Sesame Street

It's time for the telecast brought to you by

the Geekcast Radio Network. for the show, Optimus

Solo. Alright, as he said, I'm your host, Optimus

Solo, and I would like to say hello and welcome

to the 13th episode of the Telecast, brought

to you by the Geekcast Radio Network. Today we

continue our look at puppet shows from our childhood

by going to the longest running puppet show in

television history. Being such an epic show from

the past, I have two co -hosts with me for this

one. First off, I have Mike TFG1 Blanchard. Hello,

sir. Hello. I put on my, just really quick before

you move on, I put on to my Facebook, I think

it was last night on my Twitter, I said, in all

caps, best educational show. Ever. Yes, indeed.

And making his first appearance since back in

Episode 7, I have with me again JT from Saskatoon.

Hello, JT. How are you doing? I am doing wonderful.

That's good. And I do have to say something real

quick before we move on because people might

be confused out there. There may be some people

looking and wondering if I have any. actual,

like, solid listeners that tune in every 10 days,

which I don't think I do. But anyways, I might

have some people confused about where Episode

12 is. Episode 12 is lost in the stratosphere

right now, and it is floating around in outer

space, and it will soon make its appearance on

the iTunes and the website. Let me just put it

this way. It's my fault, and the reason Episode

12 is not on here is because in my... philosophy

and my priorities if uh if there's a girl involved

i'm sorry i drop everything else as long as it's

not sports we can agree if there's a possibility

for me hanging out with a girl that i'm interested

in then podcasting takes a back seat um and that's

what happened when i was scheduled to record

episode 12 so that's all i'm going to say about

that hopefully everybody can understand Yeah,

you're only human, Kevin. Anyways, back to episode

13. Today, the three of us are going to be talking

about... Sunny day, sleeping up... That's right,

folks. We are talking about... Sesame Street,

and here's a little background information on

the show, even though everybody should know.

Sesame Street started in 1969, and yes, it is

still going. For the majority of its run, it

has aired on PBS here in the United States, and

I believe it's the same channel in Canada, but

I'll let JT talk about that in a second. It's

actually a 60 -minute show for the most part.

Most of the shows we've been covering have been

30 -minute shows. This one's an hour -long show.

has aired for over 42 seasons, and it has aired

more than 4 ,256 episodes. That is ridiculous.

That's nuts. Yeah. That's why Mike's comment

is completely justified when he says best educational

show ever. So let's start with JT, since I mentioned...

Obviously, you're from Canada, so you might have

a little bit different memories, and you can

tell a little bit more about what time of the

day and all that it aired on. But what are your

general memories from your childhood about Sesame

Street, JT? Well, this was the lead -in to The

Price is Right for me. Nice. Because when I was

a kid growing up, when I wasn't in school, in

the summer, when my grandma was looking at me

that day, it was like, Sesame Street, Price is

Right. I loved me some Sesame Street. I mean,

if I wasn't watching The Muppet Show, I was watching

Sesame Street. I loved me the talking puppets.

As do all of us. Yes. And to what you asked before,

I watched Sesame Street on the Canadian Broadcasting

Company, otherwise known as the CBC. And as a

child, for a while, I actually thought Sesame

Street was a Canadian show. Oh, how wrong you

were. Yes, yes. My illusions were shattered that

day. So for you, it was back -to -back with prices,

right? Yeah. Okay, and I'm assuming, Mike, since

we've talked about this a little bit before,

for us it was back -to -back with Mr. Rogers'

Neighborhood. Exactly. And I always remember

this one coming on first. Yep. I remember this

one coming on when I ate lunch. For the most

part, I know it aired again later on in the afternoon,

I believe, but for me, I always caught it when

I was sitting down for lunch. I'm not sure if

that was like 11 or 12 or what time it was at

the time that my mom had me sit down for lunch,

but I would always sit down for my peanut butter

and jelly, watch Sesame Street, and then watch

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and then sometimes

go outside after that. See, I remember it a little

differently. Okay. I remember it being on three

times a day, both shows, Sesame Street and Mr.

Rogers. Because as you and I both said in the

Mr. Rogers episode, at one point we were both

in morning kindergarten where we would get out

at like 10, 30, 11 o 'clock. We'd go home. We'd

watch it. I remember it when I was actually in

afternoon kindergarten getting up in the morning

and watching it at like 7, 8 o 'clock in the

morning watching both shows as well. So I think

it did run three times a day. I want to say like

the new episode would run at like – at lunchtime,

and then they would rebroadcast it then in the

afternoon and the next morning. But, I mean,

I could be completely off of that. But, yeah,

I do remember it being on multiple times during

the day. I just remember the one I watched was

always when I had lunch. It was always on the

early morning around 8 or 9 for me. Yeah. And

then would lead into Price is Right, Wheel of

Fortune, you know, good solid children's programming.

Right. Yeah, for me, distinctly, and I mentioned

this before, I remember Mr. Rogers coming on,

and at one point I remember Reading Rainbow coming

on right after that. Sometimes I would stick

around for Reading Rainbow, sometimes I wouldn't.

But we're not going to get into too many of our

actual memories, because I think most of our

memories are going to come out as we talk about...

Right, yeah, but I mean, we all had to go through

the thing of... Right. But, I mean, we all have

different... Everybody has a different memory

as far as what... they were doing when they watched

it, what time it was on, and stuff like that.

Because, I mean, if it's ran for, you know, good

lord, 42 seasons, over 42 seasons, obviously

things have changed and people are going to have

completely different experiences. But this is

a show that our generation, the generations before,

the generations after, all can relate to. So

it's kind of cool that we're talking about it.

Let's get into a little bit of the who's who,

and let's start with some of the human characters.

I'm kind of interested to see who stuck out for

everybody. I'll start. For me, it was always

two people that I remember the most. One of them

was Lewis, who was played by Emilio Delgado.

