I grew up with Sesame Street, and now through my kids I get to enjoy it again. While I don’t enjoy the newer characters, I still really enjoy a lot of the old bits.
I think you can divide the show into three parts, which I will rank in the order I most enjoy them:
a) The skits with the muppets, but not on “the Street”. These tend to be great - Ernie & Bert, Grover, Kermit, etc.
b) The non-muppet bits, which are either cartoons, or other filmed bits. Many are inane, but there are some gems, like the one with the violets in the vat, and the seven sons of the alligator king.
c) The type I least like are the ones on “the Street”. The human actors are kind of lousy, and my least favorite muppets (Elmo, Big Bird, etc) are there. I’m not even sure I can think of a favorite bit of this type.
I always loved the Bert and Ernie skits, and the others like the Count or Guy Smilee. There’s this one skit I like that features a little purple dude (and this skit is always throughout all Muppets shows or performances) saying, “Phenomonon,” and girl Muppets chant, “Doo-doo-doo-doo-doodoo!” It cracks me up!
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Mahna mahna (sung by Mahna Mahna and the Snowths)? I believe Fozzie Bear also did a rendition of this on The Muppoet Show.
Ah yes.
I found the Grover bits good, where he is an employee, annoying that man.
Especially the one where the man has to take a number; and Grover says each number, 1…2…3…any 3?
And the guy is the only one in the store, with the number 41.
My favorite skit was the one with the monsters trying to get the apple out of the tree. They had to work together to get the apple down and to eat it. At the end of the skit one of the monsters says “lets call that cooperation.” The other monster says “No, lets call it Charlie.”
I don’t know why, but that is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. (Maybe only being four or five the first time I saw it helped."
My favorite song is Bert singing Rubber Duckie.
"Rubber Duckie
You’re the one
You make bath time
Lots of fun.
Rubber Duckie
You’re my very best
Fried it’s true."
I loved all the psychedelic animation, like “Onetwothreefourfive, sixseveneightnineten, eleventwelve,” and the one with the kid going, “I’m lost . . . I’m really lost,” while he’s walking past all these freaky things.
I preferred Mr. Lehrer’s Silent-E song, m’self. Now about Snuffie: we must remember that nothing EVER happens on SS by accident. The explanation I recall seeing (I think it was in an article celebrating an SS anniversary) was that the producers decided to teach children that they could get adults to believe them. I think it was at a time when the child-abuse witch-hunts were all the rage, but the basic idea is a good one.
Oh, and I’ll never forget when Mr. Hooper died. I was in college by then, but watched the show because of all the attention it got. I was curious to see how they’d handle it - my mom died when I was 5, so I know how difficult it is for a child to understand. It was pitch-perfect.
On a cheerier note: I really loved Kermit’s news flashes, especially the one reporting on the Three Little Pigs. I remember spending weeks after that setting up blocks and dominos and blowing them down…
Grover as the waiter! Loved that. And the guys with the phone (meep-meep-meep PHONE).
His signature ‘C is for Cookie’ song
Monsterpiece Theatre with ‘Alistair Cookie’
C.M in a library: ‘I would like a story book…and a chocolate chip cookie’
Little girl recites the alphabet with Kermit - ‘A,B,C,D,E,F…Cookie Monster!’
Other fave bits that won’t go away:
The letter D song - ‘Daddy-D oh Daddy-D’
The dessert chef tumbling down the stairs
The boy with the ‘U’ & ‘P’ - ‘Uuuup, up, up, up!’
The boy trying to remember his groceries - ‘A loaf of bread, a carton of milk and a stick of butter’ (I can’t believe I can remember this!)
I didn’t fancy the items ‘on the Street’ all that much either but I did crack up whenever Oscar called Maria ‘Hey, Skinny!’
PS: There’s a really great book called Sesame Street Unpaved that has some pretty neat insights on the show. I can spend hours poring over it and singing the songs out loud.
One of the SS specials had a muscial number called “Put Down The Duckie” I hummed it for weeks afterward and now am sure I’ll be humming it all day today. I laugh just thinking about it.
The jazzed up version of Rubber Duck that Ernie sings as more and more characters join him in the biger and bigger bath tub. “And you do the duck, duck, rubber duck, duck…”
Lena Horne singing ABC song.
The “La-La Song” by Bert and Ernie. “Lalala lemon. Lalala linoleum…”
Hi-Ho Kermit thee frog here for Sesame Street News.