A history of the character Count von count

Count Von Count is one of Jim Henson's Muppet characters. He appears primarily in the Sesame Workshop (previously know as the Children's Television Workshop) Sesame Street. His character is a vampire and is styled on that of Dracula as portrayed in the 1920s and 1930s by horror actor Bela Lugosi.

The beginnings

Creation and role It was November 27, 1972 when Count Von Count made his first appearance on Sesame Street.
Using a play on his name, the Count's primary role was (and still is) to help in the education of children in the concept of simple mathematics, of which the main one of these is simple counting.
He is voiced by Jerry Nelson and conceived by Norman Stiles.
Tone down performance During The Count's original Sesame Street run in the early 70s it was decided by the mid 1970s that his delivery to the audience and the settings with which his segments were filmed in should be toned down. The reason for this was that it was felt that some children (and especially younger viewers) could find it all quite frightening.
This drew and end to the character's well know habits of not letting anything or anyone interrupt one of his counting sessions and also to his maniacal laugh of "AH AH AH AH!" that would follow on from a successful counting session.

Evolution and other appearences

More character depth Originally, just a single character on screen and living in a Gothic type castle that he shared with many bats and cobwebs, The Count evolved to give the character more depth. Some of the bats with which he shares his home appear to be pets and have their own names.
He also has a pet cat and drives a car that is called the Countmobile.
He also has also appeared with various female vampire friends (all of which are similarly styled to himself). Members of his family have also appeared on screen with him too. Other appearances Whilst Count von Count is primarily know for his appearances in the Sesame Street television series, he has made appearances in other works too.
Whilst having had roles in the Sesame Street films Elmo in Grouchland and also Follow That Bird, his face was also seen in 1984's The Muppets Take Manhattan.