who remembers these episodes?

[minor muppetz]

There are some episodes from the late 1980s and early 1990s (or maybe I'm just thinking about early 1990s) that I remember seeing, but I haven't ever seen any pages for them at Muppet Wiki, and I never see people discuss them here, so I am wondering who remembers these episodes.

In one of them, Oscar had a trash sale (he would also have a trash sale in season 30). I can't remember too much of the plot, except that there was a scene wehre Luis bought a toy wheel from Oscar's sale, because he needed to fix a toy car which had a missing wheel. I remember Oscar being surprised that Luis wanted to buy trash.

Another episode, one of Mr. Handford's earleist appearances, involved Mr. Handford having some sort of problem with his water, I think the water pipes weren't working or something. I know that Telly was a major character in this epsiode, and I'm pretty sure that Gordon appeared in the episode, too. There was a scene wehre Mr. Handford turned on the TV, and the cartoon where a boy left the water running while brushing his teeth, causing the water from anearby pond to shorten and endanger a fish, was shown, and I think that the Don't Waste Water song was also shown. There was a scene where Biff came to fix the pipes, but I don't rememebr what happened in this scene, and I can't remember if Sully was also in the scene. And I beleive that Telly talked to a weatherman in this epsidoe, and at the end it started to rain. I was looking at some Muppet Wiki articles and found an epsiode from the early 1980s which sounded a bit similar to this episode, but invovled a water shortage.

And there was an episode where Big Bird, Elmo, Telly, and four kids went to Hooper's Store to buy either a coloring book or crayons (I forget which it was) and some juice, but they only had three dollars, and Mr. Handford informed them that they couldn't buy both with just three dollars (I guess this is one of the few times that Hooper's Store actually charged money for anything). So the others decided to vote on which to get. Big Bird and two kids voted for the coloring material, and Elmo and two kids wanted juice, but Telly couldn't decide. Eventually, Telly decided that he wanted the crayons, but after Elmo said that he wanted everybody to have juice, Mr. Handford made thema glass of juice anyway, and put enough straws in it for everybody to have some juice.

And I recall seeing an epsiode where Fat Blue went to Hooper's Store, and interracted with Gina. Fat Blue talked about how Grover is always his waiter, and I think that the Grover the Waiter sketch with Simon Soundman appeared in this episode.

I remember once seeing an episode where Hoots wanted everybody to sing a special birthday song late at night. From my memory it was for Gina, but I saw a tape trading website which mentioend an epsidoe where it was Athena's birthday, and that Elmo had trouble staying awake, and this episode seems to fit that plot (it would be more appropriate for Athena to have a late-night birthday party). Anyway, whenever Elmo practiced the song, he kept yawning during the song, but in the end, he managed to sing without yawning (I recall the lyrics being "It's your birthday, it's your birthday for you").

I rememebr seeing a street scene wehre Maria tells Telly that if he puts a sea shell by his ear, he will hear the ocean, but whenever Telly does so, a Honker appears and honks his noise, and Maria wasn't around to see or hear the Honker (but she did eventually catch whatw as going on).

Does anybody remember these episodes?

 

[JLG]

I remember the third one you mentioned---the one with a late-night birthday party. (c. 1989?) For years I hadn't been sure what character it was for, only that it was some small female muppet. Years later I was reintroduced to Athena whom I hadn't remembered, and since then I've been pretty sure it was her. Plus there's an episode that's been mentioned as having the title "Athena's Bird-day Party", so that fits.

I remember them singing that birthday song (it went something like "It's your Bird-day....It's your Bird-day....") and thinking "What the heck is that? Why don't they just sing 'Happy Birthday To You'?"

Years later I found out the likely reason. Believe it or not, "Happy Birthday To You" is copyrighted!! Yep. If anyone wants to use it in a movie or on TV, they have to pay a royalty. Would you ever have thought that?

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder why Happy Birthday is still copyrighted. It seems like a public domain song to me.

 

[ISNorden]

I wonder why Happy Birthday is still copyrighted. It seems like a public domain song to me.

I was shocked to find that out, too...on snopes.com, of all places. They've got an article called "Happy Birthday, We'll Sue" that explains the whole situation; the song won't become a public-domain work until the year 2020, apparently.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yup, I knew that, and it shocked me too. That's why when it's your birthday at a restaurant, the waiters and waitresses have to sing some variation on the theme, rather than the straight "Happy Birthday" tune.

 

[superboober]

Given that "Happy Birthday" is the most widely-sung song in the country ("Auld Lang Syne" and "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" are 2 and 3, if you're interested), it makes sense that somebody would want royalties. Just one of those things you wouldn't expect, I guess.

 

[JLG]

2020, ey? A bunch of producers should get together and time things so that a whole bunch of movies will be released all at once that year containing that song. Just to gloat over the end of this silliness.