Questions we may never know the answer

[Soul H]

In Danger's No Stranger, I heard How Now Brown sing about how you shoudn't spend the winter in Montana and mentioning Sherman in Savannah, but exactly what is so dangerous about it?

The other dangers he mentioned I understand, but spending the winter in Montana and mentioning Sherman in Savannah, makes no sense.

 

[DTF]

In Danger's No Stranger, I heard How Now Brown sing about how you shoudn't spend the winter in Montana and mentioning Sherman in Savannah, but exactly what is so dangerous about it?

The other dangers he mentioned I understand, but spending the winter in Montana and mentioning Sherman in Savannah, makes no sense.

Well, I think the Sherman one was an attempt to make it funny for adults as well as kids. However, general William T. Sherman - the man who marched through Georgia near the end of the Civil War and burned most every city - is more famous for burning Atlanta, not Savannah. I suppose he burned that city, too. (Well, his troops did.) However, since Atlanta would have also rhymed, I don't see why they didn't say "Sherman in Atlanta." That would raise the ire of any Southerner you mentioned his name to, but probably be more understood as a joke. And, if he did do more damage there, might make it more likely you'd get punched int he snoot.

Montana's just so cold I guess it's just considered crazy to want to take a winter vacation there. And, it would be dangerous if you tried to do so and only packed a bathing suit

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Snuffy's cave is in a park, It would say it looks a lot like central park sense it has caves in it. I remember an once seeing an episode where it shows Big Bird and Snuffy along with a grown up walking to the park to go to Snuffy's cave.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

If you do, you must use that full title because it cracks me up so hard. Do you remember when he had the furry blue nose?
I wonder if (supposing Palisades makes him) the Herry figure will be made with the pants. He would be such a cool looking one with all that shaggy hair. He would be huge too I am sure. You know something weird though? Whenever we see Herry, he seems so big. I mean he is known to be this big strong monster and he looks it on the show, but when I saw him in that scene on the 35th Anniversary show I was talking about and he was full bodied on the steps, he didn't look very big at all. He just appeared to be so much smaller/shorter than he comes across from chest up. I will look at my tape again, but he was sitting next to Ernie and Bert and was around the same size as Ernie. That just did not seem right. Anyone else see this?

Actually, Bear, from that episode up, all of the muppets sitting on the stoop look a little ackward, to me.

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, I think the Sherman one was an attempt to make it funny for adults as well as kids. However, general William T. Sherman - the man who marched through Georgia near the end of the Civil War and burned most every city - is more famous for burning Atlanta, not Savannah. I suppose he burned that city, too. (Well, his troops did.) However, since Atlanta would have also rhymed, I don't see why they didn't say "Sherman in Atlanta." That would raise the ire of any Southerner you mentioned his name to, but probably be more understood as a joke. And, if he did do more damage there, might make it more likely you'd get punched int he snoot.

Since Atlanta and Savannah both rhyme, maybe Christopher Cerf meant for the line to be Atlanta but got it wrong in either the writing or singing and nobody caught it untill after it was recorded. Or maybe Christopher Cerf or somebody else saw some source that made the mistake and thought it was correct.

 

[JLG]

So Henson's characters rarely were on the Street because of his other committments? That makes sense. I'd always wondered about that. I guess that means the in-between segments were shot a different part of the year than the Street footage. But this wasn't true until the Muppet Show, you say? Someone please mention if they know more about that. I'd love to hear about more instances of Kermit or Ernie on the street.

As a kid in the '80s it always seemed to me like it was a "law" that certain characters could never be seen outside of the in-between stuff. That's why it was amazing to me to see a 1978 episode at the MT&R that featured Big Bird interacting with Grover. I had never thought I would see those two speaking to each other. In the same episode, Bert tries to help Big Bird with a sleeping problem. Another first for me. Since I still have seen very few '70s eps (about 12, far fewer than those who have traded/taped more), I have no idea if this was a novelty even then, or if it was common back then to see certain character combinations that just weren't done later. (Lately they've brought back Ernie as a Street character, but not Bert. )

 

[PiLfan]

When Little Jerry and his Monotones, came to visit, weren't there only 2 Monotones instead of 3?

the 3rd monotone was busy recording a solo album at the time...

