A couple more alphabet segments

[Ziffel]

This one I remember too and interestingly I could never make out what the second line the lizard said was either! I remember the girl was smiling while the lizard sang and I remember the music that played in the background. After he says, "I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair" it also sounded to me like the word birdie was used! Kind of like, "Soft as a birdie...."
A site that has the lyrics to this classic song has the next line as being, "Borne like a vapor on the summer air." The syllables fit perfectly, but those words sure don't seem like the ones the SS cartoon used.

 

[Ziffel]

Play it again Sam?

There was one later alphabet segment I saw once around the mid to late 80's. A blue muppet was at a piano and he went through the alphabet as he played. Then someone told him to play it again (so maybe this was a loose parody of "Play it again Sam?"). He played it again and when the guy told him to do it once again he said, "But boss.." But the "boss" insisted so he did. Then he told him to play it again. The blue guy was really stressing out but the boss still insisted so he did the alphabet and piano playing yet again. Anyone remember this one? And how it ended?

 

[fuzzygobo]

dated images

About that alphabet thread with the letters throughout the city.

The music temporarily changed at about the letter M, but I think it was the same music but with different instrumentation.

You can see a lot of dated things in that sequence. For example, they zoom in on a letter (M?) on a classic red-and-blue mailbox. Ever since about 1973 the USPS has colored its letter collection boxes solid blue with an emblem on the side. Some boxes still have "U.S. MAIL" embossed in block letters on the side. Or when they focus on a flashing "DONT WALK" sign (W?). Those pedestrian signals, made by Marbelite, were taken out of New York in the 80sand replaced with Wink-O-Matics, the kind shown in "The Muppets Take Manhattan" just before Kermit is zapped by a taxi. Even those have since been replaced by man/hand picture indicators. "Z" is from "Children's Zoo", presumably the one in Central Park.

If you look really close at the shot for the letter Y, it shows a New York license plate with tabs that expire 2-70 (the time my wife was born!)

 

[Ziffel]

An alphabet sketch I've brought up a couple of times before (like in the "what sketches scared you as a kid" thread) was the one with two anything muppets (one red and one green) that take turns saying the letters of the alphabet. It always used to scare me at the beginning when the screen was blank with a blue background and suddenly the red muppet darts up the screen with a kind of eerie booming sound in the background. But I haven't seen this one ever mentioned by anyone else. Surely people who saw SS in the 70's like fuzzygobo, mikebennidict, Xerus, GeeBee, and Sesame Mike had to have seen this one. I would estimate that it played about every 40 episodes back then! Please someone let me know if you've seen this. By the way, it ends with the two muppets merging together in the middle of the screen saying, "Oooh oooh are we gonna make it? Okay good."

 

[Xerus]

An alphabet sketch I've brought up a couple of times before (like in the "what sketches scared you as a kid" thread) was the one with two anything muppets (one red and one green) that take turns saying the letters of the alphabet. It always used to scare me at the beginning when the screen was blank with a blue background and suddenly the red muppet darts up the screen with a kind of eerie booming sound in the background. But I haven't seen this one ever mentioned by anyone else. Surely people who saw SS in the 70's like fuzzygobo, mikebennidict, Xerus, GeeBee, and Sesame Mike had to have seen this one. I would estimate that it played about every 40 episodes back then! Please someone let me know if you've seen this. By the way, it ends with the two muppets merging together in the middle of the screen saying, "Oooh oooh are we gonna make it? Okay good."

I do remember that alphabet skit very well, Ziffel. Jim Henson performed the pink Muppet and Frank Oz performed the green one. It was totally surreal.

