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Ziffel
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Here's an obscure animated sketch I thought of. Saw it several times in the early 70's. Haven't seen it since. No videos of it and couldn't even find anything about it in this forum or a google search.
A simple and short sketch, it had 3 animated frogs next to each other. The one on the left says, "First". The center frog says, "Middle". Then the frog on the right says, "Last." The "last" frog then hops over to the left of the other two frogs and is now "first", So he says, "First". Then the new middle one says, "Middle." Then the other one says, "Last." Then the new "last" one hops over the others and it continues like this.
But eventually when the frog on the right attempts to hop over the other two, the frog in the "first' position raises a fist in the air and it knocks the frog right back to the "last" position. (That frog clearly wanted to be FIRST and did not wish to relinquish his position).
Then the frog on the left once again says, "First". The center one again says, "Middle." But the decked frog on the right of them is lying on his back and says in a dazed way "Ribbit".
One flaw of this I had detected as a young one - There were three different voices for the three frogs. But the same voice occurred for the "first", "middle", and "last" frogs every time. So if the frogs kept changing order how did the words keep sounding the same? Obviously they recorded three people speaking those 3 words one time and then just used the same recording after each frog leaped. (This was also kind of a literal version of leapfrog, I guess).
Another observation: When the victim frog collided with the suddenly raised fist of the malevolent frog, he groaned for a couple of seconds rather intensely.
Since this sketch was apparently discontinued by the late 70's, it's possible the reason was because they thought that fist scene was too violent for Sesame Street, even though it was just a cartoon.
Also, I recall a very simple background. Possibly nothing at all other than the 3 frogs on a white screen. And the three frogs looked exactly the same. Same size and everything.
There was a continuous sound effect of something like a swamp to give it a frog-like feel. But the whole sketch only lasted all of about 30 seconds anyway.
So I'd be interested if any of the old original SS viewers from the early 70's might recall this pretty obscure one.
A simple and short sketch, it had 3 animated frogs next to each other. The one on the left says, "First". The center frog says, "Middle". Then the frog on the right says, "Last." The "last" frog then hops over to the left of the other two frogs and is now "first", So he says, "First". Then the new middle one says, "Middle." Then the other one says, "Last." Then the new "last" one hops over the others and it continues like this.
But eventually when the frog on the right attempts to hop over the other two, the frog in the "first' position raises a fist in the air and it knocks the frog right back to the "last" position. (That frog clearly wanted to be FIRST and did not wish to relinquish his position).
Then the frog on the left once again says, "First". The center one again says, "Middle." But the decked frog on the right of them is lying on his back and says in a dazed way "Ribbit".
One flaw of this I had detected as a young one - There were three different voices for the three frogs. But the same voice occurred for the "first", "middle", and "last" frogs every time. So if the frogs kept changing order how did the words keep sounding the same? Obviously they recorded three people speaking those 3 words one time and then just used the same recording after each frog leaped. (This was also kind of a literal version of leapfrog, I guess).
Another observation: When the victim frog collided with the suddenly raised fist of the malevolent frog, he groaned for a couple of seconds rather intensely.
Since this sketch was apparently discontinued by the late 70's, it's possible the reason was because they thought that fist scene was too violent for Sesame Street, even though it was just a cartoon.
Also, I recall a very simple background. Possibly nothing at all other than the 3 frogs on a white screen. And the three frogs looked exactly the same. Same size and everything.
There was a continuous sound effect of something like a swamp to give it a frog-like feel. But the whole sketch only lasted all of about 30 seconds anyway.
So I'd be interested if any of the old original SS viewers from the early 70's might recall this pretty obscure one.
How've you been? I don't remember that frog sketch. But I DO remember the Ernie & Bert "What'll we do tomorrow" (it was in English) & the V-Vitamin sketch! Time sure flies huh?