 

[ISNorden]

I have some questions that we may never know the answers to (of course, i don't have noggin, so I am just assuming that these were not answered in Sesame Street Unpaved).

did professor hastings, harvey kneeslapper, deena, pearl, little jerry, herbert birdsfoot or guy smiley ever star in any street plots?

I have this nagging memory of Harvey Kneeslapper announcing the letter of the day, with a man from the human cast (Bob, I think?) nearby. For once, Harvey was not playing a prank of any kind; instead, he kept sneezing every time he tried to mention the letter. I thought that was hilarious when I first saw the sketch as a girl; my mother must have gone crazy from hearing me repeat "brought to you by the letter *ACHOO!*" umpteen times. It turns out that Harvey was allergic to the letter W.** A similar problem must have occurred in an earlier episode, because I remember the human actor asking Harvey "What happened to the letter Q?" (I swear I never saw Harvey sneeze at any other letter, though: does anyone else remember one or both of those episodes?

**My reaction several years later: "W as in 'What the [bleep]?!?'"

 

[PiLfan]

As a kid in the '80s it always seemed to me like it was a "law" that certain characters could never be seen outside of the in-between stuff. That's why it was amazing to me to see a 1978 episode at the MT&R that featured Big Bird interacting with Grover. I had never thought I would see those two speaking to each other. In the same episode, Bert tries to help Big Bird with a sleeping problem. Another first for me. Since I still have seen very few '70s eps (about 12, far fewer than those who have traded/taped more), I have no idea if this was a novelty even then, or if it was common back then to see certain character combinations that just weren't done later. (Lately they've brought back Ernie as a Street character, but not Bert. )

A lot of the muppets you see primarily in insert segments and skits nowadays and throughout much of the 80s-90s were seen quite a bit on street scenes, particularly in the early 70s. Bert, ernie, herry, grover, mumford, harvey kneeslapper, count, and yes even kermit all had regular or somewhat near regular appearances (strangely enough, i don't recall cookie ever being in a street scene...until a recent episode from just last year where people thought he was stealing everyone's cookie's, but it was actually another character, cookie-hood, instead).

lately, a lot of these muppets have been making return appearances to some street scenes. In the last year or two, Herry has popped up in a cameo, ernie has appeared several times, Grover now has his "traveling grover" skits done on the street, the count recently appeared in a street scene with a special appearance by the bluegrass band Alison Krauss and Union Station.

Bert also appeard on the street in a recent episode, along with ernie, had something to do with Bert's surprise birthday party i think...while it was refreshing to see ernie and bert on there again, the muppets' voices and even the appearance of the muppets have changed quite a bit. Especially Bert...who's tuft of hair has gotten so small you'd think he's balding (which is possible; the dude's been around for nearly 40 years after all ) and his unibrow looks way off too. I miss the more coarse Bert from the 70s/80s

and of course, there's been no kermit since the hurricane episodes, and before that no street scenes of him that I can recall until well before Jim Heson's death.

 

[JLG]

Cookie was in at least two street scenes that are in "circulation" among this community---early in #276 and in the beginning of #796. That's all I happen to have seen; there might be more.

I saw that recent episode about Bert's birthday party. It was cool to see him, though I don't think the guy who plays him now quite has the character down. And I agree with you that the newest Bert puppet looks way off. I have tried to figure out what is different about it, but it's too subtle. It must be a lot of little things that add up. I definitely think his head is slightly thicker than it was before, and maybe the unibrow is somewhat higher on the face. On such simple faces, every little bit makes a huge difference. I read an article somewhere where a Muppet builder was saying how incredibly difficult it is to remake a character and have it look "right". That may be true, but somehow they'd always done it better before. (There have to have been at least six or seven different Berts over the years.)