MetaFilter posts tagged with 1980s and YouTube

Who Are The People (and the Muppets) In Your Neighborhood?

jonp72 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:32:35 -0800

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, let's take a few moments to honor those Sesame Street humans overshadowed by their Muppet counterparts. Check out Bob (Bob McGrath) singing Danny Boy in Japanese on a 1966 broadcast of To Tell The Truth or singing a Japanese ballad. Watch Gordon (Roscoe Orman) as the big pimpin' title character in this original trailer for the film Willie Dynamite. See Maria (Sonia Manzano) as a lady trucker on B.J. & the Bear or getting menaced by Jeff Goldblum in the movie Death Wish. And Mr. Hooper (Will Lee) plays Pac-Man in an Atari commercial. Meanwhile, the Muppet stars of Sesame Street have gone some interesting evolutions as well in their career. Check out the Cookie Monster prototype in this Munchos commercial or this Computer Monster skit. The original prototype of Grover was a thieving Muppet named Gleep who appeared on a Christmas sketch on the Ed Sullivan show with Arthur Godfrey as Santa Claus, but Grover also appears as Fuzzyface in a 1st season appearance on Sesame Street with Kermit. Last but not least, this Monsterpiece Theater production of Me Claudius features Elmo with a much raspier voice than the childlike Muppet who monopolizes the show today.

The Whelk — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:14:00 -0800

Hey, what ever happened to Julie Brown? ( not that one) She was a hit in Earth Girls Are Easy with her number, Cause I'm a Blonde. She had another hit with the Dr. Demento staple The Homecoming Queens' Got a Gun! Then she faded into the cultural-artifact twilight ... She kept up the songs, expressing her taste in men, fighting women, and wondering if she'll make it through the decade. Julie appeared in a few good TV shows and some bad movies. (She was even on Werid Al!) MTV gave her an odd, short-lived show, Just Say Julie! She continued music parodies with Medusa: Dare To Truth, a giddy parody of Madonna's documentary. Nowadays, she's mostly at home, working on a web-based comeback. She even has a blog.

Korou — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:10:38 -0800

80s era holiday television complete with antenna, TV guide, and remote.

persona non grata — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 20:13:20 -0800