characters who should have been in Subway

[minor muppetz]

I noticed that the song Subway features mostly Anything Muppets, but also a few specific characters (Bert, Kermit, Betty Lou). I was thinking that this song could have had a lot of established characters instead of the various anything muppets. So who do you think should have been in this song?

I think that it should have had Fat Blue, Herbert Birdsfoot, Guy Smiley, Don Music, Prairie Dawn, Farley, Gladys the Cow, and Lefty the Salesman.

 

[mikebennidict]

What's wrong with the anything muppets?

 

[Grover]

I tought there were a bit too many anything Muppets. There should've been

Bip Bipodotta
Guy Smiley
Roosevelt Franklin
Herbert Birdsfoot
Grover
Herry
Beautiful Day Monster

 

[minor muppetz]

What's wrong with the anything muppets?

There's nothing wrong. I just think that it might have been better if it had more familiar characters.

 

[Barry Lee]

-Count
-Herry
-Harvey Kneeslapper
-Lefty the Salesman
-Roosevelt Franklin
-Big Jeffy

 

[minor muppetz]

I tought there were a bit too many anything Muppets. There should've been

Bip Bipodotta
Guy Smiley
Roosevelt Franklin
Herbert Birdsfoot
Grover
Herry
Beautiful Day Monster

I don't think Beautiful Day Monster would have been in it. This song was made sometime after the first season (my guess is 1974-1977), and Beautiful Day Monster had stopped appearing after the first season ended. I have a feeling that he wouldn't have been brought back for any Sesame Street appearances. It still would have been cool, though.

 

[zhelder]

I don't think Beautiful Day Monster would have been in it. This song was made sometime after the first season (my guess is 1974-1977), and Beautiful Day Monster had stopped appearing after the first season ended. I have a feeling that he wouldn't have been brought back for any Sesame Street appearances. It still would have been cool, though.

I just saw this skit on YouTube and boy did it bring back memories. I never realized how cynical the lyrics were. Wicked!

Does anyone know when the exact year the sketch was recorded? Based on the character designs/settings, my guess is 1973-1974. It was definitely made before 1976, based on the character/scenery designs.

 

[mikebennidict]

It was about 1973 or 74 the video quality improved on the shows so it couldn't of been made no earlier than that. The music also has sort of a middle 70s sound to it if you know what I mean.

 

[JLG]

zhelder: I am very interested in this kind of thing so I'm curious: what is it about the character designs and settings that helps you pinpoint a certain era or year?

I had a thread somewhat related to this subject here:
http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=26273


Actually, the mixture of familiar characters with anything muppets is one of the reasons I love that sketch so much. I love the feeling created by seeing some well-known faces among a crowd of random strangers, which is how it actually is in a subway, anyway. And since those faces are already "friends" of ours, we sort of feel drawn to those strangers by synergic association. (if that made sense... ) Also the randomness of who those characters are is a novelty: Bert, Kermit and Betty Lou. Not people you normally see together.

 

[zhelder]

zhelder: I am very interested in this kind of thing so I'm curious: what is it about the character designs and settings that helps you pinpoint a certain era or year?

[snip due to technical difficulties]

Actually, the mixture of familiar characters with anything muppets is one of the reasons I love that sketch so much. I love the feeling created by seeing some well-known faces among a crowd of random strangers, which is how it actually is in a subway, anyway. And since those faces are already "friends" of ours, we sort of feel drawn to those strangers by synergic association. (if that made sense... ) Also the randomness of who those characters are is a novelty: Bert, Kermit and Betty Lou. Not people you normally see together.

Well, I guess being a Sesame Street/Henson/Muppet freak for so many years has pretty much enabled me to look at a sketch and figure out when it was created within a year or two. Here are the clues that make me think this sketch was recorded around 1973 or 1974:

Bert is the biggest clue. If you remember, the first couple of seasons, Bert always had an angry, crazed look. By around 1971, the "crazy" element was reduced, but Bert still looked kind of angry, with the reak thick unibrow. Around 1973 or 1974, the anger was pretty much elimiated from Bert, and his facial expression got much softer. By about 1975-1976, Bert looked pretty much the same as he looks today, with the craziness and anger basically eliminated.

The "Bert" in this sketch looks to me like the one with just a pinch of anger in his look, which is why I'm guessing the sketch was made in 1973-1974.

Also, early 70s Sesame Street backgrounds tended to be real gritty looking, very much like NYC in the early 70s, with lots of details. By the late 70s, some of the grit was removed from the backgrounds, and the backgrounds tended to be slightly softer and less detailed.

Finally, the beatnik/hippie character strikes me as a character that wouldn't have been designed after the mid 70s. Hippie culture was fading throughout the early 70s and was pretty much gone from America by around 1974 at the latest, and this character definitely has some hippie in him.

So, there you have it.