Unearthing previously "lost" Sesame Street episodes

[minor muppetz]

Deena's debut appearance: https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_1403

Which reveals that in season 11 (at least her first appearance), a very different puppet was used. This does solve a mystery that the wiki had years ago. An image of Deena from this episode had surfaced long ago, in addition to this version being in one of the closing Sesame Street signs. Fans had wondered who she was, I thought it was/looked like Deena while others disagreed (and back then I hadn't seen many pictures of her and didn't realize the color/hairstyle was wrong).

Mystery solved!

 

[scarecroe]

I'm glad we solved that mystery, too. It had been stumping us since 2006!

Here's another fun guide that was just added...

Tom plays Superman:

Episode 0394

muppet.fandom.com

Bonus video:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=957672951230882

 

[D'Snowth]

Wow. Original Deena looks like if Elmo was somehow a girl grouch.

 

[scarecroe]

Here's a pretty interesting one from season 2.

Gordon and Susan engage in a conflict the likes of which you'd never see in children's programing today. Plus, an appearance by Caroll Spinney's "Baby Monster" (who he has repeatedly, erroneously referred to as Elmo for years).

Episode 0168

muppet.fandom.com

Bonus video 1:

Baby Monster

"Baby Monster" is a descriptive name used as both official and unofficial designations for various Muppet characters. A small, pink-red monster appeared on early seasons of Sesame Street in a series of sketches with other ancillary monsters. Although he would eventually be referred to on-screen...

muppet.fandom.com

Bonus video 2:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1169738390545285120

 

[datman24]

Here's a pretty interesting one from season 2.

Gordon and Susan engage in a conflict the likes of which you'd never see in children's programing today. Plus, an appearance by Caroll Spinney's "Baby Monster" (who he has repeatedly, erroneously referred to as Elmo for years).

Episode 0168

muppet.fandom.com

Bonus video 1:

Baby Monster

"Baby Monster" is a descriptive name used as both official and unofficial designations for various Muppet characters. A small, pink-red monster appeared on early seasons of Sesame Street in a series of sketches with other ancillary monsters. Although he would eventually be referred to on-screen...

muppet.fandom.com

Bonus video 2:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1169738390545285120

I like the humor that you're putting into for the descriptions of some of these videos that you have been posting.

 

[minor muppetz]

Glad to finally see a Baby Monster performed by Caroll Spinney. When it comes to the "monster family", I wondered if maybe he just meant segments with random AM monsters, with "Monster Family" being more of a term like "The Word Family Song". It seems the second season does have a few segments with monster characters reading out words.

I wasn't expecting Cookie, Grover, or Herry to be in this, so I'm guessing they weren't named in the script, most likely they needed monsters and just happened to use some established monsters. Jerry Nelson uses a different voice for Herry than usual here, though in the second season it seems like he was sometimes treated like a utility monster (being dressed in drag a few times, being performed/voiced by Jim Henson once, etc.).

I can't really tell if that green monster was Caroll or Jerry. Kinda sounds like an impression of Lefty to me.

The visuals are much different from what I had pictured. I had always pictured Baby Monster being in front of a blue background and behind a wall, with "IS" being on the wall in physical, Styrofoam letters. And after reading a description sourced from scripts, which refers to him as "a baby monster" as if that title were meant to refer to a definition, I wondered if he'd have been dressed in a bonnet/diaper and inside a carriage (to give him a real baby look). Considering the background and use of Grover and Herry, I wouldn't be surprised if this was shot on the same day as the "three monsters" bit (though they had Fran perform the character in that).

And wow, years ago on the wiki forum, I figured that this was the puppet Caroll meant when he talked about doing Baby Monster, even before I saw it confirmed that the "three monsters" script referred to Billy as Baby Monster. Lately I have wondered if maybe Caroll wasn't literal about it being the original Elmo, like if he meant it was a precursor to Elmo. Ironically, when Fran Brill performed the puppet in a different sketch, the voice she used sounded close to Elmo's voice, while the voice Caroll used isn't really similar at all.

This has been a great week for uncovering longtime Sesame mysteries and making interesting discoveries.

 

[scarecroe]

When it comes to the "monster family", I wondered if maybe he just meant...

Yeah, it's pretty clear by now that Caroll has a terrible memory for these things. Several of his anecdotes are provably incorrect. That's to be expected, of course (these events are 40 to 50 years old and we're only human), but fans have to realize they can't take even the memories of those who worked on these projects as Gospel. It's not going to stop misinformation from being spread by the likes of Mashable and ABC News or whomever, but at least we've got it all properly documented and available to the public.

 

[hooperfan]

I wonder if the "Mr. Cunningham" comment to Mr. Hooper was a faulty memory too

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

I would really like to see some of these:

Celebrities Wanted

muppet.fandom.com

 

[scarecroe]

I wonder if the "Mr. Cunningham" comment to Mr. Hooper was a faulty memory too

I don't see it in any of the scripts, so if it made it to the final episode, it was probably an ad-lib.