Happy Birthday, Big Bird!

November 4, 2009 5:21 AM

As you may have noticed from Google this morning, today is the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street! New seasons are in production including the newest muppet, Abby Cadaby, but today is a day for our old friends. Videos a plenty to fuel your nostalgia.
posted by grapefruitmoon (72 comments total)

Awesomeness. Glad it's still going strong.
posted by futureisunwritten at 5:26 AM on November 4

To celebrate, we shall take the family car to the zoo!

*picks up the family car and happily carries it off*
posted by Spatch at 5:31 AM on November 4 [2 favorites]

40 years later, the Yip Yips still kinda creep me out. Although I now see the cuteness, too. The creepiness just never went away.
posted by mccarty.tim at 5:33 AM on November 4

I remember when it started because a friend of my parents was a musician and producer who worked on the show and his kids are singers in the original opening theme. At five, I was just the right age too.
posted by octothorpe at 5:37 AM on November 4

Actually, this one shows the creepiness of them better.
posted by mccarty.tim at 5:37 AM on November 4

Onetwothree FOUR FIVE sixseveneight NINE TEN eleventwelve!
posted by Fleebnork at 5:55 AM on November 4 [4 favorites]

Google UK shows a Wallace and Gromit doodle, it's their 20th anniversary apparently.
posted by knapah at 5:55 AM on November 4 [4 favorites]

Glad it's still going strong.

I love love love Sesame Street, but I don't know about "still going strong." The latest seasons have had far fewer episodes than the older ones, and a good chunk of them are dedicated to Elmo's World (which is cute, but so different in tone, humor, and style that it feels like a different show to me). The new "Abby’s Flying Fairy School" block sounds like more of the same. Older episodes really stand up to the test of time, and what's particularly amazing about them is that they work whether you're an adult or kid. The new ones, not so much.

On the bright side, though, their Mad Men parody is way better than the one that was on the Simpsons Tree House of Horror a few years back!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 6:43 AM on November 4

Oh lord. I was the pink-and-purplest tutu-wearingest kid in kindergarten, but Abby Cadaby rots my teeth right off.

Fun fact: Oscar the Grouch was orange in the first season. (He turned green from a visit to Swamp Mushy Muddy.)
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:48 AM on November 4 [2 favorites]

Dutch Google has Ienie Mienie!!!!1!

(also, take a look at Pino, Big Bird's blue cousin)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:01 AM on November 4

I don't like Abby Cadaby, at all. I have an uneasy truce with Elmo - I don't like him per se, but it's hard to despise something your kid really likes. And man, my kid really likes Elmo, he doesn't really watch the show, he just has deep AFFECTION for Elmo. It's odd. Elmo clearly was designed by an evil computer to be some sort of super-efficient kid magnet.

But, my point is specifically to NOT slag new skool Sesame Street. My point is to say that I really like Murray and his little lamb. And that's the word on the street.

But yeah, Sesame Street, what's up? You've got 40 years worth of episodes but you run the same 8 or 10 of them over and over? Come on! Let's get into the archives!!
posted by dirtdirt at 7:02 AM on November 4 [3 favorites]

I remember watching the first "Sesame Street" ever. The "street" was really small -- basically just that main apartment building. Then, when the show became popular, the added all the extra stuff to the right and left. I remember being mesmerized by how the world of the show expanded.
posted by grumblebee at 7:07 AM on November 4 [2 favorites]

But yeah, Sesame Street, what's up? You've got 40 years worth of episodes but you run the same 8 or 10 of them over and over? Come on! Let's get into the archives!!

Yeah, they won't do this. If you get the Sesame Street "old school" DVDs, there's even a warning on them about how they might not be appropriate for today's children.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:10 AM on November 4

Ten... chocolate layer cakes!
posted by not_on_display at 7:15 AM on November 4

Not appropriate for today's children? Why?
posted by stormpooper at 7:16 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

there's even a warning on them about how they might not be appropriate for today's children.

