Sesame Street Memories

Aaron and I were talking about how it’s so easy to spend an entire afternoon or evening on YouTube, just surfing from video to video in a particular genre.

I just spent two hours watching clips of Sesame Street, The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.

I could go back and link to all my favorite stuff, but I think maybe you should just go and search on Sesame Street and see what you turn up. OK, I guess I do want to share a couple things…

  • The Sesame Street closing credits I remember best. I’d forgotten that Fridays had different closing credits than weekdays, and I’d forgotten all about Barkley.
  • I’ll Miss You, Mr. Hooper, where the grown-ups explain to Big Bird that Mr. Hooper isn’t coming back. (I’d always heard that it wasn’t long after this episode that David passed away, as well, but the cast had to explain it away, since they’d so recently had an episode about death. According to Wikipedia, though, Northern Calloway didn’t pass away until 1990.)

Everybody has their own favorite Sesame Street bits, but OMG. The King of Eight, the Ladybugs Picnic, the series on pollution (that totally freaked me out as a young child), the lost kid on the bicycle that passes all the crazy psychedelic shit, Bert doin’ the pigeon… Wow.

I am convinced that Sesame Street was and is quality television. I mean, the Electric Company clips I watched seemed kind of cheesy in that 70’s sort of way. The 3-2-1 Contact bits were actually OK, although they were initially meant for an older audience, anyway. But the Sesame Street bits pulled me in visually and with music, although some of the songs were pretty cheesy.

Oh, and did you know that a hurricane hit Sesame Street? Big Bird’s nest got all destroyed, and you can buy the DVD to see him deal with his loss and see how his friends help him rebuild his nest. Outside of the typically cheesy musical song-and-dance numbers, I think that kind of sums up one of the neatest aspects of Sesame Street: it takes real-life stuff that a kid might come across in his life, and has the grown-up characters explain it in kid terms. Death, hurricanes, holidays, the Beatles…

Buh-Buhbuh-Buh-Buhbuh, Letter B

(Swear to god, I knew that version of the song long before I knew why it was funny.)

6 thoughts on Sesame Street Memories

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  1. I love 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
    Tho one where a ball rolls around a disco themed pinball machine. I remember when David died, I was ad, I was also sad that Sesame Street refused to air anyhting about it. My sister and brother were little then, and I remember watching the episode, and they said that David went to live w/ his grandma who was sick. It was like David was a pet hamster, and he “ran away.” Tasteless if you ask me, but death is a tough subject. Mr. Rogers didn’t deal with it until 9/11.

  2. funny… a mash-up of all the different numbers of that animation was what got me going on this SS marathon in the first place.

    my favorite mr. rogers was when he was all pissed off because he got a speeding ticket. i wish i could watch that one again.

  3. I was a Sesame Street junkie. I liked watching it with Sam when he was here all the time. Mr. Hooper dying, I rememeber that(sounds more like Mr. Hooper wanted a better contract if he died in 1990). But I forget who David was, so I guess I’ll have to refresh my memory. I watched Mr. Rogers like a fiend too. The Land of Make Believe…X the Owl, c’mon great stuff. Sesame Street is the only Quality TV we have left, but there’s a lot of good stuff on Noggin too.

  4. No, dude, Mr. Hooper really had a heart attack in 1982. ‘David’ was the one who died in 1990, and mysteriously went to go live with his grandmother. David was my favorite – If Gordon was the older black dude, then David was the younger black dude.

    A lot of the SS stuff is replayed on Noggin, from the station IDs in the corners of some of this YouTube footage.

  5. i remember we had a vinyl copy of the sesame street letters songs. my sister and i used to act out the Y bit between grover and mary ann. and i can still sing the B song. Got some brown bread, and boston baked beans, and boxes of bacon and bits of blue jeans! a beef burger burned till it’s black, oh boy! a big B sandwich, eaten in joy. 😀

    also the L song. Lalalala LUMPS IN MY OATMEAL!!!