And the other one for me, and I'm guessing this

is similar for you guys, was obviously Gordon

Robinson. Yeah. And the one that we remember

was played by Roscoe Orman. And I just love those

two guys. Gordon was cool. You know, he is African

-American and he is bald. He had the cool mustache

when we watched him. He's probably changed style

since then. And I just like Lewis, too. What

were some of your guys' favorite human characters,

Mike? Honestly, outside of Lewis and Gordon and

maybe Mr. Hooper, Honestly, the human characters,

I mean, specifically Gordon, I mean, he was always

there interacting with either Elmo or Tully or

Oscar or, you know, those characters. And I remember

him the most. But, I mean, as far as all the

other ones on the list, I don't remember any

of these people. I do remember Alan a little

bit. I mean, Mr. Hooper from Mr. Hooper's Store,

I remember that. Like any of the other ones on

here, I don't remember any of them. I remember

Gordon had the wife and the kids and stuff like

that. I don't remember them as much. What about

you, JT? I remember quite a few of the adult

characters. I remember Gordon with his epic Tom

Selleck mustache. You can't just get over that.

I remember Linda. I remember Maria. It's kind

of hard to forget Bob because up here in Canada,

specifically in Saskatchewan, around this time

of year, every year we have what's called TeleMiracle.

It's this telethon raising money for cancer research

and kids' hospitals and stuff like that. And

Bob's from Saskatchewan. So every year, Bob's

on TeleMiracle. He's hosting, he's singing. It

was kind of hard to get away from him. If you

didn't know who Bob was, you're... kind of shunned

in Saskatchewan. It's like, how dare you live

here and not know this man? You would recognize

some of the famous people that would guest on

Sesame Street in the various segments who would

actually come to the block and hang out with

Big Bird and Snuffy and everybody. I got a pretty

good memory for a lot of the adult characters.

I did want to mention two more. Just because

of who played them, Ruthie was played by Ruth

Buzzy, who's a pretty popular voice actor during

the time. And the other one I wanted to mention

that I didn't know was, I'm going to say his

name wrong, but Hiroshi, who was played by the

guy from Sixteen Candles, Geddy Watanabe, or

however you say his name. Yeah, so I thought

it was kind of cool that those two were there.

I didn't realize they were on the show. And you

kind of mentioned some guests. Do either one

of you have any memories of a specific guest

that you remember more than others from your

childhood showing up on Sesame Street? Just the

one that really stuck out in my mind. I watched

stuff at five and six years old that most kids

maybe shouldn't. I'm not saying it's a bad thing,

but I remember a few times there was a few segments

where they got Richard frickin' Pryor on there.

I grew up watching his stand -up comedy and laughing,

not because I knew what the guy was talking about,

just because this guy was so animated. He's from

one of the worst Superman movies, Brewster's

Million, stuff like that. He was one of my favorite

funny men all throughout my life. And he shows

up in this one clip, you can find it on YouTube,

where he doesn't say a word, and there's this

voice calling out different emotions, and he

would show on this, and he would be angry, and

he would get an angry look on his face, or happy,

and he would smile. And this guy was so funny,

and every time he showed up, I was like, holy

crap. Yeah. Before I let Mike go, I just want

to bring up one, because we talked about it in

a previous episode, and I never realized he was

on there. There is a clip of it on YouTube, but

I never had realized that Mr. Rogers made a guest

appearance on Sesame Street until this last month

or so when we did the Mr. Rogers episode. And

I don't remember if I included that clip in the

Mr. Rogers episode, but it's on YouTube. And

it's just funny because Big Bird starts freaking

out when he figures out it's Mr. Rogers. I also

remember, I want to say it was Bill Cosby and

maybe, do either of you guys remember Frank Sinatra

showing up at some point? I remember Cosby. I

think I remember Frank Sinatra showing up and

singing a song with him. I don't really remember

this, because obviously it was an episode that

aired in 1973, but I saw it on YouTube. Stevie

Wonder showed up. Oh, yeah. And did a musical

spot throughout an entire episode. I think that

was the cool thing, too, even for maybe... moms

and dads that were watching the show with their

kids was seeing some of these other people show

up because a lot of the kids might not have known

who they were. I remember Robin Williams a couple

times. Yeah, and there's been a ton of people

since then. I mean, there's been sports stars,

there's been actors, there's been singers, there's

been, you know, every type of personality has

been on this show. I mean, if there was a list

of guest stars, it would be a mile long. When

do we want to talk about controversies? Because

there's one guest star that stirred up a lot

of controversy with Elmo. Oh, why not right now?

Katy Perry. I haven't watched any Sesame Street

in the last 10 years. If you're plugged into

the internet and you're on Twitter or Facebook

or wherever, I'm sure someone on your Facebook

wall clipped it or someone that's friends with

you on Facebook linked it because there's a Katy

Perry video with Elmo and she's strip -teasing

for Elmo. Nice. She's really strip -teasing.

I'm paraphrasing here. I haven't seen the video

in a while. She's basically dressed in a bride's

dress, and the main calamity of that clip was

the fact that she had a bit of cleavage, and

it's not anything really like what you see in

her videos. I heard that got cut, though, from

the show, didn't it? Well, yeah, that was the

whole thing. Yeah, that's the controversy, because

of what she was doing was showing cleavage. She's

got breasts! I know, how dare her impress. But

the thing of it is, Sesame Street, since its

inception, for the most part, has been wholesome.

It's wholesome television. So if they cut it,

it's no big deal. Yeah. No, it's just one of

those things. I know one of the singers, just

watching clips, kind of prepping for this episode,

there's Johnny Resnick from the Goo Goo Dolls

was on. And I was like... That's awesome. What

song did he sing? Because I don't remember what

song he sung. Oh, God. I just watched it like

a half hour ago. I can't even remember it now.

