Talk:Bert and Ernie

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

When Henson died, Frank Oz commented that he "couldn't imagine doing Bert and Ernie without Jim", and indeed the duo have not appeared on any Muppets programs since.

I remember Bert and Ernie from after 1990. Did they just rerun old skits? I know Sesame Street does that a lot. Mike H 00:06, Nov 30, 2004 (UTC)

Until about 1997(?), all the skits were repeats. -- user:zanimum

Ernie and Bert are two Muppets, are they? in't Muppets another show?

The Muppet Show is indeed a completely seperate show. However, any cartoon-like puppet created for a Jim Henson Production is considered a "Muppet". -- user:zanimum

dumped from Sesame Street: There is also a striking similarity between the characters of Bert and Ernie and those of Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison, from the Neil Simon play, the Odd Couple. In the play, and the movie and television series that were spun off, Felix and Oscar are divorcee friends living together in an apartment in New York City. Felix, like Bert is uptight and neat, while Oscar and Ernie are carefree and slobby. --

Why do we need (see also Bert's sexuality) as a separate link? It seems to wildly over-emphasize that whole ephemral side issue, drawing extra attention to it. And, come tothink about it, what about Ernie's sexuality? (I feel stupid just typing that) - DavidWBrooks 01:58, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] It's a Wonderful Life

An anonymous editor added a statement that in the early 2000s the "creators" (I'm not sure of what) changed the long-running story that Bert & Ernie were not named after two secondary characters in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life." I have rolled back that addition because I can't find any source for it, but I could be wrong. This would be very interesting, if true - so anonymous editor, if you know better, please provide some backup so we can include it! - DavidWBrooks 19:08, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Nick (Zanimum), you added this sentence: "Still, some think that this was said to protect Jim and Sesame Workshop legally." That sounds far-fetched to me. I always thought it was obvious that the "connection" between the Wonderful Life characters and the Sesame characters was a coincidence; I can't imagine Henson sitting around trying to name his new puppets, and saying, "Hey, let's name them after two minor characters in It's a Wonderful Life." Sesame producer Jon Stone said that it was a coincidence, and Occam's razor would suggest in this case that a coincidence is a more likely explanation than a conspiracy of silence. What do you think? Toughpigs 23:02, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

It all sounds far fetched to me too. It was just a comment by "Atlant" on talk:Bert. Since you're somewhat of an authority among fans, I'll take it out of the article. If anyone can find reference to this "conspiracy" on another site, we'll consider putting this back in, but not until then. -- user:zanimum
The Occam's razor argument is nonsense and incorrect. What is more likely, the co-incidence or that the film influenced the choice of names? It is the LATTER that is more likely. We are talking about "It's A Wonderful Life," not some obscure cult flick. There is no need to assume conspiracy (it is not illegal to use common names in television) or to presume that you know Jim Henson's thinking. The simpler explanation does tend to be the right one, so why complicate it with so much nonsense and speculation? [S. A. DeCaro, 10 Dec, 2007] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.86.33.87 (talk) 09:09, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism??

The edit from 3 August, about Ernie and Bert being Communist sleeper agents, strains credibility significantly. Can you provide a source? If not, we should remove the section. -- TimLynch 13:18, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bert's girlfriend

Seems to me, there was briefly (a few episodes) an female Muppet (that looked a little like Bert), who was Bert's sorta girlfriend. Can anyone remember this? is there a 'source' to back this? GoodDay 22:53, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Misconceptions about them being a gay couple.

Shouldn't this be included in the rumours section or perhaps elsewhere? It was quite a big thing at the time when people thought they were. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.178.245.87 (talk) 17:20, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

This text is restored. An editor had tried to replace this text with a less sourced, more conspiratorial quote; in cleaning that up, the old text apparently was left out. / edg ☺ ★ 18:22, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bernie und Ert

I just mentioned the "Bernie und Ert" parody. It is mentioned extensively on the German Wikipedia. There are also quite a number of episodes to be found on YouTube. samwaltz 03:04, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge proposal

A Wikipedia editor has suggested merging this article with Bert and Ernie. Could you please explain your rationale, or else the tag may be removed. [[Briguy52748 18:27, 3 November 2007 (UTC)]]

I've removed the tags, there hasn't been any discussion since the tag was placed in September. Jauerback (talk) 13:42, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
This page is solely about their comedy act. They are treated as completely separate characters on Sesame Street and Play With Me Sesame, and are not entirely co-dependent on each other. -- Zanimum (talk) 14:36, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
While both Bert and Ernie could be covered with separate articles, as it stands now, neither of the individual articles asserts enough nobility, depth of coverage, real-world coverage, or individualism to stand alone. Both characters are (currently) covered here much more adequatly than on their stand-alone pages. The two independent articles currently don't cite enough nobility, have enough depth, or include real-world coverage to stand as separate articles. The main article is concise and appropriatly covers each character. If their sections grow they can be spun-off into two unique articles on each character.
See Wikipedia:Notability (fiction) -- Mr Merge (talk) 08:58, 19 April 2008 (UTC)