Sketches and Songs on Sesame Street videos

[rumtar_10165]

Another nitpick: Oscar calls Elmo "pink face"! (The puppet was a bit "pinker" than the current one. I think there was even a die-cast car that had a picture of a pink Elmo.)

Also, the end of "Put Down the Duckie" was cut (after the song), not the beginning.

Actaly if you stop and think Oscar called a lot of people names.
Bob -Smile face
Grover-Fuzzy Face
Big bird- Yellow Turkey
and Gordon-Curly

 

[MuppetDude]

Yeah, but how often do you hear Elmo being referred to as having pink fur?

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Another nitpick: Oscar calls Elmo "pink face"!

Maybe Oscar meant Elmo had pink eye! - I don't know. Anyway, Oscar certainly has lots of "nicknames" for people. Don't forget "skinny" for Maria on "Follow That Bird".

All right- well, here's sort of an unusual Sesame Street review. I finally borrowed a video I hadn't bothered to get until now. I can now say I sat through and watched it and it was okay, but probably nothing to get too excited about. Anyway, that said, anyone remember those dogs that would show up on Sesame Street to teach counting segments, and such? Now, I'm not talking about Barkley. These were the dogs that stood erect like people and you would see people's hands and feet where their paws should be.
Anyway, apparently William Wegman's the guy's responsible for them. And for all the diehard fans out there, you can see a whole video dedicated to them, called "Sesame Street presents: William Wegman's Mother Goose." It's a 1997 copyright and the main plot is that Mother Goose tells her son Simon nursery rhymes and limericks.
If anyone's interested, here's the list of sketches they do, and no, I don't remember if any of this stuff was ever on Sesame Street.

1. Mother Hubbard
2. Jack and Jill
3. Little Jack Horner
4. Little Miss Muffet
5. Ten O'Clock Scholar
6. Jack-A-Nory
7. Coffee and Tea
8. Little Girl with a Curl
9. Little Jumping Joan
10. Cock-A-Doodle-Doo
11. Three Men in a Tub
12. The Tarts
13. To Market
14. The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe
15. Rain, Rain Go Away
16. Winter
17. Pat-A-Cake
18. Lucy Locket
19. Every Lady in this Land
20. Jack Be Nimble
21. Little Bo Peep
22. Olde King Cole
23. Golden Slumbers
24. Humpty Dumpty
25. Cock-Crow

Okay, that's it. I'll try to have some more reviews up as soon as I get a chance.

 

[MuppetDude]

I've seen the following on SS:

1. Mother Hubbard
2. Jack and Jill
3. Little Jack Horner
5. Ten O'Clock Scholar
6. Jack-A-Nory
13. To Market
17. Pat-A-Cake
21. Little Bo Peep
22. Olde King Cole

There may be more.

 

[minor muppetz]

Here is info on the 1999 video The Adventures of Elmo In grouchland Sing-And-Play.

year: 1999

plot: Elmo goes back to grouchland to visit grizzy and the pesties. Elmo wants to sing, and after singing Sing (accompanied by on-screen lyrics, which also occupy every song on this video), Elmo learns that Grizzy doesn't like to sing. He keeps trying to convince her that singing is fun, but she never agrees. He talks about how he almost lost his blanket while she mentioend how Huxley almost stole her favortie doll. Elmo tells her that people often sing about their favorite things. Elmo sings about his blanket, and Ernie sings about his rubber duckie. Eventually, after it looks like there is no convincing Grizzy that singign can be fun, Elmo presents the song Elmo's Song, and grizzy says that she didn't like that song.... she loved it! Elmo sings Elmo's Song again, only with Grizzy joining in and making it grizzy's Song, and the Pesties joining in and making it pesties Song. After the credits, a bonus Elmo's World segment plays.

