Sesame Street News(filter)
January 10, 2010 4:19 PM Subscribe
This is Kermit the Frog of Sesame Street News, with another fast breaking news story.
More News Flashes;
Sleeping Beauty
Tortoise and the Hare
Mother Hubbard
The Six Dollar Man
Boston T Party
Red Riding Hood
Christopher Columbus
Cinderella
Vox pops on Waiting in Line
Kermit on assignment at The Alphabet Mine
The First Day of School (starts a little bit into the clip)
And finally...
Elmo.
More News Flashes;
Sleeping Beauty
Tortoise and the Hare
Mother Hubbard
The Six Dollar Man
Boston T Party
Red Riding Hood
Christopher Columbus
Cinderella
Vox pops on Waiting in Line
Kermit on assignment at The Alphabet Mine
The First Day of School (starts a little bit into the clip)
And finally...
Elmo.
And yet all I think is, "That would make a mighty fine dress."
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:30 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:30 PM on January 10, 2010
Isn't it, "Kermit D. Frog"?
posted by availablelight at 4:32 PM on January 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by availablelight at 4:32 PM on January 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
Kermit's reports (especially if Grover is involved) are among the top 5 Sesame Street things.
posted by DU at 4:35 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by DU at 4:35 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
No, it's not Kermit D. Frog. You're probably thinking of Michigan J. Frog.
posted by box at 4:36 PM on January 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by box at 4:36 PM on January 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
how is it that sesame street's hippy jokes have never gotten old? the older i get, the better I understand them and think they're even funnier.
posted by shmegegge at 4:51 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by shmegegge at 4:51 PM on January 10, 2010
My favorite Kermit "News Flash" skits were always the ones wth the composer, Don Music, particularly "Mary Had A Bicycle"
posted by briank at 4:53 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 4:53 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
It's Kermit T. Frog. The T stands for "The." I know this because as a child I owned a pillow printed with his photo and autograph.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:54 PM on January 10, 2010 [6 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:54 PM on January 10, 2010 [6 favorites]
I'm not sure I'm contributing much to the level of discussion by saying "this is fantastic", but... it is. Made my Sunday that bit brighter.
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 4:58 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 4:58 PM on January 10, 2010
Anyone else remember the song "Two Trees" from Sesame Street? I'm almost certain that it was introduced by Kermit in his newsman persona, and it was a heartbreaking little song by a bird with the chorus "Mom's tree is over here, back there is Daddy's tree / They live in different places but they both love me".
I didn't even remotely catch on to the fact that it was aimed at kids whose parents had divorced until years later, and now I can't find it anywhere on Youtube. Which is a shame, because sad yet uplifting segments about terribly difficult topics are what Sesame Street always did really well. (Alongside hilarious news reports on nursery rhymes, of course...)
posted by ZsigE at 5:00 PM on January 10, 2010
I didn't even remotely catch on to the fact that it was aimed at kids whose parents had divorced until years later, and now I can't find it anywhere on Youtube. Which is a shame, because sad yet uplifting segments about terribly difficult topics are what Sesame Street always did really well. (Alongside hilarious news reports on nursery rhymes, of course...)
posted by ZsigE at 5:00 PM on January 10, 2010
I love this.
posted by nooneyouknow at 5:03 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by nooneyouknow at 5:03 PM on January 10, 2010
As a kid I loved the Sesame Street News bits as much as anything on Carol Burnett. According to the SS News episode guide on the Muppet Wiki there were way more of these than I thought there were. I especially loved Kermit interviewing Cookie Monster as Little Red Riding Hood - which the Wiki says was first shown in the 80s, but it seemed so familiar that I could have sworn it was from when I was an avid Sesame Street watcher in the early 70's.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:03 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:03 PM on January 10, 2010
He introduces himself as neither "Kermit D Frog" nor "Kermit T Frog". It's "Kermit The(e) Frog". SHEESH.
Also, the best ever line from a Kermit News Flash is: Air? I don't see any air! (I just wish I knew which one it was from...)
posted by DU at 5:24 PM on January 10, 2010 [4 favorites]
Also, the best ever line from a Kermit News Flash is: Air? I don't see any air! (I just wish I knew which one it was from...)
posted by DU at 5:24 PM on January 10, 2010 [4 favorites]
"Hi-ho", I remember about all of these.
