Who is the best...?

[Uffern]

Well?

[E2MacPets]

Kinda harsh, seeing as he just passed :o

[Uffern]

How is that harsh?

On an unrelated note, just what does this icon mean? --->:o <-----What is that? Someone snoring?

[E2MacPets]

It's harsh because he just died and already you're making a poll about the best dead puppeteer!

Not that I actually mind, but its right up there with the Need Another Seven Astronauts jokes and so on...


I voted for Henson :D And I'm a huge Froud fan- Dark Crystal

[Uffern]

It's not harsh, it's a tribute of sorts. A joke about the astronauts will always be in bad taste, but I don't think this is.

[kenster]

Well I too will go with Jim Henson on this one. The other ones did nothing for me. And the woamn with lambchop just scares me!! Somebody needs to tell her, she is talking to a damn sock!!! Am I the only one who finds that a bit odd???

[meretseger]

She is in fact dead. I can't remember her name, but I still have 'the song that never ends' stuck in my head. Now all you do too. Ha ha.

Erin B.

[Seamus Haley]

Sherri... Sherry... Cherry... Sharry... Lewis?

With the exception of Gepetto, the three actual humans listed up there all represent something that I somehow doubt will ever exist again.

As frightening as... the lamb chop lady... is, they all had enormously long careers and all started... to some degree or another, on television when LOCAL CHANNELS still made their own shows... which almost none do anymore, with the possible exception of WGBH (Boston PBS station) and a few other, very rare spots around the country, syndication is unfortunately more cost effective.

They mentioned at one point, in one of the news sources discussing Fred Rogers, that he had done well over a thousand shows, continuing to make new ones over FIFTY YEARS... never... will we see anyone in the popular television culture, able to accheive anything similar again.

Anyone besides me remember back when every city had it's own television clown? Or Bob Ross style painter? Even the individuals who eventually hit semi-nationwide-syndication but continued filming in their local market...

A lost dedication... a lost art... more perversion of the American culture.

[Rob Hill/Geckos Anonymous]

I have to go with Henson. Dark Crystal, you betcha!!!

But I totally agree with Seamus. We will NEVER another Mr. Rogers or Sherry Lewis and Lambchop or Bozo the Clown. There is just no way they can be topped by anything today. Sure, production values were cheesy, but regardless, these shows were QUALITY children's programming and not the mindless corporate shills of today's kid tv culture. Of course there were products and marketing based on these shows, however you usually learned SOMETHING after everything was over, and your senses weren't beaten into submission by product placement. Mr. Rogers didn't forcefully try to sell you Handy-dandy notebooks or stuffed bears in blue houses or the next miniature line of talking trains. All Mr. Rogers and his ilk sold was children's entertainment, and QUALITY entertainment at that.

[Glenn Bartley]

Sharry Lewis got my vote because she was a true pioneer in that type of children's television. Yes I know that Mr. Rogers was also sor tof a pioneer, but he did not have a show in my area (NYC) when i was a kid. Lambchop may have been a sock to you, but how many little kids realized that back when she first did her thing.

Jim Henson was also a great one, but allowed use of his muppets in ways that were conducive to one sided morals and not universal morals. Mr. Rogers and Sharri Lewis, on the other hand, seemed a bit more for everyone.

I am sort of surprised that you left out some other greats such as: Bozo the Clown, Andy Devine (who besides acting also hosted Saturday morning TV for children), Soupy Sales, and so on. Did I include Soupy Sales, oh boy!

[Uffern]

I thought of including a few others, but these were the ones who stuck outmost in my mind at the time.

[robin d.]

i voted for henson
but do you guys remember the letter people?? i LOVED THEM!!!!!

[KelliH]

I cannot believe they were left off of the poll! Sid and Marty Krofft!! They rule!

[KelliH]

Oh never mind, I should have read the poll question more carefully! The Krofft's are alive and well as far as I know. But really they may as well be dead since no one has seen anything produced by them since the 1970's. LOL Any of you remember The Bugaloos, Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost? Hmm maybe they are just characters I made up in my head to get through my strange childhood. LOL.:D

[robin d.]

yeah kelli is a wanna be super star... she did a stand in a few years back.... poor poor kelli never made it big with the Kroftt family of shows....... (but she has those fond memories)





http://a2.cpimg.com/image/2A/11/28752682-f597-01C201A1-.jpg

[cka]

hmmm...had to go with Jim Henson, because the poll wasn't for "Best all around human being in a long, long time", which Mr. Rogers would be the champ :*)...In the Baltimore viewing area we had "Professor Kools Fun School", school taught by a local media person dressed as a clown...was terrified thats where I had to go to school...Fox 45 had "Capt. Chesapeake", with his sidekick puppet Moandy the Sea Monster (vague reference to "Chessie", the Chesapeake Bays' answer to the Loch Ness Monster)...got his autograph when I was seven...signed "To Matt, Ahoy Crewmember!"...Moms told him 3 times what my name was...he was *hiccup* distracted I guess...On a bright note we did have "Romper Room" with Miss Sally...Everyone remembers Doobie, as in "do be a good bee"....:p

[mycurlylocks]

My vote was for Shari Lewis. What magic she created with sock puppets! I never once growing up felt like they were puppets. They were alive, you could see the emotions in the puppets and I could relate to them.
They got in trouble doing all the bad things real kids do. Best of all, Shari showed them love and that they would always be loved no matter what they did. Made me realize that I could be loved even though I didn't always do good things.
No strings, no one else to work the puppets, no other voice actors. Shari did it all with love, and finesse. I truly admired the woman when I grew up and realized that they were sock puppets and that she was able to perform that well.
Not technologically advanced, but she gets my vote for the love and the magic.