segments:
Welcome To grouchland (from Elmo In Grouchland)
Grouches Love Trash (with Oscar, Irvine, and Mr. Hanford)
The Nightbug Boogie (with the bugs)
Together Forever (from Elmo In grouchland)
Rubber Duckie (with ernie, the version with a blue background seen on other videos and most anniversary specials/ documentaries, not the original version from the test pilot, or the 1998 remake, or any other verison)
C Is For Cookie (opera version)
Elmo's Song (with Elmo, Big Bird, and Snuffy)
Elmo's World: Balls (the very first Elmo's World segment broadcast)

nitpicks:
*there seemed to be an order of songs introduced about somebodys favortie thing (Elmo's blanket being his favorite, followed by Together Forever, then Elmo talked about Ernie and his rubber duckie, followed by Rubber Duckie). However, after those two songs is C Is For Cookie, but Elmo doesn't talk about how cookies are Cookie Monster's favortie food before that song.
*This is one of the few sesame street videos to include a clip from an episodes street plot (in this case, Grouches Love Trash, which was part of an episode from the 29th season). usually, clips featured in videos were of isnerts.
*This video almost makes me wonder what a Follow That Bird Sing-And-Play video would have been like.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Here's another interesting entry

Okay, here's my review of "Basil Hears a Noise"- a 1990 video release by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in co-operation with Children's Television Workshop, of course)

This one is a largely original video with new Muppets, but there are many lesser known Sesame Street characters that show up on it (though not necessarily in their SS roles)

One other thing to note is that at the start of the video, there is a message of dedication.
"In memory of Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets."

The video is 28 minutes long and is a musical production, with songs throughout. In fact, the whole thing kicks off with a title song while the credits come up. The main characters for this video are Basil the bear, Louis the otter, Dodi the adventurer (female human), and guest star Elmo! All 4 of them are camping out and Basil can't sleep in the tent because he hears a noise. He gets scared and wakes Dodi, who tells him a story to calm him down. She reminds him to be quiet and not wake up Elmo. Then, we jump into the story.
In the story, Basil is a shepherd who is missing 1 of his 3 sheep. He goes to an enchanted forest to find him and he does, and is about to leave when he hears a noise and goes to investigate. He comes across a group of creatures in the forest, with Elmo as their king. Elmo and others sing him a song about the noises they've been hearing and the tricks that have been played on them lately.
At this point, we first see a lot of classic Sesame Street characters, some a bit more obscure than others. Elmo is obviously the most well known one, but there are also appearances from another well known character- the Two-Headed Monster! Some others I noticed include either Natalie or Cathleen-maybe both (the black and white cows), Maurice Monster (the light blue monster in the Frazzletones), Doctor Livingstone (I believe it was the same AM- http://www.sesame-encyclopedia.com/Alphabet/SesameL/DoctorLivingstone.html), two Honkers, Harvey (the blue, horned monster- http://www.sesame-encyclopedia.com/Alphabet/SesameH/Harvey.html), the orange haired AM boy from Kermit's "I Love My Elbows" song, and Buster the horse, the frog from the "We Are All Earthlings" song (http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/groups/g_13127126/We+Are+All+Earthlings/015.jpg?bcPzjdDBo0ExvyEk) and those 2 cats that used to be on SS (not sure of their names). I think I even briefly glimpsed Kermit himself in the background, but I'm probably wrong on that.
So anyway, that's probably one of the really neat things about this video-a nice range of familiar Sesame Street characters, although not many of them are very well known big characters.
The creatures can't find Sir Louis, their brave knight, who is actually in hiding because he's scared. Basil gets disguised as a minstrel and sets out to find the Fountain of Riddles which will help him solve the problem of who's been playing tricks on them. He meets a dragon at the Information and Mint Jelly booth and turns down his offer of poison eels and moves on. He and his sheep then run into Knight Sir Louis and together they go to Fountain of Riddles. Basil and sheep stop to rest while Louis keeps exploring and he sings a song about bravery. Eel advances on Basil and sheep and they run and Basil sings a short song. Basil stops to talk to a goblin and Louis comes and scares goblin away. The rock the goblin was sitting on then comes alive and actually turns out to be the Fountain of Riddles. They ask who's playing the tricks and he answers with a riddle and they figure out the answer, which is a witch. They all panic and run and Basil loses his sheep. He tosses aside his minstrel outfit and goes in search of his lambs, following their tracks to the witch's house. Louis goes to tell Elmo and the creatures and offers to be brave for all of them and they all go to the rescue. Basil sings another song and then goes inside to see the goblin, eel and dragon costumes hanging up. He finds his lambs sitting down and then finds the witch. She's certainly dressed like a witch but she tells him that she's really a fairy princess only pretending to be a witch. She proves it by turning into a fairy princess with the hat and all (and this character is actually portrayed by Dodi). She says she was pretending to be scary because she was scared because the forest is filled with critters. She sings a song about it. Basil tells her that the creatures would not hurt her and then they sing a song saying that she won't play any more tricks and they can all be friends.
The creatures are outside the window at this point and they hear the song and everyone becomes friends. Basil becomes famous for helping the creatures. The story ends there and Basil finds out that the noise he'd been hearing was the two cats (same ones as in story) and they come into the tent and lay down with him. Dodi again warns Basil not to wake up Elmo and they all go back to sleep. Elmo finally wakes up and and tells Dodi that he heard a noise. Dodi sighs and then the video ends with the same titular song we heard at the start.

