Guy Smiley

Guy Smiley is, by his own account, America's Favorite Game Show Host. He has hosted the Sesame Street game shows "Beat The Time," "Here Is Your Life," "What's My Part?" and many others. He approaches every hosting gig with a near-frantic level of excitement and enthusiasm.
Guy Smiley has occasionally demonstrated his musical talent on Sesame Street. His song performances include "Air" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me" (with Cookie Monster). His singing voice at times can go very low, very similar to Link Hogthrob's, as in "Gone with the Wind," "I'll Love You in Springtime," and his tribute to the winner in "The Letter of the Day Pageant."
Most of Guy Smiley's appearances in sketches have been as the host of game shows. Many of the sketches where he doesn't host game shows still involve him being the host of a show, including "The Weather Show," "The Letter of the Day Pageant," and "On Vacation with Guy Smiley." One of the few sketches he starred in where he didn't host a show or sing was a sketch where he took his entire studio audience out for lunch. His first appearance was in a sketch where he appears as a spokesman for "Brand X." 
In an interview with Leslie Mostly, Guy Smiley's home, particularly his living room, is shown to be identical to his game show sets. He keeps all his living room furnishings behind curtain #1, his personal organ player Buzz Crescendo behind curtain #2, and a pet studio audience of monsters and Anything Muppets behind curtain #3. He also mentions having a pet dog named Strongheart (whose picture hangs on the wall).
In addition to his dog, Guy's family also includes an Aunt Betty (who has her own dog, Bubbles) and an Aunt Martha (as seen in Episode 4920).
Although Joan Ganz Cooney described Guy Smiley as one of Jim Henson's funniest characters,Finch, Christopher. Jim Henson: The Works, Random House, 1993, p. 62. Jon Stone once recalled that Henson didn't like to perform the character, noting "the voice was so hard on him."St. Pierre, Stephanie. The Story of Jim Henson, Dell Publishing, 1991, p. 57. Because of this, the dialogue for Guy's earlier sketches was commonly prerecorded, so multiple takes could be filmed without straining Henson's throat.
A walk-around version of Guy Smiley appeared in a number of Sesame Street Live shows. In Big Bird Goes Hollywood, he assisted Big Bird in directing a movie.
In his earliest appearances, he had a visible tongue, a feature that was later seen in 2006, when he hosted a PBS commercial/game show spoof for the Ready to Learn Service.
Following Jim Henson's death, Guy Smiley continued to appear in reused material through 1998. He would then make background appearances in Episode 3820 as one of Maria's customers, and in Episode 4117 as one of the spectators in the Number of the Day segment where The Count was playing golf.
Performed by Eric Jacobson since 2005, Guy has made further appearances on the show, beginning with a featured role in the main street story of Episode 4182. Guy also hosted the later game show inserts "The Waiting Game," "Make it Fit," and "Estimation Vacation."
==Early appearances==
thumb|300px|An early Guy Smiley hosts "The Weather Show."
The original puppet for Guy Smiley was repurposed from a Whatnot design that had appeared in various commercials and TV appearances throughout the 1960s (such as Conrad Love). In 1972, the puppet transitioned to the standard "Orange Gold" model, with a special mechanism that allowed Guy to raise or lower his eyebrows. This particular puppet often doubled as Prince Charming.
In the first season of Sesame Street, the puppet was often cast as a show business type, with a different name in each appearance. His first appearance was as a spokesman for Brand X in the tenth episode, and later that season, he would show up to sing "Gone with the Wind" and as an announcer in the first two Answer Lady sketches (performed by Frank Oz).
===Name===
The emcee made his earliest named appearance in the game show sketch "Can You Guess?", where he went as "Big Bob." In the sketch, "Pick Your Pet," he was called "Sonny Friendly," a name that would be reused years later for another Sesame Street game show host. The first use of the "Guy Smiley" name was "The Mr. and Mrs. Game."
When Count von Count introduced himself in a Beat the Time sketch, he did so in his traditional way, "They call me the Count because I love to count things." Guy responded with, "Well, I'm Guy Smiley. They call me Guy Smiley because I changed my name from Bernie Liederkrantz."
==Casting history==
Main Performers
* Jim Henson - from Sesame Street Season 1 (1969) - Season 21 (1990)
* Eric Jacobson - Sesame Street Presents: The Body (2005) - present
Alternate Performers
* Don Reardon (voice) - Let's Make a Word (1995) and Get Set to Learn (1996)
* Richard Hunt - as unnamed moviegoer in "Scary Movie" (1974)
==Sketches==
For game show sketches featuring Guy Smiley, see Sesame Street Game Shows.