We have a few Muppet Show DVD's and, watching them with my toddler son, I've been sort of dismayed by how much outright whacking goes on. I mean, Miss Piggy basically beats the snot out of Kermit in every episode. Hiiiiii-YAH!
posted by dirtdirt at 7:17 AM on November 4

stormpooper, this NYTimes Magazine article pretty much explains it.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:22 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

I shall celebrate by attempting to order soup served by a blue monster.


(there's a place that does that in Brooklyn, right?)
posted by The Whelk at 7:22 AM on November 4 [4 favorites]

OK, I have to post this on this thread so fellow Sesame Street aficionados might be able to tell if I'm crazy or not. As a child, I remember an episode where Big Bird and one of the neighborhoods visited Snuffy in the Snuffleupagus cave. The kid and Bird went around with Snuffy and got a tour of the cave in between all the educational clips.

Everyone I've talked to says such an episode doesn't exist. What say you, MeFites?
posted by reenum at 7:22 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

As a child, I remember an episode where Big Bird and one of the neighborhoods visited Snuffy in the Snuffleupagus cave. The kid and Bird went around with Snuffy and got a tour of the cave in between all the educational clips.

Was his family there? I remember all of Snuffy's family living in a cave.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:27 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

This was the best toy I ever played with, EVER! I still have the light post. Sesame Street helped the four-six year old me learn to speak Spanish, to accept others and appreciate what makes us unique, to be a good neighbor, and to appreciate stop-motion film and puppetry. Now, everyone break out your records, we're having a party! (warning: last link sound effect!)


*the 30+ year old me still dreams of working on the show.
posted by psylosyren at 7:28 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

We have a few Muppet Show DVD's and, watching them with my toddler son, I've been sort of dismayed by how much outright whacking goes on.

The Muppet Show, unlike Sesame Street, is not really for kids. It's more of an all-ages variety show. I'd expect 3-year-olds to enjoy Sesame Street, but I'd wait til a kid's closer to 6-10 before The Muppet Show would really be appropriate.
posted by explosion at 7:28 AM on November 4

More info about Snuffy's cave. Looks like it was at least seen in books, but I seem to remember seeing it on TV too.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:28 AM on November 4

I have the Old School DVDs and they're awesome. From what I can see, the reason they're "not appropriate" for kids now is that they use words like "stupid" and so on. Because heaven forbid a kid figure out that something is "stupid." The general consensus these days in childcare is that "stupid" things are referred to as "silly" which is itself... well, stupid.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:29 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

I haven't watched "Sesame Street" since I was a kid but I can still remember the set and the characters vividly (though not with the same attachment that I had to shows like "Zoom" and "The Electric Company," also on PBS), and of course the theme music. It always seemed like a welcoming place to visit, even if just in my own mind.
posted by blucevalo at 7:31 AM on November 4

PhoBWanKenobi: Now that you mention, I think I remember Snuffy introducing Bird and the kid to his mom and dad.
posted by reenum at 7:32 AM on November 4

There's also a segment on the Old School DVDs where a bunch of kids are running around playing on what appears to be an abandoned construction site.

Also, 'Superstition'!
posted by box at 7:34 AM on November 4

reenum, clicking around the muppet wiki more brings up these pictures: 1, 2. I'm not sure what episode the events you described would have been in, but my suspicion is that you really weren't imagining it!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 7:34 AM on November 4

I'd wait til a kid's closer to 6-10 before The Muppet Show would really be appropriate.

Well, enjoy waiting. I'd call it a pretty good 'family show', and we watch it as a family, and we all enjoy it.
posted by dirtdirt at 7:36 AM on November 4

Oh, Sesame Street. Part of the quasi-hippie programming which my conservative Presbyterian parents poured into my head unwittingly on a regular basis. Projecting an atmosphere of love and cooperation (and counting! and letters!) into my very young brain daily for HOW many years? Coupled with Electric Company (which came later) and Mister Rogers Neighborhood and New Zoo Revue and many others...

