The closing themes of Sesame Street

[gutchman]

ssetta, do you remember exactly which episodes of SS had the nighttime closing theme, besides episodes 666, 1836, 1845, 2404, 2123, 2124, 2795, 2880, and 2900?

 

[ssetta]

Okay, here are some others I remember:

3021
3059
3097
3101
3352

 

[gutchman]

3352 was from the 1994-95 season, and the harmonica/nighttime music was permantly gone starting in 1993-94 season, wasn't it? So is episode 3352 a rerun from the 1992-93 season, since it had the nighttime music?

 

[gutchman]

Which version of the closing theme did episode 2795 have?

 

[ssetta]

This is interesting. 3352 was actually NOT a rerun. I was quite surprised it had the old nighttime music. Interestingly enough, this episode reran in Season 28 as show 3602, and the old nighttime music was used then as well. I was very surprised.

2795 had the regular harmonica music.

 

[gutchman]

wow, ssetta, I can't believe that most of these episodes with the nighttime closing credits actually used the harmonica theme instead of the nighttime theme. Could it be because in most of these episodes, no one was sleeping at the end of them?

 

[ssetta]

No one was sleeping at the end of those episodes.

 

[gutchman]

that's strange, ssetta, b/c at the end of episode 2228, both Telly and Susan are about to go to bed at night, but the harmonica theme was still used at the end of that episode. Isn't that strange? Then again, that episode's ending didn't show anyone sleeping. Furthermore, after Susan said "Sesame Street is a production of the Children's Television Workshop", she says good night. I think I might have seen another episode in the late 80s where Maria said it's time for everyone to go home and go to bed. I don't exactly know this for sure, but i THINK it still used the regular ending theme.

I think in order for the nighttime theme to be used, someone actually had to be SEEN sleeping, like in episode 1836's ending. Episode 666, the one where the Count counts lights, had the nighttime theme b/c the last street scene showed people turning off their lights at night so they can go to sleep.

Do you know of any other episodes from 1969-1992 that used that regular closing theme, even though it ended at night and someone was about to go to sleep?

 

[ssetta]

I've actually heard about a Season 19 episode, I think it's show 2385, that ends with a bunch of people sleeping, but it's in the daytime. It had a normal closing. There was another episode like this from Season 19, show 2435. I also remember this episode where there was a hurricane from Season 22, show 2821, and it reran in Season 24, show 3026. It did end at night, and people were sleeping, but they weren't actually shown during the sponsor announcement. Therefore, the regular theme music played.

 

[gutchman]

ssetta, even though the harmonica closing theme for SS was dropped in 1993, it made a comeback in this decade sometime. It's currently played at the end of each episode after Silmey reads Trash Gordon to Slimey. Which year between 2000 and 2004 did that harmonica theme return at the end of Sesame Street episodes (after Elmo's World)?