Sesame Street Ep #276

Posted on Dec 8, 2015 in Henson, Sesame Street, Shows, Television

Maria and Big Bird

As Sesame Street‘s third season premiere begins (it originally aired November 8, 1971 and is available on the Sesame Street: Old School Volume 1 DVD set), the voice of one off-screen child is introducing another one to the street where he lives along with all of its inhabitants, and I have to say that, after being briefly away from Sesame Street myself with Muppet specials for the past few entries, not to mention posting less due to my being away in London at the moment, it feels like a warm welcome home. There’s Ernie and Bert, and there’s Bob, and there’s Susan and Gordon! I missed you guys! Well, some of you, anyway (looking at you, not-the-Gordon-I-grew-up-with!).

But in addition to reuniting us with familiar faces, this opening narration

The Frog Prince

Posted on Dec 3, 2015 in Henson, Specials, Television

Princess Melora and Robin sing a duet.

I can’t lie. Ever since I began this project, The Frog Prince is one of the Muppet specials I’ve been most looking forward to revisiting. As a little kid, I actually owned the record (yup, they had those things back then), which I believe had either the audio from the entire show or very close to it, and I would listen to it over and over. Later on, I finally recorded the special when it aired on the Disney Channel and watched that over and over, to the point that even though it’s probably been 25 years now since the last time I’d seen or listened to it, I remembered almost the entire thing vividly. And I don’t just mean situations but lines, entire exchanges, and complete songs, lyrics and all.

The second in the Tales from Muppetland fractured fairy tale trilogy, The

The Great Santa Claus Switch

Posted on Dec 1, 2015 in Henson, Specials, Television

The Frackles take over the elves’ gig!

All the way back in 1963, one of the scripts that Jim Henson and Jerry Juhl collaborated on was a Christmas special called The Great Santa Claus Switch. Unlike some of their other 1960s scripts, however, they did manage to see this one to fruition, albeit 7 years later. Ed Sullivan was a great supporter and fan of the Muppets, as evidenced by their numerous appearances on his show, and agreed to produce the special in 1970. In June of that year, during the hiatus between Sesame Street‘s 1st and 2nd seasons, filming went underway, and it finally aired on Dec 20th, which was coincidentally the day after Jim and Jane’s fifth and final child, Heather, was born.

Jim had apparently hoped that The Great Santa Claus Switch would

Sesame St S2: Bert & Ernie

Posted on Nov 27, 2015 in Henson, Sesame Street, Shows, Television

After watching some of Ernie’s second season team-ups with other characters yesterday, today we’re back to the sketches with his longtime companion, his good old buddy, Bert, and I figured it would be nice to start with the rare scene in which, not only does Bert emerge happy and Ernie dejected but in which there’s actually no competition between them whatsoever. Bert’s happiness springs from Ernie being kind to him and Ernie’s lack of enthusiasm springs from simply being bored, and it all revolves around Bert’s famous bottlecap collection:

Sesame St S2: Ernie

Posted on Nov 24, 2015 in Henson, Sesame Street, Shows, Television

Our focus today is our good, old pal, Ernie, who although he’s best known as being half of one of Sesame Street‘s longest-lasting power couples, often had a number of sketches on his own, as well. Interestingly, although with Bert, Ernie would often be the–for lack of a better word–tormentor, inflicting his unique Ernie-osity upon him and often driving our favorite fussbudget to scream, flail, faint, run away, or some combination of the above, Ernie didn’t necessarily share the same dynamic with other characters, some of whom wouldn’t put up with his fun-loving shenanigans at all (reiterating that, underneath the surface, Bert really does love him), and others of whom actually ended up placing Ernie in the traditional Bert role themselves, giving him a taste of his own medicine, so to speak.

Our first clip today is a great example of the former, a classic scene in which Ernie attempts to buy a very specific ice cream cone from the ice cream man–played by Jerry Nelson, who came on board this season–namely a chocolate strawberry peach vanilla banana pistachio peppermint lemon orange butterscotch ice cream cone:

Sesame St S2: Songs, Etc.

Posted on Nov 23, 2015 in Henson, Sesame Street, Shows, Television

Today, I begin my survey of clips from Sesame Street Season 2. As usual, I watched the first batch on the Sesame Street: Old School Volume 1 DVD set’s “Classic Cuts” section.

First off, we have another sequence I remember fondly from childhood, “King of 8,” about a Jim-Henson-voiced monarch who loves the number 8 so much that he demands that everything in his kingdom be numbered thusly, from the flags on and windows in his castle to his guards to his daughters to the jewels on each one’s crown. Take note, however, that this doesn’t extend to sharing the royal title with 7 other kings or having 7 other wives. And speaking of marriage, his solitary wife causes some upset at the end of the bit by giving birth to a ninth daughter, of which he is informed by his one and only jester, shortly before the poor bloke is flattened by the 8 sign. Perhaps this balances out the numbers a bit?

Sesame Street Ep #131

Posted on Nov 20, 2015 in Henson, Sesame Street, Shows, Television

Gordon interrupts Ernie and Bert’s argument.

As I alluded to in previous posts, when the already monumentally successful Sesame Street returned for its second season premiere on November 9, 1970 (available for purchase as part of the Sesame Street: Old School Volume 1 DVD set), it featured some changes that came about as a result of discovering what worked and what didn’t during their first experimental year. One of the most instantly striking features about this episode is just how big and full the street now seems. Compared to the small handful of people who greeted viewers in the first aired episode, the first pan shot of this episode is stuffed with characters: adults, children, and perhaps most importantly, Muppets.

The show’s already come a long way from its initial hesitancy to feature