1969-1970 Variety Show Appearances
Flip Wilson and Big Bird
As soon as the sketch is over, Ed Sullivan asks a particularly shaggy Jim and Frank to come out on stage. If it weren’t already painfully clear we were in the late 60s/early 70s era, it certainly is here, especially with Oz’s balding on top, long in the back hairstyle. You know I love these men to the ends of the earth and back but yikes. Their clear discomfort at being on stage in front of everyone as themselves, versus how outgoing and free-spirited they are when hidden behind their puppets, is also really interesting to see. You can watch the entire clip here.
Finally, I watched two appearances that the Sesame Street Muppets and cast members made on The Flip Wilson Show shortly in advance of the second season. The fact that they were showing up on such a popular, network variety show for the whole family gives a clear indication as to how big in the cultural consciousness they were getting by this point.
The first episode aired on September 17th and featured Big Bird singing “ABD-DEF-GHI” with Flip. It’s most notable for being possibly the first time that the redesigned Big Bird puppet appeared on screen, with more feathers on the top of his head and a brighter expression on his face. Carroll Spinney hasn’t yet perfected Big Bird’s voice to the one we know today, meaning he still sounds a little less intelligent than he later would, but the evolution from foolish yokel to precocious child is definitely apparent. But there isn’t much more to the scene than Big Bird singing the familiar song while groovy letters dance around them on the screen. Eventually the two of them dance, seeming to drive Flip to the point of exhaustion, collapsing on the floor. It isn’t that it isn’t cool to see but it’s more entertaining for what it represents than for what it actually is, since it adds very little that we didn’t get from Sesame Street itself.
The second appearance was on Oct 15, 1970 and is infinitely stranger. It begins with Flip and two guests, Raymond Burr and Stanley Myron Handleman, attempting to find Sesame Street–the theme song playing in the background–and cracking almost painfully lame jokes along the way. Handleman says, “Sesame? Oh, you mean like on rye bread.” And then he proceeds to give directions. Flip asks if that’s the way to Sesame Street, he responds that it isn’t, “but there’s a great delicatessan store…” The audience gamely laughs along but yeesh. Seriously. Then who should appear but Susan (Loretta Long)?! And they ask her how to get to Sesame Street. Then Handleman asks her how the corn beef is, and again, grimace grimace grimace, at which point she tries to explain the “Open Sesame” origins of the name. Which is pretty cool to see on TV at the time, because I hadn’t realized they discussed that outside of the pitch reel.
Singing about numbers with Flip Wilson.
Suddenly, they’re interrupted by Sunday’s Child, an African American girl group of the time, because why not? And they sing the Sesame Street theme song and all awkwardly pretend to walk along. Flip wonders if the others can tell if they’re getting close. Burr says he can almost smell it in the air. The cold-cut-obsessed Handleman chimes in with, “Yes, it could be the pastrami.” Cringe cringe cringe. Flip notes that they haven’t actually gone anywhere. They’re on the same street where they started, and the all-wise, all-knowing Susan tells him that that’s the point. Any street can be Sesame Street! And then, ta da! There’s Big Bird! Who comedically stumbles on stage and then actually trips and falls backwards on his butt, causing Loretta to break out in genuine laughter. Luckily, however, Carroll Spinny doesn’t seem to have been too badly harmed in the making of this production.
Then, there’s some patter about how Sesame Street teaches kids how to count, and Burr pompously says, “I assume you attempt to teach in a manner that’s entertaining as well as instructive?” “Wowee,” Big Bird replies, “what language is that, sir? You speak it beautifully!” Then Burr makes a joke about having learned it in the courtroom. You see, he played Perry Mason for years. He then adds that he never lost a case. Susan introduces a song that will teach them all to count from 1-20, and he responds that many of his clients faced a possible term of 1-20. I know, hilarious, right? I doubt this is the oddest pairing of 1970s variety show guests ever, but that’s both scary and sad. And then, with the help of one of Sesame Street‘s less memorable counting songs and more groovy numbers, the lesson proceeds.
Later on in the episode, in a much better sketch, Flip meets Oscar, who is finally green! According to Spinney, this was apparently the first time that a green Oscar was on TV. Oddly, however, he also looks even less like himself physically than the orange puppet did! The color is right. The face is all wrong. Too shaggy, too round, and too much eyebrow. Anyway, Flip tricks Oscar into coming out by putting on a female voice and pretending to be the Avon Lady, and Oscar’s none too pleased about the trickery. After all, Oscar’s busy, putting in floodlights for the tennis court he has down in his trashcan! Then we hear the noises of a ball being struck back and forth, and finally a ball actually shoots out of the can, which Flip tosses back in, only to hear a loud splash of water. “You dumb-dumb!” Oscar cries. “You threw the ball right into the swimming pool!” Oscar’s trashcan really is a TARDIS!
Oscar and Flip
And he’s throwing a party down there, as they speak! A Christmas party, Oscar adds. When Flip protests that it isn’t Christmas yet, Oscar whispers, “Not so loud. They’ll take back their presents.” So Flip yells, “MERRY CHRISTMAS!” and a burst of snow from inside the can hits him in the face! Then Oscar tells him that they have a big TV star down there, which Flip refuses to believe, until Raymond Burr calls out from inside and sticks out his hand, telling Flip he’s playing Santa Claus. “A job is a job,” he says.
We end on another musical number with Flip and Big Bird. Big Bird tells Flip he loves to dance “and trip the light fantastic”. “You like to trip, do you?” Flip asks. And did that just really happen, or am I hallucinating? What follows is an extremely bizarre rendition of “Step in Time” from Mary Poppins. Admittedly, the fact that it’s happening at all is probably the most bizarre part, not anything happening here in particular. We wrap on what we in the business like to call a “running gag,” with Big Bird and Flip dancing together until Flip lands on the floor again, this time saying, “Your dancing’s for the birds.” Wocka wocka. You can watch the footage from these two episodes here, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Tomorrow: my Sesame Street Season 2 coverage begins.
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