 

[Rosewood]

"The Piano Man in the lunch box"

Heres one I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: Two animated construction workers are sitting down on the metal beams of a sky scraper for lunch. (one is large, the other skinny) As the skinny one opens his lunch box, he finds a tiny man at a tiny piano who promptly starts to LOUDLY sing the ABC song! He makes it to G and Skinny slams the lid shut. He looks around nervously; then opens the lid againand the Piano Man continues from where he left off. He makes it to P this time before the lid gets slammed on him. Skinny's partner has noticed that something strange is going on in the box by now and, as Skinny sheepishly looks at him, he reaches over and opens the lid, and as both guys look in, the Piano Man finishes the song, and as he says "next time wont you sing with me?", the big guy says "I'd love to!"
The Piano man and the Big Guy then proceed to sing the song all over again and, when they reach P, Skinny gets over his embarasment and decides to join in. When they are finished with the song, the Big Guy states "Gee, your lucky, Mort! All I have in my lunchbox is peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches!"
At which point Mort looks at us, and the picture closes out. I loved it!

 

[Ziffel]

I do remember that alphabet skit very well, Ziffel. Jim Henson performed the pink Muppet and Frank Oz performed the green one. It was totally surreal.

Yay, thank you Xerus! Glad someone else recalls it too.
And yeah it sure does sound like Henson and Oz doing the voices of these muppets. Never had thought about it. What a team they made!

 

[Ziffel]

Heres one I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: Two animated construction workers are sitting down on the metal beams of a sky scraper for lunch. (one is large, the other skinny) As the skinny one opens his lunch box, he finds a tiny man at a tiny piano who promptly starts to LOUDLY sing the ABC song! He makes it to G and Skinny slams the lid shut. He looks around nervously; then opens the lid againand the Piano Man continues from where he left off. He makes it to P this time before the lid gets slammed on him. Skinny's partner has noticed that something strange is going on in the box by now and, as Skinny sheepishly looks at him, he reaches over and opens the lid, and as both guys look in, the Piano Man finishes the song, and as he says "next time wont you sing with me?", the big guy says "I'd love to!"
The Piano man and the Big Guy then proceed to sing the song all over again and, when they reach P, Skinny gets over his embarasment and decides to join in. When they are finished with the song, the Big Guy states "Gee, your lucky, Mort! All I have in my lunchbox is peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches!"
At which point Mort looks at us, and the picture closes out. I loved it!

That is a real fun alphabet sketch. It seems to be pretty popular. I've come across it several times here in the classic SS threads. Matter of fact, I mentioned it myself just three days ago. I was making a point about how just going by the alphabet sketches alone is enough to see how brilliant SS is. Take a look
But you described it nicely and completely. It's one of the old sketches that I also recall in total. They showed it quite often and since it was fun (a little man playing a piano in a lunchbox is bound to keep the attention of the kiddies) I recall it well. I think I even wished I could have that piano playing man come out of my lunch box at school.

 

[mikebennidict]

Heres one I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: Two animated construction workers are sitting down on the metal beams of a sky scraper for lunch. (one is large, the other skinny) As the skinny one opens his lunch box, he finds a tiny man at a tiny piano who promptly starts to LOUDLY sing the ABC song! He makes it to G and Skinny slams the lid shut. He looks around nervously; then opens the lid againand the Piano Man continues from where he left off. He makes it to P this time before the lid gets slammed on him. Skinny's partner has noticed that something strange is going on in the box by now and, as Skinny sheepishly looks at him, he reaches over and opens the lid, and as both guys look in, the Piano Man finishes the song, and as he says "next time wont you sing with me?", the big guy says "I'd love to!"
The Piano man and the Big Guy then proceed to sing the song all over again and, when they reach P, Skinny gets over his embarasment and decides to join in. When they are finished with the song, the Big Guy states "Gee, your lucky, Mort! All I have in my lunchbox is peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches!"
At which point Mort looks at us, and the picture closes out. I loved it!

about 1987-1988 when those California Rasin Commercials were popualer, you know where they're singing Marvin Gaye Grapevine song, the very simmaler one appeared where 2 construction men are eating and the 1 opens up his luchbox and there are the singing rasins singing their song. I swear it must have been inspired by the SS cartoon.

 

[Ziffel]

Hey Mike, take a look back at the sketch I mentioned at post #14. I'd really be curious to see if this one rings a bell with you and any thoughts you have of it. Thanks.