What was Sesame Street like from 1988-1992?

[LincolnHeights]

I feel bad, because I totally missed out on Sesame Street from 1988-1992. The reason being, as I got older a lot of kids had a major problem with that show, and I was told that I was too old to be watching it. So like most kids, I went along with the crowd and listened. Well it's too bad, because I seemed to miss out on Sesame Street's last 4 "best" years. I am just wondering what the show was like during that time? What are some memorable episodes that took place during those years? MinorMuppetz told me about a few, and there seemed to still be good storylines at that time. What charachters were around during that time, both human and Muppet? Was there still classic sketches like The Baker Falling down the stairs being shown? I know by late 92, those were definetley discontiued. Any info on this era would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Big Bird Fan]

Here's what I remember:

Maria and Luis fall in love, get married, go on their honeymoon, and have a baby. (This all took place in two seasons!)

David left the show, and Mr. Handford came in as the new owner of Hooper's store.

And of course, Jim Henson died in 1990.

I was little at the time, so I don't remember much beyond that. The Maria and Luis episodes were very good, and are still a favorite of mine today.

You can find even more information at Muppet Wiki.

Hope that was some help to you. I'm sure others here can remember more than I can.

 

[minor muppetz]

A lot of old sketches were still on the show back then. I've read that the baker films were last shown in 1988, the Mad Painter films were shown until sometime in the late 1980s, and the Jazz cartoons were last shown in 1991, yet I don't have any childhood memories of ever seeing these sketches. But a lot of stuff from the early years were shown frequently, like the sketch where Kermit and a girl recited the alphabet, the sketch where Ernie made a clay bust of Bert, The King of 8 (that's still shown occassionally... It was last seen in a season 36 episode), the Pinball Number Count cartoons, Rubber Duckie, The Amazing Mumford making Cookie Monster's cookies disapear, and so much more.

 

[LincolnHeights]

Thanks for the info guys. It sounds like 88-92 were still "Golden Years" for Sesame Street. Now I have to ask you this, what year was it that Elmo became popular, where most of the storylines started focusing on him. I noticed that early 88 compared to late 92, there wasn't quite as many Elmo storylines, so I figure the charachter must have became pretty popular duing that time.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Elmo occasionally had story lines, more like the way the other characters would, on the street etc. That was a totally different period from the Tickle Me stuff that came in the late '90s.

 

[minor muppetz]

Here is a listing of some of the sketches that I saw frequently during that time period:

Ernie and Bert go to the jungle
Grover the waiter: hamburger
Grover the waiter: Simon Soundman
Grover the waiter: singing and dancing waiter
Rubber Duckie
Do De Rubber Duck
Bein' Green with Lena Horne
The Frogs in the Glen
I Wonder About the World Above Up There
I Love My Elbows
My Pollywog Ways
Put Down the Duckie
the Miami Mice sketches
Monsterpeice Theater: The Sound of Music
Monsterpeice Theater: Guys and Dolls
Monsterpiece Theater: Gone with the Wind
Monsterpiece Theater: The Taming of the Shoe
Ernie and Bert watch "The Picnic" at the movies
a lady in a tall hat sits in front of Ernie
Ernie makes a clay scultpure of Bert
Ernie makes a grocery list
Lefty sells Ernie an invisible ice cream cone
Fay Ray wears animla costumes
the Pinball Number Count sketches
The Birdland Jump
Jellyman Kelly
The Count sleeps at Ernie and Bert's apartment
Grover attempts to sell Kermit ears
Grover attempts to sell Kermit a nose
Grover attempts to sell Kermit shampoo
Grover's health minute
Sesame Street News: Peter Piper's family
Sesame Street News: Whistle, Whistle, Little Bird
Sesame Street News: They Live in Diferent Places, But They Both Love Me
Sesame Street News: Humpty Dumpty
Sesame Street News: Kermit interviews The Three Little Pigs after the wolf blows their houses down
Herry and John-John count to 20
Kermit and Joey recite the alphabet
Squeel of Fortune
King of 8
The Two-Headed Monster tries on shoes
The Two-Headed Monster sees a cardboard cut-out of itself (I've read that this was a three-part sketch, but I only remember seeing one part)
Bert attempts to give Brad a bath
Dance Myself to Sleep
Imagination
Bert tells Ernie not toe at cookies in the bed
Ernie imagines things to count to get him to sleep
The Amazing Mumford turns Grover into a rabbit
The Amazing Mumford makes cookies appear and disapear
The Heart of a Frog
If I Was a Cloud in the Sky
Mr. Snuffleupagus jumps on Big Bird's trampoline while The Coutn counts jumps (I used to think that this and the previously-mentioned sketch were the same)
The Alligator King
A girl tells her father what kind of sandwhich she wants
Everybody Sleeps
If Moon was Cookie
Sesame Street News: J Mine
The Insects in Your Neighborhood
Up and Down (with Ernie and Placedo Flamingo)
You're Alive
Rock 'N Roll Readers
Monster in the Mirror
Air (with Bip Bipodotta)
Scratch My Back
Everybody's Song
Grover the taxi driver
Super Grover: computer
Italian Street Song
How I Miss My X
Bayou Alphabet
Ernie wears socks on his ears and nose
Ernie loves his boat
Wheels on my Feet

