What's your favorite letter segment?

M

mikebennidict

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2004
Messages
3,700
Reaction score
7
The Zizzy Zoomers.

i wonder exactly when that was made. if it was made in 1972 or after maybe they should of had the zoomers from original 70s series performing that song. or maybe remake it with the zoomers from the current series. of course that show's going off the air after this year so it really doesn't matter now.
 
S

SesameMike

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2004
Messages
413
Reaction score
23
Against a plain white background, a man is holding a lower-case letter "e". His lecture went something like this.

"E is for Elephant"
A pachyderm approaches, takes the letter with his trunk and eats it.
"(sigh!) E is also for Eat."
Man pulls another e out of his pocket
"Fortunately I have another one. E is for Eagle."
A Bald Eagle approaches from above and makes off with the E
"That wasn't very nice!"
Man opens a closet door full of "e"s
"E is for Everybody"
A crowd of people walk by with marching/crunching sounds. After they pass, the closet is bare.
"And E is for empty"
Man dejectedly closes door
Man turns happy again, with an egg in his hand.
"And... E is for Egg"
Man cracks top of egg with a spoon and a tiny "e" floats out of the top to a few notes of closing music.

Another routine:
Man is climbing down a rope and reaches the bottom
"E. End."
Man falls off the bottom of the rope.
"Eeeeeeeeee!"

Still another animation. Not sure if I got this right:
Man holding an eraser in front of a blackboard with a drawing of another person.
Man: "E."
Drawing: "Erase"
The man in the drawing erases the real person as if he were made of chalk.
Drawing: "E."
 
Ziffel

Ziffel

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
1,916
Reaction score
14
Two common types of letter segments

Two kinds of letter segments I remember Sesame Street using a lot during my childhood in the 70's were:

(1) A voice would say, "These are the letters u and n. together they make this sound: un. un. (Then another letter such as r would appear in the background). Way right there is the letter r. it makes this sound. rrrrr. (Then the r and the un would gradually move closer to each other with the sound of a drum beat). rrrr. un. rrr. un. rrr. un. (Then the r would be in front of the un). Run!" (Then some muppets would demonstrate the meaning of the word by running around. I recall with s and un it became sun and a prop of the sun appears and the muppets come on screen and say, "Hey look the sun is out now!").
(2) Some of the adults on Sesame Street (like Susan, Bob, and Mr. Hooper) would sing,"You take an n that's a nuh (the sound the letter n makes) and an e-t et. You put 'em all together and that spells net. That's net. n-e-t net." Muppets sometimes did these too. I remember some anything muppets doing, "You take a w that's a wuh and an e-t et....."


I was scanning this thread and other threads about letters and was somewhat surprised I didn't see anyone refer to these two common segments from back then. They used these quite frequently in the 70's, especially early 70's. I never saw any of these again though, whenever in the 80's or 90's I would occasionally catch a new SS show. Perhaps they decided at one point to not show these vintage clips anymore due to the debate about phonics that came on the educational scene in the late 80's or early 90's. A lot of educators were advocating the "whole language" method of reading to teach chiuldren, rather then the phonetical (sounding out the words) method. And these two types of segments from Sesame Street were clearly using the phonics method. But I think since the late 90's the empirical data has shown that phonics is far more successful in teaching reading than the whole language approach. And I think some educators that embraced the whole language method have conceded this point. ( I for one certainly benefited from the classic phonics method as a youngster).
I never saw any of the Noggin SS Unpaved episodes (due to not having that channel available). Did any of them show any of these? I'm thinking probably not since I haven't seen these brought up here, but maybe I just haven't happened to come across posts that have. :smile:
 
S

SesameMike

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2004
Messages
413
Reaction score
23
V segments

Does anyone remember these two animated sketches about the letter V?

V
The first one had a low key guy walking through what was supposed to be a museum. He walks past a de Milo statue and says
Venus
He keeps walking and sees a man playing a...
Violin
Two measures of fiddle music at most is played. Somehow that morphs into a heart shape.
Valentine
The heart morphs into a
Vampire! (much louder creepier voice)
Doesn't exactly turn into a bat, but rather a
Vulture (deep voice)
Said bird flies away, towards a mountain, which promptly shakes then erupts
Volcano! (even deeper voice)
But instead of lava or volcanic ash, this particular geologic anomaly spews out
Vegetables? Vegetables. (casual voice. They repeated it, since this phenomenon was too peculiar for even a surreal animation. IMHO suspension of disbelief only goes so far.)
In any case, a single bean leaps out of the volcanic cornucopia and promptly sprouts into a
Vine.
[I don't remember what came next, and I likely forgot some of the other words, but it all ended up as]
Victory! (A "poof" sound, followed by cheers and cheery music. The visual had the letter beaming rays)
V


Animation two. This one was narrated by an older man.

"V. Vitamins. You forgot to take your vitamins."

The letter "swallows" a bunch of pills down its center. The V promptly starts flexing its muscles, as if given a shot of steroids. Upbeat music plays.

"Vitality"

The letter starts sailing to the right against a psychedelic background.

"Vim"

The letter then hops up, over, and down a small stairway, as if on an obstacle course.

"Vigor"

I forgot what came next, but I think it just ended with a plain "V", as in most letter sketches.
 
M

mikebennidict

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2004
Messages
3,700
Reaction score
7
don't think it was a museum but just vaious V stuff even though it starts out with a man. couldn't really discribe the cartoon all that well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top