Sketches and Songs on Sesame Street videos

[minor muppetz]

Another good thing about "Do the Alphabet" is that it's about the only one I can think of that Betty Lou actually shows up in! New material even!

Most Sesame Street DVDs have a feature where you can watch clips from other Sesame Street DVDs, and for the sample on Fiesta Songs, there is a clip from a song called Fiesta, which featured Betty Lou (along with Elmo, Rosita, Baby bear, Zoe, and Telly). It's probably an insert, but I haven't seen that video.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I just got "A Magical Halloween Adventure" the other day to see if it was worth buying and I will definitely say it's worth buying. It's a 2004 release video. It's mainly worth getting this video for 1 main reason- Mumford the Magician!!! It's awesome seeing Mumford again in new material! I think his voice sounds a little different than I remember, but that's probably due to Jerry Nelson getting a bit older and his voice changing some over time. Anyway, Mumford shows up on Sesame Street and invites Elmo, Telly and Zoey to his Magician's Halloween Party, where Gilda the Great (portrayed by Caroline Rhea) and a new Muppet, Murray the Mediocre are waiting for them. Elmo dresses up as a cowboy, Zoe dresses up as a princess and Telly dresses up as a wedge of cheese.
Most of the plot of the video involves Mumford's wand messing up and sending the gang to different places. However, Mumford has called ahead to tell his magician friends that he and his monster friends are coming to join them. Gilda and Murray freak out over the fact that Mumford is bringing monsters with him and try to build barricades to keep them out. Mumford and the gang go from a pumpkin patch to a hayride where they meet up with 2 Surprise Monsters, who jump out of places and suprise them. Interspersed with this are live action clips of kids celebrating Halloween by making costumes and carving pumpkins. At one point in the hayride, the horse who is the tour guide for the ride, lets them see a friend of theirs and his experience at harvest time on a farm- and here we have Big Bird in live action shots with kids bringing in vegetables and fruits at harvest time on a farm.
They eventually get to the party and everyone learns that monsters aren't scary. They sing a song about this too. As near as I can remember, I think it's the only song in the video.
One other cool bonus is that there's a "Journey to Ernie" segment included on the video, in which Big Bird finds Ernie hiding in a pumpkin patch, in keeping with the Halloween theme. Probably the coolest thing about this sketch, besides having Big Bird and Ernie interact, is that it gives the Two-Headed Monster a chance to regularly show up, as they were in this one and trying to help Big Bird find Ernie.

The whole running time is about 40 minutes, by the way. 30 for the show and 10 for the "Journey to Ernie" segment. I don't know how much Mumford has been on Sesame Street lately, but hopefully videos like this will help him make a comeback.

 

[minor muppetz]

time to revive this old thread

My next review is for Cookie Monster's Best Bites.

year: 1995.

plot:
Cookie Monster starts his first day as a baker. He is going to make some cookies, and he looks through a cookbook, which I think is all letter's of the alphabet. He get's to C, and I think he eats that page (it's been awhile since I've last seen this), so he calls his grandmother and they briefly talk about the letter C. Cookie Monster starts making the cookies, and he eventually puts them into the oven, but keeps checking on them every few seconds to see if they are done. After they are done cooking, Cookie Monster wants to eat them, but they are too hot and Cookie Monster has to wait a bit longer to eat them. Eventually, they are ready, and Cookie Monster eats them all. However, now there are no cookies, so Cookie Monster decides to make more. He closes the show by saying "Me may not sell any cookies, but me will make a lot of dough".

segments:
C Is For Cookie (original version)
C Drives me Crazy (the only song on this video without cookie monster)
If Moon Were Cookie
Cookie Monster helps Telly demosntrate the difference between fast and slow
Annett Benning and Cookie Monster talk about here and there
What Is Friend?
They Can't Take That Away From Me (also starring Guy Smiley)
Goodbye, Little Cookie

