Oscar the Grouch
From Muppet Wiki
Oscar the Grouch is one of the major characters on Sesame Street. He has a green body, no nose and lives in a garbage can. In fact, he loves trash so much that he's rarely seen outside of his can. His trademark song, explaining his passion for refuse, is "I Love Trash".
Oscar's friend and pet is Slimey, an orange worm, who he is always unusually gentle towards. On occasional episodes, he has mentioned leaving Sesame Street to attend "the annual Grouch convention in Syracuse, New York."
Oscar has appeared in segments such as "The Adventures of Trash Gordon", "Ask Oscar", and "Sneak Peek Previews".
He was often teamed with Telly Monster. He also sometimes leads a group of children called The Grouchketeers (a parody of Disney's "Mouseketeers").
The two monsters Oscar is grouchy with the most and doesn't like are Telly Monster and Elmo.
Oscar is the first member of what is now a species known as Grouch, which is different than Monster. His grandmother Granny Grouch appeared in Episode 0131, the second season premiere. He later acquired such diverse relatives as a grandfather; mother; and niece, Irvine; and a girlfriend, Grungetta.
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Origins
According to Sesame Street Unpaved, "The character of Oscar was inspired by a nasty waiter from a restaurant called Oscar's Tavern in Manhattan. Jim Henson and Jon Stone were waited on by a man who was so rude and grouchy that he surpassed annoying and started to actually amuse both Jim and Jon. They were so entertained that going to Oscar's Tavern became a sort of masochistic form of luncheon entertainment for them, and their waiter forever became immortalized as the world's most famous grouch." In the Ask Henson.com web column, Jim Henson Company Archivist Karen Falk said that the restaurant was named Oscar's Salt of the Sea -- and went on to say, "Some of the designs that we have in the Archives were done by Jim Henson on Oscar's paper placemats!"
While Jim Henson's first Oscar sketches were colored purple, the original Oscar puppet was orange. In chapter nine of the book The Wisdom of Big Bird, Caroll Spinney states that the Oscar puppet was rebuilt about a month after Sesame Street had started taping. Jim tore apart the original puppet, and a new puppet was built. An early version of the green Oscar debuted on The Flip Wilson Show in 1970, and Oscar's explanation for that was that he had vacationed at Swamp Mushy Muddy, where the dampness had turned him green overnight.
Oscar's voice was inspired by a taxi driver who drove Caroll Spinney to the studio where Sesame Street began taping its first season. When he hopped into the cab, the driver asked him in a gruff tone, "Where to, Mac?"
Oscar's first line on Sesame Street, in Episode 0001),was "Don't bang on my can! Go away." This would sum up his personality as it would remain for over 30 years.
Transportation
Oscar has many forms of transportation. He can move with his legs sticking out of the can, as seen in early 70s episodes of Sesame Street (portrayed by Hervé Villechaize) and in the specials Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Don't Eat The Pictures, and various stage shows. He also often has Bruno The Trashman carry his can around while he's inside. While the puppet Oscar frequently moves outside of the trash can on his own, his limbs are rarely shown. A rare moment where his full body was shown was in Episode 3958.
Oscar has a car, the Sloppy Jalopy, which was used in Follow That Bird and episodes of Sesame Street. The Sloppy Jalopy's New York license plate says "SCRAM." Oscar has also been seen driving a broken-down taxi cab.
Performing Oscar
During the first season of Sesame Street, the street set was arranged in such a way that Spinney, who is right-handed, was forced to operate Oscar's head with his left hand. A subsequent redesign of the set allowed Spinney to switch hands.
When Big Bird and Oscar (both performed by Caroll Spinney) are required in a scene together, Jim Martin or Matt Vogel will operate Oscar.
Trivia
- According to Caroll Spinney's book The Wisdom of Big Bird, Oscar's eyebrow has never changed in the entire run of Sesame Street. It is the same eyebrow that graced the Grouch's face when he was still the orange Oscar of Season 1.
- In the show's early years, enthusiastic young viewers frequently mailed gifts of trash to Oscar, in care of the Children's Television Workshop, eliciting dismay from the mailroom staff. As one Information Department staff member wrote in March 1971, "Aside from an unopened can of sardines, which are probably perfectly good, Oscar has been gifted with a box of old sneakers (not a box of Snickers), a ratty old bathing cap, some stale poppy seeds and some used Kleenexes. On the other side of the coin, an adult fan sent a $50 check to purchase a new garbage can. We may soon need one for his fan mail!"[1]
- Oscar temporarily turned white (and nice) in the Sesame Street Live show Elmo's Coloring Book in 1997.
- Although he doesn't have a nose, one episode explained that he has a "cute" nub hidden among his fur.
- Spinney is a golf fan, and brought Oscar to the 2007 Irish Open at Adare Manor, where the puppet posed with Padraig "the Grouch" Harrington, the eventual tourney winner.[2]
- When appearing on the game show 1 vs 100, Oscar revealed his age to Bob Saget, claiming he's 43 years old, and has always been 43.
- In A Muppet Family Christmas, Oscar shares his trashcan as a bed with Rizzo the Rat, stating that he never had a rat in his trashcan before and that it would be nice. He also complained that he hated Deck the Halls when it came time for him to sing the line "Follow me in merry measure".
- Along with his girlfriend Grungetta and the rest of his fellow Muppets, Oscar sang Just One Person at Jim Henson's memorial service. [1]
Songs
See also
- Oscar the Grouch Filmography
- Oscar Through the Years
- Oscar's Trash Can
- Oscar the Grouch Books
- International Oscar the Grouch
- Oscar the Grouch and His Junk Band
Sources
- ↑ Patricia Tornborgh, memo, "Summary of Fan Mail Processed from Feb. 1 to Mar. 6, 1971," Children's Television Workshop archive, series II, box 45, folder 48, National Archive of Public Broadcasting, University of Maryland, College Park, Md.
- ↑ "When Grouches Meet," Irish Abroad, May 24, 2007.
