street inserts

[minor muppetz]

I have been wondering this lately. There are a lot of street sceens that have been repeated as inserts. Sometimes, I guess the scenes were part of a main plot and were later shown in other episodes (like I Just Adore Four and most of Stevie Wonder's sketches). There are also sketches that are obviously produced and meant to be repeated in other episodes (James Earl Jones counting to 10 and reciting the alphabet, The Spanish Word of the Day skits). But is there ever any decision made to have a certain street scene repeated in other episodes?

I guess this would have been more common during the shows early years, when many episodes didn't have very much plot focus. Any street scene from the first episode that didn't involve a proper introduction could have easily been repeated in other episodes. While I don't think that the opening street scene from episode 276 could have been repeated, I believe that many individual short scenes from that sequence could have been repeated in other episodes. The opening scene from episode 406 could have ben repeated (and it's such a great scene that I'd be surprised if it wasn't).

I wonder if the sketches with Kermit drawing the letters K and M were meant to be inserts or not. I figure that Best Friends Blues was meant to be repeated, sinc eit's a late 1980s sketch with Ernie.

 

[LincolnHeights]

Iv'e noticed this as well. Sometimes the on the street inserts were rather obviously outdated looking. But they used them anyways because back then they didn't really care so much if something was outdated, just as long as kids could learn something from it and/or enjoy it. Like that sketch with Snuffy singing If I were a cloud in the sky from 1984-85 was aired as late as Season 25 (1993-1994) and by that time, Big Bird's nest area didn't even look the same on the main street scenes. His nest area was open,and visible in the around the corner set, at the time of the Big Bird and Snuffy Cloud in sky sketch there was a brick wall in his nest area that was no longer there by Season 25.

 

[minor muppetz]

Here is a listing of street scenes that I know were repeated in other episodes:
*Wheels on my Feet
*Big Bird holds Bob's hand while crossing the street
*If I Was a Cloud in the Sky
*1980s version of ABC-DEF-GHI
*I Just Adore Four
*Write it Down
*Snuffy jumps on Big Bird's trampoline
*Jellyman Kelly
*That Grouchy Face
*James Earl Jones counts to 10
*James Earl Jones recites the alphabet'
*Jackie Robinson recites the alphabet
*Lou Rawls' alphabet song
*A scene with Bob and R2D2
*Nobody
*I Love it When it Rains

And here are some songs that I'm 99 percent sure were repeated (these are ones that I only remember seeing once, or only seen on video, or both):
*Big Bird and a girl pretend to be big and little (I've only seen this clip in a documentary)
*Herry and a boy play a game where the boy wears a blindfold and guesses what he feels
*I Heard the Dog Bark
*1991 version of I Love Trash
*Elmo's Song
*My Best Friend
*Rhyme Out
*Kermit draws an M
*Best Friends Blues
*Put it in the Trash Can

And I've seen a page at Muppet Wiki for an early 1980s episode featuring a street scene that's obviously from the 1970s (judging by the picture). In this skit, Grover and Luis have the kids play a game (I think musical chairs), and Grover gives each kid a hug when they lose. In that picture, Luis had longer hair like he did in the 1970s. I've also seen some pages at Muppet Wiki of episodes from the early 1980s that feature sketches with Ernie talking to kids in the arbor area. The picture uality and way that Ernie looks look like they were made in either the late 1970s or early 1980s.

I have also read that the original version of What's the Name of That Song? was repeated until Mr. Hooper's death.

 

[JLG]

Don't forget the sketch where Oscar meets with Vincent Van Grouch (Danny DeVito) to show him his Trash Art collection. I remember seeing that quite a lot in the late 80s. I think it even lasted early into the 90s.

There were probably TONS of these that we're not thinking of.

LincolnHeights: I know what you mean about obviously outdated stuff. I have a 1992 episode that uses the "Snuffle-shuffle" sketch (where Snuffy shows Susan and some kids how to excercise Snuffleupagus sytle) that's clearly from the late 80s because the arbor area has blank blue sky, without the distant buildings that were added there in, I think, 1989. Later in the episode, of course, the buildings magically reappear.
But the Big Bird's nest "opening then closing" trick that you described is even more glaring than that. It's kind of surprising that they would go with that one. That's a MAJOR difference.

Of course, the biggest change to the set since the second season is probably what they've just recently done to the "down the street" view. After ages of there being a painted backdrop depicting the view of city blocks receding into the distance, now there's just a big brick building there, with some ivy growing on it for a touch of realism. This makes the setup less fake-looking, but it makes less sense spatially---Sesame Street is now more like Sesame Enclave.