And there you have it!

 

[Barry Lee]

Okay, here's my review of "Basil Hears a Noise"- a 1990 video release by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in co-operation with Children's Television Workshop, of course)

This one is a largely original video with new Muppets, but there are many lesser known Sesame Street characters that show up on it (though not necessarily in their SS roles)

One other thing to note is that at the start of the video, there is a message of dedication.
"In memory of Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets."

The video is 28 minutes long and is a musical production, with songs throughout. In fact, the whole thing kicks off with a title song while the credits come up. The main characters for this video are Basil the bear, Louis the otter, Dodi the adventurer (female human), and guest star Elmo! All 4 of them are camping out and Basil can't sleep in the tent because he hears a noise. He gets scared and wakes Dodi, who tells him a story to calm him down. She reminds him to be quiet and not wake up Elmo. Then, we jump into the story.
In the story, Basil is a shepherd who is missing 1 of his 3 sheep. He goes to an enchanted forest to find him and he does, and is about to leave when he hears a noise and goes to investigate. He comes across a group of creatures in the forest, with Elmo as their king. Elmo and others sing him a song about the noises they've been hearing and the tricks that have been played on them lately.
At this point, we first see a lot of classic Sesame Street characters, some a bit more obscure than others. Elmo is obviously the most well known one, but there are also appearances from another well known character- the Two-Headed Monster! Some others I noticed include either Natalie or Cathleen-maybe both (the black and white cows), Maurice Monster (the light blue monster in the Frazzletones), Doctor Livingstone (I believe it was the same AM- http://www.sesame-encyclopedia.com/Alphabet/SesameL/DoctorLivingstone.html), two Honkers, Harvey (the blue, horned monster- http://www.sesame-encyclopedia.com/Alphabet/SesameH/Harvey.html), the orange haired AM boy from Kermit's "I Love My Elbows" song, and Buster the horse, the frog from the "We Are All Earthlings" song (http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/groups/g_13127126/We+Are+All+Earthlings/015.jpg?bcPzjdDBo0ExvyEk) and those 2 cats that used to be on SS (not sure of their names). I think I even briefly glimpsed Kermit himself in the background, but I'm probably wrong on that.
So anyway, that's probably one of the really neat things about this video-a nice range of familiar Sesame Street characters, although not many of them are very well known big characters.
The creatures can't find Sir Louis, their brave knight, who is actually in hiding because he's scared. Basil gets disguised as a minstrel and sets out to find the Fountain of Riddles which will help him solve the problem of who's been playing tricks on them. He meets a dragon at the Information and Mint Jelly booth and turns down his offer of poison eels and moves on. He and his sheep then run into Knight Sir Louis and together they go to Fountain of Riddles. Basil and sheep stop to rest while Louis keeps exploring and he sings a song about bravery. Eel advances on Basil and sheep and they run and Basil sings a short song. Basil stops to talk to a goblin and Louis comes and scares goblin away. The rock the goblin was sitting on then comes alive and actually turns out to be the Fountain of Riddles. They ask who's playing the tricks and he answers with a riddle and they figure out the answer, which is a witch. They all panic and run and Basil loses his sheep. He tosses aside his minstrel outfit and goes in search of his lambs, following their tracks to the witch's house. Louis goes to tell Elmo and the creatures and offers to be brave for all of them and they all go to the rescue. Basil sings another song and then goes inside to see the goblin, eel and dragon costumes hanging up. He finds his lambs sitting down and then finds the witch. She's certainly dressed like a witch but she tells him that she's really a fairy princess only pretending to be a witch. She proves it by turning into a fairy princess with the hat and all (and this character is actually portrayed by Dodi). She says she was pretending to be scary because she was scared because the forest is filled with critters. She sings a song about it. Basil tells her that the creatures would not hurt her and then they sing a song saying that she won't play any more tricks and they can all be friends.
The creatures are outside the window at this point and they hear the song and everyone becomes friends. Basil becomes famous for helping the creatures. The story ends there and Basil finds out that the noise he'd been hearing was the two cats (same ones as in story) and they come into the tent and lay down with him. Dodi again warns Basil not to wake up Elmo and they all go back to sleep. Elmo finally wakes up and and tells Dodi that he heard a noise. Dodi sighs and then the video ends with the same titular song we heard at the start.

