An interesting thing about "The Sesame Street Book & Record"

[SkyeFan]

This is something interesting that I have noticed for quite some time, and I wonder if anyone else has besides me.

In the first Sesame Street record album, "Original Cast", there are several colorful illustrations with a typical 1960's-esque style (some include characters seen in some animated segments on the show, like the dog and duck from that early "D" cartoon, for instance), and also photographs taken on the show's set to accompany the lyrics of all the songs on the record. Well, I've noticed something VERY interesting on the page that displays the lyrics for "Everybody Wash". There's pictures of the cast (including Bert and Ernie) pretending to wash themselves, and apparently these pictures were photographed on the street's set during the taping of the test pilot episodes. You can tell because there's a large yellow door on the left of the construction fence, plus there's no pile of crates and trash cans for Oscar The Grouch's home there, either. There's also a manhole cover seen out in the street, which I don't ever recall seeing on the set, except for in the lot when that was expanded for the second season.

What makes this SO interesting is the fact that Matt Robinson IS actually in those pictures, and he was not cast yet as Gordon until sometime shortly before production began on the first episode. For those who don't know yet, Gordon was played by some unknown actor in the pilot episodes, while Matt Robinson was just one of the show's producers at the time. I guess these pictures were taken sometime between completion of the pilot episodes and early production of the series' premiere, and by this time Matt Robinson was probably already cast as Gordon. If these pictures were not taken during production of any of the pilot episodes (because of Robinson's existence) and were not taken either during production of any of the first few shows (because of the original street set from the pilots), then I wonder exactly what the pictures were photographed for. This was likely before anyone of the show's staff figured that there would be a record album released with various songs from the show. Perhaps after casting Matt Robinson, maybe they just had him tryout performing a song with the rest of the cast, sort of like a screen test for a movie or TV show.

 

[hooperfan]

Interesting...but in the pilot shows, Bert and Ernie wouldn't have appeared on the street either. So my guess it was taken in between the taping of episode 1 and the decision to include Muppets on the street, and recasting Gordon

 

[SkyeFan]

That's exactly what I had said. In the pictures, however, Bert and Ernie just appear to just be posed in the apartment windows (if it's only for stills, then it doesn't really matter if they're moving or not), so I guess they were just there so the pictures could include the whole cast of the show (thus far).

 

[Gordon Matt]

Very interesting observation!

Just a couple of things... I note that on some of the early guides that got sent out for the first season, the cover photo shows Garrett Saunders as Gordon. And I think I have seen that photo somewhere else in early promotion for the series (once it was actually on the air).

I like all those various photos, drawings and stuff in the "Book And Record" as well as the ones in the series of books that came out around that time like the "Book Of Puzzlers," etc. With several of the early episodes having surfaced after all these years, it's cool to see the actual segments they came from. Like a picture of Gordon holding a witch Halloween mask -- that's from a show during the first week or two.

Also, they issued the songs from the album as 45s too -- individually, and as a box set called a "Carry-About" (though if I recall correctly, not all the 45s were included in the box, some were only sold individually).

Aside from different mixes of the songs (mono on the 45s vs. stereo on the album) there was one song where a different take was used with a different verse and some different dialogue, because of the format (so it would play on its own outside of the context of the album). And there is what we would now call a "bonus track" (called "Hello"), which essentially introduces the entire cast to the listener.

The "Carry-About" also uses alternate shots for some of the photos (particularly the album cover) where it's almost the same picture, but not exactly. And bizarrely, the drawn artwork is different too -- for instance, I haven't looked at it in years but for the song "I've Got Two," there is a drawing of Cookie Monster holding two cookies. In the "Carry-About" version, it's a different drawing, even though he's holding the same cookies and positioned essentially the same.

Also...I have seen A TON of pictures around the internet where Bob, Susan, Gordon and Mr. Hooper are wearing the exact same clothes as on the album cover. Well, Mr. Hooper probably often wore his work clothes, but it's Bob with the blue sweater, Susan in a green dress and Gordon in a black suit with a yellow shirt on. I've seen boatloads of these pictures. Some have the whole crew, Mrs. Cooney and the Muppets in them too. I think some were for a magazine article. They were all likely taken the same day, no?

 

[SkyeFan]

Gordon Matt,

Those are really nice pictures in the Original Cast Book And Record, but I think they could have gotten a BETTER picture of the cast with the Muppets on the inside. I'm not particularly fond of how Ernie is just "propped" up on the brick wall. It just makes him look so unrealistic. Plus, some of the cast members aren't even facing forward. Perhaps there were some other "better" looking pictures taken during this same session. One of those should have been used.

Also, this came to mind. Would you or anyone else know what this was for? I saw it in the documentary about Sesame Street on A&E. It started with a dark, grainy picture of, what looked like, Bert and Ernie, in a circle. The picture spun around like a record on a turntable. Then it faded to a very crude, child-like, drawing of Bert and Ernie, with the latter holding a capital D. Over this picture appears the phrase "This way to Sesame Street" in red letters in a computer-generated style. Next was an arrangement of "TV screen" shapes with red tinted pictures of the Sesame Street sign, Bob and some kid, and another just read something like "New series premiere" with the set date (we should all that by now). After this, the scene just fades to the footage of the claymation opening for episode 1. This all looked like it was created on videotape with computer effects. It was probably just a promo for the series before its premiere.

 

[Gordon Matt]

Gordon Matt, Those are really nice pictures in the Original Cast Book And Record, but I think they could have gotten a BETTER picture of the cast with the Muppets on the inside. I'm not particularly fond of how Ernie is just "propped" up on the brick wall. It just makes him look so unrealistic. Plus, some of the cast members aren't even looking forward. Perhaps there were some other "better" looking pictures taken during this same session. One of those should have been used. Also, this came to mind. Would you or anyone else know what this was for? I saw it in the documentary about Sesame Street on A&E. It started with a dark, grainy picture of, what looked like, Bert and Ernie, in a circle. The picture spun around like a record on a turntable. Then it faded to a very crude, child-like, drawing of Bert and Ernie, with the latter holding a capital D. Over this picture appears the phrase "This way to Sesame Street" in red letters in a computer-generated style. Next was an arrangement of "TV screen" shapes with red tinted pictures of the Sesame Street sign, Bob and some kid, and another just read something like "New series premiere" with the set date (we should all that by now). After this, the scene just fades to the footage of the claymation opening for episode 1. This all looked like it was created on videotape with computer effects. It was probably just a promo for the series before its premiere.

I haven't seen the Biography show, but "This Way To Sesame Street" was the name of a 30-minute promotional special aired by NBC just prior to the premiere of Sesame Street. Some of that other footage sounds like it might have been from vintage promos maybe?

 

[Cookie3001]

I have this book and record as well as the sample version of the record. I always wondered where the photos of Susan and the kids on the street with Ernie and Bert in the windows came from. who knows, maybe they were taken for the book