What's your favorite Sesame 1-2-3's?

[Boober_Gorg]

Does anyone remember a counting-to-20 sequence from 1969 that featured a bunch of adults, with a jazzy theme?

The setting had a line-up, a "chorus line" if you will of men and women teaching us to count to 20. Most if not all were African-American, and I distinctly remember that they pronounced "twenty" properly, as if it rhymed with "plenty"; most people make it to rhyme with "funny". There was jazz type music in the background throughout the whole sketch. Where appropriate, numbers appeared overhead onscreen.

At one point, a man said "Now we'll count by twos to twenty. If you can't, repeat after her." The then sang "2 4, 6 8, 10 12, 14 16, 18 20"

One of the longer sequences was when they counted in fours, i.e.,
"1 2 3 4" (did they add a rhyming line after each quad, something like
"just you wait we'll count some more"?)
"5 6 7 8"
"9 10 11 12
"13 14 15 16"
"17 18 19 20"

That sounds a lot like the song that Loretta Long performed on the Flip Wilson Show back in 1970 (that episode aired this morning on TV Land). The musical guest was Sunday's Child, who might've been among the adults you mentioned.

 

[mikebennidict]

Anyone this animation, possibly computerized, about the number four?

We see 4 white or yellow squares against a black background. A man asks
"How many is this?"
A chorus of kids, probably boys all answered "four".

The above process repeated once. Then the male voiceover asked
"How many is this?"
We then saw 100 or so of those squares. The kids reply:
"Oh... haha... 'four'... too many... hahaha..."
The screen, in one swift and smooth swoop, whittled down to only 4 squares.

MAN: "NOW how many are there."
KIDS: "Four. Yayyyyyy!"
As the kids were "yay"ing, a numeral 4 faded in over the remaining 4 squares.

check this thread out. http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=13123&highlight=computer+animation&

 

[SesameMike]

A couple of more obscure ones I recall had one that went up to eleven. It started out with cool music which I have no idea how to describe in words. Had three beats - (tuh... TUH TUH!) and repeated it four times. Then people unseen sang/counted up to eleven with one of those three beats between each number. When they got to eleven they shouted it happily and excitedly. Then they counted up to eleven fast - "1,2,3,4,5,6,7...8,9,10,11"
Then there was some more music and some animation that I don't remember. You could hear the people being happy and going "Woo!" (was a pretty festive sketch). Then they counted up to eleven again the slower way. Then some final festive music and it ends.

Actually, that one appeared on Noggin at one point.

The second time they counted to eleven the "slow" way, they had a unique animation effect. First they showed the number, then during the "tuh TUH TUH" part the number spun around and stopped with these little squares next to the digit(s), their quantity commensurate with the value of the number. The 2, for example, had a square on either side. The higher numbers displayed the squares in neat near-symmetrical patterns.

 

[Ziffel]

I have an idea of what you are referring to but been so long since I've seen it that I just can't recall the neat visuals too well. But the sounds I recall clear as a bell.
By the way, I LOVE how you typed in my , "tuh... TUH TUH!" sound description! Made me LOL hard , as internet lingo would put it.

 

[mikebennidict]

i know witch 1 you're referring to. think you both explained it the best you could. some skits are harder to explain.

 

[mikebennidict]

in those number films with the baker, while we found out the name of one of the people in those films, Joe Ponzeckii wonder about the others? such as the guys with the 4 balloons? he was also in the 5 film where those monsters break thw window and he says 5...whatever they are! or the professor with the 6 squares, 7 circle and 10 triangles. or the photographer and the 6 cameras.

 

[MrsPepper]

I haven't read this whole thread yet, so forgive me if it's been mentioned already, but the other day I saw an old sketch that I clearly remembered, on a new Sesame episode, counting up to 8. It was a hotel, and there was a bellhop who had to get the bags of a lady checking out, and he had to get all 8 bags, and they were very heavy. Then he fell down the stairs, and one by one each bag fell on him. But it turns out he had to bring them back up again. That made me really happy.

 

[minor muppetz]

favorites

my favorites include:

count it higher

pinball number count

harvey kneeslapper holds up a cookie and offers "One"

the alligator king

the ten commandments of health

i just adore four

the baker films (although i have only seen the ones for 3 and 10, and I heard the one for 5 on the Songs from the Street CD set)

 

[mikebennidict]

don't know if this one was mentioned but it was a 4 cartooon where tis 4 located in some open field and these 4 men carry it off to a castle and can't remember what happenes exactly. this one was from the 80s.

 

[Ziffel]

Back in post#78 I mentioned a lot of the counting number segments that I thought were really catchy and had cool music, like the pinball number series and falling baker segments. Another I really loved to see and listen to was those jazzy spies/ race car segments I've seen talked about here from time to time (Apparently a lot of them were shown on Noggin, which I didn't have).
Loved the beginnings the best with the numbers flashing fast and the lady at first whispering 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and then counting louder a second time. Great music background. And yes, psychedelic. The only ones I really remember fairly well are the ones I caught in more recent times (1980-1991): the numbers 3,8, and 10. I've seen some other ones described here but don't really remember them too well. It was the opening and closing parts of these that were the best parts anyway , I think. The 10 one I recall about the cars racing and at the end the woman saying "ten" throughout says, "teh hennnn!" in a rather eerie way. In the 8 one it was kind of a hoot as creatures kept eating other creatures, right? (Thus, 8 and ate). And in #3 one of the bizarre things was a cartoon devil, I think. Anyone who's seen #3 able to verify that?
I also see that it was brought up that there was a book called "The Sesame Street Book of Numbers" from 1970 that has all of these jazzy number illustrations in it and that it is sometimes sold on ebay. I might have even had that back then. Had various SS books in the early 70's but would have been just 3 in 1970 so can't recall this one for sure. Might be a fun one to try to get and see the illustrations. Even funner, of course, would be to see the actual clips again someday.