Pino

(For the Dave Goelz Sesame Street character, see Piño.

Pino is the Dutch version of Big Bird on Sesamstraat, the Dutch co-production of Sesame Street.

Pino is a big blue four year old bird. He is always cheerful and eager to learn new things. He is a little younger than his friends Tommie and Ieniemienie, and sometimes he has a little trouble keeping up with them. He is best known for his funny laugh and his catchphrase "Echt waar?!" ("Really?!").

Pino has been a part of the Sesamstraat cast from the beginning in 1976. He started out as a big clumsy dopey bird with a Belgian accent; the first episodes were Dutch/Belgian coproductions. He evolved slowly from an ageless bird who is a little slower than the others to a more childlike Pino.

Six different Pino puppets have been used through the run of the show. The first Pino, not yet built by Henson, was rather plump and messylooking; through the years he lost a little weight, and his messylooking white tummy became blue like the rest of his body. Pino went through the most drastic change in 1999. In order to make him look younger, his beak was shortened and he got colourful feathers on his head.

Pino has had many different performers through the years, including Dirk Gijspert (1976), Bert Plagman (1978), Erik Meijer (1980) and Lejo Dijkgraaf (1982). In 1990, Renee Menschaar started performing Pino, and she has been his regular performer ever since. She is the first woman to play Pino, who has always remained a boy character.

Big Bird is not featured on Sesamstraat episodes, but he does show up in dubbed versions of movies and specials on DVD, and in the Sesame Street Live shows. For a while Big Bird was named Pino in merchandise, but after many confusing name mixups ('how can Pino be blue AND yellow at the same time?'), he became Pino's cousin. His Dutch name is Neef Jan; Cousin John in English.