Hooperburger

[Xerus]

The Sesame Street episode I remember well and loved as a kid has finally been posted. Where Mr. Hooper decides to turn his store into a hamburger place called Hooperburger. I just love the Hooperburger jingle which is supposed to be a parody of Burger King's Have it Your Way song. And McDonald's You Deserve a Break Today song. And I loved the scene where that huge family of Anything Muppets wanted 67 hamburgers.

 

[YellowYahooey]

I never saw the episode myself when the CBC aired select episodes from Season 9 of the series back in 1979 - in fact, I took a hiatus from watching the show late in 1978 or January 1979 possibly due to fear of certain segments. I did return to watching the show regularly in November 1979, which was near the middle of Season 9, and on that day I returned to watching the show (a Wednesday), I saw Episode 1105 - which, little did I know, was a repeat from Season 7. I do recall seeing Episode 1109 on a Friday - it was the episode in which Mr. Hooper goes for a checkup, which could be a telltale sign that Will Lee's health was in decline by that point. I also recall seeing Episode 1112 on a Tuesday (Mumford makes the street disappear), so chances are either Episode 1110 or 1111 was skipped by the CBC. I don't recall seeing any episode "brought to you by the letters E and H and by the number 3" immediately after returning to watching the show, so chances are Episode 1111 got skipped by the CBC (there seemed to be no Spanish-speaking scenes except for one insert with Luis singing a Spanish song, so maybe it might have to do with a reference to an American countertop brand, Formica).

I must say, I only got to see much of the latter half of what Season 9 had to offer. Episodes I vividly remember include an episode with Oscar's and David's dummies, two episodes involving Cody (one of them being the episode in which Mr. Hooper babysits Cody), an episode in which Big Bird holds the letters E, H and number 3 which are made of a fabric (it was not Episode 1111); an episode which has a scene with Grover and Rodeo Rosie pretending to ride a horse; and an episode with a scene in which Herry Monster demonstrates household tools. I do believe CBC tends to skip story arcs involving trips, including the Puerto Rico trip (due to heavy usage of Spanish words and culture), and I wouldn't be surprised if CBC skipped the Hawaii trip episodes, and the episodes that built up to the trip. I bet they skipped the Season 13 snow arc episodes due to parts of the story arc involving scenes with Maria's cousin Mercedes and Spanish language.

And after seeing much of the final three months of Season 9 on CBC, I was quite surprised to see the cold open displaying "Sesame Street's 10th Season" on a banner, which led me to believe it was a new season that started airing early in February 1980. During the late-1970s and early-1980s, CBC tended to launch new seasons of the series early February every year - but that trend may have ended by the 1990s, maybe later in the 1980s when new seasons launched on Thanksgiving Day in Canada (second Monday in October). And I must admit, the show got better and better as the years progressed - but my interest in the show started to weaken by Season 15. I was only watching the PBS broadcasts after April 1981 because my mother said I was watching too much of the show when I was off school indefinitely during a teachers' strike, and had to limit it to one episode per day. I guess you could say I was taking advantage of my hiatus at the time.

Back on topic about the Hooperburgers episode, that is very entertaining and very much inspired by the popularity of fast food at the time. It's like Hooper was trying to do better than McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King, but to no avail. And to not hear any bit of the show's theme in favor of the Anything Muppets' jingle during the end of the episode's sponsor announcement and closing signs, that seemed to be quite odd - and in this case, annoying - and Mr. Hooper and David felt the same way. But regardless, I did download the video in a flash.