SESAME STREET

Wikipedia has a hugely extensive list, but these are the ones I can remember.

cookie monster ftw

Last weekend my sister-in-law told me cookie monster doesnt eat cookies anymore - he eats vegetables!!?

If that's true, it's one of the few times I can unironically use the phrase 'political correctness gone mad'.

first big bird gay marries oscar the grouch, and now cookie monsters eating vegetables? these pc liberals are destroying our culture

not true, cookie monster eats cookies. I know, I have to see sesame street 200 times a day because I have a 2 year old.

kermit isn't on sesame street anymore though, hasn't been for a number of years (I can't seem to find out when this happened).

http://www.channel4.com/bigbrother/media/images/Channel4/bigbrother9/Housemates_profile_pics/kathreya_182x102.jpg

kermit was kicked off for his anti-progressive stance on taxation

anyway, if sherlock hemlock is on there, where is guy smiley? roosevelt franklin?

Seriously, anyone voting for Elmo gets it.

Grover gets my vote, though also love Cookie Monster. I love trawling Youtube for old Sesame Street clips - the Count was so much "scarier" years ago... Also makes me want to put on "Follow That Bird", the first SS movie which I still love to this day.

Following the death of Jim Henson, Kermit was used less frequently on Sesame Street, but still made appearances during the 1990s. Unlike the rest of the show's Muppets, he was never any property of Sesame Workshop, and was on the show under contract. Thus, when The Walt Disney Company bought out the character, he had to stop making new appearances on the show; however, Sesame Workshop does have the rights to rerun old sketches featuring Kermit.

not true, cookie monster eats cookies. I know, I have to see sesame street 200 times a day because I have a 2 year old.

yeah all the ones Ive been watching lately hes eating cookies but when I saw an episode a week or so ago with a very very young justin timberlake in that boy band of his I realized Ive been watch repeats from the early 90s.

anyway, here is what the GW hatchet said:
"Due to the rising child obesity rates in America, Cookie Monster has decided to lay off the cookies for a bit. He's not going on a diet, per se, but he is advocating a healthier eating style. His new song, replacing the favorite "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me," teaches that "a cookie is a sometimes food."

Cookie's new eating plan will include fruits and vegetables, but also "healthier" cookies that stray from his standard chocolate chip. Other aspects of the "Healthy habits for life" include staying in shape with "Grovercise" and lessons on personal hygiene and getting a good night's sleep."

anyway, even though i missed elmo by a couple of years when I was kid, hes still the clear winner.

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/2518/elmobc4.jpg

my kid stepped on his ticke me elmo the other day and it turned on, grabbed his leg, and almost gave him a heart attack

yeah just try and guess who i voted for

I voted for The Count.

Clash of the titans.

cookie monster is the originator of "omnomnomnom" iirc

yeah now its crunch crunch pass the low fat ranch

Those Elmo dolls are fuckin evil.

yeah all the ones Ive been watching lately hes eating cookies but when I saw an episode a week or so ago with a very very young justin timberlake in that boy band of his I realized Ive been watch repeats from the early 90s.

Don't forget that monster singalong we saw recently that suddenly featured cameos from Ray Charles, Dwayne Wayne from "A Different World", and Jeff Goldblum.

if I was a B-list celeb I'd be doing guest spots on Sesame Street all the time

I've got a friend who's like a Q- or U-list celeb who's been on Sesame Street.

I'm very jealous of him.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

definitely Oscar the Grouch

From Savage Love in 1999, replying to an under-18 girl who wished she could buy a vibrator (altho at her age, she could not legally do this):

But if these girls wanna get their hands on good, cheap, reliable vibrators, I recommend they drive right past Wal-Mart and head to the nearest Toys "R" Us. There they will find numerous vibrating plush toys--the most famous being Tickle Me Elmo--that they can legally purchase, take home, and dismember. Inside each of these dolls are little white plastic vibrators that give off strong sensations when squeezed. Unfortunately, the Tickle Me Elmo doll's vibrator has a little speaker that says "Ha, ha, ha! Oh, boy! Oh, boy!" whenever it's set off, which could spoil the mood, but an Elmo vibrator is better than no vibrator at all.

Please note: Tickle Me Elmo dolls are for external use only. As they say at Good Vibrations, Elmo is not an insertion toy.

