Specifically, the animated bits. Not that I’ve got anything against the main characters or muppets in general, but for this thread I want to focus on the fantastic animation.
In the seventies, Sesame Street had some really cool animated shorts. For days, the “Ladybug’s Picnic” has been going through my head: 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9, 10-11-12,
And they all played games,
At the Ladybug’s Picnic!
There was that freaky lady dancing on a farm, singing about the “lovely eleven morning”. She reminded me so much of my mom.
“Eleven chicks hatching,
Eleven cats scratching,
Eleven’s the number for me!”
Oh, oh! And the pinball one! The viewer followed the ball through a pinball machine. I always wondered if that was computer-generated. If it was, it had to be one of the first.
1-2-3-4-5,
6-7-8-9-10, 11-12!
I guess I like counting.
There was also this kid who had to walk to the store to pick up “a loaf 'o bread, a quart 'o milk, and a stick 'o butter.” He kept repeating that over and over as these freaky, psychedelic things happened all around him. Hey, it was the early seventies.
Some of the animation looked a little primitive, but a lot of it was incredible. The styles were all over the place. It looked to me as if the animators were given a lot of freedom to experiment.
So what’s your favorite Sesame Street animation?
I saw eleven cows sitting 'midst the buttercups.
I said, “How’s your cottage cheese”
and they said, “Aw, dry up!”
I love the ladybug one, too:
They played jump rope but, the rope it broke, so they all sat around telling knock-knock jokes.
Another of my favorites is when the plumber comes to the door and knocks, and inside a parrot asks “Who is it?”
The plumber replies, “It’s the plumber. I’ve come to fix the sink.” This goes on several times until the plumber has a heart attack and drops dead (This is a children’s show?). When the owner of the house returns, she sees the plumber lying dead on the porch and asks, “Who is it?” to which the parrot replies, “It’s the plumber. He’s come to fix the sink”. Cracks me up ever time!
I loved Guy Smiley. What was the name of the gameshow he hosted? Whatever it was, I remember it always upset him terribly and he ended up crying his eyes out.
my all time favorite SS memory is snufalufagus(sp), he was the coolest, but my all time favotite SS related thing is Sensemilla Street, a sound file floating around on napster, in it big bird and kermit are running an episode stoned out of their minds, it is quite funny
I get to watch both sesame street and electric company in the wee hours of the morning on Nogin.
Did you guys know that Oscar the grouch started out orange, and that Big Bird acted like a stoner?
My favs from sesame street are the pie guy, and the one where they take the little ball and send it thru and obstical course type thing.
And a slight hijack here, but did anyone ever notice how hippy the Electric Company was? I never realised that, or the fact that alot of it had adult humor underlying.
Katie, I will watch for Guy Smiley for you so that way I can figure out the name of the gameshow. Since now you have driven me crazy trying to remember. Unless of course someone comes along and lets us both know before then.
As boring and plain as she was…Prarie Dawn with her yellow hair in a conservative bob and her bright pink skin and cute blue dress was my all time favorite part of Sesame Street. She just is so cute.
And did Sesame Street have “Teeny Tiny Little Super Guy” animations? Or was that Electric Company? He was a guy who lived in a juice glass and fought kitchen crime…
jarbabyj, those were some of my favorite, too! Others:
Me and my M, we go Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm as we mosey along.
The typewriter who would type out words, only to have the object he’d written about appear. Especially the one with glue.
Super Grover and Grover as a waiter for the angry bald man with the mustache. Good stuff.
Cookie Monster singing “If moon was a cookie.”
Ernie filling up the bedroom with the sheep he was trying to count, angering Bert. Another one where Ernie had a banana in his ear to keep the alligators away from Sesame Street. And my all time favorite ever is when they go fishing and all Ernie has to do is say, “Here, fishie fishie fishie,” and the fish jump into the boat. Bert tries and tries, finally yelling it at the top of his lungs, and finally a shark jumps in, and Bert faints while the shark and Ernie giggle.
My most random one is hard to explain. It was a short about a hot dog being made ready to eat, done with a series of stills. First it was just a bun, then a hot dog goes inside it, the hot dog gets topped with mustard and onions, and then it disappears in four bites. I remember it really vividly, so I guess I was hungry when I saw it. Hmm.
Grover was my all-time favorite Sesame Street muppet. I loved it when he used to piss off the bald, moustached customer.
[whine mode] But I wanted to talk about Sesame Street animaaaation, not muppets!
[/whine mode]
There was one about “I, I, Capital I”, with this huge I on the top of a bare hill. The tone of that piece reminds me of the monolith from 2001. Always kind of spooked me.
What are the animated shorts like in SS these days? Have they made new ones, or are they still playing the trippy ones from the seventies?
Luck is with you, my brothers and sisters: used copies of Sesame Street: Unpaved, the Sesame Street book for grown-ups, are still available from Amazon, though the book is out of print. See photos of early episodes! Read about characters who have disappeared, like Roosevelt Franklin and Don Music! Learn all the words to “The King of Eight”! And you shall be free!!!..
sorry, got carried away. Anyhow, it’s a good book.
My son is 11 and still likes me to sing…
If I were a cloud a way up in the blue, I’d float along a breeze just following you and if you ever looked above you I’d try to spell “I love you”, If I were a cloud in the sky…Snuffalupagus’ cloud song!
I loved the teeny little super guy
Guy Smiley probably hosted several gameshows, but the one I remember is “Beat the Time”. This is also where they have my favorite Sesame Street joke.
Guy’s contestant is “The Count”.
Count: I’m the Count. They call me the Count because I like to count things.
Smiley: I’m Guy Smiley. They call me Guy Smiley because my real name is Bernie Liebowitz…
Man, I was all about the songs. So many great ones!
Unfortunately, the one that was my favorite is unfortunately one I cannot recall. All I remember was Ernie singing while sitting on a crescent moon. I think it might have been the same one where he was singing under the sea, but I’m not sure. Any help with what that song was?
I never really loved the show itself, considering I was a way-too-old teenager when it was in its infancy, but I did fall in love with one character. Grover.
I thought (and still think) he was the cutest, sweetest, most lovable Muppet of them all.
I still own, courtesy of a long-time-ago boyfriend, a Grover hand puppet. It has been through many things, but is still with me, and still loves me! He’s my OLD PAL GROOOOVVVVERRRRR!!! (heh)
Needless to say, but I will anyway, he’s a bit ragged now around the edges, so he’s kept away from actual CHILDREN. He and I talk sometimes when nobody’s around. He’s still my buddy. I love that little guy.