My parents express surprise at how I grew up to be a peace-n-love, can't-we-all-get-along hippie sort, but I swear that it was those early years of television which convinced me how life OUGHT to be lived. Sadly, it also left me woefully underprepared for how life actually IS. Gathering the street smarts not to be taken down by the cruelty of human society without losing the wonder and glow of the vision of the ideal has been the struggle of my adult life.

I think it's a shame that Sesame Street isn't still aspiring to create some sort of hippie idyll by programming the children. If they could have found a way to continue to do that AND instill some of life's harsher lessons, it would have been nearly perfect. As it is now, they don't try much in the way of social lessons at all, it seems. Seems a shame, to me. Those heady, early days of Public Television really had an effect on me and, I suspect, nearly everyone currently 39-42 years old.
posted by hippybear at 7:37 AM on November 4 [6 favorites]

Those heady, early days of Public Television really had an effect on me and, I suspect, nearly everyone currently 39-42 years old....

I would venture a bit younger. I'm 28 and I was definitely influenced by Sesame Street, which in the early 80s was still about friendship and working together and we're all special snowflakes in our own way.

(Also my parents were huge hippies who literally sang Kumbaya.)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 7:46 AM on November 4

Also, Free to Be You and Me.
posted by box at 7:48 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

Those heady, early days of Public Television really had an effect on me and, I suspect, nearly everyone currently 39-42 years old.

Even me, over here at 25, cause of VHS tapes. Because of all those tapes and PBS re-runs, I can't quite convince myself that Muppets aren't real. Logically, of course they're puppets, I've seen them be puppeted! By Humans! Not slightly larger Muppets! yet in the back of my brain there is a voice going "yeah, but, I bet if you just found the right subway stop and walked around for a bit you'd come across a Muppet neighborhood..." and then we'd all sing and run around and the world would be RIGHT.


Muppet Don Draper needs to date Muppet Liz Lemon.
posted by The Whelk at 7:51 AM on November 4 [4 favorites]

Ah, the Yip Yips. I miss the days when all of my co-workers knew about them. Because there is nothing quite like a group of grown-up system engineers trying various configuration settings to get some weird system to boot up, and for each one...

(reset)

"Yip.... yip... yip yip yip"

*another crash*

"Nope.... nope.... nope nope nope nope"
posted by FishBike at 7:55 AM on November 4 [12 favorites]

Thank you PhoBWanKenobi. I get the concept they're trying to convey but seriously? Cookie Monster smoked a pipe in an episode and I was supposed to turn our a raging smoke fiend?

Didn't happen.

Instead I hit the bottle. I'll blame Zoom for that one.
posted by stormpooper at 8:01 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

Remember when no one but Big Bird saw Snuffleupagus?
posted by zizzle at 8:11 AM on November 4 [4 favorites]

In retrospect, how odd that the internet and Sesame Street were launched within a week of one another.
posted by No New Diamonds Please at 8:22 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

For Mr. Hooper.

.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:26 AM on November 4 [4 favorites]

Whenever I'm traveling to a country where I don't speak the language, I try to learn just enough to make the effort and make it clear that I'm trying when I visit, so I usually want to learn numbers, try to develop at least decent pronunciation for all the letters, just be able to get around and make it clear that I'm trying. The first thing I do is search YouTube for Sesame Street in whatever language because they speak slowly, use the numbers frequently and, you know, have Cookie Monster. The weird thing is, they still use that "one two three FOUR FIVE six seven eight NINE TEN eleven twelve" thing in other languages, even though it DOESN'T WORK. Turkish numbers work up through about five but from six onwards they have too many syllables and it sounds ridiculous. Either way, it's great because it helps you get the sounds of the language, they tell you about the letters and they go over the numbers again and again to help you gain fluency, plus it's just really reassuring and even if you don't know enough of the language to understand why Bert is mad at Ernie you can still figure it out.

