Did Noggin show many episodes with the most famous songs?

[minor muppetz]

I have been wondering lately. As I've constantly looked at episode pages on Muppet Wiki, I have noticed that it seems like Noggin didn't really show very many episodes that feature Sesame Street's most famous songs of all-time, including Rubber Duckie, I Love Trash, C is for Cookie, ABC-DEF-GHI, Proud of Me, and others. It seems like the original Bein' Green and original People in Your Neighborhood were not shown on any Noggin-aired episodes, either. I know that many of these songs were featured in the Sesame Street Unpaved special that aired on TV Land (and I think this special was shown as part of Noggin's Sesame Street Unpaved package), but I'm not sure. And I haven't paid as much attention to the pages on episodes that were on 123 Sesame Street as I did for Sesame Street Unpaved.

I know that some of the shows most famous songs were featured on Noggin episodes. Songs like The People in Your Neighborhood (but not the original), One of These Things (this was in a lot of early episodes), Somebody Come and Play, Doin' the Pigeon, Fuzzy and Blue, and I think Put Down the Duckie. I have a feeling that Lena Horne's version of Bein' Green, and Kermit's solo remake, were both shown in Noggin episodes, but I can't really remember if I saw them listed in any episodes.

I don't know if Noggin deliberatly cut the best-known songs for time from the episodes that showed them. I mean, they are such well-known classics that it would be crazy for Noggin to cut the best-known songs from Sesame Street from episodes that originally included them, unless Noggin thought it was really more important to show the rarer skits instead of the songs that most hardcore (and possibly casual) fans probably already had a video copy of. I wouldn't complain if the best-known stuff were cut in favor of some of the rarest skits, but it would seem odd.

 

[ssetta]

Lena Horne's version of Bein' Green was shown, but neither of Kermit's solo versions were. And Put Down the Duckie was never featured on Unpaved. However, C is for Cookie in fact was, and it was in 2 shows. It was in 1095 and 2486. But when they put this now-gone Unpaved series together, I think they paid more attention to the storyline plot than the inserts.

 

[minor muppetz]

I guess it would make sense to focus on the msot famous, memorable, and/ or historically significant plots. 19 out of 20 season premiers were included, as were such classics as Mr. Hooper's death, the trip to hawiai, Big Bird going to camp, Miles' adoption, and Maria and Luis' wedding. I guess it would make sense to also include episodes where the street plots feature special guest stars, such as Stevie Wonder, Madeline Kahn, and Fred Rogers.

But then some of the episodes seem to be random. Stuff like all non-episode 1 episodes from the first season, Snuffy's cousing visiting, and Bert's marching band. Of course, some episodes could have been chosen because they contained somethign rare that fans might not be familiar with, like one of the first season episodes where Daniel Seagren performed Big Bird (too bad that same episode didn't feature Jim Henson performing Oscar), or the rainstorm episode which heavily featured Molly the Mail Lady, Tom, and Rafael, three characters who didn't survive past the third season.

But then there are other episodes that would have more historical significance, such as Telly's first appearance and the remodeling of the fix-it shop.

 

[sesameguy]

Rare classic songs

This thread got me to thinking - It seems like many of the songs we associate with "classic" Sesame Street were actually seldom shown on the program. For example, Joe Raposo's "Sing" is certainly a Sesame St. classic, but I can actually only recall seeing it on the show once in a great while. (Remember the Lily Tomlin version? She sang it sitting on the steps of 123 with some kids. I've never actually seen the complete version of Bob singing it).

I only recall "I love trash" being shown once during all my die-hard "Sesame-watching" years. One of my favorite "lost" songs is Susan's "Someday, Little Children." I only remember it from the record - I honestly don't recall any video to it, although clearly there may have been at some point.

So it seems like if you were to pick out an episode at random, you likely would not get much of the "classic song" material.

 

[minor muppetz]

That is a good point. There are a lot of songs that are classic (or we associate as classic), but part of that is because Sesame Workshop chose to include them on a lot of albums (especially ones that focus on the shows, or various characters, greatest hits). And Sesame Workshop chose to include most of them on video releases. And Sesame Workshop chose to allow the lyrics to be published in Sesame Street Unpaved (and some song books). And many of those songs have been remade countless times. And many of the so-called classics have been performed at Sesame Street Live.