So much on this thread depresses me! Kermit's retirement. That horrible dildo thing. The veggie monster. Tha lack of Ernie love!

And also being reminded that I can't watch SS with my favourite 3 year old because nobody here airs it any more (at least nobody on freeview).

Sigh.

Oh, yes you can.

These sets are kind of the most amazing thing ever.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

SHOCKED, SHOCKED by Cookie Monster's showing, but I voted Count Von Count.

A tie! Voted for Count Von Count as well.

As Crutis said to me once, "nobody wants a fucking Healthy Snacks at Appropriate Times Monster".

People with kids: when celebrities show up to dance around with Elmo, do they ever actually do anything educational? That Katy Perry cleavage clip managed to parody "Hot 'n' Cold" while skipping the obvious lesson of opposites, and now Elvis Costello's got a song about how he can't count because cookie monster ate his red 2, instead of like, i dunno, using basic subtraction to find it. It's like these things are intentionally avoiding doing anything other than tickling pop culture hounds with cameos.

always loved the Bert & Ernie "This is a picture of a cow eating grass" sketch.

Yeah, some of those old ones are great. I like the ambiguity of E's character. Is he intentionally trolling Bert, or just in the neighborhood of being a little ditzy?

the enigma of ernie

hard to tell, I say he's trolling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk1Y4xo4XJ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_1YbFMR8j8

this is pretty great.

but to be real, it must be said that this is arguably, in no certain terms, in a manner of speaking, to be fair, so to speak, the ~~creme de la creme~~ of this comedy team/guffaw enablers' work to date, as it were

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHUOZWu7soY&feature=related

I always just thought E was a free spirit and B was a tightass (it was the early '70s, man).

Yeah, there is that one sketch where Bert yells at E. for manicuring his weed on his prized gatefold album of carrier pigeon calls!

when celebrities show up to dance around with Elmo, do they ever actually do anything educational?

I dunno if they all do, but some seem to! Saw this by chance the other day and fell off my chair laughing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-ZQyeuUd_k&ob=av3e

Thats not an Elmo bit tho of course. God I hate Elmo so much. I grew up with Sesame street in the 70s, so elmo is all about nu-school and .. NO.

<3 <3 <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxWGr8VhzQ

FUCK I LOVE SESAME STREET SO MUCH

My fave Bert and Ernie one was when bert woke up and wanted to know what time it was in the middle of the night, and they didnt know for whatever reason so Ernie opened the window and starts hollering "O SOLO MIO... O SOLO YOU-O" til someone shouts "shut up, its 3 oclock in the morning!". Badoom tsh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoteMQ6w0SE

;_;

omg "cookie monster can't sleep"
the nightmare cookies' song is amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYzbD5Hwvbk

Can I just...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML686-Dst08

Also, I thought the message behind the Katy Perry guest shot was to not be indecisive.

such a jam...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL6CvI8qK40

some obscure Sesame Street Psych

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK2VOdRAbW8

>omg "cookie monster can't sleep"
>the nightmare cookies' song is amazing

cookie monster's delivery of the line "I no see the humor in this, Ernie" pushed me over the edge

I just this second realized that Dwight-and-Jim on the Office is totally Bert-and-Ernie.

Would not have been able to choose a vote (well, okay, probably Bert) but I do miss the absence of Don Music.

I can't believe Elmo won over Snuffy. Do you guys not think Snuffy's real?

Funny how many of these folks are Old Country Eastern-European types: Oscar, Count, Bert. And then that Greek Snuffalupagus.

whoa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snuffy%27s_Parents_Get_a_Divorce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHgrkYec4Ok&feature=related

I have the Sesame St oldSkool dvds, and I put it on one night in a room full of people who were on acid. There was a five minute spell of absorbed silence and then the whole room erupted in freaking out and "OH GOD TURN IT OFFFFFF!" hahaha.

And oh man I recall being so freaked out by bearded glasses Bert when I was a kid! haha!

