Granny Bird

Granny Bird is Big Bird's grandmother and his favorite relative. She is almost identical in appearance to her grandson except for her clothes, the gray feathers in her forehead, faded eyelids, and eyeglasses.

The puppet used for Granny Bird is a spare Big Bird puppet, and Caroll Spinney provides her voice. As Granny Bird's appearances are often alongside Big Bird, (who is, as she stated, her "favorite grandson"), her voice is usually pre-recorded so that Spinney can perform Big Bird.

Granny Bird lives deep in the woods, at 12 Forest Road.^[1] She also has a beach house.^[2]

Big Bird has referenced "my grandmother" on Zhima Jie: Da Niao Kan Shijie, a Chinese co-production.

Episodes

• Episode 3006 (1992): Big Bird visits Granny Bird on Grandma's Day, and finds a wolf sleeping in her bed. Fearing the worst, Big Bird accuses the wolf of eating Granny Bird, but it turns out that this is Granny Wolf, Granny Bird's best friend. Big Bird had the addresses mixed up—Granny Bird lives on 12 Forest Road, and Granny Wolf at 12 Forest Street.
• Episode 3517 (1995): Big Bird is expecting Granny Bird for a visit to his nest. When Granny Bird can't get on a plane and cancels, Big Bird is crushed. He was really looking forward to seeing her. Soon, his sadness turns to fury and he becomes very angry at Granny Bird. He starts yelling and shouting at nothing to relieve his anger. When he is yelling, Granny Bird arrives, stating she managed to get on another plane so she could come to see her grandson. Bob explains to her what Big Bird is going through and he tells Big Bird that she is here. However, when he refuses to come out of his nest, she is surprised that he is angry at her. She promptly leaves, and when Big Bird (feeling much happier after his yelling) comes out of his nest, he sees that she is not there anymore. He gets angry again, and the two Birds have a confrontation when she returns. Granny Bird insists, in song, that even if they are apart, she will always love him. Parts of this episode can be seen on sesamestreet.org.^[3][4]
• Episode 3979 - Episode 3980 (2001): When Big Bird's nest is destroyed in a hurricane, Granny Bird provides suggestions over the phone about how to rebuild the nest.^[5]
• Episode 3984 (2002): Big Bird sends Granny an e-mail asking for some of her homemade birdseed. She sends him a bag of birdseed, and he writes her a thank-you note.
• Episode 4086 (2005): Big Bird and Alan bake birdseed cookies for Granny Bird's visit.
• Episode 4149 (2007): Granny Bird appears to Big Bird in a thought egg to remind him that birds always have a song in their hearts.

Film Appearances

• Elmopalooza: Granny Bird is seen in the audience of the talent show in the song "One Small Voice" sung here by Kenny Loggins
• Friends to the Rescue: The story of the Sesame Street hurricane.
• Sesame Beginnings

Sources

1. ↑ Sesame Street, episode 3006, 1992. Big Bird also visits Granny Bird at a house that appears to be out in the country in the 1988 storybook Nothing to Do.
2. ↑ I Want to Go Home!, 1985.
3. ↑ Big Bird's angry at Granny Bird
4. ↑ Granny Bird sings to Big Bird
5. ↑ Random Muppet #3: Granny Bird

External links