Eric Jacobson

Eric Jacobson
Eric Jacobson
	Jacobson puppeteering Fozzie Bear at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2015.
Born	Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Puppeteer
Years active	1994–present
Notable credit(s)	The Muppets; Sesame Street
Spouse(s)	Mary Jacobson
Children	1

Eric Jacobson is an American puppeteer. Jacobson is best known for performing the Muppet characters Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle for The Muppets Studio, as well as Sesame Street characters Bert, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, and Guy Smiley—all roles that he inherited from the characters' original performers, Frank Oz, Caroll Spinney and Jim Henson.[1][2]

Since 1994, Jacobson has been a regular performer for Sesame Street, where he has received Daytime Emmy Award and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Since 2001, Jacobson has appeared as part of the Muppets cast in several feature films and television series, including The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted, and the ABC primetime television series, The Muppets.

Career

Eric Jacobson, a native of Fort Worth, was inspired to enter the field of puppeteering after the death of Jim Henson while he was attending film school.[3] Jacobson initially began his career as a puppeteer on Sesame Street in 1994, where he worked alongside Frank Oz, often performing the roles of Grover and Bert when Oz wasn't available.[4][5] After Oz retired from the roles, Jacobson became the characters' primary performer.[5] He also took on Guy Smiley, a role previously performed by Jim Henson.[6] Jacobson also began performing Oscar the Grouch after Caroll Spinney's retirement in 2018.[2] For his work on Sesame Street, Jacobson has been nominated for both a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance in 2011 and 2019, respectively.[7][4]

Similarly for the Muppets, Jacobson began performing Miss Piggy in 2001.[1][8] The following year, he began performing Fozzie Bear and Animal, debuting in those roles in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. He also began performing Sam Eagle beginning in The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005). All the aforementioned characters were also previously performed by Oz, whom Jacobson consulted with to accurately portray the proper characterization, physicality, and voice for the characters.[5]

In 2001, the same year that he worked on The Book of Pooh, where he worked on Piglet and Kanga, he also began playing Miss Piggy, debuting at the "Muppetfest" convention.[8]

Other works

Jacobson performed Harry the Duck and other characters on Bear in the Big Blue House.

Outside of Henson, Jacobson has worked on The Puzzle Place, Jack's Big Music Show, and Disney's The Book of Pooh (plus a TV show called Once Upon a Tree, in which he performed Billy Bob the Bobcat). He also has performed on stage performing live puppet theater in New York City with The Puppet Company, The Cosmic Bicycle Theater, and The Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater in Central Park.

In 2013, Jacobson served as puppeteer for Shaggy Rogers (with Matthew Lillard serving as Shaggy's voice) for the DVD movie, Scooby Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map.

Guest appearances

Jacobson performed Miss Piggy for appearances on Rove Live, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Tony Danza Show, Good Morning America, This Morning, WWE Raw, Take Two with Phineas and Ferb, Good Luck Charlie, WWE Tribute to the Troops, and also performed Miss Piggy for an appearance in an episode of the Disney Channel Original Series So Random!.

Jacobson performed Grover during appearances on Good Morning Australia, Rove Live, and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. He performed Fozzie Bear during appearances on Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, @midnight, and Big City Greens (voice role as the character of Dr. Enamel). Jacobson performed Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal for an appearance on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.[9] Jacobson performed Bert for the character’s appearance in the Between the Lions' second season episode "Tweet! Tweet!".

Personal life

Jacobson is married to Mary Jacobson, who works as a production assistant on Sesame Street.[5] His daughter's godfather also works on the show.[5]

Credits

Year	Production	Role	Other notes
1994–present	Sesame Street	Bert (1997 – present), Grover (1998 – present), Guy Smiley (2005 – present), Oscar the Grouch (2015 – present)	Performer
1996–1998	Once Upon a Tree	Billy-Bob the Bobcat	Performer
1997–2006	Bear in the Big Blue House	Harry the Duck, Tucker Tutter	Performer
2001–2003	The Book of Pooh	Piglet	Performer (puppetry only)
2002	It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Yoda	Performer
2005	The Muppets' Wizard of Oz	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle	Performer
2006–2011	Pinky Dinky Doo	Additional voices
2008	A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle	Performer
2008	Studio DC: Almost Live	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle	Performer
2008–2009	Muppet YouTube Shorts	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle	Performer
2010	Disney's Honorary VoluntEars Cavalcade	Miss Piggy	Voice, theme park parade
2010	The Muppets Kitchen with Cat Cora	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear	Performer
2011	So Random!	Miss Piggy	Performer, Episode: "Miss Piggy"
2011	The Muppets	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle, Marvin Suggs	Performer
2013	Good Luck Charlie	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal	Performer, Episode: "Duncan Dream House"
2013	Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map	Shaggy Rogers	Performer (puppetry only)
2014	Muppets Most Wanted	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam Eagle, Animal	Performer
2014	Nerdy Nummies	Miss Piggy	Performer
2015	Muppet Moments	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam Eagle, Animal	Performer
2015–2016	The Muppets	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle	Performer
2016–2019	The Muppets Present...Great Moments in American History	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Sam Eagle	Voice, theme park show
2017	The Muppets Take the Bowl[10]	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle, Newsman	Performer, live show at the Hollywood Bowl, Sept. 8–10
2018	The Muppets Take the O2[10]	Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle, Newsman	Performer, live show at the UK, Jul. 13–14
2019	Big City Greens	Dr. Enamel	Voice role, Episode: "Hurty Tooth" Credited as Fozzie Bear with Jacobson credited as Fozzie Bear's "personal handyman"
2019	Muppet Babies Play Date	Miss Piggy (baby), Fozzie Bear (baby), Animal (baby)	Performer (puppetry only)
2020	The Not Too Late Show with Elmo[11]	Bert, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Guy Smiley	Performer
2020	Muppets Now	Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, Sam the Eagle, Animal	Performer

