Ominous Sesame Street skit.

[Censored]

Does anyone remember a Sesame Street cartoon about the word "walk" involving a girl and a lion? The girl enters with a leash and the narrator says, "See the girl walk". At the end of the leash there is a lion and the narrator says, "See the lion walk." When they go off screen, the lion comes back by himself with the leash in his mouth and no girl in sight. Then the narrator says, "Walk?"

Unusually dark humor for a Sesame Street skit. Interesting.

 

[LabyrinthFan]

Are you serious? LoL! Of all the SS skits that were slightly odd and/or bordering on scary, that one somehow completely escaped my memory. Do you know when this aired?

 

[Censored]

Are you serious? LoL! Of all the SS skits that were slightly odd and/or bordering on scary, that one somehow completely escaped my memory. Do you know when this aired?

I remember seeing it on an 80's episode with "Ask Oscar" in the street theme, but it may have been even older. It seems like the edgiest ones were from the early 70's, so I suspect it may go back that far. I couldn't believe it myself when I first saw it. LOL

 

[LabyrinthFan]

Yeah, I agree - it sounds like an early 70's number! Thanks for the info on that. I love those sketches that seemed to slip in under the radar.

 

[ForgetfulJones1]

Funny you mention scary skits. My sister (also a classic SS buff who has had a love/hate relationship with the yip-yip martians for over 20 years!) and I were talking about how so many skits, animations, songs, etc were somewhat on the strange side and some almost frightning. I don't think this is a coincidence..We have to think about this..here we are..all what..approximately 20-30 years old..and we REMEMBER this decades later..it did the job it was supposed to! Memory reinforcement..which is very important in learning and SS knew how. I watched the Dukes of Hazzard..and as much as I loved that show..I couldn't tell you as many situations and skits on that show as I remember from SS..and I was much younger when I watched SS than DOH. ALSO..as you know, the original demographic for SS was supposed to be urban, inner-city preschoolers. While not trying to stereotype, usually these sorts of neighborhoods were higer in crime and "scary" stuff much scarier than an SS skit happened on these children's"street" or even in their own homes. The edginess of SS was designed to not be so soft toward kids who had to learn ways of coping with scary situations on a daily basis. As time went on though, the demographic changed so that children of all socio-economic backgrounds were watching and of course the tones of the skits and situations changed with the times. So much so now, that the 2003 version of SS is extremely different than the 1973 or 83 versions..and in some ways, that is good and normal..but..the current show IMHO is a shadow of the greatness it was, and maybe is a little too off target now. Now we have baby-like obnoxious Elmo as the "star" who talks to kids inappropriately (use of 3rd person instead of 1st for example)..but the numbers are going up to what..100 now?? When I watched it was 10 then later 20. Kinda contradictory if you ask me. But..I am sure we ALL have memories of the scary side of SS!!! And I'd love to hear some more!

 

[ForgetfulJones1]

God I know several that i can think of..but only a few off the top of my head..

1. Does anyone remember the skit with Luis travelling through the desert..thirsty and asking for agua? When I first saw this, there was a lil animated fireball on the corner of the screen. I thought this was somewhat odd..but when I last saw this years later..the fire was missing!

2. The Bert and Ernie in the Egyptian museum..that's all I have to say!

3. Bert and Ernie with "H" on their TV screen constantly..I thought that this might happen to me one day!

4. The closing theme on normal weekdays..that metalic/synth 70s music with the text background..I found that somewhat creepy and I know some others who say the same..

5. I'll think of more later!

 

[Censored]

Here are some skits that disturbed me:

A street scenario where a witch magically puts a big nose on Oscar. This episode upset me so much as a child that I couldn't even finish it.

A wedding where the bride and groom take so long to get married, they become older in each scene. By the time they finally get married, they are both very old and hobble away. Ironically, the ones getting married were David and Maria, but the skit was apocryphal and had no connection to the true Sesame Street saga. I heard that this age progression joke was done in another David and Maria skit that took place on a desert island. For some reason, I never liked this gag.

Early episodes with the Count Von Count. It took me a while to warm up to this scary vampire who burst onto my peaceful Sesame Street scene. Also, he was a bit more frightening in the beginning. He's one of my favorites now.

 

[mikebennidict]

Funny you mention scary skits. My sister (also a classic SS buff who has had a love/hate relationship with the yip-yip martians for over 20 years!) and I were talking about how so many skits, animations, songs, etc were somewhat on the strange side and some almost frightning. I don't think this is a coincidence..We have to think about this..here we are..all what..approximately 20-30 years old..and we REMEMBER this decades later..it did the job it was supposed to! Memory reinforcement..which is very important in learning and SS knew how. I watched the Dukes of Hazzard..and as much as I loved that show..I couldn't tell you as many situations and skits on that show as I remember from SS..and I was much younger when I watched SS than DOH. ALSO..as you know, the original demographic for SS was supposed to be urban, inner-city preschoolers. While not trying to stereotype, usually these sorts of neighborhoods were higer in crime and "scary" stuff much scarier than an SS skit happened on these children's"street" or even in their own homes. The edginess of SS was designed to not be so soft toward kids who had to learn ways of coping with scary situations on a daily basis. As time went on though, the demographic changed so that children of all socio-economic backgrounds were watching and of course the tones of the skits and situations changed with the times. So much so now, that the 2003 version of SS is extremely different than the 1973 or 83 versions..and in some ways, that is good and normal..but..the current show IMHO is a shadow of the greatness it was, and maybe is a little too off target now. Now we have baby-like obnoxious Elmo as the "star" who talks to kids inappropriately (use of 3rd person instead of 1st for example)..but the numbers are going up to what..100 now?? When I watched it was 10 then later 20. Kinda contradictory if you ask me. But..I am sure we ALL have memories of the scary side of SS!!! And I'd love to hear some more!

i'm sure from the beginning kids from all backrounds watched the show. i was born 4 years after SS debuted and i didn't grow up in an inner city neighborhood.

 

[jrod]

I think a lot of the 70's educational programming was odd. Examples:

-the pbs closing logo with the scary metallic synth(I love watching it now though heh cuz its so freaky)
-many of the electric company skits, like the music to spidey, the 2001 space odyssey skits, the silhouettes, the floating "groovy"
-a lot of the CPB shows, like Read all About It(I loved "The Write Channel" though!)

 

[camillachick]

Forgetful Jones- could the fireball in the corner of the screen have been something put there by the station and not by sesame street? You may have seen this type of thing before as like a news flash or weather warning across the bottom, or sometimes stations display their own logo in the corner. Since it would have been displayed by the station and not actually in the recorded Sesame episode, it would not appear there later unless you were viewing a video tape of that particular day. Just an idea- I wonder what else could explain it?