Also, does anyone remember Don't Eat the Pictures? I loved that movie as a kid and still sing the song to myself.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 8:29 AM on November 4 [2 favorites]

I liked Sesame Street as a kid, especially the books. Now, my son isn't quite old enough to get much from it, but I think Murray and Ovejita are pretty cool.
posted by drezdn at 8:30 AM on November 4

I've posted about my love for Sesame Street previously, but I can say without a moment’s worth of doubt that Sesame Street was the most positive influence on my life of anything that I experienced as a child. I grew up in a small town in southwest Missouri that was pretty much the exact opposite of the Sesame Street world. Every family was white. Education was minimal. To provide perspective: This was a town where the KKK could march through the streets openly and be cheered; it was a town where everyone attended church at least twice each week, yet somehow it had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state and later became a huge center for meth production. I know there are tons of places just like this place and even much worse, but for me personally it’s still the most depressing place I can imagine.

Most people don’t escape this place. My brother got hooked on meth and has never been the same since. My guess is that my sister was his dealer. This is a normal story from that town. Even most of those kids there who didn’t have their lives ruined by drugs and alcohol grew up in an environment where they were taught that different was bad, intolerance was just fine, and racism was a given. Even now, with the advent of the Internet and satellite television, the outside world has made little dent in changing these attitudes.

But I got lucky. I had Sesame Street. PBS only came in with a lot of fuzz on our TV, but I don’t remember a single day before I started school that I didn’t watch Sesame Street at least twice a day. And even after I started school, I watched it regularly until junior high and often enough even later. Yes, it was a kid’s show, but to me it was a lifeline. Sesame Street (and other shows such as The Electric Company) was the only time I saw kids who weren’t all white. The messages that it included of cultural curiosity and tolerance toward others’ views were messages I didn’t get from anywhere else. And so I grew up questioning the racism I saw around me. I don’t know if it was a gradual realization or not. But I do know it was different from what most of my peers saw for themselves. I know that my grandmother didn’t speak to me for two years after I (as a 7-year-old) got mad at her for saying something racist. I know that I had my car tires slashed more times than I can count while I was in high school and that my senior yearbook contains anonymous “signatures” consisting of death threats because of my non-racist attitudes.

And later I escaped. Unlike most of my classmates, I was able to get into college. I took off and have only been back to the town a handful of times even though most of my family still lives there. A few of those times have been with my wife, whom I met several years later. After our first visit, she was amazed at what she saw, but her first question after we hopped in the car was, “How did you turn out so different?” I hadn’t really thought about my situation in that way before, but my answer was simple: “Sesame Street.” I have no doubt that, without that one outside presence in my pre-school life, I would never have thought to question anything going on in my town until it would have been much too late to pull myself away. I don’t think I’m overstating things when I say that Sesame Street saved my life.

Years later, I had a son of my own and of course he was going to watch Sesame Street as often as I could get him in front of the TV. And, yes, he liked it, even if it was now a different show with Elmo and the like. But unlike me, he didn’t love Sesame Street. He enjoyed it and he watched it, but by the time he was five he lost interest in the show. It made me sad at first, but then I realized that he was now in a place where he didn’t “need” Sesame Street. His classroom has children of several different races and backgrounds. He hears about the outside world every day. And that makes me happy. But there are other kids out there who still need this show in the same way that I did, and I hope that Sesame Street is always there to help them as it did me.
posted by zeugitai_guy at 8:48 AM on November 4 [31 favorites]

My kids are boycotting SS over what they did to Cookie.

Good on em, I say.
posted by Clave at 8:50 AM on November 4

As a lifelong (literally, I'm 40 as well) Sesame Street fan, I'm glad to see the show is still around. Our oldest is almost six and watches the show quite a bit. She's also an Elmo fanatic, and I made my peace with the fuzzy little usurper long ago (though I feel Grover is still the superior Muppet).

My biggest problem with the current incarnation of the show isn't the addition of Abby Cadaby or Murray, or Bert and Ernie's Great [Claymation] Adventures, or the shabby way they ditched the Amazing Mumford and Herry Monster, but rather the fact that they've seemingly abandoned the more whimsical skits and animation of the early days in favor of facile parodies of existing prime-time programming. Just in the last few seasons I've seen The Amazing Alphabet Race, RSI. (Rhyme Scene Investigation), and Law & Order: Special Letters Unit.

