Sesame Street (partially lost children's educational TV series; 1969-present)

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This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its poor organization and lack of concrete references.



SS1969Cast.jpg

Cast photo from Sesame Street’s first season.

Status: Partially Lost

Sesame Street is a children’s television series that started in 1969. The series is one of the most well-known and longest running children’s television series of all time. Since its inception in 1969, the show has earned 159 Emmy Awards and 8 Grammy Awards, and an estimated 77 million Americans watched the series as children as of 2008.[1]

Despite its massive multi-decade running time, it’s become an interest of avid fans of the series to document the series in its entirety, including descriptions for shorts in episodes ranging from the first season to the present.[2]

While episode listings adapted from Children’s Television Workshop archives are complete in writing, many of the segments included in the listings are not available for audiences on any home video releases or digital releases. A complete listing of these is not available, largely due to the vast number of episodes of the series produced, but many of the popular segments that have been lost and found since the genesis of the Internet have been listed below.

Aside from segments that are unavailable to the general populace, at least sixty episodes are missing from Sesame Workshop's archive.

Granny Fanny Nesselrode Skits - Partially Found

Granny Fanny Nesselrode is an early old lady Muppet performed by Caroll Spinney during Season 2 and Season 3. Her character was best known for her "Answer Lady" skits, in which she attempted to solve viewers' problems but fails miserably. The program was broadcast from her cozy, sun-filled kitchen in Goat Corners, New Hampshire. She also appeared in the first "Here is Your Life" sketch from 1972, where she celebrates the life of Oak Tree, coming down the road from a farmhouse to visit and pay her respects to the tree, whom she planted in the ground since he was just an acorn, hence also bringing a picture of the acorn. In that sketch, she was performed by Jim Henson.

There are a total of four known Answer Lady sketches: "Ketchup Problem," "Classifying Kittens," "Telephone," and "Alphabet." Of these four skits known to include her (not counting the "Here is Your Life: Oak Tree" skit that can be easily found all over a batch of episodes and even on Sesame Street's official YT channel), "Classifying Kittens" is the only Answer Lady skit to be found in English. "Telephone" has been found in German. "Ketchup Problem" and "Alphabet" have not resurfaced in any form.

Classifying Kittens

Telephone (German dub)

Here is Your Life: Oak Tree)

Professor Hastings Skits - Partially Found

Professor Hastings is an early Muppet professor performed by Frank Oz from the first three seasons. His character was best known for boring himself to sleep with his own lectures.

Screenshot of Letter Y skit
A fake screenshot of Letter Y skit, courtesy of Lost Media Wiki forums user Summertime.

Of the ten known skits to include him, the following is listed below:

  • Only one (What’s My Part?) has resurfaced in complete English.
  • Emotions has resurfaced in English (mostly fan-dubbed by a user but also using only a few actual English audio pieces taken from a documentary) with the video source deriving from the German dub.
  • Spinning Wheel has resurfaced in English but as incomplete (with the video starting halfway through the song, due to the only found VHS recording of the German dub from which it was audio-synced having missed the first half of the clip). However, the English version with the full uncut video clip had been on YouTube in 2006, but as usual, it had been long deleted.
  • Number 2's existence as a separate skit was rumoured for many years, but this was debunked as the Number 2 skit actually turned out to be the same Dump Truck skit (thanks to a full episode guide for Episode 0141 that was recently added to Muppet Wiki via a trusted source) that had been found in Arabic.
  • Five other dubbed segments have resurfaced.
  • Letter Y was once posted on YouTube in German back in 2006 but has been long gone since and it is confirmed that Rohail Hashmi, tpirman1982 and other users do not have Letter Y saved on their desktops. On June 23, 2018, Lost Media Wiki forums user Summertime uploaded another screenshot of the letter Y segment, but as of 2019, this was discovered to be a fake screenshot due to a still of Hastings from a bad-quality video of the Emotions skit being photoshopped into the picture.[3]
  • The U Lecture skit was once posted on YouTube in German back in 2006, but as usual (along with all the other German Sesamstraße clips), it was pulled in February 2007 as a result of Viacom pulling 400,000,000 YouTubers and has not resurfaced ever since. From Episode 0297, it is basically a filmed version of the same song from The Muppet Alphabet Album, except that Kermit the Frog is in Ernie's place. Only the album track with Ernie has resurfaced.
Screenshot (as uploaded by Scarecroe on Muppet Wiki) showing proof that Herbert, instead Hastings, was in the final footage.

