Sketches and Songs on Sesame Street videos

[minor muppetz]

And now I will review Three Sesame Street Stories, also from 1985.

Everyone Makes Mistakes: Little Bird nararates this story, in which big Bird is thinking about what to get mr. Snuffleupagus for his birthday, and he thinks so hard that he isn't watching where he's going, and walks into the clothesline of mrs. washington (who looks a bit like Susan), knocking her laundry onto the ground. Big Bird is worried because he knows she will be mad when she sees what happened. Little Bird keeps trying to tell him to tell mrs. washington the truth, but Big Bird doens't pay attention, as he keeps thinking up lies to cover what he did, but he also keeps realizing that those lies aren't beleivable. These lies include saying that the local bike race came and ran into the laundry (but the bike race was last week, which Mrs. Washington would remember because she won the race), saying that Biff and Sully ran a bulldozer into the laundry (but they work on the other side of the street), and that a flock of geese was heading north for the winter (but they fly south). Big Bird even thinks about telling her that a tornadoe came and blew the laudnry away. But when Mrs. washington shows up, he tells her the truth, and is surprised that she isn't too upset. This is an interesting story. It includes an appearance by Rodeo Rosie (who is voiced by Fran Brill instead of Richard Hunt in this story, but I guess this was made years after she was no longer on the show and kids probably wouldn't know what she sounded like anyway) and an appearance by Alphabet Bates, a human who appearedin inserts during the early years.

The City Worm and The Country Worm: Slimey is preparing for a stunt show where he dives off a small diving board and into a thimble of water, but he has to stop practicing because he is expecting a visit from his cousin, squiggly. Squiggly comes and she and Slimey do a lot of fun things together. After see leaves, Slimey sees the sign Oscar made that promotes his stunt show, which says "Starring Oscar T. Grouch" (Oscar put it there ebcause he wrote the sign). This makes Slimey so mad that he goes to visit Squiggly, who lives in an apple in the country. They have fun togetehr, but Slimey misses the noise of the city, and also misses Oscar. He goes home after he almost gets caught by a bird. Back home, oscar changes the sign so that Slimey gets promoted as the star. In this video, Slimey is called Squirmy (even though he was called Slimey in the original book). Slimey also speaks in full sentances, but is not voiced by Martin Robinson (I'm not sure who does his voice in this video). One weird thing is that there seems to be a road between Hooper's Store and 123 Sesame Street where traffic can go through, but no arbor area.

Wanted: The Great Cookie Thief: Rodeo Rosie and several cowboys are unhappy because of The Great Cookie Thief, played by Cookie Monster, who has stolen everybodys cookies. He coems into town, and they compare him with the wanted psoter to see if he's the thief. he looks just like the thief so they decide that he is the thief, but Cookie Monster points out that he has no mustache, and when everybody isn't looking, he quickly draws a mustache on the poster, and they are convicned that they have the wrong person. They apologize and Cookie Monster tips his hat, which he spills several cookies out of, and they learn that he is the thief and go after him.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I've seen the "Five Sesame Street Stories" video before. Obviously a little different from the videos we've been reviewing, but thanks for including those titles. It's good to have all of them included.
There's been a few other videos like that, I think. There's one at the library called "Ernie's Little Lie and other stories." I'm thinking that's a storybook video too. When I get a chance, I'll have to see about borrowing it and doing a review.

And I do plan to put a review for "I'm Glad I'm Me" up soon.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've seen the "Five Sesame Street Stories" video before. Obviously a little different from the videos we've been reviewing, but thanks for including those titles. It's good to have all of them included.
There's been a few other videos like that, I think. There's one at the library called "Ernie's Little Lie and other stories." I'm thinking that's a storybook video too. When I get a chance, I'll have to see about borrowing it and doing a review.

Ernie's Little Lie And Other Stories was part of a four-video series called Start To Read, which was released by Random House Home Video and was a little different from the Golden Books videos. These videos just had stills from the book pages, no animations. Big Bird nararated all of them. Also, the words appeared on-screen along with Big Bird's nararation.

I've only seen one of these, Ernie's Big Mess. It's been a long time since I last watched that one (even though I own a copy of it), but I think that, unlike the golden book videos, Jim Henson and Jerry Nelson actually performed the voices for their characters, but Big Bird tells the audience what Frank Oz's characters say. Ernie's Big Mess had two other stories, one was Big Bird Is Sick, and I think the other one is called My Doll Is Lost, but I can't remember if that's the actual title.