I am old, I think. But thanks still.
posted by Red Loop at 5:57 PM on January 10, 2010
I am old, I think. But thanks still.
posted by Red Loop at 5:57 PM on January 10, 2010
These are great. I remember them all. The first television show I ever watched was the first Sesame Street episode ever broadcast.
posted by Aquaman at 6:09 PM on January 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Aquaman at 6:09 PM on January 10, 2010 [1 favorite]
I love these. Thanks!
I think it's interesting to note the Jewish stereotype in the Six Dollar Man. Today, people would be all up in arms about it, but I remember watching this with my mom and we laughed and laughed! Back then, we were more than likely to laugh at a fairly innocently portrayed stereotype because while it's certainly shown as "one of them", we saw it as, "hey! One of us!"
Not beanplating, just spotting the attitudinal differences.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:24 PM on January 10, 2010
I think it's interesting to note the Jewish stereotype in the Six Dollar Man. Today, people would be all up in arms about it, but I remember watching this with my mom and we laughed and laughed! Back then, we were more than likely to laugh at a fairly innocently portrayed stereotype because while it's certainly shown as "one of them", we saw it as, "hey! One of us!"
Not beanplating, just spotting the attitudinal differences.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:24 PM on January 10, 2010
Wow. Sesame Street, how far you've fallen.
This is great.
posted by dunkadunc at 6:25 PM on January 10, 2010
This is great.
posted by dunkadunc at 6:25 PM on January 10, 2010
Thanks for this -- I think I might have to create "Things to Watch When You're Having a Crap Day" folders and this will be the inaugural bookmark in the G-rated category.
This and the Operatic , which I had completely forgot until viewing these. That, along with the baker falling down the stairs, were my Sesame Street favorites.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:29 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
This and the Operatic , which I had completely forgot until viewing these. That, along with the baker falling down the stairs, were my Sesame Street favorites.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:29 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
damn it....Operatic Orange, Operatic Orange,
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:29 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by MCMikeNamara at 7:29 PM on January 10, 2010
You want longer? I'll show you longer!
I AM A THOUSAND MILLION YEARS OLD AND I CAN LICK SUPERMAN!
posted by evilcolonel at 7:37 PM on January 10, 2010
I AM A THOUSAND MILLION YEARS OLD AND I CAN LICK SUPERMAN!
posted by evilcolonel at 7:37 PM on January 10, 2010
So the one thing I remembered about these was "Hi ho, Kermit the Frog here..." and I clicked on the first link and he said "hi there" I sort of wondered if maybe I was crazy and had been remembering it wrong all these years. It was very gratifying to hear "hi ho" in the other clips and know that I'm not crazy; it was just not in the earliest episodes.
posted by naoko at 8:38 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by naoko at 8:38 PM on January 10, 2010
Jim Henson's brilliance is unrivaled all these years later! Elmo (aka 'The Red Menace') really destroyed Sesame Street. Sesame Street is yet another example of how kids growing up today will never get to experience -- untainted -- some of the greatest that the 70s and 80s had to offer (along with Michael Jackson and Star Wars). As a proud child of the 80s, I find this incredibly depressing.
posted by Mael Oui at 8:57 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by Mael Oui at 8:57 PM on January 10, 2010
ZsigE - Here you go - They Live in Different Places a.k.a. The Bird Family. It was actually the last News Flash where Jim Henson voiced Kermit.
DU - yours is The School of Huffing and Puffing
My favorite parts of these is the comments Kermit makes before he is aware that he is live. Especially in this one.
posted by nooneyouknow at 9:07 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
DU - yours is The School of Huffing and Puffing
My favorite parts of these is the comments Kermit makes before he is aware that he is live. Especially in this one.
posted by nooneyouknow at 9:07 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
I've already favorited this post without clicking on a single link, and I know I'll enjoy the clips when I get to them tomorrow and throughout the week on my, um... ergonomic breaks at work - yeah, that's it! - ergonomic breaks! But I beg to differ with those of you bemoaning the decline of the show vis a vis Elmo/Jim Henson's death/insert your own shark-jumping moment here.
I'm the father of a preschooler NOW, not in the 70s or 80s when I (and many of you) grew up. And guess what? Elmo, for whatever reason, is accessible and attractive to my daughter and serves as an entrypoint (a gateway, if you will) to the whole show, which she watches with interest and attention even when he's not on screen. There have been updates, yes, some of them more dramatic than others, but the philosophy and ideology behind the show is, I believe, largely (if not entirely) unchanged. Sesame Street is the granddaddy of educational television programs and the yardstick by which other shows that claim to be educational should be measured. It is still chock full of teachable moments weaved seamlessly into mundane interactions among plush monsters and the residents of the Street. In fact, many older songs, video clips, animations, etc. are still worked into the new episodes, because the material they're teaching (basic math, language arts, etc.) hasn't changed, and because those original songs still work.
