The Grouchkateer's originated as "The Grouch Club"

[SwedishChefCook]

I grew up watching Sesame Street in the 1980's and one of the things I always loved about the show was the Grouchkateer's. How can you tell a Grouchkateer? He's the one with his thumb in his ear!!! Those kids looked so cool dressed up with those messy green T shirts and trash can lid hats. I remember Snuffy being in Oscar's Grouchkateer club, along with Telly. I read in the pbskids.org guide that there is an episode this year that used the Grouchkateers again as part of the main story, which is awsome but I keep missing that episode every time it comes on and end up seeing a rerun from 2 years ago instead But anyways....... about 5 years ago when I had digital cable and they were showing the old episodes on Noggin late at night, I once saw this episode from the late 70's when Oscar had a group of kids in front of his trashcan that he called "The Grouch Club" Now these kids weren't in the Grouchkateer costumes, but Oscar had them act grouchy and tried to talk with them about Grouchy things. I'm pretty sure this was what inspired the SS writers to come up with The Grouchkateers, with costumes and real grouch meetings with more kids and a traditional catchphrase. Now I began watching Sesame Street in the early 80's and by then the Grouchclub was established already. Does anybody remember if there was an episode that transformed the original Grouchclub into Grouchkateer's? Because I really think it was a smart idea to liven up the Grouch Club by bringing in the cosutmes and all that.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

When did the Birdkateer's start too.

 

[minor muppetz]

When did the Birdkateer's start too.

From what I have read, Big Bird started the birdkateers because Oscar wouldn't let him join the grouchkateers. I don't know what season that episode was from, and aparantly, it didn't air on Noggin.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Oh yeah, I've heard that, thanks for reminding me.

 

[SwedishChefCook]

Believe it or not I actually remember the episode when Big Bird first started the Birdkateer's. He decided he needed some new Hobbies so he decided to ask Oscar if he could be a Grouchkateer. He opened the lid of Oscar's Trashcan and stuck his beak in and asked "Oscar? Can I be in your Grouchkateer Club?" and Oscar shouted back "Nooooo!" rather loudly. Big Bird seemed disapointed, and at that moment Luis walked by asking Big Bird what was wrong. Big Bird told Luis what happened, and Luis told Big Bird that he's a Bird, and Oscar's Grouchkateer class is for Grouches, or Grouchy people, or something like that. So that's when Big Bird said "Fine then, I'll start my own club, and I'll call us The Birdkateer's" Ironically a few episodes later Big Bird came by Oscar's can with the rest of the Birdkateers and a big paper Bag Full of Yellow Feathers. He told Oscar that even though he wouldn't let him be a Grouchkateer, he would still like for Oscar to be a Birdkateer, and he opened up Oscar's lid and reached down and grabbed ahold of Oscar with one hand and started putting the Yellow Feathers all over him. Then when Big Bird and the Birdkateer's walked away Oscar's head rose up and he had these little yellow feathers scattered all over the top of his head and his face and he looked disgusted and made some kind of Grouchy comment. This was in 1983 or 1984, shortly after Mr. Hooper died.

BTW something I don't really understand is that Oscar wouldn't let Big Bird be a Grouchkateer because he was a bird, yet just a few years later he let Snuffy join and he's a Snuffleupagus, also Telly has been an active Grouchkateer for years now and he's a monster, and it seemed as though Oscar hated Telly just as much, (if not more) than Big Bird.

 

[TheJimHensonHour]

BTW something I don't really understand is that Oscar wouldn't let Big Bird be a Grouchkateer because he was a bird, yet just a few years later he let Snuffy join and he's a Snuffleupagus, also Telly has been an active Grouchkateer for years now and he's a monster, and it seemed as though Oscar hated Telly just as much, (if not more) than Big Bird.

hahaha it always made me laugh how poor Telly always tried to impres Oscar but to no avail.

 

[ISNorden]

I'm guessing that the various "-kateer" clubs appeared on Sesame Street after Disney bought the rights to the show. The name, the club costumes which include special hats...both are inspired by the "Mouseketeer" cast members on the defunct "Mickey Mouse Club" TV show.

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm guessing that the various "-kateer" clubs appeared on Sesame Street after Disney bought the rights to the show. The name, the club costumes which include special hats...both are inspired by the "Mouseketeer" cast members on the defunct "Mickey Mouse Club" TV show.

Disney has never owned the rights to Sesame Street.

There weren't very many other "kateers"-type clubs. I've read about an epsiode where Telly started the Bob-kateers because he liked Bob so much, and there was an episode in season 30 where the Count formed the Count-kateers.

 

[ISNorden]

Disney has never owned the rights to Sesame Street.

There weren't very many other "kateers"-type clubs. I've read about an epsiode where Telly started the Bob-kateers because he liked Bob so much, and there was an episode in season 30 where the Count formed the Count-kateers.

I remember the episode with Telly, but not the Count-kateer one. (Poor guy--Bob isn't even popular with real-life kids, let alone "recurring fan club" material on the show!) Now that I know that Disney's buying rights to some of the Muppets didn't extend to owning Sesame Street--my fault!--I'm guessing that the "kateers" clubs appeared when the Mickey Mouse Club was revived on TV. (One revived version aired in the mid-70s and one in the mid-90s: since both kept the "Mouseketeer" concept, I'm guessing that Sesame Street was just copying network TV as usual...)

 

[minor muppetz]

Now that I know that Disney's buying rights to some of the Muppets didn't extend to owning Sesame Street--my fault!--I'm guessing that the "kateers" clubs appeared when the Mickey Mouse Club was revived on TV.

Even when Jim Henson planned on selling the entire company to Disney in 1990 (years after the Birdkateers and Grouchkateers were introduced), the rights to the Sesame Street characters were the only thing that Disney was not going to get. In 2004, when Disney finally did get the rights to the Muppets, the rights only extended to Bear in the Big Blue House, and by that time, the rights to the Sesame Street characters had already been sold to Sesame Workshop. The Jim Henson Company still owns Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, The StoryTeller, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, Farscape, and many other productions.