OH OH THIS ONE THIS ONE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duw7axQqvJ4

couple more freaky ones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yiqGtZXCmQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDJ0a_g-weU

OMG my clicking around had me stumble across this most excellent new one, hahaha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94rDM7Bf9qo

feel like the after effects of the 60s counterculture really made for funnier, smarter, and more creative childrens' programming well into the 80s... feel really lucky to have grown up in it (although a big part of it all was thanks to Jim Henson's genius and example)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN_CIn7Z8rk

I haven't seen this in 40 years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2LvodzE2Ck

Chris I agree, I feel very lucky to have grown up right from the start of Sesame St, it was my primary TV-based educational tool as a young child. One could argue thats not good as I'm australian and in those days, the show was very much an american show, and didnt really have the global focus it seems to now. But I dont think that did me any harm. I was reading and writing well by five, and I like to think that show had a lot to do with it.

I mean, I look at some kids shows now, and I marvel at how surrealistic and kooky they can be, but at the same time they seem so... kiddish? SS never ever spoke down to its audience. It always used big concepts and words. Which I think is another reason why I dislike elmo! He brought in a level of childish goo goo gaa gaa talk to the show it never had or needed initially.

yeah, new kids' shows - including new Sesame Street episodes - from what I've seen, seem to have been focus-grouped down to this dull, brainless, and unrealistically-positive formula that cynically kind of just goes through the motions. feel like it's going to make kids less discerning culturally/intellectually... I mean, I really think I have higher standards in my culture in a large way thanks to Sesame Street

Here's an interesting example of that very dumbing down.

Here's the original 70s version of the "everybody eats" song"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kqOhF-RrFM

And here's the 80s updated version: same song, but curious change to the imagery shown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FhduDvluZQ

In particular, when he sings "carrots, peas and beets" they feel the need to SHOW said carrots, peas and beets, which they didnt do in the first one. Also, opening shot in the second one of overweight lady shoving a hotdog into her face? Say what you will about cookie monster, at least originally the show was all about pretty natural, home cooked foods and where they came from!

woah: http://sesamestreet.tumblr.com/post/6076788317/fun-fact-in-the-first-season-of-sesame-street

http://m.gawker.com/5959706/elmo-voice-actor-kevin-clash-exits-sesame-street-over-allegations-of-underage-sex-with-teen-boy

#nobama #pbs #rapefactory

Holy dicks

Accuser has recanted. I hope Kevin Clash secures a good lawyer and makes his accuser envious of how good Oscar the Grouch has it. I root for the utter and complete ruination of every sociopath who lies about stuff like this. Or at least some kind of facial branding.

Apparently, the accuser who recanted has unrecanted and now there's a second accuser. Clash has resigned from Sesame Street.

First accuser, FTR:

http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/sheldon-stephens-kevin-clash.jpg

Are . . . are those drawn on with a Sharpie?

The abs? Yes.

Second accuser:

As to why he hadn't previously come forward, the accuser says he just recently became aware of "adverse psychological and emotional effects from Kevin Clash's sexual acts and conduct."

http://ll-media.tmz.com/2012/11/20/1120-subasset-cecil-kevin-1.jpg

Elmo has dangerous tastes.

you'll never catch my hand inside a ... Muppet

elmos fuckin klaus nomi

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll231/waltm2222/elmoexperiments.jpg

http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/qwikster_twitter2.jpg

https://www.aclu.org/secure/tell-sesame-street-dont-take-baes-dirty-money?ms=fb_acluaction_061213_bae

This show is really good! A bit like a cross between Sesame Street and the Muppet Show:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/furchester-hotel

starring: Cookie Monster, Elmo, a bunch of chickens

Are kids too afraid of "monsters" these days? Here's a book we have in the children's library:

http://i.imgur.com/lADm4Ux.jpg

I know this is impossible to read, but inside the book, he's only called "Cookie" as well:

http://i.imgur.com/FKwaDcMl.jpg

I mean, back in the day, not only was Cookie Monster a monster, but he was also a criminal!

http://i.imgur.com/VCjX0i6.jpg

He also used to smoke a pipe, but I digress.

http://i.imgur.com/CCIgubp.jpg

been really belting "the song of the count" in the shower lately. i count slowly. slowly. slowly gettink faster. vonce i've started counting it'sweryhardtostop--ha-HA!

as for cookie monster, p sure i've laughed out loud literally every single time i've seen him eat.

my favorite sesame street characters are the monomaniacs.