Despite the 10 skits known to include him, the original drafted script for Episode 0138 actually contains a 3-part skit involving the ET word family, with Professor Hastings doing a lecture and Grover carrying the letters. Because of Hastings' appearance in the script, it was rumoured for a little while that Hastings was in the filmed skit, but when Scarecroe recently started uploading screenshots of many long-unseen Classic Sesame Street episodes (especially for this skit) on Muppet Wiki during May of 2019, the rumour about Hastings' appearance in the final was debunked as it turns out he was replaced with Herbert Birdsfoot doing the lecture, while Grover remained intact.

What's My Part?: Foot

Emotions (mostly fandubbed, and in English)

Pogo Stick (Arabic dub)

Dump Truck (Arabic dub)

Exercise (Portuguese dub)

Body Parts (German dub)

Big and Little (German dub)

Letter U (English audio from soundtrack, but it's the one with Ernie, not Kermit)

Spinning Wheel (incomplete, English)

Leslie Mostly Skits - Partially Found

Leslie Mostly is a short-lived Muppet from the eleventh and twelfth seasons. She was the host of “The Leslie Mostly Show,” a talk show host spoof series. Her segments are interviews with other Muppet characters, including The Amazing Mumford, Grover, Count von Count, Cookie Monster, Kermit the Frog, Guy Smiley, and the word “CASA.”

While most of Leslie Mostly's skits have been uploaded to YouTube in English, the Cookie Monster skit has been found in Castilian Spanish, and the Kermit skit has been found in Turkish. The Guy Smiley skit was once available on Verizon Wireless V Cast phones but is no longer available, making it the only one having not turned up online at this time. The uploaded clips can be viewed below.

The Amazing Mumford Interview.

Count von Count Interview.

Grover Interview.

CASA Interview.

Cookie Monster Interview. (Castilian Spanish)

Kermit Interview. (Turkish)

Deena and Pearl Skits - Partially Found

Deena and Pearl are a Muppet duo from the twelfth season. They were seen in a total of four sketches on the show before disappearing. Their discontinuance is largely attributed to the similarity of their segments to those of Ernie and Bert.

The four sketches include Baby Deena, Toy Box, Underwater, and Pearl is Sick.[4] Of these, Baby Deena is the only sketch uploaded on YouTube in English (as “Play House”). Toy Box has been uploaded in Dutch. Underwater and Pearl is Sick have been posted in Castilian Spanish.

Baby Deena, also known as Play House.

Toy Box (Dutch dub).

Underwater (Castilian Spanish dub).

Pearl is Sick (Castilian Spanish dub).

Gymnast Segments - Partially Found

The Gymnast segments are a series of inserts including a female gymnast (with blonde hair and wearing a black leotard) demonstrating various concepts using various gym apparatuses - like pommel horses and uneven bars - in a darkened, nondescript location. Two of the seven inserts featuring this gymnast - Around and Between - have resurfaced on YouTube; the five that haven’t are:

Beginning/End (uneven bars)
Close To/Away From (rings)
Over/Under (pommel horse)
Slow (uneven bars - slow motion)
Up/Down (trampoline)
[5]

Gymnast “Around” segment.

Gymnast “Between” segment.

Assorted Audio-Only Skits

The following assorted clips, originally included in the Article Requests listing, have resurfaced in English audio only online and are included to view below:

Ernie Dusts the Shelf

“The Sound of the Letter A” (sung by Big Bird)

Ernie Presents the Letter Q

The Story of Ira and Inez

Bert sees Snuffleupagus? (incomplete)

Assorted Partial-English Skits

The following assorted clips, originally included in the Article Requests listing, have resurfaced in only partial English and partially dubbed online:

Ernie's Barber Shop (3-part sketch, with the other two parts dubbed in German)

Banana in Ernie's Ear (3-part sketch, with the last part dubbed in Dutch)

"Do the Wash" (Partially dubbed in Dutch)

Kermit and Grover Count to 5 (Mostly dubbed in Portuguese)

"Handful of Crumbs" (sung by Cookie Monster; beginning and end dubbed in Castilian Spanish)

Through the Hoop (Partially dubbed in German)