Picture	Summary / First Appearance 	Description
 	Brand X Episode 0010 	Guy Smiley appears in a commercial for Brand X, showing before and after photos of dishes and laundry washed with Brand X, which leaves worse stains after being used.
 	"Gone with the Wind"Episode 0034 	Guy Smiley sings "Gone with the Wind" to a young woman. During the song, a very strong wind blows, making the leaves fly off the tree, causing the woman's house to collapse, and finally ripping Guy's clothes off.
 	The Weather Show Episode 0385 	Guy hosts The Weather Show.
 	Alphabet Chat: R Episode 0876 	Guy Smiley interrupts the show to promote Bow Wow Chow.
 	The Leslie Mostly ShowEpisode 1436 	When Leslie Mostly interviews Guy Smiley from his home, she asks why he has no furniture. Guy reveals that he has a living room set behind curtain number one, an organist named Buzz Crescendo behind curtain number two, and a studio audience he keeps as pets behind curtain number three. Guy and the organ music encourage the audience into pandemonium while Leslie ends the interview.
 	On Vacation with Guy SmileyEpisode 1949 	On Vacation with Guy Smiley chronicles Guy's adventures in the jungle and attempts to photograph the animals, but his boisterous manner of speaking frightens them off.
 	"I'll Love You in Springtime"Episode 2088	Guy Smiley sings about the four seasons.
 	Letter of the Day Pageant Episode 2212 	Guy Smiley hosts the Letter of the Day Pageant, presented similar to a beauty pageant.
 	SH-ElebratingEpisode 2564 	Guy Smiley hosts a reunion dinner for items that begin with the SH sound.
 	Audience LunchEpisode 2646 	Guy Smiley takes his 39-member studio audience to a restaurant, but there is no place for him to sit.
 	"Air" Episode 2682 	Whenever a barber says things that rhyme with "air" out loud to a hard-of-hearing customer, Guy Smiley crashes through the walls, asking "Did somebody say air?" and then sings about air.
==Filmography==
*Out to Lunch
*The Muppet Movie (the "Rainbow Connection" finale)
*The Muppets Take Manhattan (wedding finale)
*The Muppets: A Celebration of 30 Years
*A Muppet Family Christmas
*Ready to Learn promo
*Kinect Sesame Street TV
*Socktober Telethon 
*Chrysler web videos
*When You Wish Upon a Pickle (special and promo): 
*Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration
*Elmo's Mindfulness Spectacular (voice only)
===Episodic appearances===
*Episode 0915
*Episode 1045
*Episode 1079
*Episode 3820
*Episode 4182
*Episode 4510
*Episode 4920
*Episode 5111
==Album appearances==
*The Muppet Alphabet Album
*The Count Counts
*Dinah! I've Got a Song
==Book appearances==
* The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook (1973)
* Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum (1974)
* The Sesame Street ABC Storybook (1974)
* Big Bird's Busy Book (1975)
* Bert's Big Band Paint-with-Water Book (1976)
* The Monsters' Alphabet (1977)
* The Sesame Street Mystery Coloring Book (1977)
* The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook (1978)
* The Sesame Street Cookbook (1978)
* The Sesame Street Dictionary (1980)
* The Sesame Street Circus of Opposites (1981)
* What Do You Do? (1981)
* Which One Doesn't Belong? (1981)
* Seasons of the Year (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 1: The A Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 2: The B Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 3: The C Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 4: The D Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 5: The EF Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 6: The GH Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 7: The IJKL Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 9: The NO Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 10: The PQ Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 13: The T Book (1982)
* Sesame Street Finding Out Encyclopedia 14: The UV Book (1982)
* Sweet Dreams on Sesame Street (1983)
* Big Bird's Alphabet Book (1984)
* Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? (1984)
* Big Bird's Book About the Earth and Sky (1985)
* Going Places (1988)
* Fix It, Please (1992 edition)
* The Quiz Show (1996)
* Brought to You by the Letter B (2000)
* Good for You! (2006)
* Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood? (2009)
* Let's Make a Friend! (2016)
* Sesame Street 2024 comic book
** Issue 4: The Amazing Mumford's Card Trick
Cookie Monster also disguised himself as Guy Smiley in the book No Cookies 'Til Dinner.
==Sources==
__NOWYSIWYG__
Category:Sesame Street Muppet Characters
Category:Sesame Street Characters
Category:Muppet Characters
Category:Broadcasting
Category:Game Shows