This thread is so great. I watched Sesame Street until I was eleven. It taught me to read, and to count, and I feel that it has contributed much to my ability to appreciate absurdist art. Because, really, that’s what it is.
I like a lot of the stuff mentioned before, and would also like all of you to remember Ethel Mermaid, and the animated bit in which the two dumb hippie kids have a wilting plant and they think it’s asleep, and they get an alarm clock and a barking dog (Sparky?) before suddenly they remember, “Oh yeah, man, plants need water!”
I can hear them in my head…“Hey, plant, wake up…”
There was also a really scary song about danger that went “Danger, it’s no stranger,” as somebody wandered around signs that said Danger and Peligro. And the song “I’ve got a New Way to Walk,” which I think was about crosswalks, and that shady character in a trenchcoat who tried to sell Grover an O. “It’ll cost you just a nickel” “A nickel?!” “Shh–right. So buy an O, and take it home tonight.”
And I just love Bert, and everything about Bert.
I really get sad when I watch current Sesame Street. They have a lot of the same stuff that used to be on, but they’ve just added a lot more Elmo and Zoe and taken out the really goofy weird stuff that made the show so much fun.
Teeny Little Super Guy scared the crap out of me. I never liked him. I think it was the way the cup used to “disappear” by sinking into the counter and pop up somewhere else. That disturbed me.
The “Hippie Kids” bit just awakened in a corner of my mind. I have such a vivid auditory recollection of the Hippie Girl saying in that hoarse sexy alto of hers; “Hey plant, wake up.” Funny, I haven’t thought of it in years. Maybe that’s why I like girls with dusky voices. I’m beginning to think lots of stuff I saw as a child affected my sexual development. Don’t even get me started on why Disney’s Sleeping Beauty made me into a lesbian.
There’s at least one other sketch with this character, where he’s offerring to sell Ernie a picture of a tree, with four elephants hidden in it.
I’m cheating on this one, as I don’t remember it from back when, but the cable channel Noggin runs Sesame Street in various forms most of the day, and the Skeezling and I watch it just about every day.
[sub]“The fat cat sat on a mat, with no hat… And that’s that.”[/sub]
Question, does anyone remember a bit with these different colored balls moving arond in what looked like outer space and they wold form different patterns while the weird sorta sonorous chanting was going on?
Yeah, I remember that, Sock Munkey. If that wasn’t Philip Glass, it was certainly Philip Glass-esque.
They don’t show those sorts of things anymore. It’s all fun and monsters now. This means that kids have to miss stuff they want to see if nature happens to call (and, nature will call–it’s a one-hour show, after all!) I predict disasterous results to the carpets of America. Of course, since they’ve dumbed-down the show enough now, many of the show’s audience can probably rely on the good ol’ diaper to get them through. And, of course, there’s Tivo. Maybe everyone’s got Tivo these days except me.
Oh, I just found the “Whatever Happened To…?” page in Sesame Street Unpaved. The yellow-haired muppet who liked to slap letters onto people was Harvey Kneeslapper. “Performed by Frank Oz, the character was chucked because he was a one-note joker, and because his constant laughing was too hard on Frank’s voice.” The robot was Sam the Super-Automated Robot. “Played by Jerry Nelson who was boxed into a cumbersome suit, Sam was a robot who was supposed to answer and satisfy our needs, but he always somehow got the answers wrong. If he was meant to make coffee he’d pour it waith the cup upside down. If he was supposed to draw a circle he’d draw a square. And if he was supposed to be a hit, he wasn’t.”
Makes me laugh every time I think about it… in fact it still gets thrown into conversation every now and then with some friends…
The other one I remember now was when ernie tied all the strings to his fingers. When Bert asked Erniw whay there was one string on his finger, he said it was to remind him of the next string, which reminded him of the string after that, which reminded him of the string after that. When Bert asked Ernie what the last string was for he said “Gee Bert, I forget”. I liked that one too.
You can’t tell a hero by his size,
He’s Just a Teeny Little Super Guy.
Ohhh, yeah.
and…
D, D, D, D.
Daddy dear, oh daddy sweet,
do dragons wear clothes,
do ducks have feet?
Can I have a drink of water
and a dish of tadpoles?
Daddy, how deep is a doughnut hole?
D, D, D, D.
I love the old Sesame Streets, and the old muppet shows. I wish they would make a DVD with just some of the old shorts on it.
I have the Ernie and Bert sing-along record too, and the one where they sing songs for all the letters of the alphabet.
Curious Canuck - I asked my friend, a lifelong Sesame Street addict, about the I - car song, and she says she can’t think of anything even remotely similar. This is a woman who knows every word of every song anyone else has listed here, so I have to think that the song you’re thinking of may be Canada-specific.
I’m going to have to seek out this book, because it sounds awesome. I’d also be all about a DVD that collected some old skits.
I also remember being distinctly creeped out by the letter U coming after that guy. “Why won’t U just leave him alone?”
I ahem watch Sesame Street from time to time, and it’s nowhere near as fun as it used to be. I mostly watch it because watching the Elmo’s World segments are as close as you can get to being high without actually exposing yourself to any drugs.
“Let’s ask Mr. Noodle!.. Oh, look, it’s Mr. Noodle’s brother… Mr. Noodle!!!”
The guy who plays the back end also plays the front end. Barkley is a single-performer character. There’s only one guy in the suit – and according to IMDb, his name is Bruce Connelly. Just look at the character if you ever have a chance – there’s only room for one in that costume.
Now Snuffleupagus, that’s a two-performer character.
Ok, I think I remember the last line in the letter “i” beeping car song - “something something and do a flip, get into my car and away we’ll zip. I love to be with the letter i becase he’s so ireeeeesitable…beep beep.”
Yep, they had the car bit in the USA too. I remember a little more now that I’ve been thinking abuot it more, like the car getting splashed with mud by a truck and going to a car wash or something and driving around.
Yep, they had the car bit in the USA too. I remember a little more now that I’ve been thinking about it more, like the car getting splashed with mud by a truck (I think they rhymed truck with yuck) and going to a car wash or something and driving around.
BTW where on the Big Bird outfit did the guy in it see out of? Was it a spot on the neck hidden by feathers?
Big Bird is equipped with a small monitor in his chest. The actor (Carroll Spinney, who also plays Oscar) doesn’t see out of the costume at all. The top of Spinney’s head is right where Big Bird’s shoulders are - the poor man has to keep one arm up over his head to work the beak!
All the Muppeteers work with one arm up over their head … but you’re right, it is slightly different for the Big Bird performer because he can’t brace his arm with the other hand. Big Bird tends to be seen in short bursts, partially for that reason.
Carroll Spinney just turned 69, and while he hopefully has no intentions of retiring anytime soon, Big Bird is now sometimes performed by a guy named Matt Vogel. I honestly cannot tell sometimes who’s doing the performance – Matt’s voice is that close to Carroll’s. I think Matt does the “Journey to Ernie” segments that currently air, though.
Another interesting (to me at least) fact about Big Bird is his Bob-Dole-ish right hand. The performer operates his left hand, but the performer’s right hand is in the head. Big Bird’s right hand is stuffed. It’s given some movement by a fishing line that is attached at the wrist and run through a loop on Big Bird’s neck, with the other end of the line being attached to the wrist of the performer-controlled left hand. So the left hand moves down, the right hand moves up. Bear in the Big Blue House has this same setup. Sometimes you can see the fishing line pressing against the fur or feathers.
