Little things we've noticed

[minor muppetz]

Additionally, with the song "We Coulda", I feel Biff probably should have reworded it a little to "we coulda tried to be" or "we coulda chose to be". After all, some of those jobs they can't just choose. They'd have to spend years in school to become doctors, don't think there's educational requirements for the other jobs (don't really know about firemen), and of course to be presidents they have to run and the public needs to vote for them (something tells me Biff wouldn't be a good president).

And in the song, while Biff does sing about what he and Sully do, he never actually refers to themselves as construction workers. Not sure if he does in the spoken dialogue or not (the only video copies are a Dutch dub and the Dutch dub with the English audio release dubbed over what can be dubbed).

And when I watch the segment, for some reason, the scenes with Biff and Sully on the street look like they were made in the 1980s, but the scenes with the plain backgrounds look like they were made in the late-1970s. Yeah, segments from the late-1970s look like they could have (or that they "coulda") been made in the early 1980s and vice-versa, and some scenes from the early 1980s look like they were made later in the 1980s (which the street portions do), and I know that the song is copyrighted 1982.

 

[minor muppetz]

For years I've noticed that Biff and Sully's hardhats have changed from having no names printed on them to having names printed on them (and back to no names printed, judging by the season 47 set photos that show them... I'm not sure whether their names were on their hats in their season 40 appearance). But there's one thing about this that I've recently noticed, after watching several Biff and Sully clips, it looks like the blank hardhats were made of a different material than the hardhats that have the names written on them.

Okay, I don't think I ever thought that they just took the original hard hats and wrote their names on them, but they do look like a different kind of material. The originals look more like they're made of plastic. The later ones were probably made of plastic as well, but they look to be made from a different kind of plastic at least, they look more like real hardhats, while the previous ones look more like toy/costume hardhats.

The hardhats of the 1970s also look a bit more "loose". There's several scenes from the 1970s where it looks like the hats kinda tip over a bit but don't fall off, while with their later hard hats, it looks like they're placed on their heads more tightly.

And in thinking about hats that look looser and hats that look tighter, it seems like the only times when Biff or Sully's hats have fallen off their heads were when wearing the later, "tighter" hats. For a long time I assumed they fell off by accident, and I could be right, but when recently watching the episode where a garden is built on Sesame Street, when watching their scene, it seems like Sully's hat falls off his head as soon as he starts drilling, and in the next scene, there's an obvious rope tying his hat to his head. Thinking about this, in regards to whether they intentionally had Sully's hat fly off or not, I'd believe either.

I've also been wondering if the performers ever wore hard hats when performing Biff or Sully (or other characters who wore hats that are kind of hard), just in case the hats fell off and hit the performers. I haven't seen any behind-the-scenes footage of Biff and Sully being performed, and very few photos (that classic one with Ernie, Bert, The Count, and Sully in Bert and Ernie's apartment which may or may not have been an actual sketch, and a few recent on-set photos), the performers weren't wearing protective hats in those photos, but they could have put on hats when they started taping. I think I've seen behind-the-scenes footage of Jim Henson wearing a hardhat while performing the Newsman (since so many of his segments have items intentionally falling from above), so it's possible.

 

[cjd874]

Look closely above Betty Lou's head and Ernie's shoulder in this classic SS photo. Is that whitish thing a human hand holding up one of the puppets?? I just noticed it from Tough Pigs' most recent article. Kinda ruins this picture for me a bit to be honest.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

Look closely above Betty Lou's head and Ernie's shoulder in this classic SS photo. Is that whitish thing a human hand holding up one of the puppets?? I just noticed it from Tough Pigs' most recent article. Kinda ruins this picture for me a bit to be honest.

What recent article?

 

[cjd874]

What recent article?

http://www.toughpigs.com/yes-the-sesame-street-characters-are-muppets/

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

http://www.toughpigs.com/yes-the-sesame-street-characters-are-muppets/

Thank you.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Well, this isn't minor, but it is one thing that's intrigued me - how every season 1 skit that had a generic solid background was always shaded in between grey, copper, and peach (or if you just want to be simple, just a plain solid white background). I wonder if it perhaps had to do with the budget.

But anyway, with little things I've noticed - I just managed to spot the shawl Ernie gave Bert for his shoulders in the skit where Bert feels cold was the same one Chrissy of the Monotones wore in their earlier appearances (same with that purple hippie look-alike from the first season). I could also mention how some characters like Hard Harry wore Big Jeffy's triangle-patterened shirt, or how Rockin' Richard's original bushy hair in their earlier appearances was used as a nice wig for some monsters and a few other Anything Muppets.

I also happened to notice that Forgetful Jones's outfit happens to be Bad Bart's original outfit (guess that explains why they changed his appearance in the 80's).

And this isn't entirely little for me, but I remember as a kid being intrigued (and a little confused) that the bartender in two old West skits (namely Sinister Sam wanting to know "Y" and Bad Bart giving somebody "something they deserve") was the puppet for Mr. Johnson recycled (in the case of same puppet, different character).

 

[D'Snowth]

I forget if I mentioned this before, I probably have, but I've always noticed the street sign is almost always pointing in the wrong direction: it points in the direction of whatever street would intersect Sesame Street, rather than Sesame Street itself.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Look closely above Betty Lou's head and Ernie's shoulder in this classic SS photo. Is that whitish thing a human hand holding up one of the puppets?? I just noticed it from Tough Pigs' most recent article. Kinda ruins this picture for me a bit to be honest.

No, it's not a human hand. It's the ghost of Professor Hastings getting his revenge! Mwahahaha!!!
*thunder and lightning strikes in the background as dramatic hamster music plays.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I feel silly just noticing this, but one of the cowboys from 2 season 3 Old West skits (the green one with blonde hair) was in "P, my favorite Letter" or whatever the official title was.