The American Revolution

[minor muppetz]

Let's talk about The American Revolution sketches. As far as I know, there were only three of them, and all three can be viewed at sesamestreet.org (sesame workshop also uploaded two of those three on youtube and hulu).

The best one is easily The National Bird, with many of the main Sesame Street Muppets from the 1980s, and most of the then-main male performers (it's a shame that none of Richard Hunt's characters were in this, though I'm not sure how they could have been used). If any of these sketches get included on the 40th anniversary DVD, I'll be surprised if it's not this one.

Thomas Jefferson Needs a Quill is also a good one, since it has Don Music, getting help from Grover instead of Kermit. Don doens't bang his head on anything here (though he does lightly put his head on the table). It's a shame that after Don Music was taken off the show for banging his head that they didn't at least continue airing sketches like this, with no head-banging. Don's reaction to learning that the chicken is named Phil is funny. It is a shame, though, that Grover only makes two mistakes; I feel like there should have been one more rhyme for quill (though these American Revolution sketches are a bit long).

Surprising the British is good, but perhaps the weakest one. I guess Sesame Workshop didn't want to promote "attacking" the british (which I think is what actually happened). Considering that the openi ng sequence says "starring all your friends from Sesame Street", it's a shame that Grover was the only familiar character in this one. George Washington should have been played by either Kermit or Guy Smiley. Though I do like the look of the George Washington puppet here, and I like the voice Jim Henson uses (it's Link Hogthrob's voice, but the character is much more competant).

Heck, if Sesame Workshop ever wanted to release a DVD about american history, all of these sketches would belong. I wonder if american history will ever be the main curriculum anytime soon. All of these are from the late 1980s, so they shouldn't be too problematic to be shown on the current show.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm not exactly sure, but I wonder if the concept of these sketches didn't go over too well with writers, producers, or educational researchers, the intro of each sketch mentions how it's a "mini-series", but like you said there are the three that we're familiar with, though it seems like there would've been another one or two, I'm not exactly sure... at any rate, if it was a "mini-series", I would think there would be more than three or so of these sketches... the Super Grover sketches, Monsterpiece Theater, etc, there were quite a few of these, I'd consider those more along the lines of actual "mini-series".

 

[dwmckim]

I think it was a fun exercise for sketches - there was a bit of education about history but these were more a springboard for other topics in the standard cirriculum - much like the Monsterpiece Theatre skecthes did. Granted, this was before Sesame was aimed a little lower in terms of range of target audience so it may have more reached people on the older edge of the age scale but American history probably was a little over the head for most of the children who were still learning the alphabet and how to count...spatial concepts like time is still one they're getting a grasp on so i think these were kind of akin to the Caveman Days sketches; they take place in and have some fun with an earlier time and are entertaining to the younger and older kids (and their parents) watching.

The whole "mini-series" angle seemed to be a little riff on the popularity of historical miniseries that were popular at the time...i don't think they necessarily intented these to be some huge thing.

 

[Gelfling Girl]

My favorite of those was probably the Declaration of Independence, even though Don Music is a bit before my time. We are currently learning about the Am. Rev. in social studies (We have a test on it on Jim Henson's birthday. ), and that sketch helped me remember who wrote it when the teacher called on me. (and no I didn't accidentally say "Don Music" )

 

[Muppet Newsgirl]

Yes, that's a good one...and considering that in that sketch, Jefferson (or Don Music) had help from Phil the chicken in writing the Declaration of Independence, it's not really surprising that Benjamin Franklin lobbied for the turkey to be the national bird. (Wonder what Sam would have said about that?)

You might like to know this: the July 4th edition of the MuppetCast included the audio from that sketch...immediately followed by several outtakes. It sounds like during one take, the feather fell out of Don's hand and down in front of Richard Hunt's face - and the whole sketch promptly goes to pieces. With every subsequent take, it sounds like he and Frank Oz (and the rest of the crew) have more and more trouble getting through the sketch without laughing their heads off.

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm not exactly sure, but I wonder if the concept of these sketches didn't go over too well with writers, producers, or educational researchers, the intro of each sketch mentions how it's a "mini-series", but like you said there are the three that we're familiar with, though it seems like there would've been another one or two, I'm not exactly sure... at any rate, if it was a "mini-series", I would think there would be more than three or so of these sketches... the Super Grover sketches, Monsterpiece Theater, etc, there were quite a few of these, I'd consider those more along the lines of actual "mini-series".

I don't really consider those mini-series. In my opinion, a mini-series is a small series of specials that continue into each other. The Super Grover and Monsterpiece Theater segments were all self-contained stories (but then again, so were The American Revolution sketches).