The Start To Read series featured an opening song by Big Bird, while various characters suddenly appeared on screen. The opening was just a scroll of the inside covers of the Start To Read books, with characters suddenly appearing where they were in the books.

The videos in this collection were:
Ernie's Big Mess
I want To Go Home
Don't Cry Big Bird
Ernie's Little Lie

They all had three stories.

Yes, it is different form the other videos, but both of us have included reviews of other Sesame Street videos that don't have any segments from the show (Elmopalooza, Sesame Street Home Video Visits The Firehouse, Sesame Street Home Video Visits The Hospital, etc).

 

[Rosewood]

Heres the contents of "Alphabet Jungle"

Heres the "Alphabet Jungle" Contents as far as skits, sketches and songs go.

Alphabet Jungle

Paper "Little Richie" figure sings about letter A
Paints and brushes make Bb - (live animation)
Chinese fans show letter C - (live animation)
C - Car
Animated can-can dancers dance for D (Elmo gets inserted to dance along) pencil draws word "Dance" - (animated)
E - for Elmo
Suzy Cabloozy hates the letter F - (animated)
Cartoon fish form letter G
Travel through town to find letter H
Pencil Box draws letter Ii - (live animation)
Cartoons about "ig" words (a pig with a wig does a Jig)
"J the letter J" (shown on a rotating sphere)
K's mounted on poles swing by as short song is sung
L - Laugh (animated scary face w/ echo-ee voice)
cartoon about "Marvelous Martha" (older cartoon)
falling leaves make N - (animated)
Lady sings O - (animated)
P - short song w/ pictures on turning blocks
P - Pushing a Penguin on a sled (animated)
Toy airplanes make a Q - (Live animation)
Crumpled paper shows letter R - (live animation)
Cartoon characters make an S - (Elmo and Zoe are shown jumping)
T - Tiger - (cartoon - tiger, teapot, television, taxi, Ta-ta!)
U knocks on letter P's door. they get together to make "up" - (animated)
V going through space as echo-ee voice says "V" over & over - (animated)
W - (water, wind, wave, wet,)
X demonstration
X swings by on pole w/ short song
Y - a yak named Yurri eats yellow yams and yogurt (animated)
Z - "Who wants to make a Z?" Telly, Elmo, and Zoe make it

Hope this helps.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Yea! We have another participant! Thank you for playing our game, Rosewood!
And thanks for the info on The Alphabet Jungle Game! I think the trouble with letter and number skits is that they can be hard to describe sometimes. Thank you for covering that one though.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

And now, the long-awaited review of "I'm Glad to Be Me"!!!!
year- 1986, baby!

Plot- Maria comes out and sits on the 123 stoop and reads a book called "I'm Glad to Be Me". As Maria narrates, Big Bird and Grundgetta enact the scenes around her.
Maria starts the story-
Prince Charming Bird (as portrayed by Big Bird) rode forth on his horse Big Fella. (Big Bird rides around out of his nest on one of those play horse stick things.) There's also a Princess Grouchy (as portrayed by Grundgetta) and she pops up by Oscar’s trash can and refers to Big Bird as a “big yellow turkey”.
Prince and Princess hear a young lad in distress in apartment and argue over who will rescue lad. (Big Bird and Grundgetta stand outside bottom of basement window at corner.) In the meantime, gallant knight Bert came to the aid of young lad Ernie.

-Classic Ernie and Bert sketch- Bert assures Ernie he’s special by telling him about his nose, hair, ears, eyes and fingers. Ernie then tells audience they’re special!)

In story, Maria says Bert is right, but Prince wonders if he’s special because he doesn’t have a nose, but a beak. Princess knows answer but being a grouch, won’t tell. Maria then reads that a smart frog happens by and answers Prince’s question with a song.

-Classic song- Kermit the Frog sings “Being Green” (I think this is the later 1970s version rather than the original- Kermit is in farm background-ploughed beds are behind him and there’s leaves surrounding him.)

Prince was still puzzled because he’s not green. He asks what if he’s yellow or blue. Princess continually refuses to tell. Then blue monsters answer with a song.

