Cartoon from "The Electric Company" that COULD HAVE been on “Sesame Street”

[SkyeFan]

I have noticed this for quite some time. There was this one cartoon that had aired on "The Electric Company" that always seemed to me as if it was originally intended to be shown on “Sesame Street”.

Would anyone remember this? -

An inventor (voiced by Jim Thurman in that distinctive gruff voice of his) presents to another man his latest invention - a machine that can guess what word someone will say beginning with the letter M based off the starting sound they make. The man goes "MMMMMMM", and the inventor starts assuming what M word he might say. The inventor guesses words like marshmallows, meatballs, melons, and mud. Whenever he says each of those words, the machine starts beeping and flashing lights and in a choir of voices, sings out each word as it shows up on its screen. After each word is sung out, the machine produces a series of things that the other man gets drenched in; resulting in a big mess. That man gets angry, and suggests another M word - "mistake". The machine forcefully admits the inventor through its valve, prompted the gadget to go crazy, and finally eject him into the mess heap it has made. The other man just looks at us grinning and making the letter M sound as the letter appears on the machine.

This cartoon was done by Cliff Roberts, who has contributed tons of cartoons for “Sesame Street” during its first several seasons (Jasper and Julius, Christopher Clumsy, the "Wet and Dry" vignettes, and the show's episode number identifications, just to name a few), as well as some animations for "The Electric Company". Roberts' other works for "The Electric Company" include the cartoons that employed Mel Brooks' voice for a short blonde-haired man in a pink suit who carries a cane and reads words (Examples - "I am cute very.", Hotel without a "t"), and also the one with a house painter-turned superhero named "Sprayman" (voice by Thurman again), who spray paints a silent "e" to restore a glob back into a globe. This cartoon with the "M" machine (which I believe is from the first season of "The Electric Company") was probably contributed to CTW with the intentions of airing on “Sesame Street”, but the producers must have felt it was most appropriate for their then-newest project to help teach recognition of letters' sounds in words. For anyone who would like to check it out, it's in the third season episode of "The Electric Company" that includes a cross-over appearance by Grover from “Sesame Street”.

 

[YellowYahooey]

For anyone who would like to check it out, it's in the third season episode of "The Electric Company" that includes a cross-over appearance by Grover from “Sesame Street”.

Does this episode exist on YouTube?

 

[Katzi428]

I have noticed this for quite some time. There was this one cartoon that had aired on "The Electric Company" that always seemed to me as if it was originally intended to be shown on “Sesame Street”.

Would anyone remember this? -

An inventor (voiced by Jim Thurman in that distinctive gruff voice of his) presents to another man his latest invention - a machine that can guess what word someone will say beginning with the letter M based off the starting sound they make. The man goes "MMMMMMM", and the inventor starts assuming what M word he might say. The inventor guesses words like marshmallows, meatballs, melons, and mud. Whenever he says each of those words, the machine starts beeping and flashing lights and in a choir of voices, sings out each word as it shows up on its screen. After each word is sung out, the machine produces a series of things that the other man gets drenched in; resulting in a big mess. That man gets angry, and suggests another M word - "mistake". The machine forcefully admits the inventor through its valve, prompted the gadget to go crazy, and finally eject him into the mess heap it has made. The other man just looks at us grinning and making the letter M sound as the letter appears on the machine.

This cartoon was done by Cliff Roberts, who has contributed tons of cartoons for “Sesame Street” during its first several seasons (Jasper and Julius, Christopher Clumsy, the "Wet and Dry" vignettes, and the show's episode number identifications, just to name a few), as well as some animations for "The Electric Company". Roberts' other works for "The Electric Company" include the cartoons that employed Mel Brooks' voice for a short blonde-haired man in a pink suit who carries a cane and reads words (Examples - "I am cute very.", Hotel without a "t"), and also the one with a house painter-turned superhero named "Sprayman" (voice by Thurman again), who spray paints a silent "e" to restore a glob back into a globe. This cartoon with the "M" machine (which I believe is from the first season of "The Electric Company") was probably contributed to CTW with the intentions of airing on “Sesame Street”, but the producers must have felt it was most appropriate for their then-newest project to help teach recognition of letters' sounds in words. For anyone who would like to check it out, it's in the third season episode of "The Electric Company" that includes a cross-over appearance by Grover from “Sesame Street”.

I do remember the cartoon . But I don't know what episode it was on on The Electric Company .
On Sesame Street there's something similar though, Ernie was dumping things that began with either the letters "M" or "N" . For example if he put nuts in , the letter "N" would pop up . Grover was watching him do this, The clip is on you tube, It's called Ernie's Gadget. "

 

[crackmaster]

Well, I don't know about The Electric Company, but I do think Ken Brown and Lisa Crafts' "AT" cartoon could have been on Between the Lions. It'd fit so well in there. The only "-at" segment Between the Lions had that I can remember is "If You Can Read -at."

 

[SkyeFan]

I apologize for not specifying this ahead of time, but this "M-Machine" cartoon from "The Electric Company" appeared in episode 0491 from season 4.
It's included on "The Best of The Electric Company" Volume 1 box set.

It's funny that "Between the Lions" was referenced here (which was a pretty cool show, by the way), because I know there was a song from that show written by Chris Cerf, who co-produced and co-created this show, as well as contributing many other songs. The song was called "Rock-a-Doodle-Doo", and it sounded almost exactly like it COULD HAVE been a “Sesame Street” song. Cerf performed the song, sounding as if it were Little Chrissy singing. This song was set to an animated music video with accompanying visuals. Why I'm mentioning this is because this song seems as though Chris Cerf may have originally written this for “Sesame Street” and by the time "Between the Lions" debuted, he figured to use this song on the latter program. I haven't heard that song in some time, but I still remember it very well. I wouldn't be surprised if this song was intended for Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats to perform on “Sesame Street”. The song mentions a robot playing guitar and a rooster playing kazoo, so there's some other interesting Muppet visuals that could have easily been incorporated into the song if it were on “Sesame Street”.