What's your favorite letter segment?

[mikebennidict]

Yupe. He was sleeping.

 

[ISNorden]

Personally, I have a special place in my heart for skits that were made in the 1969 season.

-The "A"/('Ey!') bit with Henson's early Muppet monsters, including an unnamed Cookie Monster, Beautiful Day and Green Grover.

I don't remember that one, unfortunately...then again, a girl less than a year old probably wouldn't.

-Kermit's lecture on "W" from Show #1. Both parts with Cookie Monster and the Wrestling W each have their own charm.

-Kermit's "B" lecture, similar to the "W" lecture, Pt. I

Those were cool, especially Kermit's "or...dessert, depending on your point of view" after Cookie scarfed down the last of the W.

-Anything involving the cheerleaders with letters "F" & "K".

I personally didn't like those two: loud, in-your-face voices have always bothered me, even when I was a girl. The ending for the F clip made no sense to me, either: when a cheer involves spelling, the result is supposed to sound like a word at least...

-Cookie eating Ernie's very own "X": "I always like to eat bacon and X!"

*groan* I don't remember seeing the episode with that sketch in it, but that's a classic pun!

-Ernie teaches "A" for "Apple" until Cookie Monster appears. There's another one for "U" for "Ukulele". I do believe there was also one with "Q" for "Quart".

"What you do with quart of milk? You drink it...[gulps it down noisily]...AND you eat it [devours the empty carton, with his trademark gobbling sounds]!"

 

[ISNorden]

Here are my favorites:

[snippety snip!]
Gotta special on the menu with the Letter P!

Ummm, that clip was about the letter R, not P...I distinctly recall a rhyme "Or how about a radish from the salad bar?"

(Why am I suddenly flashing back to the Two-Headed Monster's own "R versus P" sketch? )

 

[ISNorden]

There was an animated one with a lower case "i". The little dot rolls up on top of the "i" and a loud voice yells "I" and the little dot shivers like it's scared. This happens a few times until finally the dot stands still and the voice says nicely, "I". Anyone remember that one?

That one made me nervous as a kid--between the shouted "I" becoming more insistent, and the loud metallic "twang" that played every time the dot bounced. When I finally got my own TV, I'd turn the sound all the way down as soon as that "i" showed onscreen.

 

[ISNorden]

I just thought about the animated sketch with the little girl Martha. [snipped for space] Here's my best memory of the segment:

Little Martha is charging around the screen energetically going, "M m m m m m m m m m m m Martha." An unseen voice of a man says, "Martha?" She says, "M". He says, "How do you make an m, Martha?" Then as she makes it he says, "Ahhh! A straight line up, another down, another up, and another down. And look! A little m too. Martha knows that m is for marching, m is for music (music plays). [other M-words snipped for space] Then he says, "M is for moustache, and mud. M is for (manhole?). But most of all, M is for Martha, marvelous Martha." Then Martha closes things with, "M m m m m, Me!"

Any corrections or additions that people may have, please reply. Thank you.

The word before the ending is "medal", not "manhole"; Martha stands proudly, wearing a gold medal with an "m" on it, as a trumpet fanfare sounds.

BTW, when the narrator asks Martha how to make an "m", she does it by dropping a small ball; its bouncing leaves visible "Mm" trails behind.

 

[ISNorden]

Holy cow, you saw that one?

Here's a few r segments:

["run" and "R-R-R talking dog" sketches snipped]

(2) The animated lady saying "r" when the r was above her head. Then it formed itself into a ribbon and she said, "ribbon". This repeated. Then the r, still shapped like a ribbon, went snugly around her neck and she went, "rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr". Then it let go and laughed. And she said, "r".

*whew* I finally have proof that the "R for Ribbon" sketch existed; before you described more details, all I had were vague memories of the letter/ribbon changing as a woman's voice spoke. Many thanks!

 

[ISNorden]

Although I don't remember that particular one, i do recall a similar film in which we follow a letter T through a busy highway tunnel (I strongly suspect it was the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel on the southern tip of Manhattan). A male voiceover says only "T, Tunnel" once, maybe twice, against a bed of lively "city-like" music.

The film cut somewhat abruptly between the tunnel's entry portal and the exit, and actually had a few seconds of footage approaching the toll plaza at the end. When I saw it years ago I felt they missed the opportunity to include "T, Traffic" and "T, Tollbooth"

I recall two similar ones: "U/Underpass" with speeded-up traffic driving on it; and "B/Boats" with several kinds of boats moored in a harbor. Have you seen those clips--and if you have, can you identify the locations? (I've never been in NYC myself, but it wouldn't surprise me if CTW usually filmed their city footage there.)

 

[ISNorden]

Excellent job again with this s one, Xerus. And oh boy I had to choose a hard letter like Q. Well, let's see what we can do with a land of Q.

Jack climbs up and is greeted by a Queen. She said, "Welcome to the land of Q." Jack said, "Thank you." The Queen said, "If you'd like I'll have Quinton show you around." Jack said, "That's quite nice of you."

[quite a lot of quality Q material, snipped for space]

Jack: "Oh I'm sorry but I have to quit this fantastic tour now. My mother is calling me home to eat. But thank you. It was great to visit your land of Q."
"What fun that was! Wished I could stay! Hmm, I wonder what would happen if I planted an a?"


Okay, I know SS plugging a commercial cereal product is not likely but it's hard to think of Q foods!

Well, a gourmet restaurant in the land of Q is probably going to serve quail (yes, that's a delicacy in French cooking), and some dessert with quinces in it.

 

[mikebennidict]

I FIRST SAW THIS 1 AROUND 1980, Sorry about the caps, and the film starts out with a song sung by kids that went like Haven't you heard? Letters make words? Yes letters make words. etc. Then some kids are standing by the refrigerator and 1 come up and says, ''Hey looks at all those letters on there?'' Can't rememebr everything that was said but the focus was on the letter B and a off camera person asks what sound does the B make and after that he asks what words does it make? they would make the B sound before saying the word but each would makke BBBBBB ball make the sound several times in a row before saying the word. I remember seeing lit a few times, don't know if it was in 1 episode or not.

 

[ISNorden]

I do remember that sketch: the magnetic letters appeared to move by themselves while the opening song played. The way that sketch was written, I thought it might become part of a series with different letters--the "letters make words" approach works a lot better than just showing a B for three seconds and saying the name. Too bad the series idea b-b-bombed!