Tommie Through the Years

The Evolution of the Tommie puppet (1976-present)

Image	As seen in	Year	Notes
	Sesamstraat Season 1	1976-1977	The first Tommie was designed and built by Ton Hasebos. For the character, he used an old fur coat. The puppet was performed with arm-rods and was voiced by Stef van der Linden, who gave the character a high enthusiastic voice. For this season only, Tommie was an inventor, who walked on fours and lived in a crate (in order to hide his puppeteer). His catchphrase was "Weerrrrr niet gelukt!" ("Failed again!") whenever one of his inventions exploded. This version lasted for the first season only.
	Sesamstraat Season 2 to 3	1977-1980	The second Tommie was also designed and built by Ton Hasebos. His eyes are changed to make him look less angry and the puppet was no longer performed by arm-rods, but was a live-hand character instead. For this version, Tommie was performed by Martin Pragt.
	Sesamstraat Season 4	1980-1981	This version more closely resembled a dog. His eyes were round and yellow, and his nose was more like today's version. He still kept a stuffed-animal look instead of a Muppet-inspired design. This version only lasted for the fourth season only. Starting with this season, Bert Plagman started performing Tommie, and became his performer ever since. The puppeteer has also given Tommie his hoarse voice and invented various exclamations which are now part of the Dutch language, like "poe hee!" and "hotseflots!"
	Sesamstraat Season 5	1981-1993	Tommie is redesigned for the first time by CTW and the Muppet Workshop. He lost his teddy bear appearance and looked more Muppet-like. A mustache and eyelids were added, and the character began wearing all sorts of things on his head. His nose also becomes a bit smaller.
	Sesamstraat Season 18	1994-2005	A slightly updated version of Tommie is made. More facial hair and a slightly dark fur were the most prominent differences, along with a change in his head shape to make him look younger.
	Sesamstraat	2005-present	The color of his fur changed to a warm brown and more facial hair was added.
Alternate Tommie Puppets and Characters
	Sesamstraat Live	2006-2007