And there are sketches that I remember, but remember that they weren't shown very often, to the extent that I felt like it was an event when they were shown. These skits include:
Sesame Street News: Alice in Wonderland
The Ballad of Casey McPhee
Monsterpiece Theater: Chariots of Fur
the Teeny Little Superguy skits
Super Grover: telephone booth
C is for Cookie

 

[minor muppetz]

And I feel like I only remember seeing the following skits only once (back then, anyway):
Put It In The Trash Can
Best Friends Blues
Sesame Street News: Pinnocchio
Sesame Street News: The Tortose and the Hare's rematch
Ernie, Bert, and Herry compete for the TV chair
Ernie meets Bert's brother Bart
Fuzzy and Blue (and Orange)

 

[PinballStewie]

Ah, the golden years of SS!! (for me, that is)

This was my favorite era of SS 'cuz I grew up with it!!

Some of the best skits from back then included:

"Danger's No Stranger" by How Now Brown And the Moo Wave
Cowboy X
The ones where they rap about numbers (6, 7, 9, 11, 13 ,15, 17, and 19...still shown frequently today from what I know)
Letters In the Sand segments
The alphabet street signs
"Your Grouchy Face" by James Taylor and Oscar
"The Letter N" by Nick Normal and the Nickmatics
The New-York ant that moves the capital N
"Alligator King" (another enduring classic for over 3 decades!!)
"Wanda the Witch"
"National Association of W Lovers" by Bert
"6 Soccer Socks"
The "Limerick/Consonant Sound" series (B, C, D, G, H, J, K, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, Y, and Z were ALL shown back then - possibly more!)
"Mmm...Monster Meal"
"Count It Higher" by Chrissy and the Alphabeats
"Above It All"
"Beginning, Middle, and End" (parody of "And She Was" by Talking Heads)
"B Is for Bubble"
The "Counting Circus Trainer" series
"Q - QUIET!!!"
"Squeal of Fortune"
Ants carry a Q uphill
The "Jazzy Spies" series (since it ended in '91, I think it counts - no pun intended)
# 3 Superball
"Me And My M"
M, V, and Z in space (each separate segments)
The "Bellhop" series (almost every even number between 2 and 20 was included, but not 4 or 6)
(some of) The "Teeny Little Superguy" series
"Telephone Rock" by Little Jerry and the Monotones
some of the Lefty segments
"The Remembering Game"
The one where #'s 1 to 20 get destroyed
"10 Tiny Turtles On the Telephone"
"AB-C-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QR-STUV-WX-YZ" by Big Bird
The "Pinball Count" series
The "Typewriter Guy" series
The d building
H, O, and R raised to the roof of a building (each separate segments)
"E Animal Awards"
"Nancy the Nannygoat"
The gorilla who knows g words and wants a job
"We All Sing With the Same Voice"
"Willie Wimple"
Kermit News Flash - Cinderella
The Old Woman Who Lived In A 9
"Everybody Eats"
Don Music as Thomas Jefferson/National Bird
The ever-classic "a-b-c-d-e-f...Cookie Monster!"
"M for Martha"
The one where Cookie Monster is mistaken for being a coat
"Yellow Yahoo"
The Count annoying Kermit in the elevator
"King of 8" (another enduring classic!!)
"Guys And Dolls" - Monsterpiece Theater
"Frances the Fairy"
The one where the elephant counts to 20 and gets stuck on 14
Letter M comes to dinner and eats everything!!
"Wet Paint" by How Now Brown Cow and the Moo Wave
