Big Bird almost flew on the doomed Challenger flight

Nearly thirty years after the Challenger disaster, it is now coming out that the first "regular citizen" to fly on a space shuttle mission was originally going to be an eight-foot tall yellow Muppet loved and adored by what has become generations of devoted fans.

Strange, but true: Big Bird almost had a seat on Challenger for its final flight.

In the new documentary I Am Big Bird, the most massive fowl on Sesame Street was in early talks to fly as he'd never flown before.  Muppeteer Caroll Spinney would have gone aboard Challenger for mission STS-51L.  It was meant to be something that would enthuse and excite children about the space program.

Can you imagine that?  Big Bird himself in orbit around the Earth, talking to children via live television.  To say nothing of what would have been some amazing footage for Sesame Street itself.

There was one, errr... "little" problem with the scheme.  NASA determined that the Big Bird costume would have been too big to really be practical aboard the orbiter.  And so it would be schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe who was scheduled for the mission instead.

"It made my scalp crawl to think I was supposed to be on that," Caroll Spinney has said.

Click here to read the Daily News's article about Spinney's... and Big Bird's... narrow escape from death.

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Classic SESAME STREET: Adults finally see Snuffy!

Thank the Lord for YouTube. 'Cuz without it, I would have probably gone the rest of my life without ever seeing this legendary moment for myself!

Kids watching Sesame Street these days are used to seeing Mr. Snuffleupagus mixing it up with his best friend Big Bird and all the other characters. But once upon a time the situation was very different. "Snuffy" was introduced to the show during Sesame Street's third season in 1971. He and Big Bird instantly became best friends. And Big Bird was eager to introduce Snuffy to all his other friends on Sesame Street, including the adults. Especially the adults!

But every time Big Bird hatched a plan that would introduce Snuffy to the grown-ups, something would always happen that would keep it from happening. Usually Snuffy would wind up splitting the scene right before the adults arrived. Other times, the adults would have their heads turned looking at something in the dire opposite direction of Snuffy, dashing Big Bird's plot once more.

This went on for... get this... FOURTEEN YEARS! It came to the point where hardly anybody believed Big Bird at all: to them, Snuffy was Big Bird's "imaginary friend".

But at long last, for Sesame Street's seventeenth season premiere on November 18th, 1985, Big Bird's scheme to reveal Snuffy to the world finally succeeded.

Reasons have varied for why Snuffy was outed. Many of the show's staff have said that by the mid-1980s there had been a lot of cases of child abuse and exploitation and the fear was that children wouldn't be believed if they had to tell their parents about "important things".

But it could also be argued that after fourteen years of "just barely missing" Snuffy, that Sesame Street's writers had completely run out of ways for the adults to keep from seeing him. Rather than stringing it out any longer, Sesame Street producers finally gave up and let Big Bird win his long battle for credibility.

I'd heard about this scene but until a few days ago had never actually witnessed it. This is... a HUGE thing for a guy like me, who did grow up watching Sesame Street and wondering if the adults would ever see Snuffy. My life is a little more complete now for getting to see this :-)

So without further ado, here is Big Bird - with a plan involving an early appearance by Elmo - revealing Mr. Snuffleupagus to the shocked and stunned adult cast of Sesame Street!

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