Counting cartoon with race cars and spies

mikealan

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Hi there. With all of our talks of the falling baker, the cartoon pinball machine, the cartoon circus tamer and the number painter, let's have a talk of the counting series with the race cars and the spies. They're very old and are so similar to the pinball machine, but they taught us to count to 10. They feature the race cars in the beginning and the spies at the end that open their coats to reveal the numbers 1-10. The voice off-screen that sang the numbers was Grace Slick of the Jefferson Planes, but nobody beleives that she sang the numbers on the series. My memories of these series was that I watched "3", "4", "6", "9" and "10" on the 1987-90 shows and "8" on the Hebrew Sesame show on tape when I was in preschool. Now, I watched "2" on the premiere and on #536, and I can watch it many times any Friday on Retromedia.tv!

Anybody remember these old and classic counting cartoon series from the early days with the race cars and the spies?
 

mikealan

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Originally posted by ssetta
I think most of us do.
I think you're right. I forgot to tell you that the series that end with the spies did reveal the numbers 1-10 as Grace Slick sings "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-niiiiinnee-teeeeennnnn!" off-screen that all numbers grow all over the screen! That's a cool ending! I'd love to watch the race cars/spies sketch of #2 again on the site I'm watching it. The site you can see this is on...

www.retromedia.tv
(the site that features many TV clips from the early days)
 

jeffkjoe

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I think most of us are also thinking:

What were these people smoking when they came up with these psychedelic images on the racecar/spies cartoons?

I mean, these skits are the most outdated feature on the old SESAME STREET clips, and are sooooo 60's-ish.
 

mikealan

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Well, I'll tell all of you how they went:

It starts where an athlete player or whatever come to you that has the sponsored number. Then, jazz music plays off-screen as the numbers 1-10 flash on any jazzy background twice before we see ten fingers counting up to ten as Grace Slick sings and counts to ten. Then, jazz numbers flash twice again before we fade to see ten numbered race cars pull up as Grace Slick sings and counts to ten again. After that, we pull back to see the sponsored number part (for example like two elevator doors on #2 and the octopus with the xylophone on #8). Then, jazzy numbers 1-10 flash again twice until we see ten spies opening their coats one at a time to reveal the numbers 1-10 as Grace Slick sings, "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-niiiiinnee-teeeeeennn!" Finally, as the spies fade away, all of the numbers float all over the screen.

That does not feature smoking scenes!
 

mikealan

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Here are all of the number versions they did for the race cars/spies series of Sesame Street:

1-they actually never did 'one'
2-the cyclist with the number on his shirt rides on the bike to the camera
3-the Indy-type race car with the number rides to the camera
4-the hockey player with the number on his shirt comes to the camera
5-the football player with the number on his shirt comes to the camera
6-the train with the number rides to the camera
7-the marathon jogger with the number on his shirt comes to the camera
8-the 8-ball comes riding to the camera after you hear a click from the other balls
9-the man hits the tooter-topper and we see the number on screen
10-the man is holding a flag with the number then the camera pays close attention to the number on the flag
 

jeffkjoe

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I love those cartoons, because it shows how the 1960's were.

This was THE signature cartoon of

SESAME STREET 1969.

The street wasn't bent yet.
Orange Oscar.
Goofy, clumsy Big Bird.
Beehive-hairdo Susan.
Brown Grover.
Different shirt Ernie.
Very present Kermit the Frog.
"Good morning, sunshine"- crooning Bob.
Mutton chops, long sideburns Gordon.
Still-alive Mr. Hooper.

And psychedelic racecars/spies number cartoon.

Almost makes you want to light up a joint and flash the peace sign.
 

rjschex

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mikealan said:
Here are all of the number versions they did for the race cars/spies series of Sesame Street:

9-the man hits the tooter-topper and we see the number on screen
What's a "tooter-topper"?

I'm a collector of SS animation and clips; I have almost all in this series.
Number 7 and Number 9 are the only ones I don't have yet. I've seen a description of #7 on another webpage in the past; I don't remember #9 at all.
(Also, I'm looking for a better quality copy of #8; on mine, the opening is partially chopped off.) Anyone out there have #7 or #9 on videotape?

Something else in this series to watch out for:
In the #10 spot, the characters seen in the stands are all from the other installations of the series:

#2--twin Washington statuettes
#3--the juggler
#4--the elephant (looks much different)
#5--the crocodile (as his mouth opens and closes, a "5" is seen inside
#6--the mosquito (with a "6" pennant)
#7--the wizard with a pointed hat
#8--the octopus
#9--some light-colored critter with a "9" on top of his head
 

jeffkjoe

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If you guys want to see more of the JAZZY SPIES/RACECARS cartoons,
then, I suggest you go on Ebay and do a search for:

THE SESAME STREET BOOK OF NUMBERS, copyright 1970 from Time Life Books.

basically, this was part of a really old 5-book series of psychedelic 1969 Sesame Street shows (the others were PUZZLERS, SHAPES, LETTERS, and PEOPLE AND THINGS) and

for the NUMBERS one, all the images and pictures come from the JAZZY SPIES cartoons.

Also:

Do a search on Ebay for the old Fisher Price Movie Viewer (they had cartridges for Six Million Dollar Man, Star Wars, Disney shorts, and Sesame Street), and the one entitled NUMBERS had the JAZZY SPIES cartoon on it in BEAUTIFUL 16mm film.

You can find it really cheap.


But regardless, you can find memorabilia on Ebay featuring this ultra-drug-influenced, pyschedelic 1960's, weird-as-funk cartoon.
 

Smy Guiley

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mikealan said:
as Grace Slick sings "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-niiiiinnee-teeeeennnnn!" off-screen that all numbers grow all over the screen!
Is everyone sure this is Grace Slick? That's so cool, as I was actually wondering that over the last few days. That is as neat a cameo as the Pointer Sisters doing Pinball Number Count!
 
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