Willoughby and Lester

Willoughby and Lester were a monster comedy duo pitched for Sesame Street by David Rudman and Joey Mazzarino, but ultimately never made it to the show.
During the end of production on Season 22, the performers were given the opportunity to present and discuss new characters for the show, a mixture of one-offs introduced during the season that had potential for more, or entirely original creations. The performers additionally were able to explore the Muppet Workshop for utility puppets that could be given solid identities, some of which were tested on camera and recorded to present at the writer's meeting.
Rudman and Mazzarino looked to develop their own comedy duo, similar to the likes of Abbott and Costello. "We just thought we could try to invent a new Bert and Ernie," Mazzarino recalled. The monsters are described as young brothers - Willoughby the small, chubby underdog, and Lester the older, taller, wisecracker. They were pitched as enjoying pranking or "zapping" others, or even finding ways to fool or scare the other.
The pair recorded two short pieces featuring the monsters about the letters Y and U. The recording additionally featured pieces for similarly ill-fated characters for Pam Arciero (Puffy, a tough monster, and Stevie, a girl with a pet elephant), but two featured creations would be added to the show for Season 23 - the Latina monster Rosita, and detective Colambo.
Also in season 23, Mazzarino and Rudman did debut as their own comedic duo of brothers, albeit with a different dynamic: Joey and Davey Monkey.
==Sources==
*Tony Geiss Papers at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University
*Joey Mazzarino (Sesame Street, Donkey Hodie, Muppets) - Under The Puppet 62
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Category:Unfinished Characters