- Classic song- Cookie Monster sings “Me Gotta Be Blue” with Cookie Monster’s mom and sister, Maurice, Ingrid, Harvery the blue-horned monster, AM blue monster, Herry, grey AM monster, and Grover all join in by the end.)

Prince finally understands that whatever you are, you’re special. Princess says she knew that. Prince says he’s happy to be himself. Princess says to knock it off but Prince draws magic picture of his happy face. Princess follows suit. (Freeze frame on Big Bird’s smile and red lines outline his face. Then Grundgetta’s grouchy face is drawn with yellow lines outlining her face.)
Maria then says that faces become so popular that people all over kingdom put on pace fageant, at which BB and G do double take. Maria corrects herself- “face pageant”. Grundgetta laughs and says she loves when that happens.

-Classic skit- Prairie Dawn’s face pageant. Prairie plays the piano and says “The Sesame Street Little Theater proudly presents, “Let’s Make a Face”. As Prairie plays the piano, different characters come out with face parts and sing a verse about them. Ernie starts with a picture of eyes. (ends his rhyme by saying the eyes look like knives?) Prairie repeats it questioningly and Ernie laughs his trademark laugh and exits. Herry comes out with nose picture and at end of his rhyme says sometimes it’s worn on the face upside down. Prairie tells him, “No, it’s not. Now, cut that out.” Cookie Monster asks Prairie if he’s next and she tells him yes. Then he has to ask what part of the face he has and she has to tell him it’s a mouth. Cookie ends song by saying he likes mouth best when it’s eating! And then he names different cookies for example and Prairie ushers him out. When she calls the next two on stage, Bert asks, “Are you ready Grover?” And Grover says, “Yes, I am, Bert.” (It’s just really funny and cool to hear two Frank Oz characters talking to each other and saying each other’s name.) Then they sing about ears and Grover breaks off after a while and after Bert gives an obvious rhyme (“Let’s give 3 loud cheers for these things we call our ….”) Grover finishes with “Bellybuttons” and Bert chases him off the stage, correcting him saying, “Ears! They’re called ears! We rehearsed this!” and Grover says he’s sorry- he forgot. All of them come out then to put the face in place and get it wrong twice until they get it right on the third time. At the end of the song they all hum behind Prairie and then go out and run off stage, Ernie holds the eye picture over his eye and runs off too.

Prince points out that they haven’t talked about other important parts of the body besides the face. Princess agrees and so did rest of kingdom. One little person climbed to the top of a boy from his toes to his head.

Classic cartoon- Cartoon hiker man climbs to top of a boy (live action) from his toes to his head, pointing out parts of the body as he does. Boy is bouncing basketball during this. When cartoon man jumps off with parachute, boy tells him “Happy Landings!” and man says “Oh, thank you!”

Maria and BB and G are now by the boxes in the courtyard and Maria is still telling the story. “The smart frog talked about a hand.”

-Classic sketch- Kermit talks about hands. “Hi Ho, Kermit the Frog here” (Love the intro!)
Kermit tells viewers to look at their hands and then human hand pops up for Kermit to look at (from behind the wall Kermit’s sitting on) and the hand demonstrates fingers and thumb and things a hand can do. As Kermit’s naming things, the hand does this stuff, some of which the hand does to Kermit. Sketch ends with hand shaking Kermit’s hand and pulling him off stage.

Now Maria and BB and G have moved to Hooper’s store window. Maria reads “Four scarecrows sang a song about the ankles, shoulders and knees.”

-Classic song- David, Maria, Luis and Bob, all dressed as scarecrows, sing a song about knees, shoulders and ankles. David sang about knees, Maria sang about shoulders, Luis sang about ankles and Bob kinda wrapped the whole song up.

Back to Maria reading the story. They’re a bit closer to Hooper’s Store now. The other parts of the body were finally recognized. Princess is bothered by the fact that we haven’t seen what’s inside the body.

-Classic sketch- Kermit shows what’s inside Herry on an X-ray machine. Kermit teaches about the lungs and heart and stomach and liver and intestines. Kermit ends it there, but Herry asks about his muscles. Kermit explains that muscles would cover everything else up and Herry says his muscles are his best part so Kermit shows it. Herry comes down off of machine to get closer look and Kermit wants to know how he can still see his X-ray when he’s not on there. Kermit goes to look at the machine and we see Kermit’s skeleton now on there jumping around.

