Sesame Street Ep #666
The Count hangs out on Sesame Street.
The sixth season of Sesame Street debuted on November 4, 1974, with the ominously numbered episode 666 (which is available to watch on the Sesame Street: Old School Volume 2 DVD set). Despite that, as should surprise no one, nothing actually disastrous occurs, however I do wonder whether the hour’s framing device of the Count perching on the famous Sesame Street lamppost and counting all of the lights on Sesame Street going on in the early evening and off later at night was meant to be a sly little nod to it, due to the Count’s vampiric origins.
This is actually a very different way to start a Sesame Street season, which usually opens up on a bright, energetic scene that reintroduces and
Read MoreJulie on Sesame Street
Julie Andrews and Perry Como visit Sesame Street.
While one might expect an hour of TV starring Julie Andrews called Julie on Sesame Street to be either a PBS production or a special episode of Sesame Street, this actually isn’t the case. It was actually a nighttime network special, one of a series of specials starring Julie produced shortly after ABC canceled her critically acclaimed variety show, The Julie Andrews Hour, due to low ratings, which were largely the result of it having been up against Mary Tyler Moore.
In order to maintain a good relationship with her, ABC agreed to air the specials, which were shot in England and produced by ATV/ITV, a British entertainment company run by Lord Lew Grade, who would later go on to produce The Muppet Show, which might have never happened were it not
Read MoreSesame St S5: Bert and Ernie, Etc.
And now we finally come to our last day of clips from Season 5, nearly all of this batch revolving around Sesame Street‘s own dynamic duo, Bert and Ernie.
The first is called “TV Repair,” and it’s actually a twist on a Season 1 sketch we watched, in which Bert and Ernie’s TV would display nothing but the letter A, until Bert encourages to Ernie to reach into the back of the set, where he pulls out a bunch of items that begin with “A” that somehow seem to have gotten stuck inside the set. Once everything’s out, the set seems fixed, until it starts blaring the letter “B” instead, but Ernie actually seems to like it, so they leave it. This later sketch is basically a straight-up remake, however instead of Ernie attempting to watch TV, it’s Bert, whose favorite show, The Wonderful World of Pigeons, has been interrupted by a droning letter “H”:
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Sesame St S5: Highlights #3
Kermit counts 4 eggs.
And today, we have even more highlights from Sesame Street‘s fifth season! The first one I watched for today’s post is another brief lecture from Kermit, this time about counting 4 eggs. As his demonstration goes on, however, each egg begins to hatch and a baby Muppet chick pops out, which subtly introduces the concept of subtraction. Then, he has 4 chicks to count, after which each wanders off one at a time, reiterating the lesson. It’s also particularly fun because the series of flustered expressions Kermit’s face goes through by the end reach practically epic heights. And you can watch all of them, along with the rest of the sketch of course, here!
I also watched another quick Kermit lecture, in which our intrepid frog
Read MoreSesame St S5: Highlights #2
Today, we continue on with more Season 5 highlights, beginning with a classic Sesame Street story-song by Joe Raposo, “The Ballad of Casey McPhee,” in which Cookie portrays a brave, stalwart train conductor delivering 6 carloads of cookies and ice cream through a snowy mountain pass in order to deliver them to children on the other side who need them for their birthday parties, the fact that he actually manages to avoid eating them a testament both to his impressive resolve and the fact that he’s playing a role here because the real Cookie might have had a great deal more trouble remaining focused on the task at hand and putting his own hunger aside for the sake of kids he doesn’t even know:
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