Assorted Found Skits

The following assorted clips, originally included in the Article Requests listing, have resurfaced in full in English and are included to view below:

Guy Smiley “What is it?” with Grover, Biff, and Prairie Dawn

“When the Countess Counts for You”

Scuba Diver (finds five shells underwater, counts them on the shore, and is surprised by a crab)

Danger

Ernie and the Letter R

Muppets cooperate to make lemonade

Muppets cooperate to build a clubhouse

"Rubber Duckie" (Original version, beginning cut)

Muppets Cheer for the Letter K (Three different versions are known to exist, but the CTW documents labed them as #1, #2, and #4, suggesting at least one more additional "K Cheer" sketch.)

A little girl teaches a monster marching band do play in a parade

"We Are All Monsters" (Original version, with Elmo's undubbed voice)

News Flash: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

“I’m Square” (sung by Bert)

"Wonderful Me” (sung by Big Bird)

“Surprise!” (1975, sung by Big Bird, Grover and the cast)

Assorted Lost Skits

The following assorted clips, originally included in the Article Requests listing, have not resurfaced in English online:

“ Come Join Us!” Song: “Come Join Us” is a Muppet segment written by Cheryl Hardwick in 1980. The surviving still from the skit depicts a Muppet rock band performing the song.[6]The segment can be watched on YouTube in it's Castilian Spanish dub.[7]

Dr. Nobel Price (Slushabouts skit): Dr. Nobel Price is a Muppet inventor. He was best known for “inventing” objects that already existed with other names. One example of this is the “Slushabouts,” another name for galoshes.[8]

Miami Mice (The Space Center skit): Miami Mice was a short-run “Miami Vice” spoof starring Tito and J.P., two mouse detectives. The Space Center skit in which the mice help Count von Count get to the space center so he can do the countdown is a lost skit from this series.[9] The German dub of the clip can be seen on YouTube.[10]

Sherlock Hemlock Twiddlebug Mystery: Sherlock Hemlock is a Muppet parody of Sherlock Holmes. One of his mysteries includes The Twiddlebug Mystery that first aired in season 2[11]. The clip is available to view in a German dub on YouTube[12], but no English version has been uploaded online, despite a Sesame Street book of the same name being loosely based on this skit.[13] On September 8, 2019, Muppet Wiki eventually uploaded the English version of the skit on FaceBook via a trusted source.

David Looking For Maria Skit: An early skit about miscommunication features David and Maria looking for each other in the park. The skit has appeared in a couple of episodes, but its first televised appearance is in Episode 0677[14].

Cookie and Kermit Demonstrate Through: Cookie and Kermit’s demonstration of through, also known as “Through,” is exactly like what the title sounds like.[15] The clip is notorious for concluding with Cookie Monster smashing a picture frame over Kermit’s head and shouting “Through!”[16]

Big Jeffy Environmental Song Skit: Big Jeffy is a Muppet musician who appeared in many Muppet bands, including Little Jerry and the Monotones and Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats.[17] Not much is known about the skit about the environment, including the musical performance of Big Jeffy.

“We Equal Three” Song: “We Equal Three” is a song sung by three Muppet children in a winter scene. Not much is known about this skit, and no information is available online about it.

The Two-Headed Monster sounds out the word “BED“: The only known lost Two-Headed Monster segment. The only known episode to include this segment is an unidentified episode "Ask Oscar about discussions." It has not resurfaced online until MarshalGrover finally uploaded it on YouTube recently today.[18]

Grover and Little Bird at the zoo: The only known lost Little Bird segment. In it, Grover visits the zoo to talk about birds. When he visits the birdcage, he swaps places with Little Bird, and two Anything Muppets come and admire him. It's unknown which episodes have this segment. The clip was once posted on YouTube in German (with some crappy German text overlaid on the screen, and it's part of the actual foreign airing itself) circa 2009 but got removed in 2014. The German dub came back on YouTube in September 2017. [19]

Assorted Existence Unconfirmed Skits

Due to the vague nature of some of the descriptions provided by interested users or lack of available documentation online, many of the requested segments from this series have remained unidentified, been marked “Existence Unconfirmed,” and are listed below. If anyone knows more about these segments, feel free to comment below or write a new section for them.