Back to the story. Maria is now lying down on a table outside Hooper’s Store. Princess still isn’t satisfied because you can’t see feelings and imagining and remembering and learning on a machine, which Prince acknowledges. Prince offers Princess ride into sunset. Princess turns it down but asks for a ride to junkyard, which Prince agrees to. As they do so, their voices echo over Sesame Street “I’m Glad I’m Me.” The End.

And then Maria says you should be very glad you’re you. She walks off toward apartments and video ends with Cookie Monster holding up chalkboard for credits.

Hands down- this has to be one of the best Sesame Street videos I’ve seen. There are 3 classic Kermit songs and sketches which make it totally worth it! And so many great classic sketches and songs with a cohesive story- it's really awesome!

 

[minor muppetz]

With a title like "I'm Glad I'm Me", you would think that it'd be about self-acceptance rather than body parts (otherwise, it should have had a title like Learning About Body parts). It still sounds cool, and I hope it comes to DVD next year.

Untill a year ago, the only segment that I expected to be on there that actually was was "Bein' Green" (and even then, I think it would have been more appropiate to have included the version with Leena Horne). This video does have some segments about self-acceptance (Bein' Green, Me Gotta Be Blue, the skit where Ernie doesn't think he's special), but those seem to be more about body parts than self-acceptance.

Here are segments that I would have expected to have been on there (not counting what I just listed):
Proud of Me
Proud
Me
I Am Somebody
Proud To Be a Cow
If I Were
This Frog
The Frogs In The Glen

I am glad that I finally know what the plot is like. I learned what skits were on there a year ago, but knowing the plot is great.

 

[minor muppetz]

a long-overdue review

Title: Sesame Street's 25th Birthday: A Musical Celebration

Released: 1993

Plot: While at the park, Big Bird, Prarie Dawn, and Telly Monster observe that the whole world is like a stage, so they decide to put on a show. Prarie and Telly are in charge of getting th singers, musicians, and dancers, while Big Bird is in charge of getting the La La-ers, people who sing the La La parts of songs.

Prarie and Telly find Jamal, Angela, and others playing music and singign "Do Op Hop", and they get hired to perform in the show. Savion also points Telly and Prarie out to avariety of dancers for the show. Big Bird, however, doesn't have as much luck finding La La-ers.

He has a line for people to audition. The Count come to count everybody. The Amazing Mumford has a trick that can get everybody to La La. he waves his wand and says, "A La Peanut Butter Sandwhiches". But that trick only makes everybody quack.

Big Bird eventually finds some people who are good at la La-ing. These people are the martians, but when told that they will be stars, they take it literally and go to outer space.

Eventually, Big Bird has given up. Mumford comes to him to tell him that he figured out what went wrong with his spell. The magic words are actually "A La La Peanut Butter sandwhiches", but there is nobody around for the trick to work on. Big Bird then starst singign "Sing" by himself, then Ladysmith Black manzambo shows up and sings, then Mumford makes most of the 1993 cast appear and sing together.

Segments: (order might be slightly off)
Adventure with En Vogue
The Batty Bat with The Count
The Alligator King
Count it Higher with Chris and The Alphabeats
I Love Trash with oscar (1991 version)
clip from Rubber Duckie
clip from The Honker Duckie Dinger Jambouree
clip from Put Down The Duckie
clip from Do De Rubber Duck
C is for Cookie with Cookie Monster
Monster in The Mirror with Grover (non-celebrity version)
I'm an aardvark
Fuzzy and Blue with Grover, Herry Monster and Cookie Monster (Frazzle's parts are edited)
Skin
Bein' Green with kermit the frog (original version)
Happy tapping with Elmo
clip from Feel the Beat
Doin' the Pigeon with Bert
another clip from Feel the beat
Dance Myself to Sleep with Ernie and Bert
feel the beat with baby tooth and the funky funk
I Don't Want to Live on The Moon with Ernie
We Are All Earthlings

Nitpicks:
*The Rubber Duckie medley should have also included D-U-C-K-I-E, the only Rubber Duckie song not to be included on any videos.
*this video also should have included The people in Your neighborhood, ABC-DEF-GHI, Somebody Come and Play, This Frog, and Elmo's Song.