And there you have it!

Interesting.

 

[minor muppetz]

Here is some info on Learn To Share.

Release Year: 1996.

Plot: Maria and Tarah watch Co-Operation Corner, hosted by Katie Couric. She goes to interview people about co-operation. She interviews Jack and Jill, who have trouble getting water, so they co-operate and get the water. She also interviews the three little pigs, who are being threatened by the big bad wolf to have their houses blown down. While they panic, they decide to co-operate and build a brick house together. Meanwhile, Elmo has a toy train. Zoe wants to play with it, but Elmo won't let her. However, he soon decides that he might have more fun if they both played with the train. There are a few more times when Zoe wants to do something that Elmo won't let her do, but then he eventually decides to let her do. They eventually get two banana peels and put them on the train and take it to oscar. Katie Couric comes to Sesame Street and witniess them giving oscar the banana peels. Grungetta is also visiting and asks Oscar if she can have one of them, and he gives her one. Katie Couric points out that the viewers got to see grouches co-operate, and this embarrasses Oscar and Grungetta.
I'm sorry if this plot doesn't sound detailed enough. I rented this last year and only watched it once. I don't think it's too good. There are only three segments included, though the segments are all good. It also includes a few songs sung in the linking footage, such as Co-Operation Song and Share (though I wish it had the insert with Ernie and Cookie Monster, instead of a new version). I think there was also another new song but I forget the title.

Segments:
Two Heads Are Better Than One (with Herry Monster and the two-headed monster)
Sharing (with Grover and Prarie Dawn)
What Is friend? (with Cookie Monster and a friend)

Nitpicks:
*some segments that I wish were included: the skit where kermit got Cookie Monster and herry to share a bicycle, The Geefle and The Gonk, Co-operation makes It happen, (I Can't get No) Co-operation, and one of the many skits where ernie and bert "shared" food.

 

[minor muppetz]

Here is info on The Street We Live On, which was originall a television special and later released on video, broadcast in 2004 and released on video a few months later. I haven't seen the video release, but I'll point out differences between the television broadcast and video release.

It begins with grover coming to work at the fix-it shop, and maria gives him a package to deliver to oscar, so grover comes to oscars can, only for a lot of people and things to get in the way. He walks into Bob, who is carrying some packages, and they keep unintentionally blocking each other from moving, and Bob tries to tell grover that he's in a hurry, but grover says he doesn't have time to talk. He also stops and greets Baby bear and Curly Bear, but Curly eventually grabs onto grovers package. Eventually, grover makes it, but Big Bird, Snuffy, and the birdkateers parade over him. Oscar finally gets the package, which is from Elmo. It is a painting of Dorthy with some spagghetti sauce spileld on it, and a note from Elmos mother is included, saying that Elmo thought oscar would like it.

We then go to Elmo's World. Elmo asks the audience to guess what he is thinking about today. he opens the door, revealing the sesame Street cast, and he says, "Sesame Stree! You know, Sesame Street!", leading to a kazoo-played version of the theme song accompanied by many clips.

Elmo then says that Dorthy has a question: "How does Cookie Monster eat a cookie?", so Elmo asks Mr. Noodle to show us how. Afterwards, a few kids show us how cookie monster eats a cookie, and Elmo asks a baby, but then he asks another baby how cookie monster eats a cookie, but the bby is Cookie Monster in disguise. Cookie Monster takes a bite out of the cookie, which is then shaped like a C, the letter of the day.

Elmo get's E-mail from Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus, in which they teach viewers how to do a dance called The Snuffleupagus. Elmo asks the viewers how many monsters are in the monster parade, and the count stops him from counting so that he can count the monsters, which will then help them figure out the number of the day. There are 10 monsters.

Ernie soon runs into Elmo's World, hiding from Big Bird, who is playing Journey To Ernie. After the game is done, Bert comes to Elmo's World looking for Ernie. Elmo tells the viewers that he doesn't always get to be with grover, because Grover travels alot, leading to a Global Grover skit.

