Does anyone remember Alphabet Chat?

[matleo]

More importantly does anyone remember the name of the characters who hosted it? I'm pretty sure it wasa jerry Nelson character and I think his name was Mr. Chatterly or someting like that. the idea was that thei character would sit in frotn of a fireplace and chat about certain letters and all these things havign to do with that letter would somehow interrupt him. For example, he would tlak about the letter "R" and these reapairmen would come o fix the radiator and make too much noise with their Radio. and it would kind of go downhill from there. He woudl try to quietly dicsuss the letter of the day and itwould always become this raucous, noisy nightmare!!! I seem to recall them even reviving the bit at one point in like '91 or something and seeign a new piece with him chatting with two pigs. oh Oh!! and thew other thign I remember was the openingsong for the piece which was Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt sining the alphabet in a kind of round

RH: A-B-C-D-E
JN: C-D-E-F-G...

and then they sang the rest of it togetehr. Anyway, if anyone can help recallthe name of the character, I'd apprecaite it thanks.

--Matt

 

[muppetfan620]

You've got it right. the character's name was Mr. Chatterly.

Millicent

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Reply

I remember that one vaguely. I recently heard the theme to that on Muppet Central Radio.

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

I don't understand, the song you're talkin' about (and the fireplace and quiet guy bit) sounds like "Mysterious Theatre" with your host Vincent Twice, Vincent Twice, and the song was sung by a male chorus...

 

[Ryan]

"A-B-C-D, C- D- E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-NNN-O-O-P! Q-R-S-T-U-R-S-T-U-V...."
I loved this sketch. A favorite of mine was when Guy Smiley went to the wrong studio, and was doing a commercial for "Bow Wow Chow". That moment is hillarious. It also included Gladys , A director performed by Frank (Piggy's voice), and a hot dog vendor, by Frank ("Coffee....Donuts...." "You wanna cheese sandwich?") This character inspired the voice of one of my newer puppets, Bleep P. Frengle.

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

Yeah, that song wasn't "Alphabet Chat", it was "Mysterious Theatre".



Except I think there's a "B" between "D" and "C".

 

[Boober_Gorg]

I first saw that back when I was a tyke, and I never thought I'd see it again ... until I saw that Unpaved episode (#1800). If I recall correctly there was also a sketch in that series with an appearance by Cookie Monster. What happened in that one, and what was the subject letter?

 

[matleo]

Oh good, I've ben trying to remember the charcter for days now!! So I had it right, ok, now I can sleep. It's one of those characters like Rodeo Rosie who just seems to have faded into obscurity altogether.

Byron,
yes, the character (and set-up) was a LOT like Vincent Twice, Vincent Twice. I think Jerry basically did the same voice.

Thanks guys!! I knew someone here would know it.


--Matt

 

[ssetta]

I loved the way that things would come and interrupt him, and he never got to do his show. I wonder what it would be like if that happened on Elmo's World. Or if Elmo tried to do Elmo's World on Alphabet Chat, and interrupt Mr. Chatterly's quiet letter talk.

 

[The Count]

Too late for me to add anything new, but I'll try anyway. The character in question's name is indeed Mr. Chatterly, host of Alphabet Chat.
Byron, this is the only sketch to use a sort of round-styled alphabet song sung in a sort of Gregorian chant tune. Mystery Theater had no such song, it just had basic horror story mood music as you'd see the spooky house and paintings in the background until reaching the pain of glass with the cryptic show's logo and Vincent Twice Vincent Twice seated in his armchair.

There's two that I remember:
H, the latest one where Mr. Chatterly talks with a couple of hares about hooting and howling and hopping until the hares start doing all those things.
B, where Mr. Chatterly's guest is a refined sportsman bull who's tried all sort of B-named sports until Mr. Chatterly's chair gets elevated into the sky as it goes ballooning into the stratosphere.
The other two are chats on the letters O and R, and those are all the sketches done for this eclectic character. Hope that helps.