were the test pilots made in 1968?

[minor muppetz]

We know that there were seven test pilots made before the show premiered. However, I wonder if any or all of the test pilots were made in 1968. After all, all/ most of them failed to test audiences, and it would have been a little bit soon to produce these and produce episodes of the show, not to mention skecthes, in 1969 and have the show ready by November 1969.

 

[mikebennidict]

http://members.tripod.com/~hooperfan/index-2.html


besides old photos, there's a link there titled All About SS which is a transcript from a 1971 publication under the same title. I can't remember everything that's mentioned but it probably says.

 

[CBPuppets]

I saw a clip on that on the A&E Biography Special, it showed Ernie and Bert doing the two Noses thing. then it showed the Human Cast Dancing Around. They Said That Ernie and Bert were the Only Muppet Characters on the Test Shows, They were never seen on the Street, and didn't interact with the Human Cast.

 

[jeffkjoe]

There were five test shows made in July 1969. They were broadcast only on a UHF station to 100 families in Pennsylvania and they were paid 100 dollars each to watch and tell them what they thought.

The actual national premiere on NET was November 10, 1969, 5 months later.

 

[minor muppetz]

There were five test shows made in July 1969. They were broadcast only on a UHF station to 100 families in Pennsylvania and they were paid 100 dollars each to watch and tell them what they thought.

The actual national premiere on NET was November 10, 1969, 5 months later.

That's a bit odd. I never knew that they were actually broadcast. I thought that private groups of families were brought to the Sesame Workshop building to screen the episodes. It's amazing that the series began with so little extra time, especially with it being a daily show. I guess a lot of the segments could have been reused, with the main focus on new, non-test pilot material being the street scenes and I guess Muppet segments that didn't feature Bert and Ernie.

 

[fuzzygobo]

a busy autumn

It's amazing what they accomplished between the test shows and the actual premiere.

The Gordon in the test shows (Robert Guillame) was replaced by Matt Robinson, who was on the staff as a writer, producer, and all-around helper.

I believe producer/director Jon Stone made the decision to integrate the Muppets into the street scenes rather than keep them separate. During the test screenings, the kids seemed to respond favorably to the Muppet and cartoon segments, but enthusiasm lagged during the Street scenes. So Ernie, Bert, and Kermit started showing up on the Street with the human cast.

To further integrate the Muppets with the humans, they took an idea of Jim Henson's for a big talking bird and thus Big Bird was born. J: im also took advantage of the opportunity to put some kind of Muppet "thing" in a trash can, and that's how Oscar came about. (According to Carroll Spinney, even before Oscar was orange, Jim came out with a prototype that was PURPLE!)

If some of these tweaks and twiddles weren't made, Sesame Street might not have gotten off the ground.

 

[minor muppetz]

Did Robert Gulliame really play Gordon in the test pilots? I thought that he auditioned for the role at the same time as Roscoe Orman.

I thought there were seven test pilots, not just five. And I thought they kept making new test pilots after the other ones were shown to audiences, after making changes based on what kids didn't like. So they were all made at the same time?

I wonder if the entire first season was finished during the time that the show began. I guess that the first week of shows was probably completed at least.

There is one other thing I wonder, and I'm not sure if this is on-topic or not. During the first season it was really common for the show to include copyrighted songs, but after the first season copyrighted songs were performed less often, with most songs being original. I wonder which would be more time-consuming: writing original songs for a daily series or getting legal clearances for copyrighted songs.