Was this from Sesame Street or another show?

[SkyeFan]

Okay, I've been thinking about this one for a LONG time. There's this one segment that I remember that seems like it was probably from Sesame Street, but I kind of have the feeling that it may have been from some another PBS show, or else from another show on a cable network like Nickelodeon or The Learning Channel.

Anyway, here it is -

It's suppose to be a TV commercial for a brand of chicken soup hosted by, get this, a CHICKEN puppet wearing a white chef's hat and an apron.
Behind him are shelves lined with rows and rows of cans containing the soup product he's touting, and there's also two hen puppets who pop up singing the jingle for the commercial. Now, what makes this segment so unique is that it also teaches the alphabet. By that, the chicken host names the various ingredients in the soup that begin with each letter of the alphabet. However, the ingredients are not food, nor are they edible in ANY way possible! They're all regular household items that go crashing into a large steaming pot placed in the foreground.

Some examples that I remember representing each letter of the alphabet was-
A-Anchors
B-Basketballs
C-Copper_______?

Each item goes into the pot one by one in groups of three or four, as the letter that stands for each item appears on screen.

Other items that went into the soup were-

D-Dry_______? (Dryer lint?)
E-Erasers
F-Faucets

I think the next set consisted of-

G-Guitars
H-Horseshoes
I-Irons
J-Jelly Jars

I forget what else there was mid-way through, but the last batch of ingredients was-

T-Telephones
U-Umbrellas
V-Violins

...and then there was...

W-Wagon Wheels
X-Xylophones
Y-Yo-Yos
and Z-Zippers

I know this sounds rather silly, but in a fun way. It does seem like something from Sesame Street, but I'm almost positive it was from another program. Would anyone happen to know what I'm talking about, and what show this was from? I also know for 100% that I DID NOT dream this.

 

[YellowYahooey]

Muppet Wiki shows no evidence of this type of segment on Sesame Street. At least not during the early 1980s, and definitely not in the 1990s.

Seasons 14 through 19 are the remaining 1980s seasons yet to be completed on Muppet Wiki, so maybe such segment may have appeared between 1983 and 1988. Also, most of the 1970s have yet to be worked on, so maybe that segment appeared in the 1970s in some form.

It could also be a "holy grail" segment, being shown extremely rarely.

I am sure that Sesame Street may have paved the way for clone series over the years which involved puppets, if locally produced.

I also don't recall seeing any chicken Muppet on Sesame Street in any form, unless they "borrowed" one from The Muppet Show.

 

[SkyeFan]

Well, whatever this segment was that I had seen, I KNOW for sure that it was not on Sesame Street. I'm almost positively sure it was on some other children's show from a cable network like The Learning Channel. They had a lot of children's shows that involved puppets.

 

[crackmaster]

Maybe it was from Pinwheel?

 

[Flaky Pudding]

I actually found this and believe it or not, it's from a video of game of all things. It's a cutscene from a '90s computer game called A To Zap:

Hearty Chicken Alphabet Soup (Demo Version) - YouTube

 

[SkyeFan]

Oh my goodness! That is it! Thank you so much for finding this! How in the world did you ever find that footage?! It's exactly how I remember it, only with the exception of a few inaccurate details. It may not be the whole thing, but it was still enough evidence to serve as a nostalgic time capsule unseen for years until now.

I never would have guessed that footage was part of some computer game, although that's not where I had first seen it! I had seen it on television, and I believe it was on some children's program on a cable network, most likely TLC (The Learning Channel). Anyway, thank you so much again for finding that segment. I was almost positively sure this segment was NOT from "Sesame Street", and I was right, even though it seems like it COULD HAVE been created for the show. The chicken puppet looks almost as I remember he did from the last time I had seen this segment (which was only once years ago). The only thing is, I seem to recall him looking more Muppet-like, which is why I had almost thought this commercial parody had originated on "Sesame Street".

 

[SkyeFan]

I was just thinking about this segment, and I have come to answer my own question about the origin of this segment (on TV, that is), and I was right about this "Chicken Soup" commercial appearing on some children's show on The Learning Channel.

Does anyone remember a show called "Rory and Me"? It was a children's show hosted by some woman named Rory (don't know her last name) and a red-haired girl puppet named Red. The show seemed as though it was trying a little too hard to copy off the style of Sesame Street's standard format by having a story line intertwined with cartoons, live segments, and puppet segments.

There was one segment I seem to remember seeing on this show involving a small female puppet character, which I seem to oddly recall as being an anthropomorphic hippo. The character was intended to resemble an infant, on account she was dressed in a baby bonnet and a diaper! The creature was seated on a floor (probably crafted of wooden floor boards and draped over with a woven rug) in a room that was likely supposed to be a nursery, and was surrounded by tall vertical stacks of cube shaped building blocks all marked with capitalized Bs and Ps. The baby hippo was singing nonsense lyrics of random words alliterative to the letters on the blocks' facets. I also recall the block towers toppling over towards the end of the segment, and the hippo was still singing as one of the blocks was clutched in her jaws! I wouldn't consider this segment as resembling much of something out of "Sesame Street", since I had vaguely remembered this over the years and had known for sure that it indeed WAS NOT from SS, but the chicken soup commercial almost appeared to me as though it was, until now.

Once again, Flaky, thanks so much for discovering this ultra-rare segment. It's just so great to see it again for the first time in years!

 

[Flaky Pudding]

I was just thinking about this segment, and I have come to answer my own question about the origin of this segment (on TV, that is), and I was right about this "Chicken Soup" commercial appearing on some children's show on The Learning Channel.

Does anyone remember a show called "Rory and Me"? It was a children's show hosted by some woman named Rory (don't know her last name) and a red-haired girl puppet named Red. The show seemed as though it was trying a little too hard to copy off the style of Sesame Street's standard format by having a story line intertwined with cartoons, live segments, and puppet segments.

There was one segment I seem to remember seeing on this show involving a small female puppet character, which I seem to oddly recall as being an anthropomorphic hippo. The character was intended to resemble an infant, on account she was dressed in a baby bonnet and a diaper! The creature was seated on a floor (probably crafted of wooden floor boards and draped over with a woven rug) in a room that was likely supposed to be a nursery, and was surrounded by tall vertical stacks of cube shaped building blocks all marked with capitalized Bs and Ps. The baby hippo was singing nonsense lyrics of random words alliterative to the letters on the blocks' facets. I also recall the block towers toppling over towards the end of the segment, and the hippo was still singing as one of the blocks was clutched in her jaws! I wouldn't consider this segment as resembling much of something out of "Sesame Street", since I had vaguely remembered this over the years and had known for sure that it indeed WAS NOT from SS, but the chicken soup commercial almost appeared to me as though it was, until now.

Once again, Flaky, thanks so much for discovering this ultra-rare segment. It's just so great to see it again for the first time in years!

Your welcome! .

 

[SkyeFan]

Incidentally, don't those baby chickens popping out of the soup can kind of remind you of the Wilkins' Coffee commercial when Wontkins prefers the "cheep" brand of coffee, and baby birds peak out from the coffee can?