Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

[LittleJerry92]

I recently saw that the Muppet Wiki article on this song now has info on why the song stopped airing early on, sourcing a 1998 interview with Joan Ganz Cooney (so the information has been out there for a long time...): It was all because of the rumor that the initials were meant to be LSD.

Which I knew the controversy, but never really put together that that's why it was pulled (and looking through this thread before posting this, I saw that a few have talked about it, one person even doubted that's why it was pulled). I thought maybe it was believed to not have any real educational value (I don't really know what it's teaching), or maybe they thought the bright colors were too distracting or too bright/seizure-y.

I saw that note too, and I don't know the exact episode it stopped airing in, but personally I think it would have probably been phased out by season 3/4 had that not been an issue in hand.

 

[minor muppetz]

I saw that note too, and I don't know the exact episode it stopped airing in, but personally I think it would have probably been phased out by season 3/4 had that not been an issue in hand.

I often bring up "season one show content" files that can be viewed at the University of Maryland, all of which were scanned and posted on Muppet Wiki's talk page for that place. The guide lists practically every insert for the first season, with a list of episode numbers that each segment appears in (even noting if a segment appears multiple times in a single episode). Of course there are many segments that don't have episode numbers listed, some of which are known to have aired in the first season (one such segment is Jazz #7, which is in some of the first season episodes recently acquired by fans), and there's a few cases where it lists episode numbers for segments that don't appear (it mistakenly lists Gloria singing the alphabet as appearing in the first episode, and I recently saw some Muppet Wiki discussion of episode six not having an insert that had been listed for that episode).

Anyway, the "First Season Show Content" guide lists only one episode for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, with "DUMP" written by it, which seems to be what they did for segments that would no longer air after the first season.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I often bring up "season one show content" files that can be viewed at the University of Maryland, all of which were scanned and posted on Muppet Wiki's talk page for that place. The guide lists practically every insert for the first season, with a list of episode numbers that each segment appears in (even noting if a segment appears multiple times in a single episode). Of course there are many segments that don't have episode numbers listed, some of which are known to have aired in the first season (one such segment is Jazz #7, which is in some of the first season episodes recently acquired by fans), and there's a few cases where it lists episode numbers for segments that don't appear (it mistakenly lists Gloria singing the alphabet as appearing in the first episode, and I recently saw some Muppet Wiki discussion of episode six not having an insert that had been listed for that episode).

Anyway, the "First Season Show Content" guide lists only one episode for Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, with "DUMP" written by it, which seems to be what they did for segments that would no longer air after the first season.

So it seems like perhaps that song only aired in episode 3? Which would make sense anyway with the continuation into Wanda the Witch (though they could've also just cut it after the second chorus).

 

[minor muppetz]

So it seems like perhaps that song only aired in episode 3? Which would make sense anyway with the continuation into Wanda the Witch (though they could've also just cut it after the second chorus).

Or they could have just cut it as the song was ending, before the girl introduces Wanta the Witch.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Or they could have just cut it as the song was ending, before the girl introduces Wanta the Witch.

That's what I meant, but yeah.

 

[minor muppetz]

For years I thought this was only in one episode, since the "first season show content" at the CTW Archives lists only one episode it appeared in and then "DUMP", but recently, after more episode guides were filled on the Muppet Wiki via trusted source scripts, it turns out that it DID air in another episode, episode 19.

Of course looking at that guide, I see Wanda the Witch doesn't follow it, so the ending must be cut from that episode.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I always thought it was a one episode skit myself, with the way it leads into another.

 

[minor muppetz]

I always thought it was a one episode skit myself, with the way it leads into another.

The first season had a lot of skits that lead into another skit.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I know, and most of them seem to be one episode skits themselves, not counting street scenes.

 

[minor muppetz]

I know, and most of them seem to be one episode skits themselves, not counting street scenes.

Quite a few inserts that led/introduced the next segment in the first season were shown quite a few times, though it does seem like a lot of them (especially the multi-part ones) weren't broadcast often past the first season.

Looking at some of the first season show content pages, I think the segment with the most broadcasts in the first season is the one where Ernie calls his bath tub Rosie, though I do know that at least one episode with it cuts the ending where Bert introduces Solomon Grundy. I think that one had nine appearances in the first season (and off-hand I can't remember if I've seen it in any post-season one episode pages).