Muppeteer John Tartaglia Remembers Jerry Nelson
It will be so odd to walk onto the set of Sesame Street this season and not have Jerry stroll in at some point, smiling and laughing with the crew. It’s hard to think that he’s no longer here with us in being. But, I keep remembering a lovely and simple email I received from Jerry a couple of years ago. I had been a part of a reading of the live stage adaptation of Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas and had written Jerry to tell him how excited I was for Emmett to be a live show and to tell him, for the first time, how much his work had meant to me. How so many of the lessons and truths he spoke on Fraggle Rock had shaped me as a person and how much I respected his work and his talent and how much I loved being a part of this new world of Emmett. And in his cool and cosmic way, Jerry responded by saying to take it in, enjoy it as much as possible, and that life is good and to reflect on just how lucky we all are. Well, truer words have never been spoken—those of us who knew Jerry Nelson in person or through his talent are the luckiest of all—and we’re all much better because of it.