But no, it was just cool to see even years later,

guys and girls that I like from music and movies,

everyone's still lining up to do Sesame Street.

Oh, yeah. Everybody wants to be on Sesame Street

once. Sesame Street is one of those shows. First

of all, it's timeless. Second of all, it's like...

It's like Saturday Night Live with puppets, but

it's wholesome television because you have all

these guest stars over the last 42 years that

have come on the show, and you have so many different

generations and so many different things that

have come up or guest stars. If The Muppet Show,

which I know we'll get to eventually here on

telecast, if The Muppet Show ran as long as this

did, just imagine the guest stars that The Muppet

Show would have had if it went longer than five

seasons. Yeah. Oh, God. And they played even

a bigger role, obviously, since they were kind

of central to the part, whereas the guests on

Sesame Street usually played a little bit of

a smaller role. But it's still pretty amazing.

I mean, between the regular human characters,

which were very likable and very diverse, they

did a good job of getting a collection of African

-American, Hispanic, all different, Asian. They

made it very eclectic. And obviously they did

that on purpose and they did a really good job

with that. And I think the guest stars are just

kind of icing on the cake. Getting into some

of the actual Muppets, not dealing with any of

their voices or anything like that, but just

straight up Muppet characters. I'm interested

to see what some of your guys' favorite and maybe

even least favorite characters are. Mike, who

are some of your favorite Muppet characters from

Sesame Street? Well, first of all, my... Two

overall favorites, I can pretty much watch them

do anything except gangster rap, is Bert and

Ernie. I always loved and get attached to Bert

and Ernie for one simple fact. They are voice

reversed from Kermit and Fozzie. Yeah. Bert is

Fozzie, played by Frank Oz, and Ernie is Kermit,

played by Hanson. I just... I don't know. I always

liked those guys. I like seeing their adventures.

I also like Cookie Monster. I like Grover. Oscar

was okay. I could not stand Tully. Tully is just,

I mean, Tully was just, oh, man. I like Tully.

He's okay. I mean, he gets picked on all the

time. Like, there was one where Big Bird's doing

this rock concert. Mm -hmm. I don't know if you

guys saw the clip. It's basically Big Bird's

going to throw this rock concert, and he's going

to have all this music, and he brings all this

stuff, and he brings a large rock, and Tully

has to carry the rock. And at the end of the

clip, Tully's like, well, what about the music?

And Big Bird was like, oh, that's what I forgot.

I forgot the music. Yet Tully is holding this,

like, 50 -pound rock. Yeah. But honestly, seriously,

just... Even as a kid, there were certain points

where I liked Big Bird, and there were certain

points where I just couldn't. He's too wishy

-washy. I just don't like Big Bird anymore. What

about you, JT? Well, I guess Telly is probably

one of my least favorite. He was just a monster

Muppet. You know, he didn't really have any punch,

like Cookie Monster or the Two -Headed Monster.

Harry Monster. Yeah, he didn't really click for

me, but there were a lot of Muppets on there

that I disliked on Sesame Street. I mean, I loved

Elmo, I loved Oscar, Big Bird's up there, but,

you know, my number one, the one that is closest

and nearest to my heart is the Snuffleupagus.

Long may he reign. Because you can see the clip

on YouTube. They even posted it on the chat there

when we were talking earlier. It's like one of

the longest running aspects of this show is how

Big Bird has his friends snuffle up against him

every time he tries to get someone. It's like,

hey, meet Snuffy. Snuffy's like, oh, I gotta

go home and have some lunch. And he disappears.

And everyone more or less thought Big Bird was

either, you know, it's just a make -believe friend

or they thought Big Bird was insane. And then

they had this big reveal where the camera pans

up this line of all the human characters and

you see David, Linda, Maria, Gordon, Bob. Everyone's

just like dinner plate eyes, mouth to the floor.

They're all like, holy crap. You know, and that

was like one of those first moments, you know,

where, you know, it's like that vindication,

you know, as a kid for years, you're watching

this and no one ever believes in Snuffy. And

then all of a sudden they're like, they believe.

And I was just like, yes. Snuffy reminds me of

Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh somewhat. Just kind

of in the demeanor, not in the size or the persona

necessarily. Snuffy has personality. Yeah. My

favorites always switched as I went through my

childhood. At the beginning, I know Mike said

he didn't even remember him, but at the very

first thing, my favorite character was a guy

named Sully. And he was, I don't believe he ever

talked. He was just like this moving man type

guy that would help out with stuff. And for some

reason, I liked him. I immediately shifted to

Guy Smiley because of his just crazy off -the

-hook announcer -like style. I loved Ernie at

one point. I obviously love Kermit the Frog.

But, I mean, honestly, can we really count Kermit

as a part of, like, I know that there's crossovers

and this is a Muppets production type of deal.

But, I mean, Kermit was more of a guest star,

honestly. Well, he appeared, though, almost in

every episode from, like, 1970 -something, though,

until Jim Henson dies. So, I mean, he did appear

quite a bit. And I just loved his The News Flash,

whatever they call that segment, where he would

come in with, like, the roving reporter. I did

like Telly at one point. I love Snuffleupagus.

And much later on, as I was getting towards the

end of my run with Sesame Street, I switched

over to Elmo, like most kids did. I was a victim.

Elmo has ADD. I loved Elmo, though. The characters

I didn't like, I never really cared too much

for Oscar the Grouch. I never really cared for

Big Bird. I didn't like some of the ones they

brought in later on just because I didn't feel

that connection to them. But I don't know. Each

one is so different that you can find something

to like in all of them, I think. And, you know,

even Cookie Monster. I just loved his shtick.

I loved Count Von Count's little thing. The Count

was awesome. My sister absolutely loved Grover.

