Getting to know the Sesame Street Animators

Jeffrey Gray

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You know, I think Vince Collins might not have done the Pinball segments...on alt.tv.sesame-street, someone mentions that this was an entry at the 1978 Ottawa Animation Festival: "Pinball #4 and 6" For Sesame Street, United States, Jeffrey Hale.

So the pinball segment could have actually been done by this Jeffrey Hale...
 

MIKEB97

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Wow! This is so interesteing! Besides drawing the picture of Mr. Hooper and the adults, Caroll Spinney must have done other artwork for Sesame Street. I'm not sure if he created cartoons for the show. Frank Oz created the #3 ball film and built that huge metallic structure. That film and the King of 8 were from the second season, 1970. Does anyone recall Muppets being portyrayed in cartoon form on the show?
 

Drtooth

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Originally posted by MIKEB97
Does anyone recall Muppets being portyrayed in cartoon form on the show?
I think that there may have been an animated opening to Sesame Street in the early days. Someone told me that, and I didn't believe them. Big Bird appeared in a short animation (in a style that you could juuuust recognize him) about birds. (the same animator who did Snacks on Parade, and "Cover your nose when you sneeze."

I do know that in the Shalome Sesame opening, it has a cartoon version of Bert and Ernie flying around in an airplane. Plus, There was a brief fantasy segment in "Follow that Bird" in which Big Bird is a cartoon (note: They also use Big Bird as a cartoon for the WB logo at the begining of the film0.

Here's an animator that animates segments on Mexico's Plaza Sesamo...

www.rammprod.com/Projects.html

I'm not sure what exactly they animate, but they could have done the opening animations, as well as several Spanish letter segments. They might have also animated the end of Plaza in which Abelardo, Lola, and Pancho pull the lever on this machine...
 

Boober_Gorg

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Originally posted by Drtooth
I think that there may have been an animated opening to Sesame Street in the early days. Someone told me that, and I didn't believe them.
Check the first episode! :wink:

Originally posted by Drtooth
Big Bird appeared in a short animation (in a style that you could juuuust recognize him) about birds. (the same animator who did Snacks on Parade, and "Cover your nose when you sneeze."
You're thinking of The Noble Ostrich, where the narrator states, "Unlke Big Bird, the ostrich has no vocal chords, and can only hiss."

I also distinctly remember this one sequence where a hand was drawing something (or was it the line forming itself?), which turned out to be ... Big Bird. It was that kind of sequence where something is being drawn, and an unseen group of kids tries to guess what it is. At the end of this one, the Big Bird drawing says, rather grumpily, "It's me, you silly." I swear I'm not exaggerating. Has anyone else seen this?
 

Convincing John

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Here's another animator you can add to your list.

I visited "The Vision of Jim Henson" exhibit in 1999, and it had some of the original sketches for the animation segments, including a picture of Jim putting the rocks together for the number 12 film.

But next to it was a sketch of Boy Bumble (originally called Bumble Arty) and the sketch was drawn by Maurice Sendak! Sendak wrote "Where the Wild Things Are".

Remember Boy Bumble? He was voiced by Jim Henson ("please let me in. It's your Boy Bumble") He let 9 swine in his mother's house on his birthday. They drank wine, trashed the place and shouted:

"Cheers, cheers, cheers! May Bumble live 900 years!"

By the way, the "2 little dolls in the little dollhouse" sketch with the cats was filmed using one of Jim Henson's daughter's dollhouses, FYI.

Convincing John
 

Splurge

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Convincing John said:
By the way, the "2 little dolls in the little dollhouse" sketch with the cats was filmed using one of Jim Henson's daughter's dollhouses, FYI.

Convincing John
Do we know who these little girls were? I wonder whether the blond one was one of Jim's daughters. I don't exactly know what Cheryl or Heather Henson looks like, so I couldn't tell what a young one would look like. I guess she and the Asian American girl could have ultimately come from a child talent agency, but I think it would be could if they were friends or relatives of the family.
 

LabyrinthFan

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Convincing John said:
Remember Boy Bumble? He was voiced by Jim Henson ("please let me in. It's your Boy Bumble") He let 9 swine in his mother's house on his birthday. They drank wine, trashed the place and shouted: "Cheers, cheers, cheers! May Bumble live 900 years!"
Wow, I had totally forgotten about that one! I remember seeing it quite a bit in the late 70's.

Does anyone know who did these animations?

-Letters of the alphabet are lined up by a drill sargent, counting off roll call. They then pile into a boat, which sinks.

-An elephant counts to the number four on it's legs, then falls over.

Also, I believe some Season 1 animations were done by the same company that did the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."
 

Boober_Gorg

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Astro4004 said:
-Letters of the alphabet are lined up by a drill sargent, counting off roll call. They then pile into a boat, which sinks.
I'm guessing that was Gahan Wilson.

Astro4004 said:
Also, I believe some Season 1 animations were done by the same company that did the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."
I've often thought the same thing, that George Dunning did those "Jazzy" segments.

mikealan said:
Do any of you guys know who wrote the "E...E...See me...eating a peach" animation?
I think it might have been the Hubley studio.

Also, I just saw some SS cartoons I haven't seen in a long time:

-Jill went up the hill (could this be done by Jim Jinkins, "Doug" creator?)
-Frank the fish calls a boy who accidentally lets the water run, draining the lake in the process (Peter Chung, creator of "Aeon Flux" and director of "Rugrats" pilot episode)
 
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