It depends on your perspective, I guess. Things are always changing, you know?
posted by yiftach at 9:33 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
I'm the father of a preschooler NOW, not in the 70s or 80s when I (and many of you) grew up. And guess what? Elmo, for whatever reason, is accessible and attractive to my daughter and serves as an entrypoint (a gateway, if you will) to the whole show, which she watches with interest and attention even when he's not on screen. There have been updates, yes, some of them more dramatic than others, but the philosophy and ideology behind the show is, I believe, largely (if not entirely) unchanged. Sesame Street is the granddaddy of educational television programs and the yardstick by which other shows that claim to be educational should be measured. It is still chock full of teachable moments weaved seamlessly into mundane interactions among plush monsters and the residents of the Street. In fact, many older songs, video clips, animations, etc. are still worked into the new episodes, because the material they're teaching (basic math, language arts, etc.) hasn't changed, and because those original songs still work.
It depends on your perspective, I guess. Things are always changing, you know?
posted by yiftach at 9:33 PM on January 10, 2010 [2 favorites]
Oh man, the Sesame Street News theme music. I had forgotten all about it. I'm six years old all of a sudden.
posted by dammitjim at 10:25 PM on January 10, 2010
posted by dammitjim at 10:25 PM on January 10, 2010
You missed my all time favorite:
The Princess and The Cookie
My friends and I used to misquote this one endlessly in college. We thought it went something like:
"What frog doing in my bedroom?"
"Sesame Street News, Ma'am."
"Whatever. Night Frog."
That still cracks me up.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:54 PM on January 10, 2010
The Princess and The Cookie
My friends and I used to misquote this one endlessly in college. We thought it went something like:
"What frog doing in my bedroom?"
"Sesame Street News, Ma'am."
"Whatever. Night Frog."
That still cracks me up.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:54 PM on January 10, 2010
Thanks! I am always up for vintage Sesame Street. Or some new ones, as long as they don't do what they did to Captain Vegetable... *shudder* Replacing a Muppet with John Leguizamo? Bad idea... really bad idea.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:27 AM on January 11, 2010
posted by IndigoRain at 12:27 AM on January 11, 2010
I AM A THOUSAND MILLION YEARS OLD AND I CAN LICK SUPERMAN!
Whatta ya know, Vandal Savage has a Metafilter account. I am surprised that I can make that joke.
The News Flash segments are a favorite. I think, if we had one classic Sesame Street post a day, it would be just about the right number.
ONE! ONE classic Sesame Street post a day! AH-hahahahaha!!! --thunderstrike--
posted by JHarris at 1:09 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
Whatta ya know, Vandal Savage has a Metafilter account. I am surprised that I can make that joke.
The News Flash segments are a favorite. I think, if we had one classic Sesame Street post a day, it would be just about the right number.
ONE! ONE classic Sesame Street post a day! AH-hahahahaha!!! --thunderstrike--
posted by JHarris at 1:09 AM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
Kermit's reports (especially if Grover is involved) are among the top 5 Sesame Street things.
The Martians are among the top 2 Sesame Street things: The psychedelic animated shorts are among the top 1 Sesame street things: 12; lost boy; I remember; etc.
What makes these items so particularly excellent is not that they teach you how to identify clocks or phones, or to develop memory skills, or even to learn about funky pimps who can morph into living elephant / fountain / plastic homes: the mission critical bit is the subliminal message that when you grow up you should take LSD to make you a better person. Counting to 12 was great, but it was the "take LSD" part that I found the most valuable lesson from 1970s Sesame Street - muchos gracias Children's Television Workshop!
Protip for when the trip gets too intense: try to remember everything you passed, but when you go back make the first thing the last.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:10 AM on January 11, 2010
The Martians are among the top 2 Sesame Street things: The psychedelic animated shorts are among the top 1 Sesame street things: 12; lost boy; I remember; etc.
What makes these items so particularly excellent is not that they teach you how to identify clocks or phones, or to develop memory skills, or even to learn about funky pimps who can morph into living elephant / fountain / plastic homes: the mission critical bit is the subliminal message that when you grow up you should take LSD to make you a better person. Counting to 12 was great, but it was the "take LSD" part that I found the most valuable lesson from 1970s Sesame Street - muchos gracias Children's Television Workshop!
