#Jerry Nelson

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Count von Count puppeteer Jerry Nelson - Sesame Street

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Jim Henson and his Muppeteers from the third season of The Muppet Show

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Muppet Fact #1234

Despite his resemblance to Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Dracula, The Count's status as a vampire is questionable.

While the specification chart in the 1998 style guides says Count von Count's only similarities to Dracula are visual, his profile on the Sesame Workshop webpage suggested that he is related to the famous vampire.

Additionally, the creator of Count von Count, Norman Stiles, said to performer Jerry Nelson that The Count is "a vampire, but not a real vampire."

However, in his WIRED interview, Count von Count said in response to the question "Is the Count on Sesame Street a vampire?": "Yes, but I am a vampire with an unquenchable thirst for numbers." This is in reference to traditional vampires who exhibited arithmomania.

Even though Count von Count has never been explicitly labeled as a vampire on screen, the current information leaves it ambiguous at best.

Sources:

"Specification Chart." In Sesame Street Style Guide. Children's Television Workshop. 1998. (Pages accessed on the Muppet Wiki.) https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_style_guide_(1998).

Sesame Workshop. Character profile: Count von Count. http://www.sesamestreet.org/onair/characters/count_von_count. (Archive link to be added).

Plume, Keith. "Still Counting: An Interview with Muppeteer Jerry Nelson." Muppet Central. March 1, 1999. https://muppetcentral.com/articles/interviews/nelson1.shtml.

WIRED. "The Cast of 'Sesame Street' Answers the Web's Most Searched Questions | WIRED." YouTube. February 22, 2017. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fc2yFoq09ug.

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The Muppet Show (1976-1981)

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Richard Hunt behind the scenes of Muppet Show (S3E23)

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The Original Muppeteers

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Behind the scenes of The Muppet Movie (1977)

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for those of you who have never had the pleasure, i strongly encourage you to watch the below video of many, many outtakes from one scene of Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas. i've watched it so many times and it kills me every time

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Now watching:

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I just watched the new Jim Henson documentary…

Overall it was very good, well paced, great visuals and editing. I learned a lot about Jim Henson and the company that I didn’t before and more behind the scenes that I hadn’t seen/heard which is always a treat!

I cried three times. 🫣👌 I had to fight the primal urge to pause the documentary and point out to my family where and what movie/show/episode every clip was from. This was my “did you know Viggo Mortensen actually broke his toe” scene.

I will say, I do think they very QUICKLY went over the disney merger and didn’t even mention the fallout with Disney after Jim’s death.

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The main problem I had was that SOME puppeteers got spot lights, interviews or arrows pointing out the individuals. And while I appreciate that these individuals got some recognition (which they 100% should), I think the documentary should have been consistent and do this with every new important/fundamental puppeteer to the film.

I alreay have!!! I was able to EASILY point out Karen Prell, Louise Gold, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Kevin Clash, Steve whitmire, etc. But an average viewer wouldn’t know who is who and what they contributed to the company!

I just think it’s intriguing who they chose to highlight and who they left out.

And I’ve noticed this happen in other muppet documentaries, like “Street Gang,” where they barely glossed over Richard Hunt and Jerry Nelson’s contributions to the show. (I’ve mentioned this problem here before. (Queer erasure during pride month? 🙄))

It would be such an easy problem to fix! Just a quick arrow to point out any new puppeteer or cast member to the Jim Henson Company. Maybe list their job/their characters so a main stream audience could identify them.

I can think of several founding members who are still alive today that were not interviewed. Maybe these people were asked to come in, IDK, but I would have loved to hear from more people you don’t hear from often.

I could definitely tell the documentary was really trying to avoid the “Steve Whitmire” sized elephant in the room, even though he was in SO MANY shots. I can guarantee that if he was still with the company he would have been featured heavily in the documentary.

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One last thing…

They interviewed Michael Frith, where was my girl Kathryn Mullen?? (His wife.) She hasn’t done anything in over a decade, are you okay?? Blink if you need help. 👁️👄👁️😐😑😐😑

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The Batty Bat - Count Von Count and Ftatateeta and the Bats (1985)

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Behind the Scenes Photos with Richard Hunt

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Floyd is so based for this

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The Jim Henson Hour (1989)

I'm looking forward to seeing more behind the scenes Muppet footage in the new Jim Henson Idea Man documentary, which debuts today on Disney+! Who else will be watching it this weekend?

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Richard Hunt behind the scenes of Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas

(Picture 1: Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, Richard Hunt)

(Picture 2: Richard Hunt, Jim Henson, Frank Oz)