Sesame Street’s Count, once called an ‘agent of the devil,’ persists

In 1972, early into his tenure at Sesame Avenue, Norman Stiles thought up a pun. The previous Merv Griffin comedy author had spent his first yr penning scripts across the youngsters program’s strict curriculum, however he was at all times inspired to craft new concepts for characters. After conceiving The Superb Mumford with a few colleagues, he acquired one other jolt of inspiration: What if Rely Dracula taught… counting?

“I assumed it will be humorous, however I didn’t actually know what to show with it,” Stiles says. “To only educate counting could be boring.”

That’s when Sharon Lerner walked by Stiles’ workplace. The curriculum specialist labored as a liaison between the analysis and leisure departments, ensuring segments precisely and engagingly conveyed their easy academic classes. Stiles shortly known as her over and shared his imaginative and prescient, understanding he wanted one thing past wordplay. She got here up with a simple resolution: enumeration.

“That was actually the important thing to creating The Rely work, as a result of now it was, ‘He counts issues,’ and counting issues is an limitless factor,” Stiles says. “His obsession with counting issues gave him a type of comedic energy the identical as Cookie Monster. As an alternative of ‘I need to chew your neck,’ it’s ‘I need to depend your neck.’”

After a profitable pitch to Sesame Avenue co-creator Jon Stone and head author Jeff Moss, Stiles nonetheless needed to promote puppeteer Jerry Nelson on the character. In between episodes being shot, he nervously approached the set of Hooper’s retailer (“I used to be comparatively new,” Stiles says) and defined the idea, suggesting a puppet within the mildew of Bela Lugosi who couldn’t resist counting. “He stated, ‘Certain, I adore it,’” Stiles remembers. Quickly, Nelson convened with Jim Henson to get the Muppets creator’s blessing. “Norman’s scripting this character, can I do it?” Nelson requested, as he recalled in an interview with Muppet fan website ToughPigs, earlier than breaking right into a Transylvanian accent.

It wasn’t lengthy earlier than The Rely made his Sesame Avenue debut, counting blocks with Bert and Ernie in entrance of a blue backdrop close to the beginning of the present’s fourth season. With slicked black hair, thick eyebrows, a monocle, a razor-sharp nostril, a furry goatee, and a darkish inexperienced cape, he counted up six blocks and exited stage left to a thunder clap and menacing organ music. Over the subsequent decade, “Rely Von Rely,” as he was formally recognized, turned a Sesame Avenue staple, evolving all through the years right into a gentler fanged monster who lives inside a Gothic fort with pet bats and occasional love pursuits. To today, he would possibly simply be the friendliest — and least bloodthirsty — vampire within the pop cultural canon.

Images (clockwise): PBS/Everett Assortment; Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Photos; Richard Termine/CTW/Everett Assortment; Bryan Bedder/Getty Photos

Images (clockwise): The Rely talks to a bunch of children on Sesame Avenue; Norman Stiles, creator of The Rely; The Rely counts; The Rely puppeteer Jerry Nelson with the forged of Sesame Avenue

After all, it took slightly time to earn that designation. As Stiles remembers, each phase of the present wanted to have a button — a punchline or motion that may successfully conclude a sketch. To resolve this for The Rely, the writing workforce initially determined to insert a lightning strike and clap of thunder as soon as he counted as much as the “variety of the day.” However the thought was short-lived. “I feel there was some enter from exterior that stated some kids have been frightened by that, and so if that was the case, it wasn’t important,” Stiles says. “He’s joyful sufficient and it’s enjoyable sufficient with out it.”

Nonetheless, some viewers protested, sending letters accusing Sesame Avenue of offering a platform for, as one angered guardian wrote, an “agent of the satan.” (“I didn’t know the satan used puppets, however you by no means know,” Stiles laughs. “They’d need to be fireproof, I suppose.”) In keeping with Stiles, Henson by no means anxious about these accusations, and by no means thought of softening The Rely’s options or altering up his voice — the grownup considerations, the workforce realized, have been tethered to Dracula’s horrifying historical past, which younger viewers had by no means seen earlier than.

“The sound of thunder and lightning could be horrifying for teenagers, however they don’t have any earlier context or information that Dracula is meant to be scary and drinks your blood,” Stiles says.

Picture: PBS/Everett Assortment

As soon as Stiles and Nelson established a template for The Rely, the remainder of the writing workforce took turns creating new eventualities and conditions for him. After stepping away from the present on the finish of the sixth season, Stiles returned to Sesame Avenue within the 1980s and located his puppet had retained his signature quirks however grown right into a magnanimous determine, inviting kindergartner viewers inside the house of his spooky fort and serving to his Countess perceive that “20-something” wasn’t an precise quantity. “What’s nice is the characters evolve they usually keep in character however you’re in search of extra conditions,” Stiles says.

The perfect Rely sketches usually performed on the theme of, as Stiles says, “counting begetting counting.” He remembers a bit he wrote through which The Rely begins counting flowers. “And he stated, ‘You realize why I like to depend flowers? As a result of I’m allergic to flowers. Now I get to depend sneezes. One sneeze, two sneezes…’”

In that means, The Rely felt slightly extra human and rather less legendary, as worthy of compassion regardless of his in any other case sinister connotations. Across the similar time, different popular culture vampires, akin to Rely Chocula, confirmed up on youngsters tv, additional accentuating them as humorous creatures versus strictly horror figures of the night time. Stiles says he wasn’t influenced by something past “Rely Dracula counting,” however the Muppet’s goofier qualities finally paved an alternate interpretation of the bloodsuckers. “He was an influencer in some methods,” Stiles says.

Greater than 50 years since his debut, The Rely’s presence on Sesame Avenue has shrunk and morphed a bit (he’s now counting the U’s in “YouTube”), however he continues to be a beneficial enumerating and emphatically laughing educator. Stiles can’t fairly comprehend the Muppet’s legacy, however is aware of its decade-spanning and transcendent enchantment comes all the way down to the universality of counting and sharing in his love. “Numbers are so vital in our lives,” Stiles says. “He’s simply such a joyful, joyful man going about his life. He doesn’t harm anyone and doesn’t drive anyone to depend.” At a sure level, nonetheless, you simply can’t assist however depend together with him.