on the Road to China, a two-hour NBC special airing September 16, 1979. The special featured Big Bird, along with the likes of Shields and Yarnell and Mikhail Baryshnikov, with musical numbers by Peaches & Herb and Crystal Gayle. It was produced by James Lipton. Spinney devised the storyline and suggested locations for Big Bird in China. However, the program's credits do not acknowledge this and instead state, "Created by Jon Stone". Spinney also notes that, when filming on location in Beijing, Guilin, and Suzhou, he experienced much tension and difficulty due to animosity from Stone. Cast Caroll Spinney as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch Frank Oz as Bert, Cookie Monster and Grover Jerry Nelson as Two-Headed Monster #1, Oscar the Grouch (assistant) and Cookie Monster (assistant) Brian Muehl as Barkley and Telly Jim Henson as Ernie Richard Hunt as Two-Headed Monster #2, Ernie (assistant) and Telly (assistant) Martin P. Robinson as Telly (DVD Version) Cheryl Blalock as Additional Muppet Performer Ed Christie as Additional Muppet Performer Ouyang Lianzi (Lisa Ouyang) as Xiao Foo Katherine Lakoski as the Singing Phoenix Lu Ja-Lin as the Dancing Phoenix Arabella Hong as the Shopkeeper Ting Bao-Yi and Wang Kwan-Wei as the Lion Dogs Hua Ziu Ping as the Storyteller Chou Yi-Ping, Liu Xio-Shen, Zhang Xin-Tien, Xu Tien-Ed, Quan She-Zhen, Li Jiang, Lu Fu-Hai and Wu Chi-Lian as the Monkey Kings (Sun Wukong) Awards Won the 1983 Emmy for Outstanding Children's Program Production Lisa Ou, who played Xiao Foo, did not understand a single word of English when she acted her scenes. She memorized the sounds. Film production took place in 3 cities: Beijing (the Great Wall, animal sculpture), Guilin (the Glass Chessboard, headless buffalo) and Suzhou (the storyteller). Scenes at the Great Wall took place early morning around 4AM due to heavy tourism crowds. Carroll mentioned in the 2013 documentary "Being Big Bird" that Lisa Ou learned all her lines one by one while filming. He would repeat the lines and she would repeating stating "she probably didn't know what she was saying but she was very smart." Carroll and Lisa Ou were also re-united for the documentary for the first time in about 30 years. This is the only film Lisa Ou acted in. References External links Photo of Big Bird with Bob Hope from their 1979 special 1983 television specials Sesame Street features NBC television specials 1980s American animated films