Talk: The Countess

Natasha

What's the source for this edit? —Scott (talk) 16:48, January 5, 2010 (UTC)

Countess Von Backwards Picture

In the 40th anniversary book, there's an image of Countess von Backwards on page 139, and she looks different from the Countess in the image provided here that mentions Countess von Backwards in the photo caption. --Minor muppetz 02:58, December 27, 2009 (UTC)

We know the Von Backwards image is correct because it comes from an actual sketch. The book's image resembles Countess Dahling, but with a smaller nose, so it could be an early design for Von Backwards, a late design for Dahling, or something else. Right now, taken in itself, it doesn't help much except to be noted here, as we try to piece things together, and just further demonstrates it was a smart move to merge them all into a single Countess page. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 03:15, December 27, 2009 (UTC)

Early Countess

From the CTW summary for Episode 0953: "The Count falls in love with a Countess who loves to count." Is this the earliest known appearance of the Countess? How should we handle that in this article? -- Danny (talk) 12:52, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

It's way too early for von Backwards if our 1994 information is correct. I feel good about the Season 12 debut of von Backwards since that comes from CTW doscuments. This may be the earliest appearance of the Richard Hunt Countess that appears on the Love album, or it could be a fourth Countess. I think the best way to handle it is to keep it in the section about the unnamed "Countess" but write it so that we're not necessarily saying they're the same character. Eventually we'll see and hear the Episode 953 Countess and figure out more of the puzzle. Either way, that Count is a dawg. —Scott (talk) 15:17, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Nice, I think that was a great way to add it in. -- Danny (talk) 17:07, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I just found this in the summary for episode 1015: "The Count and his fiancee count the times he asked her to marry him." He's such a player! -- Danny (talk) 13:34, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Eesh. Now it's getting disturbing. A later guide mentions that in the ep. 1015 bit, she's referred to by name: Natascha. And in the guide for show #1238 (a re-air of #953), she's got another name: Countess Von Numeral! (Too many Countesses! It's enough to split your head open.) -- MuppetDude 17:49, October 23, 2009 (UTC)

Images

I have several images of the second(?) Countess (the one in the Johnny Cash skit and the one with no images on this page) that I would be happy to upload; however they were snapped with a webcam while watching various videos on YouTube, and some are not very good quality. Should I post the best one(s) on this talk page to see what they look like, or just forget it altogether? -- User:Randomchild77 28 January 2007

Yeah, that's a great idea -- Post them on the talk page, and we'll see how they look. Thanks! -- Danny (talk) 12:08, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Ok, here's the best one that I've cropped (the original had the Count in it and I can also post that one), and photoshopped out the date, etc from the webcam. -- Randomchild77 12:39, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, can you post the Youtube link? I could take some pictures on my computer that would probably be better quality than the webcam shots. Thanks! -- Danny (talk) 14:05, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Right, here's the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzR1pzExy_8, sorry my pictures aren't very good quality, I have no technology *sad* -- Randomchild77 21:02, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

No problem! These are the best that I could do... What do you think? -- Danny (talk) 21:54, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Amazing!! The Countess would be proud! I like the top one the best. Whilst on the subject, may I ask which program you use to get such good pictures? -- Randomchild77 22:12, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I take the pictures with Easy Crop, which allows me to take screenshots and then crop them, and then I fix them up with Graphic Converter. There are probably programs that are a lot better, but those are the ones I use. -- Danny (talk) 22:31, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

And Another One (Early 1990s)

According to the Sesame Street album [The Count's Countdown]] on at least one occassion Louise Gold did a Countess (with Fran Brill as The Countess's mother) for the song I Could Have Counted All Night Does anyone think that one should be included on the page? Emma 22:27, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Actually, I don't have the album, but that would presumably be Countess Von Backwards, already on here and indeed with the song mentioned, since she's the only one with a mother. Feel free to add Louise to her section, but I don't think it's yet another Countess. Though as the page testifies, CTW has been pretty confusing over the years. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 22:50, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Countess Confusion

As seen in discussions at Talk:Count von Count and Talk:The Number of the Day, there's been considerable confusion between Countess Dahling von Dahling and Countess von Backwards. I'd assumed Dahling was the old one, but many of the pages on recent productions or episodes link to von Dahling, and the page The Countess redirects only to von Dahling (though in fact there seems to be yet another "The Countess", from the Love album, performed by Richard Hunt and who I believe predated either). So, is Sesame Workshop officially using von Dahling again or is this just confusion? If there's no clear way to determine which is the current Countess, then ala Mary Louise, I might suggest merging them into The Countesses. That way, whichever one actually appeared in a given sketch, we'd have it covered. Andrew Leal (talk) 23:55, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

I think merging them is a good idea. I'd suggest calling the page The Countess, since that's how it would be referred to and linked. The model would be the Mary Louise page, where we have multiple characters called Mary Louise linked to the same page. -- Danny (talk) 20:12, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Okay, merge complete. I wish I had a better image of von Dahling, but that'll do for now, just for comparison purposes. I added a discussion of the current Countess at the end. If any other Countesses are discovered, they can go here as well. Andrew Leal (talk) 21:13, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, who is voicing the current Countess? If the one in the top picture is the "current" one from the Number of the Day sketches, she's wearing the same dress as von Backwards at the bottom. I'd say it's pretty obvious she's von Backwards, especially if Camille Bonora is still performing her. -- Peter (talk) 21:24, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

It's not Banora, she's been off the show for several seasons. It sounds like a male puppeteer, but I'm not sure who. And Scott also thought she resembled von Backwards, but she has a German accent like von Dahling. The Count only addresses her as "Countess." I thought this would be easier than trying to make an assumption as to which is which, until such time as we find out from Sesame Workshop who they're currently using. The one in the "Don't Take Your Ones to Town" skit more closely resembles von Dahling. Andrew Leal (talk) 21:32, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Andrew, this is a marvelous page. You did a fantastic job of merging all the characters, and opening up some interesting avenues for further study. I love it. -- Danny (talk) 00:35, 24 June 2006 (UTC)