Big Bird

About Big Bird

Big Bird is a full-body Muppet, featured on the children's television show Sesame Street, which airs on PBS. He is sometimes referred to as "Bird" by his friends.[citation needed]

Officially performed by Carroll Spinney since 1969, he is an eight-foot two-inch tall bright yellow canary. He can roller skate, ice skate, dance, sing, write poetry, draw and even ride a unicycle. But despite this wide array of talents, he is prone to frequent misunderstandings, on one occasion even singing the alphabet as one big long word, pondering what it could ever mean. He lives in a large nest behind the 123 Sesame Street brownstone and he has a teddy bear named Radar, which is a nod to Walter "Radar" O'Reilly of M*A*S*H, who had a teddy bear and was also lovably naive and innocent. Also, Radar was given to Big Bird by Gary Burghoff (who played Radar on M*A*S*H) when he guest starred on the show. Later on, however, it was said that Big Bird got the bear as a gift from Mr. Hooper.[citation needed]

As Muppeteer Caroll Spinney has aged, the show has gradually started to train new performers to play Big Bird. These apprentices include both Rick Lyon in the opening theme song of the show's 33rd season on, and Matt Vogel in the show's Journey to Ernie segment.