began his career as a puppeteer on the television series ''[[The Great Space Coaster]]'' and later made his way to ''[[Sesame Street]]'', joining the show in 1982 as a "puppet wrangler".<ref name="mindset">[http://themuppetmindset.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-muppeteer-noel-macneal.html The Muppet Mindset interview with Noel MacNeal]</ref>
+His most well-known work has been in his portrayal of [[Bear]], the lead character in ''[[Bear in the Big Blue House]]'' in 1997. During his time on the show, he served as principal performer, director, and wrote a few episodes. In 2005, he reprised the role for ''[[Breakfast with Bear]]''.
+The first Muppet he performed was a store clerk in [[Grover Sketches: Miscellaneous#supermarket|a sketch]] for ''Sesame Street''; he had one line, to tell [[Grover]] that his register was closed and to go to another line, which he flubbed.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QrMg0l1re0 ToughPigs.com: Noel MacNeal video interview]</ref> Other characters have included the [[Full-Bodied Muppet|full-bodied]] [[Mommy Snuffleupagus]] and various [[Snuffleupaguses|Snuffleupagus]] [[Relatives|relatives]] on ''Sesame Street'' (including [[Daddy Snuffle]] from the unaired ''[[Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce]]''), as well as [[Madame Chairbird]] in ''[[Follow That Bird]]''. He also doubled for [[Caroll Spinney]] puppeteering [[Big Bird]] in a scene when he's running from [[Bert]] and [[Ernie|Ernie's]] plane.<ref name="mindset" /> Years later, he puppeteered Big Bird again in the 2010 [[Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade]].<ref>[http://www.workman.com/blog/2010/11/can-you-spot-the-workman-author-at-the-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade/ Workman: Can you spot the Workman Author at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?]</ref> In addition to performing, he has played an active role in hiring and training puppeteers for local Sesame Street productions in Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Jordan, Palesitne, and India.
-His most well-known work has been in his portrayal of [[Bear]], the lead character in ''[[Bear in the Big Blue House]]'' in 1997. During his time on the show, he served as principal performer, director, and wrote two episodes.  Most recently, he reprised the role for ''[[Breakfast with Bear]]''.
-Other characters have included the [[Full-Bodied Muppet|full-bodied]] [[Mommy Snuffleupagus]] and various [[Snuffleupaguses|Snuffleupagus]] [[Relatives|relatives]] on ''Sesame Street'', as well as [[Madame Chairbird]] in ''[[Follow That Bird]]''. In addition to performing, he has played an active role in hiring and training puppeteers for local Sesame Street productions in Japan, Mexico, South Africa, Jordan, Palesitne, and India.
-He also was the production assistant on Sesame Street during [[Season 15]].
 His more prominent non-Henson credits include the baby dragon Magellan on ''Eureeka's Castle'', Leon MacNeal in ''Puzzle Place'', and Raphael in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] III''.
 MacNeal is sometimes incorrectly credited as "Noel McNeal".
+He is nephew to legendary musician [[Cab Calloway]]. {{cite}}
 ==Credits==
 ===Performer===
-* ''[[Sesame Street]]'': [[Arnold Schnuffleupanegger]], [[Mommy Snuffleupagus]], [[Cow|Cow who Jumped over the Moon]], [[Hansel and Gretel|Gretel]], [[Rosalyn]] (assistant), [[Tommy and Sally Wilson|Tommy Wilson]], [[Uncle Abe]]
+* ''[[Sesame Street]]'': [[Arnold Schnuffleupanegger]], [[Mommy Snuffleupagus]], [[Cow|Cow who Jumped over the Moon]], [[Hansel and Gretel|Gretel]], [[Rosalyn]] (assistant), [[Tommy and Sally Wilson|Tommy Wilson]], [[Uncle Abe]], [[Daddy Snuffle]]
 * ''[[Follow That Bird]]'': [[Madame Chairbird]]
-* ''[[Little Muppet Monsters]]'': [[Rats|Rat]]
+* ''[[Little Muppet Monsters]]'': [[Rats|Rat]], Magic Book
 * ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' ("Cliff's Nightmare"): Cheese
-* ''[[Sing Yourself Silly!]]: Additional Muppeteer
+* ''[[Sing Yourself Silly!]]: Additional Muppeteer''
 * ''[[Dinosaurs]]''
 * ''[[A New Baby in My House]]''
@@ Line 35: / Line 34: @@
 * ''[[Moving Together]]'': Himself (with son Mattie and other adult/baby pairs in live-action scenes)
 * ''[[Elmo's Christmas Countdown]]''
-* ''[[A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa]]'' (credited as Edward Noel MacNeal)
+* ''[[A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa]]'': [[Sweetums]] (credited as Edward Noel MacNeal)
+* [[Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade]]
+** 2010: [[Big Bird]] (puppetry only)
 ===Writer===
 * ''Bear in the Big Blue House'': [[Episode 206: You Learn Something New Every Day]]
 * ''Bear in the Big Blue House'': [[Episode 235: And to All a Good Night]]
-* ''Bear in the Big Blue House'': [[Episode 206: You Learn Something New Every Day]]
 * ''Bear in the Big Blue House'': [[Episode 410: At the Old Bear Game]]
+* Consultant: [[Hikayat Simsim (Jordan)]], [[Hikayat Simsim (Palestine)]], [[Galli Galli Sim Sim]]
+===Director===
-==Director credits==
 * ''Bear in the Big Blue House'': [[Episode 420: Volunteers of Woodland Valley]]
 ==Non-Henson Credits==
+;Performer
 * ''[[30 Rock]]''
 * ''[[Blue's Room]]''
-* ''[[Oobi]]''
+* ''[[Oobi]]- Kako''
 * ''[[Eureeka's Castle]]''
-* ''The Puzzle Place''
+* ''The Puzzle Place'': Leon
 * ''The Great Space Coaster'': Knock-Knock
 * ''[[Chappelle's Show]]'': [[Knee High Park]]
@@ Line 58: / Line 59: @@
 * ''The Good Night Show'': consultant (Season one)
 * ''[[Between the Lions]]'': Lionel Lion (Season 9), Monkey (Under Construction), Beetles Member, Squeaky the Wheel
+* ''[[Last Week Tonight with John Oliver]]''
+;Writer
+* [[PBS Kids Sprout]]: ''The Goodnight Show''
+* [[PBS]]: ''Cyberchase'', ''The Puzzle Place''
+* [[Nickelodeon]]: ''Eureeka’s Castle'', ''The Magic Schoolbus'', ''Gullah Gullah Island'', ''Nat the Great''
+==Sources==
+<references />
 ==External links==
@@ Line 63: / Line 72: @@
 *[http://noelmacneal.blogspot.com/ Noel's This and That Blog]
 *[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0573823/ IMDb]
+*[http://themuppetmindset.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-with-muppeteer-noel-macneal.html The Muppet Mindset interview with Noel MacNeal]
+*[http://www.toughpigs.com/noel-macneal-part-1/ Tough Pigs interview with Noel MacNeal, part 1] [http://www.toughpigs.com/noel-macneal-part-2/ Part 2] [http://www.toughpigs.com/noel-macneal-part-3/ Part 3]
 [[Category:Muppet Performers|MacNeal, Noel]]
 [[Category:Writers|MacNeal, Noel]]

Muppet Wiki

Changes: Noel MacNeal

Revision as of 05:02, 14 June 2015

Contents

Credits

Performer

Writer

Director

Non-Henson Credits

Sources

External links