For me, with Cookie Monster, it's the eyes. There's a Marty Feldman gonzosity to them that just kills me like clockwork.

i love how amorphous the rest of his body is, he's like this big bag of fur with a mouth and eyes

in other news, I cannot tell you the amount of times I sing this to myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmVd9F1fW00

did this one softly a couple times in a row while washing dishes at work the other day, but had never seen the video where the count calls it his favorite song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU7mFx0WFxE

I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHO TOLD YOU YOU COULD STOP AT THREE

this

this is the greatest sesame street song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNCxS-OQhZc

omg count it higher! I haven't heard that in years. so great

the beetles' drummer is killing me

right!?

Weird knowing "Count it Higher" years before "Twist and Shout". I always loved this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dFYsrGw5eI

and this one got stuck in my still-developing brain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIPoX8RK_CY

The subway one was great, too.

These are all Christopher Cerf songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3dOuJnt9EQ

Apparently Elmo now has a dad...and he's Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.?

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20061024035244/muppet/images/1/11/Gordon_Louie.JPG

have i told the story of my trip to sesame street to ilx before?

I don't know, but would love to hear it.

i will type something up in a bit. definitely peak life experience
http://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/1916055_1278294396446_7089405_n.jpg%3Foh%3Dda7c61a09b54979e8193b62c6fc850e1%26oe%3D550FAA80

dagnab it.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1278294396446&l=33b8fdf360

whoa

so at the behest of a sesame street publicist, I managed to help out a friend of Caroll Spinney when i was working in a club and she invited me to visit the set for a filming and meet Mr. Spinney.

ah, here's the old post.

gonna be really real with you guys: when I walked into the studio and saw cookie monster dancing with elmo in front of the 123 building across from mr. hooper's store, I actually teared up a little and started hyperventilating. It was so fucking intense and bizarre to be in this place that I spent so much of my time in but had never been to. So I'm talking to this woman standing next to me about o my god this is insane, I'm on sesame street and she's kinda friendly and laid back and she seems nice but then she takes off her glasses and O FUCK it is MARIA and I completely lost my shit.

Honestly, so many great stories. Caroll Spinney is one of the nicest people I have ever met. One of the very very rare cases of meeting your idols and having them surpass your hopes. I should really write this whole story out somewhere.
― I AM NOT ONE TO PURSUE GAME, MY FRIEND - NO, INDEED. (forksclovetofu), Sunday, October 25, 2009 4:14 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gordon walked on set and i totally ran up to him and said "YOU WERE MY DAD" and got a hug.
he seems totally nonplussed, i imagine that happens all the time.

one of the coolest things was hanging in Mr. Hooper's store while they were filming... it's a surprisingly mellow and open set and they were cool with me exploring the space and walking around.
http://i.imgur.com/uam6082.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/TGXvC7h.jpg
http://imgur.com/IeS6oYJ
http://imgur.com/ibKWycA
http://i.imgur.com/c6Tds2R.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/iHG39u2.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mzM11gK.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/x35nRYi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/EbN9zpV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/OVvUqYv.jpg

kevin clash was directing an episode and i stayed for about... five hours? Something like that. I spent a quiet fifteen minutes in Big Bird's house just vibing the fuck out.
http://i.imgur.com/KS21GKP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ifu19Ph.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IYPb5tR.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/SlGO2mL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lRr9cR0.jpg
plenty of stories. Really one of my favorite memories.
http://i.imgur.com/PwYFd86.jpg

<3<3<3
Loaf of bread
Container of milk
Stick of butter
<3<3<3

Urban Sprawal!

Pretty jealous, forks. That (or visiting the Muppet Show set, or the Creature Shop, or pretty much anything to do with Jim Henson) was my dream as a kid. And, yeah, I'd still be way into it.

For anyone who wants to ride that nostalgia wave hardcore, I can't recommend the Sesame Street Old School DVD sets highly enough.

forks = hero

ty forks, that all made me feel very very joyful.