I haven't decided if it's a canny strategy to get Mom and Dad to enjoy the show with their kids or just laziness. I can't imagine many parents let their children watch CSI or Law & Order: SVU to begin with, so it isn't like kids get anything out of them. And I'm sorry, but turning Richard Belzer and David Caruso into Muppets doesn't make the fact that they're sending up crime procedurals that are mostly about murder and rape any less, well, unsettling. I kept waiting for Muppet Emily Procter to arrest Prairie Dawn for finally losing it and strangling Cookie Monster with the Yip Yips' phone cord.

Maria is still hot, though. And she blogs.
posted by total warfare frown at 8:52 AM on November 4 [3 favorites]

this NYTimes Magazine article pretty much explains it

On the first episode, Oscar seems irredeemably miserable — hypersensitive, sarcastic, misanthropic.

Maybe even, I dunno, grouchy?

As for Cookie Monster, he can be seen in the old-school episodes in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble ("om nom nom nom").

Why is that his former incarnation? He's a Cookie Monster, for fuck's sake.

Snuffleupagus is visible only to Big Bird; since 1985, all the characters can see him, as Big Bird’s old protestations that he was not hallucinating came to seem a little creepy, not to mention somewhat strained.

OK, so when did they start with all this PC bullshit? So I can buy all the DVDs before then, and none after.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:04 AM on November 4 [2 favorites]

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me.
posted by caddis at 9:17 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

They changed the Snuffleupagus thing because they were worried that Big Bird's constant protestations, and the adults that never believed him, might indavertantly discourage victims of childhood abuse from speaking up.

PC bullshit, my ass.
posted by box at 9:21 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

Not to be a nerd, but Sesame Street debuted on November 10, 1969 so Google is celebrating a bit early.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 9:25 AM on November 4

About a week ago, I found myself suddenly going through old songs and clips from Sesame Street. Got some of them good and stuck in my head.

A few of my favorites:

"Ernie, those sheep are tapdancing"

Said the Alligator King to his seven sons...

I Love Trash

Batty batty batty batty bat

I'm an aardvark and I'm proud....
posted by cmgonzalez at 9:37 AM on November 4 [2 favorites]

Oh, and of course "C is for Cookie", which I loved, and my mom would sometimes turn into a C is for Christina sometimes. She'd also make it a point to find Cs in foods (pretzel halves, curly fries, bitten cookies) and we'd sing.
posted by cmgonzalez at 9:40 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

I cannot explain why, but this clip about making a steel drum from a barrel was always one of my favorites. I've never forgotten it. Same for this one, where a girl takes her llama to the dentist. Can't speak for today's Sesame Street, but in my day the show did a great job of showing me how beautifully strange the world could be.
posted by barrett caulk at 9:40 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

The old street hasn't been the same since it got Guliani-ified.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:45 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

Same for this one, where a girl takes her llama to the dentist.

Me and my llama!! Oh joy. Love that one.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:53 AM on November 4

Another favorite of mine: King of Eight.
posted by box at 9:55 AM on November 4

This short has always stuck with me when I go grocery shopping. Happy Birthday and thank you for everything, Sesame Street.
posted by luminous phenomena at 10:18 AM on November 4

Also, does anyone remember Don't Eat the Pictures? I loved that movie as a kid and still sing the song to myself.

Oh yes. I watch that one with "my" kids a lot. It's awesome. Especially since I'm all art-nerdy and whatnot.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:30 AM on November 4

That loaf of bread clip led me to the Ladybugs' Picnic. These songs were the best.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:41 AM on November 4

The "Jazzy Spies" sequences were always my favorite as a kid. I know it definitely influenced my musical tastes as I grew up.

"Subway" is a clip that seemed very exotic to me, until my first grade class took a field trip that included a ride on the new BART system.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:49 AM on November 4

I have made my peace with Elmo as well. In fact, I even have some favorite clips:

Outtakes of Elmo's interview with Ricky Gervais (Elmo to his producer: "Where did you lose this interview?")

