Fun fact: Elmo's original voice was very deep and frickin' creepy!
Elmo first appeared in Sesame Street in 1980 where he existed as a mere background character who would occasionally appear in various songs and sketches. During these instances, he would occasionally have brief speaking roles as well where he always puppeteered by various actors who all had deep voices - completely unrecognizable from the cute high-pitched voice he's famous for today!
This may come as a shock to some, but you might also be thinking him just having a deep voice isn't necessarily creepy, right? Well, try his first two prominent Sesame Street appearances in a song called "We're All Monsters" and a segment he did with Big Bird where he was actually first given his name.
Below is a compilation of all of Elmo's earliest appearances. The song starts @ 15:42, while the Big Bird segment starts @ 17:06.
It wasn't until 1985 when Elmo was first given his distinctive falsetto voice by puppeteer Kevin Clash, who would become the principal performer for the character for more then 25 years. Clash felt Elmo should be kind, loving character and based him off preschool kids who attended a daycare own by his mother. He was eventually made the star of the show and the rest is history.
But pretty interesting how drastically different his voice first was, non?
This may come as a shock to some, but you might also be thinking him just having a deep voice isn't necessarily creepy, right? Well, try his first two prominent Sesame Street appearances in a song called "We're All Monsters" and a segment he did with Big Bird where he was actually first given his name.
Below is a compilation of all of Elmo's earliest appearances. The song starts @ 15:42, while the Big Bird segment starts @ 17:06.
[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EDHMSRFyPM]
It wasn't until 1985 when Elmo was first given his distinctive falsetto voice by puppeteer Kevin Clash, who would become the principal performer for the character for more then 25 years. Clash felt Elmo should be kind, loving character and based him off preschool kids who attended a daycare own by his mother. He was eventually made the star of the show and the rest is history.
But pretty interesting how drastically different his voice first was, non?