"Born to Add" by Bruce Stringbean
"Couldn't Get No Cooperation" by The Cobblestones
"Cooperation Makes It Happen" by a greaser Muppet and some cityfolk
"Sad Flower"
Kermit at the T-shirt shop (the one with Kermit the "Gorf", "Forg", and "Grof"!!!)
Kermit directs Forgetful Jones in "A..." um I mean "E...." er, um "I....", uhh... "O....klahoma"!!!
V for vitamins, vim, and vigor
"Capital I" (and probably "Lowercase n", but I dunno about that one)
Red hot steel letter "I"
"Rebel L" by Billy Idle
Boy fishes for the alphabet
"The Sound of Music" - Monsterpiece Theater
Many Don Music segments
Many Harvey Kneeslapper segments
"Alphabet Chat" letter O (and R)
"The Noble Ostrich"
"Take A Breath"
"This Is Your Lunch"
"Lost Dog" poster
The singing turtles cartoon
# 7 Coca-Cola parody
"Madrigal Alphabet"
Singing Orange!!!!
"J" train (with the little boy voiced like Elroy from "The Jetsons")
Rainbow-background Q cartoon
"Fred you've been on my foot since Friday!"
"Daddy Dear"
The crayon-making film
"Milk, Mi-ilk, Milk"
The "Caveman Days" segments
"Fat Cat Sat" song
Firework alphabet
"New Way to Walk" by the Oinker Sisters
The one about the letter X with the weird experimental music and art in background
Jughead's J story
"Virgil Veep"
"40 Blocks From My Home" by a lavender Muppet named Farley
"Ladybug's Picnic" (of course)
"My Polliwog Ways" by Kermit and some kinda Muppet jazz band
The M conductor cartoon
"There's A Bird On Me"
"Mi kat iz...gone"
The Alphabet Bully cartoon
"Queen of 6"
"A 'G' is first letter in the word...(snicker)...in the word...GIGGLE!! HAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!!"
G for gorilla w/the man in the gorilla costume
Kermit News Flash - "London Fog" (my fave!!!)
"Are you the monster who ate the television?"
The "Rubber Stamp Numbers" series
The "Creature Numbers" series
The "African Mask Numbers" series
"I Cry" by Rocky (parody of "Blitzkrieg Bop" by the Ramones)
"King Minus"
"The Word Is 'No'" by Gina and Maria
"Villain In the Panama Hat"
"What's My Part?"
"Everybody Sleeps"
"J Friends"
psychedelic morphing letters
"Put Down the Duckie!!!!"
40 Dots
"I'm An Aardvark"
12 Rocks in the desert w/chipmunk voices
"It's A Lovely 11 Morning"
2 Train
"Rubber Duckie" by Ernie (not to mention "Do De Rubba Duck"!!!)
"Miami Mice"
"Doin' the Pigeon" by Bert
The counting to 10 'toon with the rubber-band dude
peacock counts to 20
"ZZ Blues" by Over the Top
crowd of kids form letters of the alphabet
The 1 - 20 cartoon with "Sergeant 0" and the military drill (LOL! "6, 7, 9, ELEVEN!!!!")
Sculpture of Bert
"Do Wop Hop" by Kermit and some cows
"Bumble Ardy"
"400 Blows" - Monsterpiece Theater
The letter e poem ("see...me..eating a peach...")
The "Alphaquest" series
"Healthy Food" by Cookie Monster and some vegetables
"10 Commandments of Health" by Dr. Thad and the Medications
"Love the Ocean" by Frankie and Annette Monster
The ape taking the train for Spain
"Some of the words that begin with i, they get to be quite tricky..."
"Freddy the 5"
The R Wizard
"Animal Dept. Store Elevator"
The 11 Squares James Brown-ish song
The f flea circus


So much more...but I'll leave you with those!! Enjoy

BTW, anyone know what years these were made?

