These aren't your Father's Sesame Street clips (unless your father was William Wegman, of course)

June 29, 2010 1:46 PM

William Wegman, most widely known for his photographs including his Weimaraners, has a body of past works that includes work for Sesame Street. If you're looking for muppets, you will be disappointed. But if you want people with dog heads and human hands, you're in luck! The clips include a haircut and styling for dogs, Rub-a-dub dub, Ten O'Clock Scholar, dogs making the letter A, L and K as in King, dogs demonstrate 2 and 3, a performance of "Jack Sprat" and dogs baking bread (inspired by a post on MetaChat by Obscure Reference).

Bonus bits:
*A clip from William Wegman's Alphabet Soup (scroll down the Amazon page for another short clip).
* Wikipedia currently lists four clips made by Wegman for Sesame Street that aren't yet online.
* William Wegman's Weimaraners, previously - more Wegman clips on YouTube.

posted by filthy light thief (27 comments total)

If you want people with dog heads and human hands, Goldfrapp has exciting things for you also.
posted by Wolfdog at 1:48 PM on June 29, 2010

Oh god, I was afraid this was going to be an obituary post.

I like William Wegman a lot.
posted by infinitywaltz at 1:51 PM on June 29, 2010

I haven't had time to look at all the links, but the dogs baking bread is great! I can't wait to show my daughter. I look forward to their food network show any day now!
posted by TedW at 1:51 PM on June 29, 2010

He also did the video for Blue Monday, by New Order.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1IsJEOVfnw

Which includes a Weimaraner standing on tennis balls.
posted by codacorolla at 1:52 PM on June 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Personally I always found his work (books and videos) pretty creepy. He managed to hit the sweet spot -- "stuff ok for kids" + "stuff that makes adults feel artsy and sophisticated." Meh.
posted by emjaybee at 1:52 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Heh. A, L, and K... I actually had a brief moment of "wow, that's fantastic training! I wonder why they're running backwa--- oh."
posted by gurple at 1:55 PM on June 29, 2010

I haven't had time to look at all the links, but the dogs baking bread is great!

"My tooth! The sandwich is caught on my tooth!"
I loved that.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:05 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm partial to The Hardly Boys in "Hardly Gold," Wegman's sole narrative feature. You'd think the dogs-dressed-as-people shtick would wear a little thin in 28 minutes, but somehow the melancholy, surreality, and deadpan humor of his shorter stuff becomes more concentrated as the setting opens up and the dogs are allowed to canoe, play tennis, and solve mysteries.
posted by Iridic at 2:10 PM on June 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

OK. You didn't hear this from me.... but the very cool print site/gallery 20X200 is publishing a Wegman print on thursday. Last time they priced this Wegman starting @$100.


But on THURSDAY, we'll have just the thing to knock you out of your post-sale stupor. At 11:00 a.m. EST sharp we'll release a delightful edition from an all-star artist who's graced this very newsletter in the not-too-distant past: William Wegman. It'll be a wild William Wegman Weekend!
posted by R. Mutt at 2:18 PM on June 29, 2010

Very nice post! I've always loved his work -- raft upon raft of consistently brilliant nuggets in a sea of "similar" stuff I despise. Wegman has a wicked sense of humor that most photographers of his ilk lack. And Dogs Baking Bread is just the funniest damn thing!! Yay! Thanks, filthy light thief.
posted by heyho at 2:42 PM on June 29, 2010

One of my former composition teachers, Lee Hyla, used to live in between Wegman and Mapplethorpe in Noho. Apparently, the two photographers were not friends.
posted by Lutoslawski at 2:52 PM on June 29, 2010

Urgh. I hate Wegman, not just for this one thing, but primarily for one thing: he made a lot of crappy amateur photographers think their dog snapshots are Art. I got trapped into going to an art opening like that just a couple months ago. It was a "vanity show" with ridiculous shots of some Yorkies dressed in costumes, with expensive printing, framing, and presentation, like she expected people to actually buy them.
posted by charlie don't surf at 3:24 PM on June 29, 2010

I came here to post what Iridic already posted, so I'll just favorite that comment and say, "yeah, that. it's great."
posted by hippybear at 3:28 PM on June 29, 2010

I am so strongly compelled to self-link right now that I can't stop and so here is a picture of my dog.
So sorry.
posted by chococat at 3:47 PM on June 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

I see these on Sesame Street when I'm watching with my kids. I always marveled at how completely calm and bored the dogs look. Like they are so used to being rigged up that it doesn't even matter to them any more.

Either that or their spirits have just been completely broken.
posted by TooFewShoes at 4:14 PM on June 29, 2010

. . . Either that or their spirits have just been completely broken.

I doubt it. Although it could of course have been all posed and deceiving, I read his book Puppies, about Fay's litter, and they all appeared to be authentically spoiled, babied, cared-for dogs.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:11 PM on June 29, 2010

It must be 2010 because the gender normative roles jump out at me more disturbingly than the dogs having hands.
posted by rainbaby at 6:52 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

MetaFilter: the gender normative roles jump out at me more disturbingly than the dogs having hands.
posted by hippybear at 6:57 PM on June 29, 2010

Hah, hippybear - I hope the humor was apparent in my comment, but it might not have been. I enjoyed this post very much, wolfdog.
posted by rainbaby at 6:59 PM on June 29, 2010

Oh god, I was afraid this was going to be an obituary post.

yeah any post that opens using the name-followed-by-description-of-who-name-was format, as in:

William Wegman, most widely known for his photographs including his Weimaraners,

immediately triggers the oh-shit-this-person-died response.
posted by jeremy b at 7:12 PM on June 29, 2010

Creepy! Never mind that I'm not a "dog person" (having once been attacked by a German Shepard as a wee lad): these dogs look very threatening to me in their disengaged, non-understanding, almost sociopath physiques. The grabby human hands make it worthy of a horror flick in my opinion. And people make their toddlers watch this?
posted by monospace at 7:17 PM on June 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

My mom, when seeing the dogs on Sesame Street, were convinced that Wegman had doped them to the gills to get them to sit still for that long.
posted by Alnedra at 8:07 PM on June 29, 2010

My mom, when seeing the dogs on Sesame Street, were convinced that Wegman had doped them to the gills to get them to sit still for that long.

They do that. I get our dog to sit while I'm putting her food in her bowl and then sometimes I'll stupidly forget and start washing the dishes or whatever only to realize that she's still sitting there, staring at me, waiting for me to say "okay."
posted by chococat at 8:35 PM on June 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I hope the humor was apparent in my comment, but it might not have been.

Of course it was! But it was too good a tagline to pass up.
posted by hippybear at 9:12 PM on June 29, 2010

Dogs baking bread never fails to make me laugh (licks lips)
and iridic and hippybear have it, the Hardly Boys are awesome.
posted by Joad at 10:36 PM on June 29, 2010

I've met William Wegman on a number of occasions. In the past I have also used the Polaroid 20x24 large format camera for numerous projects. One of his works, 'Chair Piece' hangs in my living room. The photo was taken during the photo shoot featured in New Order's' Blue Monday' music video.
posted by ericb at 12:40 PM on June 30, 2010

What codacorolla said above!
posted by ericb at 12:43 PM on June 30, 2010