  • Three Monsters Demonstrate Big, Bigger, Biggest (Found in Arabic)
  • A Muppet coach teaches her baseball team to play string quartet
  • Two Muppet kids on a ship (Found in Dutch)
  • Starship Surprise (not to be confused with Spaceship Surprise[20])
  • Muppet R Tag (1969)
  • Muppets and monsters count to ten (1969) Found in Norwegian
  • Muppets and Monsters (plus Bert and Oscar) demonstrate "none," "some," and "all" (1969) Found from an international airing, but dubbed in English by the uploader who found the clip
  • Cookie Monster and Beautiful Day Monster teach Fred's Son the difference between "Here" and "There" (1969) Found from an international airing, but dubbed in English by the uploader who found the clip
  • The "Frazzle" Song (full version with rip lines around the circles, never freezes at all near the end, the ghost from Elmo Says BOO! does not appear near the end of the song and the song cuts to black at the very end (without fade in and fade out transitions applied))
  • Ernie makes a friend (1969)
  • G is for Grover (1969)
  • Anything Muppets sing "Up, Up and Away." (Found in Hebrew)
  • Kermit shows "Between" by placing three objects on a table and then ducks underneath it when BDM comes along and devours the table to bits (Found in German)
  • "People in Your Neighborhood": Dentist and Bus Driver (1969) Clip at 0:44-0:12
  • Two Monsters sing "Up and Down" (1969; not to be confused with the Season 2 version that featured Cookie Monster and Herry[21])
  • A B Song is sung by the barbershop quartet Found in Spanish
  • A monster barbershop quartet singing about the number 4
  • Post office song - a hip song about the post office and mail delivery featuring the line '...to the post office where it will stay, for just one day...' (live-action)
  • Figure skater - a clip featuring a figure skater skating to the tune of "Don't You Know You're Beautiful?" (live-action)
  • Horses pulling heavy loads - Horses participate in a contest where they keep trying to pull heavier and heavier loads until they can't do it anymore. (live-action)
  • Circles on film - a circle 'wraps itself' around several live-action objects, an 'OK' sign being one of them. (live-action)
  • Riding on the Train - a song about train rides, with one of the lines going '...the A Train, B Train, Double C, takes you where to want to be...' (live-action)

“Rare Sesame Street Muppet Clips” Original Listing

This is a replication of the original Article Requests section for clips from this series:

This is a section devoted to rare clips from Sesame Street, added for no reason whatsoever.