I am not surprised they put that attention of funny, careful, loving detail into everything – but it is delightful to see it up close. Thanks for posting those pics, Forks.

i hope you all get a chance to visit sesame street sometime.

i got to meet and talk with Spinney and tell him how much I respected his work... he was immensely chatty and friendly. I brought an "Oscar Sings" album and he COVERED it in cartoons of Oscar. Then when we were watching the filming, he slipped me a page of the script, autographed with a cartoon. He was up-front about his cartooning career and about his work and posed for endless pictures as oscar and himself with me and dozens of other on set visitors. Dude was 75 when i met him and was struggling into the big bird suit even so for hours at a time. Total inspiration and one of the nicest and most generous people I've ever met.

the set is about two or three city blocks big and you have to go through three sets of doors. When you walk in, you are smack dab on sesame street under fifty foot ceilings. there are puppet carts and signs of casual genius everywhere. it's immensely breathtaking. Again, the weirdest thing is that they don't really supervise you! If you get on set and don't interfere with filming and are respectful, they seemed to allow me and many other passing through visitors (adults and children) to explore the space. I ducked into a garage and, hanging from the rafters, was Mr. Snuffleupagus. I wouldn't have taken the "me in a trash can shot" except my contact on set said "EVERYBODY takes that shot when they visit; you have to". In those pre-iphone days, I had a lousy cell phone but they were just fine with my taking photo and video as long as i gave them a handshake agreement not to post shots of the puppets in half undress or out of life.
I was really really impressed with Clash, who was a stern taskmaster AND the lead character AND the cinematographer. He filmed an entire episode of the live action segments in about a day. It was the most relaxed and professional atmosphere I can remember being privy to... and no one ever cursed. Fast set-ups, fast revisions, fast direction but always open to engagement with visitors and to take suggestions from cast. I really really feel bad for Clash that he's not part of that world anymore... it seemed like the most natural thing in the world for him.

I ducked into a garage and, hanging from the rafters, was Mr. Snuffleupagus.

http://i.imgur.com/cUa7rQB.gif

Sunffy is my favorite.

i took no photos out of respect but found a picture online. this is what it looked like, like thirty feet off the ground in a shed.
http://www.blogcdn.com/slideshows/images/slides/309/641/8/S3096418/slug/l/6-1.jpg

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc

incredible stuff!

it's a huge part of my life now -- particularly Season 35 which I think is early 2000s (free on Amazon). Norah Jones singing "Don't Know Y" is very cute.

so... HBO.

omg i never heard about snuffy! that's so sad! i thought everyone accepted him finally!!

not sure what people expect sesame street to do when its funding keeps getting cut

seems like a pretty baller solution imo

shame about netflix though

Remember when Mitt Romney said he would fire Big Bird?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CN12guAWoAAk7GH.jpg

waht

not cool

?

I didn't wanna say but her grill was desperately in need of some upkeep.

Also: not Sesame Street.

I was gonna say, unless she's on the new one. Kermit did appear sometimes.

lmao i mixed it up and thought this would be HBO fuckery but it turns out it's some other kind

https://twitter.com/MattBinder/status/638807819119161344

Since this thread was revived, I have to ask:

WTF is up with Mr. Noodle?

he has a brother named Mr. Noodle

Kermit does/did? occasional bits on Sesame Street, but this is really more about The Muppet Show and the new The Muppets on ABC. All this TMZ-style bullshit leading up to the show's premiere is really dumb imo.

yeah but it's not without precedent, the weekly tabloids have maintained this "treat the muppets like they're real people" schtick for years

I had recurring nightmares featuring The Count, Grover, and even Big Bird once as a kid. so I'll go for Kermit

Grover! is the first character to appear onscreen on the HBO episodes. This is, symbolically, a marvelous slap in Elmo's dumb little face.

new episodes are half as long and there's less pop culture bullshit but the last fifteen is still elmo's world.

http://67.media.tumblr.com/2edd875818ccd1ca3d7137d887602c18/tumblr_ncgou208g01spm17no1_400.gif

I still can't believe that elmo outpolled ernie among grown up ilxors.

typical erniebro unable to accept reality

erniebro til I die

lol wins

seriously though that is bullshit, even worse than the Count placing so high. sesame street without ernie would be missing SO much.

