Caroll Spinney exiting Sesame Street after nearly 50 years of playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch

The New York Times

This week is the 84-year-old Spinney's last on the beloved children's TV show. The puppeteer, who has played Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch since Sesame Street's 1969 launch, will formally retire on Thursday. “I always thought, How fortunate for me that I got to play the two best Muppets? Playing Big Bird is one of the most joyous things of my life," Spinney told The New York Times of his exit. Asked if he had long been contemplating his departure from Sesame Street, Spinney answered, “No, not at all.” Spinney said the physical requirements of performing the characters had taken a toll. He gave up on puppeteering Big Bird in 2015 and has only provided the voices for him and Oscar in recent years. Spinney felt the impending 50th anniversary of Sesame Street was the perfect time to retire. Spinney will be succeeded by Matt Vogel, who has been his Big Bird apprentice since 1996. Vogel, who also voices Kermit the Frog and Count von Count, saw succeeding Spinney as “daunting and important." “The more I do the character, the more that I try to preserve what I think Caroll’s intentions were,” said Vogel. “Inevitably, part of our own personality starts to creep into those characters. But that’s the way they live on.”