Protip for when the trip gets too intense: try to remember everything you passed, but when you go back make the first thing the last.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:10 AM on January 11, 2010
Memories of Kermit always include memories of sharing the Henson skits with my kids. Sesame Street and the Muppets didn't just entertain and educate my children, they brought us together in front of the TV. The ability to appeal to both children and parents was Henson's gift. I loved watching the show as much as my kids did. Back then, we called that spending quality time with our children. Thanks for digging all these links up and rekindling the memories.
posted by birdwatcher at 3:40 AM on January 11, 2010
posted by birdwatcher at 3:40 AM on January 11, 2010
I am intensely sad that my kids don't like Sesame Street. On the other hand, having watched it with them from time to time in the last few years, I can't blame them a bit. Much as I detest Elmo, he is only a symptom of the overall problem. In the early days, Big Bird was the only child-like main character. Everyone else was pretty much a grown-up, but they were grown-ups with child-like attributes that kids could relate to. Prairie Dawn was around occasionally, but she was so precocious, she almost didn't count as a kid. Watching Sesame Street was like having a bunch of cool grown-up friends who neither talked down to me nor over my head.
The addition of Elmo, Baby Bear (ugh!), Zoe, Abby Caddaby and all the other little kid muppets go along with a general dumbing down of the show. The lessons they're trying to teach may be the same, but they're going at it from a kid level instead of a grown-up level. As a kid, being treated as an equal by a grown-up, even if that grown-up is a giant fuzzy talking frog, is incredibly empowering and exciting. So when a basically ageless Bert and Ernie talk about cooperating or the letter P, it feels like it's an important lesson that you should pay attention to. Whereas, when some cute little kid acts like a perfectly normal (albeit furry red) kid who doesn't want to share his toys, who cares? That's what kids do.
That was what made the news updates so awesome. It was a glimpse of the adult world, only relatable. And the jokes were jokes that an adult might make, but that a kid could get.
posted by Dojie at 7:14 AM on January 11, 2010 [3 favorites]
The addition of Elmo, Baby Bear (ugh!), Zoe, Abby Caddaby and all the other little kid muppets go along with a general dumbing down of the show. The lessons they're trying to teach may be the same, but they're going at it from a kid level instead of a grown-up level. As a kid, being treated as an equal by a grown-up, even if that grown-up is a giant fuzzy talking frog, is incredibly empowering and exciting. So when a basically ageless Bert and Ernie talk about cooperating or the letter P, it feels like it's an important lesson that you should pay attention to. Whereas, when some cute little kid acts like a perfectly normal (albeit furry red) kid who doesn't want to share his toys, who cares? That's what kids do.
That was what made the news updates so awesome. It was a glimpse of the adult world, only relatable. And the jokes were jokes that an adult might make, but that a kid could get.
posted by Dojie at 7:14 AM on January 11, 2010 [3 favorites]
Re Kermit T. vs. Kermit D. Frog--my mother tells me that when I was little I was convinced his name was "Kermithy," like Timothy or Dorothy. Still makes sense to me, from that frame of reference--what little kid would know of anyone else named Kermit?
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:22 AM on January 11, 2010
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:22 AM on January 11, 2010
I just re-watched the Humpty-Dumpty one and his smiling visage still scares the crap out of me just as much as it did when I was a kid. I swear I still see that leering face in occasional nightmares. This is why kid's TV sucks now: it never leaves anyone cowering behind the couch in paroxysms of fear.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 7:26 AM on January 11, 2010
posted by 1f2frfbf at 7:26 AM on January 11, 2010
1f2frfbf: If freaky depictions of Humpty-Dumpty are your thing, then you might want to take a look at this commercial.
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:38 AM on January 11, 2010
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:38 AM on January 11, 2010
...the subliminal message that when you grow up you should take LSD to make you a better person.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the most acidified Sesame Street in the history of forever (even the name is trippy): Count To Ten With Nobody.
Don't watch it if you're actually tripping, though, or the face will haunt you in your dreeeeeeams...
posted by ZsigE at 12:33 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the most acidified Sesame Street in the history of forever (even the name is trippy): Count To Ten With Nobody.
Don't watch it if you're actually tripping, though, or the face will haunt you in your dreeeeeeams...
posted by ZsigE at 12:33 PM on January 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
Atom Eyes: I discovered that commercial through this thread and it instantly made me remember the Sesame Street skit.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 12:38 PM on January 11, 2010
posted by 1f2frfbf at 12:38 PM on January 11, 2010
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posted by josher71 at 4:27 PM on January 10, 2010