Baby Elmo gets toilet trained by his hipster dad ("It's Potty Time!")

Andrea Bocelli sings Elmo to sleep
posted by brain_drain at 10:56 AM on November 4 [1 favorite]

That loaf of bread clip led me to the Ladybugs' Picnic. These songs were the best.

Hell yes! The Ladybug's Picnic, Alligator King, Number Nine Martian Beauty and the Penny Candy Man were all written, sung and animated by Bud Luckey, who'd go on to work for Pixar. He designed Woody for Toy Story and created the Boundin' short that preceded The Incredibles, among other things.

I love all those whimsical songs (and can even tell you where he drops an Allan Sherman ref!) and it makes me happy to know that one guy was behind 'em all.
posted by Spatch at 11:09 AM on November 4

or the shabby way they ditched the Amazing Mumford and Herry Monster

I'm in a D&D campaign and my wizard is a character named Mumford. I'm waiting for the day I can cast a spell with a booming "ALA PEANUT-BUTTER SANDWICHES!"
posted by JHarris at 12:23 PM on November 4 [2 favorites]

Self-link: Joe Raposo FPP, featuring tons of his songs from the show.

Thanks for this, grape!
posted by not_on_display at 12:29 PM on November 4

A NICKLE?!
posted by Fleebnork at 12:59 PM on November 4

Fleebnork, here's another favorite including Lefty the Letter Salesman: The Golden AN. Watch to the end for Jim Henson.
posted by jocelmeow at 1:11 PM on November 4 [1 favorite]

I (American midwest white boy) went to school for a semester of college in the North of Japan. I spent many drowsy afternoons in the dorm watching TV in a mostly confused daze. Sesame street came on and the combination of childhood nostalgia with overly enunciated english just about made me cry.

After Sesame Street there was a kanji calligraphy show. A guy who looked about 300 years old brushing museum quality kanji and whispering about the technique. I always imagined he was saying something like "A happy little swoop lives here. And another happy swoop over here to keep him company." Good times.
posted by Babblesort at 1:45 PM on November 4 [5 favorites]

Rarebit Fiend is right--the actual 40th birthday is on November 10th. Google will be displaying its Google Doodles on the homepage featuring muppets and the Google logo from now until November 10th in celebration (I got an official press release about this).
posted by misha at 2:34 PM on November 4

zeugitai_guy, that's lovely. When I was a tiny kid in Mississippi, it was only Sesame Street (plus a little tie-in book) that showed me what cities were really like, how their playgrounds looked, where children lived and went to school.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:36 PM on November 4

A fellow drinking buddy was able to desrcibe my subtle mental prejudices better than I:


"While I know Muppets don't exist, if I saw a Muppet walking down Times Square looking preoccupied and then greeted by another Muppet, I would think nothing of it. Of COURSE there are Muppets."
posted by The Whelk at 7:41 PM on November 4 [3 favorites]

zeugitai_guy - I second that. Amazing story - thank you for sharing.

And for us all, I hope we can all live in A Capital I.
posted by cerulgalactus at 2:09 AM on November 5

I remember the first time I ever went to New York City. I think it was in the early 1990s. We were visiting some people on the lower east side. The first thing I said was, "we're in Sesame Street!" NYC=Sesame Street for me still whenever I go to LES or Queens.

My town was pretty diverse, but people didn't walk anywhere, and the places where you could walk were the dangerous parts of town. To me, Sesame Street was some kind of utopia, where all kinds of people could safely walk in the street! It's so ingrained in my brain that to this day whenever I walk to the market, I think about getting "a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter."
posted by bluefly at 5:31 AM on November 5 [1 favorite]

google monster
posted by cjorgensen at 12:24 PM on November 5

The PBS Video portal has 10 hosted classic clips today.
posted by knile at 11:04 AM on November 9

And, all the doodles in one place.
posted by knile at 6:31 AM on November 10 [1 favorite]