gollark: I know, right?

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gollark: Ah yes, Rust development.

gollark: Annihilation planes can be filtered using filtered storage buses.

gollark: You can connect infinitely many storage devices with one channel by recursively using interface/storage bus things.

References

Setoodeh, Ramin (March 11, 2014). "How Kermit and the Muppets Got Their Mojo Back". Variety. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
Cordero, Rosy (December 8, 2019). "Sesame Street legend Caroll Spinney, who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, dies at 85". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
"A Conversation with characters from Sesame Street live from NerdHQ 2014". YouTube.com. Nerd HQ. July 26, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
Schaffstall, Katherine (August 30, 2019). "Emmys: 46 of This Year's First-Time Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
Spitznagel, Eric (September 30, 2011). "Sesame Street puppeteer Eric Jacobson reveals shocking news that Sesame Street is not a real place". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
Hipes, Patrick (October 17, 2018). "Caroll Spinney, 'Sesame Street's Big Bird For 50 Years, Is Retiring". Deadline.com. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
"Sesame Street's Big Bird puppeteer retires". bbc.com. October 17, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2020.
Lloyd, Robert (May 16, 2015). "If Harry Shearer leaves 'The Simpsons,' what will happen? Just ask Bugs Bunny". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
"New Muppet Stuff -- Extreme Makeover: Home Edition".
Itzkoff, Dave (July 28, 2020). "It's Time to Re-Re-Re-Meet the Muppets". The New York Times. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
Adams, Erik (May 19, 2020). "The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo is the next best thing to a streaming Muppet Show". The AV Club. Retrieved June 1, 2020.

External links

Eric Jacobson on IMDb
Bunnytown

Preceded by Frank Oz	Performer of Bert 1997 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Frank Oz	Performer of Grover 1998 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Frank Oz	Performer of Miss Piggy 2001 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Frank Oz	Performer of Fozzie Bear 2002 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Frank Oz	Performer of Animal 2002 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Kevin Clash	Performer of Sam Eagle 2005 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Don Reardon	Performer of Guy Smiley 2005 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Frank Oz	Performer of Marvin Suggs 2011 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Joey Mazzarino	Performer of Two-Headed Monster (left head) 2016 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Caroll Spinney	Performer of Oscar the Grouch 2015 – present	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Steve Whitmire	Performer of The Muppet Newsman 2017 – present	Succeeded by None

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[VarMojo-1] Setoodeh, Ramin (March 11, 2014). "How Kermit and the Muppets Got Their Mojo Back". Variety. Retrieved March 12, 2014.

[:3-2] Cordero, Rosy (December 8, 2019). "Sesame Street legend Caroll Spinney, who played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, dies at 85". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 3, 2020.

[3] "A Conversation with characters from Sesame Street live from NerdHQ 2014". YouTube.com. Nerd HQ. July 26, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2020.

[:4-4] Schaffstall, Katherine (August 30, 2019). "Emmys: 46 of This Year's First-Time Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 3, 2020.

[:0-5] Spitznagel, Eric (September 30, 2011). "Sesame Street puppeteer Eric Jacobson reveals shocking news that Sesame Street is not a real place". Vanity Fair. Retrieved August 2, 2020.

[6] Hipes, Patrick (October 17, 2018). "Caroll Spinney, 'Sesame Street's Big Bird For 50 Years, Is Retiring". Deadline.com. Retrieved August 3, 2020.

[7] "Sesame Street's Big Bird puppeteer retires". bbc.com. October 17, 2018. Retrieved August 3, 2020.

[:1-8] Lloyd, Robert (May 16, 2015). "If Harry Shearer leaves 'The Simpsons,' what will happen? Just ask Bugs Bunny". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 20, 2015.

[9] "New Muppet Stuff -- Extreme Makeover: Home Edition".

[:2-10] Itzkoff, Dave (July 28, 2020). "It's Time to Re-Re-Re-Meet the Muppets". The New York Times. Retrieved July 28, 2020.

[11] Adams, Erik (May 19, 2020). "The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo is the next best thing to a streaming Muppet Show". The AV Club. Retrieved June 1, 2020.

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