Trivia / Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird

• Acclaimed Flop: Despite near-universal acclaim, it was only the 62nd highest grossing film of 1985.^note It made about $14 million. There's no good documentation on what the budget was, but director Ken Kwapis described it as "shoestring". The Muppets Take Manhattan cost around $8 million, and Follow That Bird looks about on-par with that film budgetwise. If so, that means it made enough to turn a profit but not much more than that. Even Porky's Revenge and Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend made more money. This was thanks in no small part to premiering on the same day as Fright Night (1985) and Weird Science, as well as dealing with heavy competition with Back to the Future, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, National Lampoon's European Vacation, and re-releases of Gremlins (1984), Ghostbusters (1984), and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. On the plus side, it did garner a lot of success on home video, as director Ken Kwapis stated in an interview. It also reached an audience through frequent showings on cable TV, particularly the always-Muppet-friendly HBO, leading to it being Vindicated by Cable.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget: Unstated, but likely no more than $10 million or so.^note There's no good documentation on what the budget was, but director Ken Kwapis described it as "shoestring". Given that The Muppets Take Manhattan cost around $8 million, and Follow That Bird looks about on-par with that film budgetwise, it's probably close to the same—with maybe a little more for having a higher number of human actors, but also with some cost savings from filming in Canada. Box office, $13.9 million. While it opened to glowing reviews from critics, it was buried by a mountain of competitors that summer. The failure to perform hurt the Children's Television Workshop financially and led to no other Sesame Street movies being made until 1999's The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.
• California Doubling: In contrast to the show (which was taped in New York), Follow that Bird was filmed in a Toronto studio and on-location across Ontario, Canada. As a result, many puppeteers who were working on Fraggle Rock at the time also served as additional Muppet performers. They included Cheryl Wagner (as the body performer for Miss Finch), Trish Leeper (as the body performer for Mommy Dodo), Gord Robertson (as the body performer for Daddy Dodo) and Tim Gosley (as the Honker riding in Oscar's Sloppy Jalopy).
• Direct to Video: In Japan, where the film was unreleased until it went straight to DVD there in 2009.
• Dueling Works: In some ways with Pee-wee's Big Adventure, a fellow Warner Bros. presentation in theaters at the same time, that also marked the big screen debut of a familiar television figure (Pee-wee Herman having had success via cable specials and talk show appearances). While Pee-wee was obviously aimed more at adults, both films had cross-generational appeal, and they both took the form of a quirky comedic Road Movie filled with unexpected allusions to highbrow cinema.
• Enforced Method Acting: Jim Henson and Frank Oz really were on an airplane mid-flight performing as Bert and Ernie during close-ups^note  for wide shots of the plane, they had the pilots dressed up in costumes of Bert and Ernie. Frank Oz was genuinely freaked out the whole time, though Jim didn't mind it at all.
• Kids' Meal Toy: Wendy's released a set of five promo cups featuring Big Bird, Super Grover, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, and Cookie Monster.
• He Also Did: Curtis Clark, the film's cinematographer, previously worked on the very different The Draughtsman's Contract. He was hired specifically to give the film an unquestionably cinematic look that would immediately distinguish it from the TV show.
• The Other Darrin: This is the first performance of Martin P. Robinson, Pam Arciero and Fred Garbo Garver as Telly Monster, Grundgetta the Grouch and Barkley the Dog, respectively, following the departure of original performer Brian Muehl in 1984.
• Screwed by the Network: According to Ken Kwapis, Warner Bros. treated the film as strictly kids fare without much broader appeal, limiting the budget and basically leaving Kwapis free to do what he wanted because they didn't really care, not even bothering to give it any test screenings until he finally pushed for one (which he had to pay for out of his own pocket). The final measures of the studio's lack of interest or faith in the movie were a promo campaign that amounted to "hey, Big Bird's in a movie!", with the monumentally inane tagline "The first Sesame Street movie ever", leading up to a release in early August, a time of year when many American families go on vacation.
• Troubled Production: According to Noel MacNeal, after filming the footage of Big Bird on the farm with the kids, the filmmakers discovered that the film was unusable. The actors, crew and performers had to return to the same location months later in winter. Many of the green leaves the audience sees are spray-painted, and after each take the kids, would run to put their coats on.
• Vindicated by Cable: Shook off its poor box office performance by becoming an HBO staple in the years after its release, and a perennial home video favorite.
• What Could Have Been: John Landis was asked by Warner Bros. to direct this film. Landis was favorable to the idea, but turned it down, as he was busy directing Into the Night at the time (a film that includes a Jim Henson cameo).
  • Bill Murray and Danny Devito were considered for the role of Sid and Ron Carey were considered for the roles of Sam before Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas were cast as Sid and Sam. Music artists such as Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Willie Nelson were going to cameo as the Truck Driver before Waylon Jennings was cast.
  • The song "Ain't No Road Too Long" was pitched as "Keep On Trucking" and was going to be slightly more complex than the final with other Sesame Street characters singing it in the film.
  • There was a love song called "You Never Looked Lovelier" sung by Oscar about his attraction to Maria but this was scrapped. It was replaced by the diner scene.
  • A scene was planned where Big Bird met a band who offer to let him ride with them to New York, but it was scrapped to shorten the runtime and replaced by the parade scene.
  • A subplot involving Snuffy taking Big Bird's nest and his belongings to his home to watch over it while the adults assumed it was stolen leading to the police investigating the crime, This scene would have tied into the show at the time where the adults thought Snuffy was imaginary.
  • Initially, the entire Feathered Friends' Board of Birds was meant to arrive at climax of the film, and after Maria gives her speech about how Big Bird is happy on Sesame Street, the entire board decides to let Big Bird stay, with Miss Finch begrudgingly being the last one to agree.
  • A few other Kermit news reports were scripted. One had Kermit following a lead saying Big Bird was in the jungle, where he was beset upon by wild animals. The other came at the end, with Kermit in a space shuttle after hearing that Big Bird might be in space, only to learn of his return to Sesame Street right as the ship takes off.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The North By Northwest homage wasn't in the screenplay. In pondering the scene involving an airplane and a cornfield, Kwapis hit on the idea, and was surprised that the producers let him do it with no questions asked, considering that it was a Parental Bonus that even some parents may not have understood.
• You Look Familiar: Averted with a deleted cameo planned for Bill McCutcheon, who played Uncle Wally on the show, both in a guest appearance that came before filming began and as a regular role starting in 1984.

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