And I liked his near and far thing. Super Grover.

Near. But, you know, I... I don't know. Each

one, it depended on what the skit was, I think,

for me. Yeah. And there were, like, since, you

know, I'm representing Canada here, you know,

no pressure. There were a few later on in the

run, at least in Canada, they introduced some

Canadian -esque characters. Starting in the late

80s, early 90s, like that. I mean, obviously

in the States you guys had bilingual programming

with English and Spanish, and in Canada we had

English and French. So the Spanish portions were

cut out, and then we got the French, and you

learned a little bit of French growing up. And

later on we got these characters. There was Basil

the Bear, who is basically a polar bear. There

was Louis the Otter. Dodie, who's like this crazy

old lady who was a pilot. And Katie, who was

probably the first disabled Muppet. She was like,

you know, she was in a wheelchair. You know,

it's just like one of those things. It's like,

why is a Muppet, you know, I remember as a kid

thinking, why is a Muppet in a wheelchair? That's

really odd, you know. But it was just something

they'd done in Canada because we got like the,

you know, content issues. You've got to have

French and stuff in there, but eventually they

just kind of segued that into kind of a spin

-off series that we could talk about later on.

I do want to mention, and I'm not just doing

this to pimp out BehindTheVoiceActors .com, but...

You are, don't lie. No, but I did a lot of work.

I did a lot of work, so if anyone wants to see

any of the characters, I have on the Sesame Street

page of BehindTheVoiceActors over 700 of the

Muppet characters that appeared on Sesame Street.

So chances are if you remember any of them from

your childhood, you will be able to find a picture

there. I mean, 700 characters is quite a few.

So you can see just about all of them. They have

the guest stars, the regular people. I don't

have them all sorted exactly yet because there's

700 of them. But there's just so many good characters,

even some of the bit characters, some of the

guest stars. I mean, I remember they did a David

Letterman Muppet. They did a Howie Mandel Muppet.

They did like I showed you guys Law and Order

Muppets. They did. I love that. At first I was

like, oh, you link that in Skype. I'm like, no,

no, no, no, no. And then I watched it and I'm

like, oh, my God. Looks just like Stabler. I

mean, obviously their faces are different colors,

like John Munch is a green Muppet with gray hair.

But, I mean, still, it looks like the actual

actors from Law & Order Special Victims Unit,

and I love it. I swear to God, was it Stabler

was the main guy detective? I swear to God, that's

Chris Maloney, man. It is, yeah. Yeah. Like,

they actually got him to do that voice? Oh! That's

what I'm talking about in the Muppets thing.

Like, I swear to God, that's, like, actually

Chris Bologna doing... I'd have to check. Yeah,

we would have to check. Another thing they did

is they had a lot of family members... which

I always thought was cool. And what I mean by

family members is you'd find, like, Snuffleupagus's,

like, mom or dad or grandparents or sister or

brother, you know, same with Big Bird or Oscar

the Grouch. And I just always thought that was

pretty cool because it was nice to see that these

weren't just, like, a random, like, there wasn't

just one bird. There was a whole family of them,

or there wasn't just one grouch. You know what

I mean? Yeah. And I kind of thought that was

cool. Oscar kind of, as a kid, Oscar almost reminded

me of my grandfather. Yeah, that's funny. It

was not Christopher Maloney, by the way. He did

get Chris Berman to come in and play Chris Berman

Muppet. Oh, sweet. And Candace Bergen played

him. So there was a few kind of... Guest stars.

Yeah, guest stars, which kind of leads us into

maybe some of the voices slash... puppeteer,

Muppeteer people. And I just got to say, and

I've said this, I don't know where one other

time in telecast history, but when you're doing

a voice for a Muppet, it's more than just doing

a voice. Like, you know, you're controlling the

puppet, you're doing the voice, you're coordinating

everything. So it works together. And I just

think it's super impressive. And that's why there's

only so many people that do it. Basically, you

have to train. It's almost like you have to go

through this apprenticeship of learning how to

be a Muppeteer. The guys that did it are absolutely

legendary and geniuses. I'm going to name at

least some of the main ones. Jerry Nelson, he

played over 100 different Muppet characters on

Sesame Street. There's a lot here. He did Snuffleupagus

and Count and Harry Monster were probably three

of his main ones, but he's done more voices on

Sesame Street than anybody else. And obviously

there was more of him in Snuffleupagus operating

him, but he was the one doing the voice. Second

most voices on Sesame Street is Richard Hunt,

who did, at times he did Snuffleupagus and Elbow,

he wasn't the main voice for them. He did a lot

more of the minor characters, but he did a lot

of them. The two most famous, obviously, Jim

Henson, who did Kermit, Ernie, Guy Smiley, and

a lot more, and Frank Oz, who did Cookie Monster,

Grover, Bert, and a bunch more. And then the

other couple I want to mention is Martin Robinson,

who did Telly, Kevin Clash, who's the most popular

or the main voice of Elmo, and there's a lot

more that I'm not going to mention. These guys

are just geniuses. I don't know if there's a

certain voice or person that you guys preferred

or voices you liked more than others or what

you guys want to talk about as far as voice actors

go, but I can let you guys have a chance to put

your two cents in. For me, really, it's Bert

and Ernie for the most part, Frank Oz and Jim

Henson. As I said before, specifically because

they're also the voices of Kermit and Fozzie.

I think I told Kevin this off -air. I would have

loved to have seen something, just a scene with

four characters. If I could see one scene with

four characters at once, I would want to see

Bert, Ernie, Kermit, and Fozzie in one scene

together. And just see, because I mean, like,

over on ToonCast and all this other stuff, we

always bring up Frank Welker and how he is the

voice acting god. I would have loved to have

seen Jim Henson and Frank Oz go back and forth

between those four characters because the voices

are switched. For the characters, I would have

loved to have seen how they would have handled

that, having Kermit and Froggy, Kermit and Fozzie,

and Bert and Ernie interact with each other.