 

[minor muppetz]

There are a lot of sketches I remember that I forgot to mention remembering, like A New Way to Walk, Doin' the Pigeon, Bert teaches Berniece how to play checkers, The National Association of W Lovers, Imagine That, I Don't Want to Live on the Moon, the cookie bunny, the nobel ostrich, and many others. One sketch that I only remember seeing once was part one of the three-part skit where Ernie gave Bert a haircut (parts two and three weren't shown in new episodes at that point).

If you want to knwo what Sesame Street was like from 1988-1992, then you might want to buy (or rent) some Sesame Street videos that were released around that time (many of them are currently available on DVD). I am not really sure, though, how often Sesame Street videos featured skits that were no longer being shown on the show. I think I first saw The Best of Ernie and Bert back in 1990 (I could be wrong on the year), but the only sketch on that video that I don't remember seeing before I saw the video was the sketch where Ernie and Bert went to egypt (but I have seen it on the show many times since).

I also remember that when I first saw the Monster Hits! video, there were only three songs that I knew about the existence of: C is for Cookie, Fuzzy and Blue, and Healthy Food. At that time, I had only seen a clip from Healthy Food in Sesame Street's All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Streets Forever, I had only seen Fuzzy and Blue once but had recently seen a clip of that song in Great Performances: The World of Jim Henson, and I hadn't seen all of C is for Cookie in a long time but had seen clips from it in a variety of aniversary specialsa dn documentaries (and it was really bothering me that I didn't know the full lyrics, little did I know that the same lyrics were sung three times).

And there are a lot of skits on Sesame Street videos from the late 1980s that I don't remember seeing when I was younger (and I was born in 1984, two years before the first Sesame Street videos were released). There are also a lot of skits that I don't remember seeing that I've heard were shown back then. Clips that I've read about, saw clips of in anniversary specials and/ or documentaries, read about in Sesame Street Unpaved, first saw many years later... I hadn't seen them, but I found pages at Muppet Wiki for episodes from the late 1980s featuring these sketches. Some of those skits include Kermit, Shala, and Fannie demonstrating "next to", Monsterpeice Theater: Upstairs, Downstairs, Monsterpiece Theater: Me, Claudius, and a few others.

In 1994, I had gotten a few Sesame Street albums (The Best of Ernie, Jim Henson: A Sesame Street Celebration, and Born to Add) and those had quite a few songs that I had no memory of seeing (as far as I know, The Best of Ernie is the only one of those three to have songs that weren't performed on the show). Since then I had seen many of the songs, but I wnder how many were actually rare at the time I bought them. Born to Add probably had the least amount of songs that I'd already heard before listening to it (though there were some songs I'd heard, though I forgot to mention here that I saw them back in the 1980s... Songs like I Wish I Had a Friend to Play with Me, The Ten Commandments of Health, and Honk Around the Clock).

I don't remember knowing about Herebrt Birdsfoot until 1994, when I found a copy of The Sesame Stree Storybook. He was featured quite a bit (he did appear in other books that I'd read as a child, but for soem reason I didn't rememebr seeing him in those until later, same with Roosevelt Franklin and Farley). I don't remember seeing any Herbert Birdsfoot sketches until shortly later, when I saw the sketch where Herebrt wanted to talk about the letter M, but it turned itself upside-down to look like a W. But I've read about a late-1980s episode that featured a Herbert Birdsfoot sketch. I also don't remember seeing Harvey Kneeslapper until 1994, but I haven't read about any late-1980s epsidoes featuring his skits.

 

[minor muppetz]

I remember seeing some of Mr. Handford's earliest appearances (including his first appearance), but I don't remember what the first actor who played Mr. Handford looked like (I wasn't even aware that he was replaced until I read the review for Sesame Street Unpaved).