Sesame St S4: Highlights #2
Next, we have a Jeff-Moss-penned song performed by the Muppet group, Little Jerry and the Monotones:
As you can hear, it’s a take on 50s-style doo-wop with a debt owed to Frankie Valli’s classic falsetto, and it’s a lot of fun. I particularly like how, in his litany of things that are making him sad today, he sings, “Went to school, had a lousy time…” And speaking of lousy times, that’s exactly what Bert goes through in his next sketch with Ernie:
Another one where poor Bert just can’t win. At the same time, however, he is being even more of a stick in the mud than usual. He doesn’t want to go out with Ernie, even though they made these plans a while ago because he feels silly due to having gotten purple paint on his right hand, so while Ernie is of course being silly in covering him in winter clothes, this is a case where I have to side with Ernie, as well as one that shows why Ernie’s good for Bert, to push him outside of his comfort zone. More than anything else, Ernie is really showing Bert how irrational he’s being by cancelling a whole day of fun out due to worrying over what others will think of him. Furthermore, the scene’s escalation is very funny and the twist ending, that Bert’s now covered in mittens, a scarf, and a winter hat, and holding a sled to go to the beach, is perfect icing on the cake.
And we finish off Season 4 with 2 clips of Stevie Wonder visiting Sesame Street, the first in which he sings “123 Sesame Street,” a funky number that he actually wrote for his appearance that includes some pretty sweet vocoder action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFlxh9I6Bw4
And, finally, Stevie’s short and lovely scene with Grover, who is trying to riff just like him:
They have really sweet chemistry. I love how, although Stevie admits that Grover doesn’t quite nail the singing the first time around, he praises him on his subsequent tries, even though he isn’t significantly better than before, telling him “you did it better than me,” Grover swelling in pride in response. Such a Grover moment.
And before wrapping up for today, I actually have an additional 2 clips from variety TV shows which were too brief to warrant their own post, so I figured I’d just cover them here. First up, a clip from the Muppets’ appearance on The Perry Como Winter Show on December 4, 1972. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the entire special, which features appearances by King Goshposh and Featherstone, but I did find a performance by the Country Trio of Jim Croce’s song, “You Don’t Mess Around with Jim”. This is actually the world premiere of the Country Trio, who later appeared numerous times on The Muppet Show, and are particularly significant because they are Muppet lookalike versions of Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Jerry Nelson, with “Jim” on banjo, “Frank” on bass, and “Jerry” on guitar, and here Frank’s voice sounds very much like proto-Fozzie. You can watch the clip here.
Then, on February 17, 1973, the Muppets appeared on an episode of the short-lived variety show, The Julie Andrews Hour. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to track down this episode either, which is a real shame, however I did find a brief blooper from it with Rowlf, which sadly doesn’t replace not having gotten a chance to see the show itself but does give a really good example of how Jim and the other Muppet puppeteers would remain in character even when they “messed” up, which helped maintain the illusion for the audience. You can see it here at about the 6:55 mark. Luckily, we will have many more opportunities to see Julie Andrews and the Muppets interacting, not only on The Muppet Show but numerous Julie TV specials that predated it, and all of which I was able to get my hands on! We’ll be seeing the first immediately after Sesame Street Season 5!
And speaking of which, please come back in two days for the Season 5 premiere!
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