I think that would have been really, really cool.

But like I said before, for me, it's Bert and

Ernie. Yes, Elmo's cool. Yes, Oscar's cool. I

absolutely love Cookie Monster as well. But that's

pretty much it. Something like Elmo and Tully

and all, they're good voices. I'm not going to

deny that. wasn't really that into those characters.

Yeah. Well, the other thing that kind of gets

that, you know, you don't notice as a kid, like

I knew... I knew some of them were similar sounding

voices, but I would have never been able to tell

you that when I'm watching it as a kid that there's

only four people talking or there's only five

or six people talking throughout this entire

episode. I do want to mention, I missed one that

I want to mention. He didn't do a ton of voices,

but Carol Spinney was the voice of Big Bird,

so I think he should be mentioned. And Steve

Whitmire is basically the guy that took over

a lot of... Jim Henson's roles. But Jim Henson

and Frank Oz. Yeah. I mean, legendary. I have

them both as far as two of the best voice actors.

And I know it's different than a regular voice

actor, but... Just both geniuses. And they were

more than a voice actor on the show. Obviously,

Jim Henson's the one running the whole darn thing.

And Frank Oz was instrumental in deciding the

skits and deciding the type of stuff that was

going to go on. I mean, these guys were the moving

forces behind everything Muppets. JT, do you

have any favorite voices or anything you want

to put in as far as... Well, Bert and Ernie.

That goes without saying. Snuffleupagus. I liked

a lot of the incidental Muppets. I liked a lot

of the one -offs. There was one clip you posted

before. They had Kermit the Frog interviewing

Little Miss Muffet. I kind of liked the Little

Miss Muffet. They get the spider coming up with

Cookie Monster's voice. It's like, I am here

to scare you. And Kermit just loses his crap.

But my favorite voice was Cookie Monster. Yeah.

I'm sorry, there is something about this vaguely

psychotic cookie -eating machine that is somewhat

endearing, because you can't help but love this

guy that so unabashedly loves cookies. Yeah.

Because I love cookies. But then, in today's

society... He has to go back on his word on,

I believe it was, which show was it? I don't

know. Oh, I know what it was. It was a clip on

Conan. It's hilarious, by the way. Cookie Monster

goes back on his word and says, oh, cookies are

sometimes food. We must eat healthy now. That

just ruins the whole conception of Cookie Monster,

for Christ's sake. Yeah. Conan ruins children's

minds. No, for the official opinion of the telecast

show is Conan is one of the funniest late night

guys around. My favorite voice, I think, would

probably go to Grover. I just think Grover cracked

me up. He wasn't ever my favorite character,

but his voice was just so over the top. Me and

my sister used to always do the near -far thing

back and forth to each other. I mean, Super Grover,

regular Grover, his voice was kind of one of

a kind. And you would have never thought that

Grover was the same voice as Cookie Monster or

as Bert. At least I never would have put that

together. Yeah. So I think that was probably

my favorite voice. Anything we want to say about

anything that we missed or if I cut you guys

off at all as far as any of the Muppet characters,

human characters, voices, anything about the

who's who? I think it's just kind of cool overall

that the way they had it set up, just the way

they played the Muppets versus the humans, like

they're all just, you know, hey, Oscar, hey,

Big Bird. Like the humans never questioned this

seven -foot -tall canary yellow. Yeah. Mutant

walking down the street. And that's interesting

you bring that up because actually that's something

they debated when they were coming up with the

show is at first they never wanted the humans

and the Muppets to interact with each other because

they thought that that would mess with kids'

heads too much because they wouldn't be able

to, you know, kind of... make do with the difference

between this make -believe and the real world,

and they didn't want to blur that line. So they

actually, at first, were never going to have

them interact until they, I think they did a

few test things with some test audiences, and

finally realized that it was better if they did

interact. Yeah. Which, thank God, because, yeah,

I like the fact that they just act like everybody's

normal, and I mean... Yeah, and kind of by saying

that, you also kind of got to consider the whole

Snuffleupagus angle, how... You know, for years,

no one believed in Snuffy. Yeah. But they'll

believe in a seven foot tall talking bird. Right.

Well, it's one of those arguments that kind of

goes back and forth. It's something that Mr.

Rogers did very spent a lot of time trying to

avoid doing what Sesame Street did. He very much

wanted to emphasize to the kids that this is

the land of make believe and that this is not

real. And, you know, there's a difference between

the human world and pretend, whereas Sesame Street

just. kind of blended the two without caring.

And I'm not saying one's better than the other

or one's right, but kind of interesting. The

choices they make as far as dealing with children.

I mean, when you're doing a kid's program and

that's your demographic is as educational show,

you have so much more to worry about than if

you're just doing a regular cartoon. But the

difference is between Rogers and Sesame street

is that Mr. Rogers neighborhood had Jim Henson

had nothing to do with it. I mean, technically,

Sesame Street is a Muppet puppet production.

I mean, it is technically a Muppet show. Right,

I'm not saying that's wrong. And that's why they

can blend in the make -believe and the real world,

because that's what Jim Henson had always done

with his Muppet stuff. Well, yeah, no, I'm just

saying it's something that Jim Henson decided

to do that Mr. Rogers decided not to do, and

whether one's right or wrong or whether one has

better or worse effects on children, who knows.

I just think it's interesting that the idea of

should we let the humans blend with the Muppets

or the puppets or not. Yeah. All right, I think

it's time for us to move into our next section,

which is... The good. The bad. That's right.

