Rubber Duckie: first year of broadcast

[minor muppetz]

I am wondering, is the version of Rubber Duckie where Ernie takes a bath in front of a blue background from the first season or the second season? I know there was an earlier version from one of the test pilots, but I've been wondering about the version that's more commonly seen.

I remember watching the Sesame Street Unpaved special, and when this skit is shown, the broadcast date appears on-screen, and I remember it saying 1970, but I think the date listed was either March or May 1970, which would be near the end of the first season. The timeline sequence from The Street We Live On also features a clip from this version when the scene highlights 1969 (the years listed are obviously just showing the seasosn they are from as opposed to the actual years of broadcast... it also includes Furry Happy Monsters as being from 1998, even though I remember it first being shown during the 1999 half of the 1998-1999 season).

Then again, the Ernie and Bert Sketches guide at Muppet Wiki lists this version as being from the second season. Of course, that site has guides for a few character sketches listed by season, without really sourcing whetehr the info is accurate. Many of the skits list the earliest known episode appearance by them, but this version of Rubber Duckie doesn't list any earliest known episodes.

Another thing to think about. During the first season, almost every Muppet sketch outside of street sceens and sceens that took place in Ernie and Bert's apartment had a plain dark white background (in some skits it looks like the background is light yellow or dark green, but I think that might just have something to do with the ligthing). Sesame Street started having more background colors starting in the second season, or at least I think it did. I know that there are some first season sketches (the original Bein' Green, Kermit's lecture on round things, Proffessor Hastings lecture on parts of the body) that feature a black background. Maybe a blue background was purchased later in the first season.

Does anybody know?

 

[Princeton]

Just taking a wild guess here, but...

I would say Season Two for two reasons:

1) The copyright to the song is 1970, which is when the second season started. Now, you might say "Well, the first season continued into 1970; it could've been season one". Well, the reason I think it's season two is because Rubber Duckie is an original song, and things were more than likely pretty hectic, so there may not have been time to get a copyright for an original song.
2) Also, Ernie (in the more commonly seen version) is very refined (puppetry-wise). We all know that many SS characters p & in particular) were built in a very crude fashion during the first season.

 

[minor muppetz]

Of course, a lot of Sesame Street songs from the first season have a 1970 copyright. Even the theme song, which was on the show since the first episode. There are a handful of first season songs that do have 1969 copyrights, such as The People in Your Neighborhood and Five People in my Family.

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, I've read that Rubber Duckie will be included in the Old School set as a season one bonus sketch. We'll have to wait three days and see if it's the original version or the famous remake. Unless, of course, the review comes up.....

 

[gbrobeck]

It's the classic version we're all used to.

Greg

 

[MuppetDude]

What I don't understand is why SS keeps referring to that version as the one from the first season, when obviously the season 2 version of Ernie (with shorter hair, smaller pupils, and a red nose) is used.

 

[jeffkjoe]

Because there were TWO Ernies in Season 1.

The earliest Ernie from season 1 had a purple nose

The second Ernie from season 1 had the red nose

Check out the two Ernie's:

ERNIE SEASON 1, VERSION 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQAvqMdkk8

ERNIE SEASON 1, VERSION 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpMk3EoGRA4


(Even Bert changed in 1969-1970)

 

[JLG]

Yeah--that gloomy gray background from the first year! In fact, the entire show was lit darker at first than from year two onwards.

I skimmed through Carroll Spinney's book a while back, and he mentioned that in the second season they got a new lighting director who brightened everything up. (He was also the person who decided to change the straight street into a curved one.)