Wanting to know more about sesame Street, he turns to "the Big Bird, grover, maria, and all of Elmo's friends channel" (why not just call it the sesame street channel?), which shows a cartoon of a little girl getting lost and finding Sesame Street, and learns that on sesame Street, people do the alphabet dance, and since she doens't know the alphabet dance, they teach her the dance (how unneccessary.. this could have allowed more time for more clips).

When Elmo wants to learn more, Super grover shows up to take Elmo back in time to show him what Sesame Street was like beforwe he was born (though most of these clips come from after he was created). Super grover takes Elmo back in time to see Mr. Hooper, Maria and Luis' wedding (which Elmo was a part of and even appears in the clip), the birth of gabbi, and the adoption of Miles.

They come back, and Elmo wants to sing "The Sesame Street Song", but then stops himself when he realizes that he lives on Sesame Street, so he goes to see all of his friends, and they sing a new song, "The Street We Live On". This is followed by a timeline featuring a few secodns of a highlight from each season (1969 gets two clips, the beginning of the first episode and Rubber Duckie, but every other year gets one brief clip, many of which may seem weird to those who don't know the actual scenes). The timeline was cut from the video and DVD release.

This special featured the following segments:

C Is For Cookie (opera version)
The Typewriter Guy: C-Cat
C-circles (film with kids)
I've Got a Chair 9computer animated song with Traction Jackson)
Spanish Word of The Day: Casa
Baker Film: Let's Sing a Song of 10 (wiht "ten bells" replacing "ten indians")
10 flowers (film with kid)
ten tiny turtles on the telephone (cut from video release)
Journey To Ernie: Nursery Rhyme Land (beginingn edited so that it could start in Elmo's World)
Dance Myself To Sleep (featuring new footage of all season 35 guest stars dancing, though I hear that some guests, including Norah Jones, were cut from the video release)
Global Grover (I can't remember what country this one is about, but involves a peacock)
Mahna Mahna (shown during end credits, but is replaced with Clap, Clap, Clap on the video release)

Nitpicks:
*The channel for Sesame Street should have been used as a way to give information about the shows history, instead of a new, random animated sequence featuring animated versiosn of the characters and unneccessary stuff like the alphabet dance.
*When I first saw this special, when I saw that the E-mail was from Big Bird and Snuffy, I was hoping that they would talk about how Snuffy used to be imaginary.
*It seems like the writers/ producers wanted to avoid mentioning Mr. Hoopers death. They show Mr. Hooper at his store when grover and Elmo go back in time, but don't say what happened to him, and during the time line, there is a clip from the episode where Big Bird learned of Mr. Hoopers death, but the clip doesn't show anybody mentionin his death. It just has Susan telling Big Bird that mr. Hooper isn't coming back.
*Matt Vogel performed Big Bird in the scene that introduced Journey To Ernie (and obviously in the clip), but Caroll Spinney performs him for the rest of the special.
*I don't know whether the clip of mr. Hooper is from the 1970s or 1980s, but it would have been good if when Grover and Elmo went back in time they saw more things from the 1970s and maybe even 1969. Most of that sequence focused on the 1980s. perhaps they could have shown Gordon with hair (when he was played by Matt Robinson or Hal Miller), Mr. Snuffleupagus being thought of as 'imaginary', or more characters who no longer appear on the show, like Sam the Robot and Rosevelt Franklin.
*the credits give a character copyright credit for Kermit The Frog (who appears in a few clips), but not for C3PO and R2D2 (who appear briefly in the time-line sequence).

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I have to say, regarding "The Street We Live On" special- there were good things about it but there were a lot more things that could have been done. I can't say that I liked the idea of "Elmo's World" basically taking over the whole show. I really wish the complete sketches and songs from earlier seasons could have been shown. For me, I think the main cool things about this special were seeing Super Grover and the brief clips when he and Elmo go back in time. And I really liked "The Street We Live On" song. But the best part had to be that great timeline clip they did- with the TV sets changing to fit the time. That was cool and Kermit did show up in 2 different clips during the timeline bit. I do believe I recognized just about every single one of those clips. And "Mahna Mahna" during the end credits was a very welcome surprise. Don't why stuff like that and the timeline got cut on the video. That's why I'm glad I've got the special taped off of TV.