It is time for the good, the bad, and the ugly

of Sesame Street. I have a few things I want

to talk about. I'll give you guys a chance to

talk about anything you want to. First and foremost,

it always makes sense to talk about the theme

song. Obviously, one of the most iconic introductions

to a show, basically just because it's been on

so long, but the whole tell me how to get to

Sesame Street. What are your guys' feelings and

thoughts on the theme song, Mike? I like it.

Just like when we were talking about Mr. Rogers'

Neighborhood, it tells you the story of what

the show is going to be. The actual visual shows

you the characters and all that stuff and shows

you the kids and all that. And it's just an overall

really good song. I didn't know there were so

many different versions of it, though. I mean,

I knew specifically the one that aired in the

80s. Yeah, there's been a lot of different versions

over the years. I didn't take time to look at

each one and pick out a favorite. I just remember

the kids singing it, and it kind of made a connection

with me as a kid, hearing that the kids were

the ones singing the intro. And it was kind of

like the same idea. It's interesting that you

bring Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood up because it's

kind of the same idea that you're both kind of

going down the street or finding the neighborhood

and eventually locating the place where the show

is going to take place. I never kind of realized

they both did that, I guess, until just now.

I just made that connection, I guess. But I don't

know. It's not necessarily one of my favorite

theme songs, but it's got to be one of the most

known theme songs in the world. Everybody's singing

this song. It's just got that iconic feel to

it. I mean, the show's run for, what did you

say? Like 42 years. 42 years. 42 years. And it

has not once changed its music. It has not once

changed its lyrics. It's timeless, is what it

is. I mean, if you can go 40 years and, like,

doing the same thing, your place in history is

assured. It's had some minor variations on the

music and the way it's done, but it's always

still the same idea and the same gist of it.

I just think, I don't know, for an educational

show, I think it's pretty good as far as an intro.

I wouldn't want it... It's not epic like some

of the cartoon intros that we're familiar with,

but for a kid's educational show, it's top -notch.

I want to go just kind of into a little bit of

what were your favorite types of segments that

they showed. I mean, it was like a magazine -style

show, and what I mean by that, for those of you

that don't know that phrase, meaning that it

kind of... jumps around to different things,

like you're turning pages almost and just coming

to a different topic or a different article.

And basically, they had the street scenes, which

were the ones that involved the human characters

actually on Sesame Street. They had the strictly

Muppet bits, like, let's say, like a Cookie Monster

segment or, you know, like a Count segment or

whatever. They had... Yeah, they had... musical

segments where they'd have the Muppets or a guest

person doing songs. Occasionally they did some

animation or some stock footage of like a live

action film or segment. I mean, is there any

type of segment that you guys looked forward

to or that were your favorite segments or even

just a character segments or something like that?

I always liked, well, you know, whenever... They'd

bust out a Muppet singing a song like C is for

Cookie. There's so many iconic songs. You have

C is for Cookie, Rubber Ducky, Kermit with It's

Not Easy Being Green or whatever. There's just

a ton of good. I remember having a record when

I was a kid, actually. Yes, a record. that we

would put on and it was like top hits of Sesame

street. I don't have no idea what the actual

name was, but it had all those songs on it. And

I just remember that I loved playing that record

over and over again as a little kid. Yeah, no,

I think one of my favorite six is aside from

like, you know, I spoke earlier about having

like guys like Richard Pryor and Robin Williams

coming on and interacting or doing bits like

that. That was always fun. I think it was just

– I think one of my favorite bits is kind of

like the clip you put in the chat earlier of

where it's Bert and Ernie go to Egypt. Yeah.

And it's not an educational bit whatsoever. In

fact, it's a little frightening. I remember that

bit from when I was a kid where – I do too. Ernie

is basically – it's a very safe horror movie

for kids. Like, you're in this creepy pyramid,

and your buddy goes off down the long, dark,

scary hallway. And the next thing you know, statues

are coming to life and dancing in front of your

face. And, you know, if your mind's not going

to crack in pieces at seeing that, you're stronger

than I. It's Bert and Ernie in the Temple of

Doom. I just remember that as a kid, too. That

statue just stood out to me, and I always got

freaked out by that as a little kid. And apparently,

you know, there are birds, the Egyptian statue

there, you know, because they had like a bird

statue in that specific scene. He just stands

there. He's just a statue. Ernie being Ernie,

you know, and I'm guessing the statue is based

on one of his, like. distant relatives. Ernie

just likes to mess with people, and you can see

throughout history that his entire family line

likes to mess with people. Derek in the chat

is saying she still has her Sesame Street records

from when she was like three or four years old.

I hope I do somewhere, too. I've got to find

it. Mike, what were some of your favorite segments

or parts? One of the first links I posted to

you guys in the Skype chat was... It was a live

-action segment where they just showed people

sleeping, and there was this song. I don't know.

For some strange reason, I always remembered

that was one of the live -action segments that

had nothing to do with Sesame Street characters

or the human characters. It was just one of those

segments that I had always, always remembered,

and it was so weird. I also remember, like I

said, Bert and Ernie, anything with them. I watched

another clip. Where Bert is trying to give his

nephew a bath. And then Ernie comes in, oh, you

know, you got the water, you got all this, but

you don't have any toys. And he brings in like

this big box of toys and throws all the toys

in the tub. And Bert's like, how am I supposed

to give him a bath while he's in there? He's

like, oh, I don't know. And then Ernie jumps

in the thing. Ernie jumps in the tub, oh, I didn't

want the water to go to waste, Bert. I do like

the one you posted, too, with the pizza and the

grape juice, first of all. Oh, I love the pizza

and grape juice thing. And JT marked in the chat

afterwards, he goes, Ernie is such a bastard.

And basically the gist of it, for those of you

that don't know, they both have a plate with

pizza on it and a glass of grape juice. That

seems like a horrible combination. And Ernie

has more pizza and more grape juice, and Bert

has a problem with it. So then Ernie eats some

of his, so then Bert has more. And then since

that's a problem, then he eats more. He just

goes back and eats all of it himself, basically.

