Help with Information on Segments that Aired Only Outside the U.S. version

SkyeFan

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Can anyone help with providing any information on this topic? For some odd reason, there were actually some "Sesame Street" inserts that have aired only on international co-productions of the program, and not on the American version. I don't know why this was, and why it had been decided by the show's producers to not use these segments on the actual show, but only on versions of "Sesame Street" produced outside the U.S.

Does anyone have any information on the following segments that have only aired on international versions?

  • From season 2 - Grover encounters a series of four or maybe five ropes suspended from up above off-screen. He gives each rope a tug provoking a single bell tolling sound effect, sort of like a clock tower's chime. Each bell has a varying range of tones, ascending from low to high. The only thing is, when the final rope if pulled, there is no bell sound at all. Instead, we hear a Tarzan-like wail. Sure enough, sliding down the rope is a Muppet incarnate of Edgar Rice Burrows' famed "Ape Man" of the jungle. He's lavender with shaggy brown hair and donning a parchment of animal skin. He greets Grover, perhaps in limited linking verb-lacking dialogue. I'm guessing Jim Henson was performing this character.
  • From season 2 - An AM mother and daughter visit a zoo and switch personalities. The mother pretends to be the daughter, and the daughter pretends to be the mother. There is some live-action subjective viewpoint work of the characters walking through a "real" zoo. We see a close up of a real live tiger in its cage, and the mother pretends she's afraid, and daughter tells her there's nothing to be afraid of. The daughter buys the mother a balloon from an off-screen vendor (only a live human hand is seen). The mother cries when she loses the balloon, and the daughter gets her another one. There was a season one segment just like this with an AM father and son in the woods.
  • From the mid-1980s - A lavender AM girl is out in the snow singing a song about the number 3, I believe. She sings about her and her brother and sister who are all playing out in the snow. At some parts of the song, we see the AM kids' galoshes-covered feet dancing in the snow (sort of like How Now Brown during the "Wet Paint" music video). I'm guessing Ivy Austin was the voice of the girl. The song has rock music that sounds sort of like the "Don't Eat the Pictures" theme song.
  • Mid 1980s as well - A live human cook, who looks sort of like Richard Hunt, but very likely not him, is making cookies in a kitchen. There's no dialogue, and everything he does is in rhythm. This segment ends with the cook waiting for the cookies to finish baking in the oven. He strums his fingers on the counter while waiting for the cookies to finish baking while an egg timer is ticking. When the cookies are done, he helps himself to one and holds another cookie to the camera as if he's sharing with us. I've seen this on "Plaza Sesamo", so I don't know if this was created for that production or not.
I am curious about the whereabouts of these rare segments. I haven't seen any evidence of these segments appearing in episode guides of the U.S. version of the show, or in any guides sorting segments by each season. That's why I figure they were only shown in foreign nations dubbed in another language, making it a challenge to locate the "original" versions. It would at least be convenient if any of these segments had aired in a country such as Canada or even Australia, which would not require any dubbing over the English dialogue. Makes me wonder if there are any other "Sesame Street" segments that are yet to be found that have aired outside the U.S. and not on the actual show.
 
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Oscarfan

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The chef one did air on the show, just once or twice in season 16.

I've never heard of the mother/daughter one you're referring to. Is there footage online?
 

SkyeFan

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The chef one did air on the show, just once or twice in season 16.

I've never heard of the mother/daughter one you're referring to. Is there footage online?
I've seen the mother/daughter segment only once years ago. I believe it was shown in either Dutch or German, but I'm not sure. I can't seem to find it now. The least I can say is to help describe the characters. The daughter was the standard lavender AM with dark brown curly hair, eyes with lids and lashes, and no nose. She was also wearing a yellow-colored dress. The mother was the "live-hand" lavender AM with dark curly hair like the daughter, eyes with lashes, and I believe a small pink nose. I believe she was wearing a blueish knit sweater. The setting looked like a zoo housed within a park. The subjective footage was on film as opposed to videotape like the rest of the segment. I don't blame you or anyone else for not having any knowledge of this segment, since it's got to be one of the most seldom-seen inserts, on account of having not aired on the American version. I just wonder if these segments were originally set to air in certain episodes, and were just ignored and forgotten for whatever reason. Could there be episode scripts referencing certain unknown segments that were intended to air during production, but were never seen in that or any other episode?
 
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