  • "Come Join Us!" (a Muppet band teaches the viewers to "Join Us!" It can be seen on YouTube, but dubbed in Castilian Spanish only.)
  • All sketches of "Leslie Mostly" (rare sketches featuring host Leslie Mostly who interviewed a Sesame Street character in his/her home. Guests included Kermit, Guy Smiley, Cookie Monster, Grover, The Count, and Mumford.)
  • All Deena and Pearl sketches Here's one! -R
  • All Professor Hastings sketches
  • Three monsters demonstrate big, bigger, and biggest
  • Sherlock Hemlock's Twiddle-Bug Mystery
  • A Muppet coach teaches her baseball team to play string quartet (rare; last seen in Castilian Spanish on Barrio Sesamo)
  • News Flash: Dr. Nobel Price's Slush-a-Boots (Galoshes)
  • A little girl teaches a monster marching band do play in a parade.
  • A Guy Smiley game show with Grover, Biff, and Prairie Dawn.
  • "We Coulda" (sung by Biff to Sully)
  • "I'm Square" (sung by Bert with Ernie)
  • "The Sound of the Letter A" (sung by Big Bird)
  • A Miami Mice episode with the Count
  • Starship Surprise (not to be confused with Spaceship Surprise)
  • Two Muppet kids on a ship
  • Muppets cooperate to make lemonade
  • Muppets cooperate to build a clubhouse
  • Muppets and Monsters count to 10 (1969)
  • Muppets and Monsters (plus Bert and Oscar) demonstrate none, some, and all (1969)
  • "Surprise" (English version with Susan and Oscar's cutaway)
  • "The Countess Counts" (sung by the Countess with Muppet patrons)
  • A B song sung by the barbershop quartet
  • A monster barbershop quartet singing about the number 4
  • "The Garden"-style environmental song with Big Jeffy and two female backup singers with cameos from Grover and Cookie
  • "We Equal Three" (sung by three Muppet kids in a winter scenario)
  • The Spanish version of the "Small V" cartoon ("Ve menuscula. Ve-ve-ve-VA-VA-VA-VOOOOOM!")
  • 1. Gymnast - a gymnast (blonde hair, black leotard) was featured in six different clips. One of them - 'between' - has been posted. The other five, yet to be posted, are 'around,' 'beginning/end,' 'close to/away from,' 'over/under,' and 'slow.'
  • 2. 'Beginning/end' - five stop-motion clips featuring 'beginning' and 'end.' They are a barber giving a customer a haircut, a man eating a hot dog, a man painting a picture, a woman making a sandwich, and kids waiting in line.
  • 3. Scuba diver - a clip featuring a scuba diver who finds five shells underwater, counts them on the shore and is surprised by a crab.
  • 4. Post office song - a hip song about the post office and mail delivery featuring the line '...to the post office where it will stay, for just one day...'
  • 5. Danger - a man walks down the street while reading a newspaper and barely avoids running into dangerous things. He then gets nailed by something (revolving door?) in the end.
  • 6. Figure skater - a clip featuring a figure skater skating to the tune of "Don't You Know You're Beautiful?"
  • 7. Horses pulling heavy loads - Horses participate in a contest where they keep trying to pull heavier and heavier loads until they can't do it anymore.
  • 8. David and Maria - David and Maria are supposed to meet each other in a park but have trouble finding each other due to miscommunication. The words demonstrated are 'above' and 'below,' and the music score is electronic-like.
  • 9. Circles on film - a circle 'wraps itself' around several live-action objects, an 'OK' sign being one of them.
  • 10. Riding on the Train - a song about train rides, with one of the lines going '...the A Train, B Train, Double C, takes you where to want to be...'
  • 11. Batman and Robin catch Penguin and his gang with dirty windows and demonstrate 'clean' and 'dirty' while doing so.
  • 12. Kermit tries to demonstrate the word 'through' by having Cookie Monster run through a frame lined with tissue paper. Everything then backfires as Cookie Monster stops short of the frame, wonders what to do, and when Kermit tells Cookie thus, Cookie decides to demonstrate 'through' in another way - by smashing the frame over Kermit's head, saying 'This is THROUGH!'
  • Of the above, the first ten are live-action, the eleventh one is animated, and the last is obviously a Muppet clip.
  • Crack Master (Spanish Version)

Other Noteworthy Sesame Street Clips

The following is a brief list of Sesame Street clips for which there are separate articles on this wiki:

Episodes:


Sketches:


Specials:

References

  1. Wikipedia article. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16
  2. MuppetWiki, with its massive size of over 30,000 pages, is one of the best places to research Sesame Street episodes, skits, and related content. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16
  3. Forum post for a screenshot of the Professor Hastings Letter Y skit.
  4. MuppetWiki entry on Deena and Pearl. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  5. MuppetWiki entry on the Gymnast segments. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  6. MuppetWiki entry on “Come Join Us!” Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  7. YouTube Castilian Spanish dub of "Come Join Us" Song Retrieved 1 Feb ’17.
  8. MuppetWiki excerpt about the Slushabouts skit. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  9. MuppetWiki entry on Miami Mice. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  10. YouTube German dub of the Miami Mice "Space Center" skit Retrieved 1 Feb ’17.
  11. MuppetWiki entry on Episode 0256, the first known appearance of the Twiddlebug Mystery skit. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  12. YouTube German dub of Sherlock Hemlock’s Twiddlebug Mystery Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  13. MuppetWiki entry on the Sherlock Hemlock Twiddlebug Mystery book. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  14. MuppetWiki entry on Episode 0677, the first episode to show the David and Maria miscommunication skit. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  15. MuppetWiki entry on the “Through” Cookie Monster and Kermit skit. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  16. MuppetWiki entry on Episode 0334, the first episode appearance of the “Through” skit. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  17. MuppetWiki entry on Big Jeffy. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  18. The Two-Headed Monster sounds out the word “BED“ Retrieved 26 July ’17.
  19. YouTube German dub of Grover and Little Bird at the zoo. Retrieved 18 Sep '17.
  20. MuppetWiki entry on Spaceship Surprise. Retrieved 16 Sept ’16.
  21. MuppetWiki entry on Up and Down from Season 1. Retrieved 1 Feb ’17.