But it shows their personality so well. You should

probably put the links in the post when we put

the post up. Yeah, we'll put some of them up

there. But most people can just go to YouTube

and start searching people. There's like a thousand

things on there. One thing I want to mention

quick, Kev, is just one of my all -time favorite

segments, because it was recurring throughout

the years, was anything involving Super Grover.

Yes. If you ever read Disney comics growing up,

there's a super goof comic where Goofy would

pop a magic bean into his mouth and all of a

sudden he grows red pajama, super suit, and he

goes off to save the day as only Goofy can. He's

got nothing on Super Grover. Yeah, Super Grover

was cool. Yeah, well, yeah, no, I'm not knocking

on this thing. Super Grover is like the ultimate

expression of unintended consequence. Yeah. He

was just so crazy. And he was such a needed character

because they didn't really have necessarily this

just all -out, batshit, insane, crazy character.

And Grover supplied that. Grover or Super Grover

supplied that. And I just think it was just a

great – it's almost like Gonzo with the Muppets.

It's just something that's needed in the dynamics.

Two segments that I wanted to bring up that I

always remembered as a kid. One of them, like

I said before, was Kermit's newsflash segments.

I always loved that because I just loved how

he came in and be like, hi -ho, it's Kermit the

Frog here. That was just cool. And Guy Smiley's

This Is Your Life. I loved that segment. I loved

the fact that he would, and it would just be

random stuff. a tree, a shoe, you know, just

like these random things. And then he would bring

in people throughout there, you know, and obviously

that was a real show at some point, you know,

this is your life. And they'd actually do that

with real people. And I just thought this was

a hilarious way to do it without using people,

but with using objects and like bringing in the

people that had interacted with that object throughout

its lifespan. I don't know. I loved those two

clips more than probably any other clip. Yeah.

What do you guys feel about as far as the ending

of the show where they always give you the, this

episode is brought to you by, and they would

do the letters and the numbers and the stuff

like that. That was a nice way to get free advertising.

Yeah. No, that's something like that. That was

just kind of a cool way to, like, kind of reinforce

stuff that was brought up in the episode. Yeah.

I thought it was kind of a cool way. It's almost

like, if you're thinking of it as an educational

and schooled way, it's like a way of reviewing

what you learned. Yeah. Something about that,

and again, it kind of goes to talk about the

show overall, but it never talked down to their

key demographic, like the kids. And I think that's

especially well reflected in the ending like

that, how they take the time to, you know, This

is what we learned today. Remember this. Take

it out into the world. That sort of thing. Oh,

I also remember the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,

10, 11, 12. I love that. That was like one of

those animated segments that you'd seen it a

thousand times before. But I loved it every time

I saw it. It was like... Kind of full -on slight

sensory overload with all the flashing lights

and colors and whatnot, but it's just one of

those things that every time you see it, you're

just like, hell yeah. Any other parts that you

guys can remember that we haven't brought up?

Well, there's a fire truck in the back. That

was not a part I remember. For me as a kid, and

I know this is going to sound lame as an adult,

but for me as a kid, I don't know. It was one

of those things. It was kind of like Legend of

Zelda Fridays with Super Mario Bros. Super Show.

It was kind of like when Friday happened, like

Friday morning or Friday afternoon happened.

It was like, oh, my God, I'm never, like, you

know, the whole closing. Oh, my God, I'm never

going to see it again. And then, of course, Monday

morning it would come back on. Whereas with Zelda,

it's like, oh, wait, Monday. Holy crap, where'd

it go? Oh, wait, it's a Friday show. Duh. But,

you know, it's one of those things where almost

every time on a Friday, every time I watch the

last episode of Sesame Street for that week,

I'm like, oh, my God. I don't ever remember seeing

it on weekends. Of course, then again, back in

the 80s, we actually had Saturday morning cartoons.

That's right. And for me, Sundays were dedicated

to Three Stooges, so that's what Sundays were

for. I don't ever remember seeing Sesame Street

on the weekends. No, no. I never saw it on the

weekends either. Nothing like that. I think one

segment or... Well, it happened a few times during

the summer months because, I mean, it was a show

that kind of ran all year long. It didn't really

run in seasons per se. And I remember, I don't

know if you guys remember, when they, episodes,

it would be Sesame Street, it would be Sesame

Camp. And the song, like, the same, like, again,

how you said, like, sometimes the lyrics would

change slightly. Like, when they had Sesame Camp,

do you know the way to Sesame Camp? And it's

basically a bunch of the kid characters along

with, like, David and Maria and Gordon would

show up. It's basically the Sesame Street kids

went off to summer camp. I don't ever remember

that. I don't remember that either. Maybe that

was a Canadian thing. That's not a Canadian thing.

I just remember that, you know, it's summer,

it's like, you know, school's over, and I'm hanging

out with my grandma, you know, my mom and my

dad are at work, and I'm watching Sesame Street,

and they're going to camp. I want to go to camp.

It looks like fun. Yeah. Granted, I didn't go

until years later, and it was church camp, which,

you know, the less the setup of that, the better.

Not saying church is bad, I'm just saying it

wasn't the camp that I wanted. I wanted to go

to the camp like Ernest. You wanted to go to

Camp Moana. Camp Camp. I never – it doesn't matter

what – I mean, unless it was like some sort of

celebrity camp or anything like that, like some

sort of earnest camp, I never, ever – I hated

going to summer camp. I always – I never went.

Okay. I never went to a summer camp. I wanted

to at one point, but I never went to it. So,

yeah, so those are – hopefully we touched on

some of your favorite segments or at least jogged

your memory on some of the segments that maybe

you've forgotten. But I think we're going to

move into our next segment, which is – Things

that make you go, hmm. That's right. It's time

for things you didn't know about Sesame Street.

