Phooey, phooey, phooey, phooey and PHOOEY!

[ISNorden]

Here are my nominees for the worst "classic" Sesame Street bits in twelve categories. (By "classic", I mean the show as most adult fans remember it nowadays: from Seasons 1-28, before the format changed radically.)

1. Worst street plot: The Count's scavenger hunt for 40 body parts. (Thank goodness that the parts were still alive and attached to their owners, at least...although the Count did cheat on the total!)

2. Worst recurring human: Wanda the Word Fairy; human characters on Sesame Street rarely have that kind of obsession.

3. Worst recurring Muppet: Captain Vegetable; I've mentioned his crunchy-vegetable crusade going too far sometimes. (That "not living by vegetables alone" line was too little, too late...)

4. Worst non-recurring human: Pee-Wee Herman. His alphabet sketch was just plain dumb, and his other cameo appearances probably scared kids (especially after that *ahem* arrest in the theater).

5. Worst non-recurring Muppet: I could nominate almost any letter or number which has appeared as a central character; however, one particular Muppetized "X" creeped me out. The "X" in question had a silvery body, dark glasses and a robot-like voice (which usually spoke in two- or three-word phrases at most).

6. Worst game-show parody: Sonny Friendly's traveling game shows, which usually interrupted characters on the street and gave them worthless prizes. (A trip around your own living room, someone else's broken clock...you get the picture.)

7. Worst whole-alphabet sketch: This one has no official title, but you'll probably recognize the one I mean: after a loud synthesizer intro, several Anything Muppets recite the alphabet from opposite sides of a split-screen effect. The synthesizer played a loud BING! between most individual letters, and a bizarre percussion-like pattern between each string of 4-5 letters.

8. Worst individual-letter sketch: This one has no official title either, but...it's a cartoon starring a Christopher Clumsy-like character who discusses the letter A. Various things whose names begin with A appear between him and the letter: "animals" trample him down, and the nonliving objects form a pile which eventually comes down in an "avalanche" (from which the lecturer is rescued by an "ambulance" in the end).

(Nominees #9-12 coming soon...I need to log off for now, sorry!)

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Wow! I remember Wanda the Word Fairy!!! She was cool! And I always loved Captain Vegetable!
And who is Christopher Clumsy?

I think I'm usually pretty open to most everything on Sesame Street, so it's hard for me to ever call anything bad. I like them all!
And as literal child of the 80s, Pee Wee Herman was definitely cool! I know Paul Reubens got arrested and that's really sad and does put a damper on his main character- but I still like Pee Wee anyway.

"I know you are, but what am I?"- Classic comeback! (I just saw a bit of Pee Wee's Big Adventure on tv the other day)

 

[balana]

I'm with GonzoLeaper in that I liked Pee-Wee! My personal nomination for worst non-recurring human would have to be Linda Ronstadt. Especially one scene that I haven't seen in many years where I think she was singing in Spanish, but at several points in the song belted out a loud 'Oh-OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!' that I ALWAYS changed the channel from.

 

[ISNorden]

I'm with GonzoLeaper in that I liked Pee-Wee! My personal nomination for worst non-recurring human would have to be Linda Ronstadt. Especially one scene that I haven't seen in many years where I think she was singing in Spanish, but at several points in the song belted out a loud 'Oh-OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!' that I ALWAYS changed the channel from.

That was the song-sketch with Linda Ronstadt and a couple of Muppets; she had discussed charros (her native equivalent of cowboys) with the other characters, and invited them to join in a mariachi-style song about charros. The lyrics were mostly English with only a few bits of Spanish thrown in; I remember that same "Oh-OHHHHHHHH!" at the beginning of some lines.

That song annoyed me only mildly, though; did Linda Ronstadt appear on any other episodes of Sesame Street? (That would still count as "non-recurring", as long as she appeared only a few times and didn't star in a recurring series of clips on the show.)

 

[ISNorden]

Categories #9-12: my worst-ever candidates

9. Worst general counting/math sketch: a mid-1990's animation in which a shrill offscreen voice counted 40 dots. That "Thirty-nine...*hyperventilate* ... thirty-niiiiiine...*hyperventilate*...thirty-NIIIIINE..." near the end must have scared the pants off some kids!

10. Worst specific-number sketch (potential number-of-the-day material): "One Duck" (a cartoon with two curious children standing at the edge of the pond, counting the ONLY duck anyone can see...Sesame Street ought to teach "if you have only one of something, you don't need to count it"!)

11. Worst sketch with a "miscellaneous" lesson (unrelated to letters or numbers, but still an obvious lesson theme): Farley (or a similar Anything Muppet boy) talks about various things people do with their minds. He uses personal examples to explain imagining, remembering, hoping and planning. Unfortunately, he is also ignoring a series of increasingly loud knocks which end with a Herry-like monster crashing through the door. His terrified reaction: "Now I'm not imagining, or remembering, or hoping any more...I'm planning again. I'm planning to RUN!!!" Farley speeds away through a monster-shaped hole in the door, not knowing that the monster only wanted to play. (When I was a girl, I'd beg Mom to change the channel any time this sketch came on. )

12. Worst "filler" clip (created mostly as eye-candy, with no obvious lesson): the "running children" filler, in which kids left a rainbow trail of silhouettes behind as they dashed across an empty set.

Any personal nominees in those categories, or any category you think I should have included? (Keep in mind, I'm limiting this "worst of" thread to the seasons before Elmo's World was added and the general format changed.)

 

[mikebennidict]

I'm pretty sure that was Herry in the Farley skit. I don't know if he was known as Herry then or he started out as an AM monster like Cooky did.