Bert was robbed, however the correct answer is Grover

http://i.imgur.com/RFg04lx.jpg

"I'd give you $30 for it, $50 if it still had bluetooth."

my 2-year old now saying "Usher! Usher!" all the time b/c he wants to watch the ABC's with Usher video 10 times a day. now the song plays in my head at 3AM.

one recent episode had a Cookie Monster parody of Twilight that made me laugh a lot. can't remember another segment that seemed so destined to go over its target audience's heads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vftf8TTve4s

yea okay you win

what the hell! Never seen that before. Possibly more unsettling than anything in the real show.

they do adaptations of adult stuff that kids would be unfamiliar w all the time

For instance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhWUFXvaZjo

it's a tactic that kinda annoys me tbh cuz the kids won't get the joke/wonder what you're laughing at and then you have to tell them and then oh great now they know what the Walking Dead or Game of Thrones or whatever is

prefer it when they stick to random celebrity cameos

good night Oscar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUXojQ_nhD4

dude gets all the credit for big bird but Oscar was more important to me.

both meant the world to me :(
i cried a little this morning when i heard the news

I GUESS I'LL GO TO GOOGLE TO FIND OUT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED.

https://wjla.com/news/entertainment/carroll-spinney-dead-big-bird-oscar-the-grouch-sesame-street

Didn't know he did Oscar too!

Was already resolved to watch Christmas Eve on Sesame Street this year (an annual tradition for most of my life that had slipped away a while back), already anticipating the attendant emotional meltdown.

Oh hey, maybe I'll also throw my as-yet-unwatched copy of I Am Big Bird on the emotional bonfire while I'm at it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY8trVya5aU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AerOhR8GJVk

My sister posted these two tremendous performances (from Follow That Bird) in his honor.

he also did Bruno the Garbageman <3

I brought an "Oscar Sings" album and he COVERED it in cartoons of Oscar. Then when we were watching the filming, he slipped me a page of the script, autographed with a cartoon. He was up-front about his cartooning career and about his work and posed for endless pictures as oscar and himself with me and dozens of other on set visitors. Dude was 75 when i met him and was struggling into the big bird suit even so for hours at a time. Total inspiration and one of the nicest and most generous people I've ever met.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKaK7Ph0nz0

my kids have started watching the full episodes now (mostly from the 80s and 90s, I think). I love how diverse and often ramshackle the show is. it's like Saturday Night Live where everything seems to be done on the fly and a lot of the background actors don't really know what to do, especially the kids. every episode has like 4 animated segments and the style on them are all wildly different and relentlessly unprofessional. there's nothing like that anymore. are the new episodes the same way?

no

https://money.cnn.com/2016/07/28/media/sesame-street-actors-axed/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMtGImlEmu0

Write-in for the two weird aliens ("Phoooooone")

one of my rabbitholes is old sesame street. yesterday it was a john and faith hubley binge. sesame street's underground leftist cred in the early days gets really underrated. why haven't you seen the actor who played mr. hooper in anything else? because he was blacklisted! that's right. mr. hooper was a communist. pete seeger was on the show all the time. buffy ste-marie was a full-fledged cast member. they got the backing musicians from "oh! calcutta" to write songs. grace slick sang the first number counting song.

anyway the "lost media" fandom these days is a little different in orientation, they're more into the creepypasta aspect of it, to the point where somebody actually leaked the "wicked witch" episode. i'm more into the completionist nerd stuff, like people who try to hunt down all the typewriter bits (the hardest one to find? o for owl) or all of the "dot bridge" animations.

I found the "Sesame Street Record and Book" at the record store recently, definitely trippy seeing a young Bob McGrath on the cover. and no Elmo! but Kermit is there.

he had a decent career even before sesame street! first with mitch miller, and then in the mid '60s he was an idol in japan...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjPYeloMx7s

I know his entire life story is printed on the sleeve! For some reason like half the albums from the 60s do this!

The "12" song is, indeed, one of the most bizarre pieces of music Sesame Street featured, alongside the Philip Glass circles cycle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19hRQfZdTr4

there's just _so much_ bizarre in sesame street, tho. raymond scott and jim henson being terrifying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVktxm3p7gI

peter schickele (pdq bach):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKWnp4b_hW0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKDU_QbREvA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb2YBYQ6-tA

the music here isn't so weird, just a banging funk jam, but the video... it's supposed to have been made to teach kids about emotions? or something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUUtGICVeAU

I wonder… what if? Let’s try!