nitpicks:
*As pointed out, the only segment in this video that doesn't feature Cookie Monster is C Drives Me Crazy. This might have been done because it followed Cookie Monster and his grandma talking about the letter C, but if the makers of this video needed another C segment (besides C Is For Cookie), then they should have included Monsterpiece Theatre: The Old Man And The C. There are no Monsterpiece Theatre segments on this video. It could be argued that they weren't on here because Cookie Monsetr usually just hosted them and wasn't actually the star, but he did star (in addition to host) Twin Beaks, and other Monsterpiece Theatre skits that could have been included (if a Cookie Monster-centered segment was needed) are Little House On Prarie and One Flew Over The Cukoos Nest. Even if Cookie Monster rarely starred in these skits, any of them would have been better than a skit without Cookie Monster.
*Most of the songs on this video have already been released on other videos. C Is For Cookie has been on Learning About Letters, Monster Hits, and Sesame Street's 25th Birthday: A Musical celebration, If Moon Were Cookie was included in Bedtime Stories And Songs, They Can't Take That Away From Me was included in Learning About Letters, and while this was the first video release for What Is friend, it would later be included in Learn To Share. While it's reasonable that C Is For Cookie would be included despite being on a previous video (but then again, The Best of Ernie And Bert didn't have Rubber Duckie or Doin' The Pigeon), the spots for one or more of the other previously-released songs could have been filled with more deserving unreleased songs, like The Ballad Of Casey McPhee, Me Lost Me Cookie At The Disco, Up And Down, Breakfast Time, or Share.
*some segments that could/ should have been included: Cookie Monster as the cookie bunny, Beat The Time (although this was already on video), Cookie Monster eating cookies while The Count counts them, the skit where an anything muppet talks about the differences and similarities between cookie monster and ernie, Prarie dawn instructing Cookie Monsetr to demosntrate first and last, and Cookie Monster testing his strenght.
*in the skit with Telly Monster, Telly seems to sound a bit different than usual. Was he performed by Martin P. Robinson or Brian Meehle in this skit? Both performers are credited (though Martin P. Robinson gets a higher billing). However, Telly's voice in that skit sounds more energetic than usual, and brian meehles Telly voice was very gruff. Perhaps Brian originally performed Telly in that skit while martin looped the voice and something happened to the sound. Or maybe somebody else performed Telly and Martin didn't dub the voice.
*This video does have a major lack of regular characters. besides the background mosnetrs in C is For cookie, the only regulars seen in this video are Telly (who doesn't normally appear with Cookie Mosnetr) and Guy Smiley. It would have been better if this video had some skits with some of Cookie Monsers more regular co-stars (although I do consider Guy Smiley to be a semi-regular co-star), like Ernie, Prarie Dawn, Kermit, or Herry Monster (in a more significant role). The again, with the exceptions of The best of Elmo and A celebration of me, Grover!, all "best of" videos have a major lack of regular characters besides the stars of those videos.

 

[minor muppetz]

Does anybody else want to write about some Sesame street videos? It seems like me and GonzoLeaper are the only ones writing about videos. While I do enjoy writing about these, I haven't seen every Sesame street video (and theres some that I haven't seen in a long time and can't remember much about), and I'm not sure if GonzoLeaper has seen every Sesame Street video that I haven't seen. There are still some that I've seen that i haven't written about yet.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Hey minor muppetz,
I haven't forgotten about this thread. I just borrowed a ton of Sesame Street videos from the library today, so I'll try to have some more reviews up soon.
And if anyone else wants to participate, please feel free to add to the collection! I think this is a really helpful thread to sort out all the skits and songs on the different videos, so if you have or have seen a video that hasn't been mentioned here yet, please go ahead and post a review! Thanks!!!

 

[minor muppetz]

Sing Yourself Silly

I will now talk about Sing Yourself Silly.

Year: 1990

Plot: Actually, this video doesn't really have much of a plot. It starts with Big Bird introducing the video, and then, between the skits, various characters say "Now that was silly!" I can't remember who all appeared in these scenes, but Maria and Luis said it in one scene, and in another sceen, Oscar says, "now that was... yucky! I'm not gonna say 'silly'" However, Elmo points out that he did say silly. This video is good if you only care about the skits and not the plot.

Segments: (the order might be slightly wrong)
Honer Duckie Dinger Jambouree (with Ernie, The Honkers, and a Dinger)
The Ladybug Pignic (animated song)
Jellyman kelley (with James Taylor)
The Everything In The Wrong Place Ball (with Oscar and Grungetta)
Old Mac Donald Cantata (with a honker, a dinger, a martian, and an elephant trunk)
I'm Waving Goodbye With My Heart (with Polly darton)
One Banana (with the anything muppets and, I think, The Count)
Sesame Street News: Mary Had a bicycle (with kermit The frog, Don Music, and The Monotones, Sesame Street News introduction cut)
Ten Tiny Turtles (animated song)
Put Down The Duckie (with Ernie and Hoots The Owl, version with celebrities, i seem to remember the first shot being cut)
honker duckie dinger jambouree (shown again during end credits)

nitpicks:
*Jellyman Kelley and Put Down the Duckie were both also included in the Sesame Street Special (a.k.a. Put Down The Duckie)
*If you look at the segment listings, you'll notice that this video opens and closes with Rubber Duckie songs.
*I think this is the only Sesame Street video featuring Don Music.

 

[MuppetDude]

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.

 

[minor muppetz]

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

Oh. I thought that on this video, it began with a close-up shot of Hoots instead of the wide shot of Hoots and the musicians at the beginning. I haven't seen this video in a long time. Was Hoots' line "that is one cool cat" cut?

 

[MuppetDude]

Yep; everything after the song was cut.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

One Banana (with the anything muppets and, I think, The Count)

The Count isn't in this song.
I've got this video at home and I think you got all the skits listed correctly.
Yeah, not much on plot, but there are some great skits and songs included- particular favorite being Kermit and Don Music singing "Mary Had a Bicycle".