 

[minor muppetz]

Title: What's the Name of That Song?

Released: 2004

Plot: Super Grover wants there to be one song that the whole world can sing together, but he sees that everybody has a different favorite song. He enlists the help of Elmo and Big Bird to find a song that the whole world can sing together.

Big Bird encounters Oscar, who has a song that everybody can sing. He plays an instrumental version of "What's the Name of That Song" on a radio, and this song get's stuck in Big Bird's head, but Big Bird doesn't know the songs title, and oscar chooses not to tell him. Big Bird goes to other people on the street to ask them what tyhe name of the song is, but Big Bird mistakes their answers with questions.

meanwhile, Grover and Elmo meet an animated letter A and an animated number 8, who argue over whether they should sing a letter song or a number song. The A sings a new song, Letter Song, while the 8 sings a new song, Number Song. Grover asks Ernie and Bert what kind of song they should sing. Bert wants to sing apigeon song, but Ernie wants to sing a song where Rubber Duckies become friends with pigeons. Bert decides to agree, but tells Ernie that his Rubber Duckie needs to learn to do a special dance to become friends with pigeons. Cookie Monster has three foods (one of which is a cookie, I forget what the others are) and tells grover to guess what kind of song the whole world should sing. Grover tries to tell Cookie Monster that he knows what he's going to say but Cookie Monster won't let him get a word in edgewise untill he reveals that the song should be about cookies ("what a surprise", says grover, sarcastically).

Eventually, Elmo, Zoe, gabbi and Miles sing their favorite song, Everybody's Song, and Miles and gabbi convince grover that it's okay for everybody to have a favorite song, so Grover sings his own favorite, "What's the name of That Song?", though he only sings the "la de da de dum" parts. Big Bird hears Grover singign and asks for the name of that song, only Grover doesn't even know the title (despite it being his favorite). Miles and Gabbi inform Big Bird that the title is "What's the name of that song?", and then the whole cast get's together to sing it, with a medley of other Sesame Street songs sung in the middle.

Segments:
*Sing with celebrities
*Between with Wayne Brady and cast
*From Your Head with Dianne Schurr and Elmo
*Gospel Alphabet with Patti Labelle, Chris and the cast
*Eight Balls of Fur with Chris
*That's the Letter O with Queen Latifia, Prarie dawn, Merry Monster, and Telly Monster
*Counting Vacation with The Count
*Get Along with kermit the Frog, The Martians, The Tweedlebugs, a Cow, and the anything muppets (beginning edited)
*Do De Rubber Duck with Ernie, Telly, Oscar, Kermit, The Count, Biff, Guy Smiley, Gladys the Cow, Hoots, Elmo, and Bert
*Doin' The Pigeon with Bert (beginning edited, with added footage of pigeons)
*Operetic Lullaby with Denyce Graves and Elmo
*You Made Me Love You with Cookie Monster
*Everybodys Song with Dian Krall and the cast

Nitpicks:
*Grover's favorite song is What's the name of That Song? I would have expected it to be Monster in The Mirror (that's listed as his favorite song in Sesame Street Unpaved) or Proud of Me.
*With the possible exception of You Made Me Love You, all non-celebrity segments have previously been available on video. Perhaps it would have been better if the video included Three Blue Pigeons (instead of Doin' the Pigeon), D-U-C-K-I-E (instead of Do De Rubber Duck), The Joys of Counting (instead of Counting vacation), The opposite Song (instead of eight balls of fur, though if a number song was needed, and I can't think of any unreleased Chris and The Alphabeats songs about numbers besides Count It Higher, then maybe it could have had One and One Make two), and I Wonder About the World Above Up There (instead of Get Along).

DVD Features:

Bonus Sketches:
*ABC-DEF-GHI (1980s version)
*But I Like You (with Ernie and Bert)
*Captain Vegetable (original version)
*Pinball Number Count (parts of all segments edited togetehr to make one big segment)

Sesame Street Parenting Section: This is a program called Music Works Wonders, which I think is also available as a seperate video and DVD. This video features Hoots the Owl getting Elmo, Oscar, and other getting ready for a jam session using ordinary things to make music.

Interviews with Grover and Bert.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

At long last- a new review for this thread!

see below