I have just a random collection of things because

I honestly could have given you about a thousand

different things that you probably don't know

about Sesame Street as far as trivia goes. But

I just tried to select a few that I found the

most interesting. And here's a few of them. There

was a survey done in 1996. found that 95 % of

all American preschoolers had watched the show

by the time they were three years old. Yeah.

So I'm guessing there's 5 % of Americans that

don't have a television. Probably so. Which is

not a joke. I mean, I know that's serious and

sad. But that is an impressive statistic. 95

% of all preschoolers had seen it by the time

they were three. That's reaching some people.

Wow. And along those same lines, the second thing

that you might not know about Sesame Street,

there's 20 international independent versions.

It's broadcast in over 120 countries. So according

to the 2004 edition of the Guinness Book of World

Records, the show holds the record for the most

popular children's educational program ever.

It says over its entire lifespan, it's actually

been seen in 180 different countries. So that

is pretty, pretty interesting. I didn't know

it was – I knew it was available in different

countries. I didn't know it was available in

180 different countries. I didn't know it was

that big. Yeah, so I wonder what the other differences

– I mean, obviously, we talked about differences

between the Canadian and the American version.

I wonder how many differences there are between

the whatever, Chinese version. I've been here

forever for that. Third thing you might not know

about Sesame Street, as of 2009, Sesame Street

has received 118 Emmy Awards. Holy spit. 118.

That's more than any other television series

of any kind ever. Holy spit. Is that like one

of those things where someone spits on you with

holy water, you're going to get healed? No, it's

a polite way of swearing without offending people.

We are explicit, so what the hell with that?

If you're not counting Emmy Awards, or if you're

counting just all awards, it's won 132 different

awards. It's been nominated for 183 other awards,

but I did not know that it had won more Emmy

Awards than any other television program of any

kind. That's pretty cool, actually. Fourth thing

you might not know about Sesame Street, just

in case you're curious, Big Bird is 8 foot 2

inches tall. So if you ever want to know how

tall Big Bird was, measure up 8 feet 2, and that's

how tall it was. You know what I want to see

now? Uh -oh. Big Bird versus The Big Show. Oh,

God. Oh, dude. You did go there. Yes, I did.

The fifth thing you might not know about Sesame

Street, for those of you that remember the set,

the left side door in the front of 123 Sesame

Street has never been opened. You've never seen

that opened on air. Really? I don't know if it

doesn't open or if they've just never opened

it, but apparently it has stayed shut for 42

years. The sixth thing that you might not know

about Sesame Street is the human character, Linda,

was the first deaf regular character on an American

television series. So it kind of goes to their

whole trying to break boundaries as far as...

doing different things. You mentioned one of

the Muppets was in, like, a wheelchair, and it

seemed like they were always trying to do things

as far as, you know, breaking those things down

that had never been done before. Yeah, see, that,

to me, and I don't know what you guys, see, having

a character like that, like, she's deaf. Oh,

that's cool. It's just one of those things that

just, it never clicked to me as that being something

different from everyone else. Right. You know,

it's just, Hey, this is Linda. She's deaf and

she uses sign language. Okay, she's still people,

so what does it matter if she's deaf? I think

that's something that I took away from Sesame

Street at a very early age. Just because you're

different doesn't mean you're different. Yeah,

I think that's something Sesame Street did a

really good job of as far as implanting into

kids' heads some amount of tolerance. Yeah, because,

I mean, it's... And again, it's just kind of

like growing up, you know, I have my Auntie Debbie

and my Auntie Debbie was, you know, well, she's

a native Canadian or Aboriginal, you know. And

for years, it's just my Auntie Debbie and I was

like 12 or something. My mom, well, you know,

your Auntie Debbie's not like a native, like

Aboriginal native, you know. And I was like,

yeah, so. It's my Auntie Debbie. What does it

matter? It's family. I think Sesame Street did

a good job creating those types of feelings in

kids. The seventh thing that you might not know,

it all revolves around characters that are no

longer with us. and some of the reasoning behind

it. I don't know how many people will remember

some of these characters, but there was a character

named Don Music who was a piano player that would

bang his head against the piano in frustration.

They had to do away with him because apparently

kids at home started doing the same thing. I'm

sorry, I find that funny. I can see myself trying

to play the piano and hitting my head on it.

There was another character called Harvey Knee

Slapper. It was discontinued because his laugh

was too much of a strain on Frank Oz's vocal

cords. I did not know this next one. Roosevelt

Franklin was a breakthrough Sesame Street character,

or at least he was considered because he was

the only African -American puppet at the time,

or Muppet, and he was discontinued because they

said he was a negative cultural stereotype because

he was always seen in detention after school.

Maybe not the wisest choice for them, but I didn't

know that. Well, yeah, but you look at the characters.

I just didn't know he was discontinued for that

reason. I didn't know he was an African -American

puppet, you know. Really? Yeah. And it says some

of these band segments continue to air on the

Canadian version after they were removed from

the U .S. version. So I thought that was kind

of interesting that, you know, obviously different

countries have different censors and, you know,

different standards for what can or can't be

done. Well, yeah, sorry, just because I am, again,

Canada represent. The whole Dawn music, I remember

seeing that all the time. Yeah, I remember that,

too. But I mean, I don't remember it ever being

cut out. Well, and that's something, too. When

you're a kid, you're not going to notice it.

You're just going to never see them again, and

it's almost like they're going to fade from your

memory. You have no idea of what's going on behind

the scenes as far as them deciding which Muppets

will show up, which ones won't, which ones are

cut from the show, which ones are new. You have

no idea of the political stuff or just the...

you know, regular decisions being made backstage.

Cause as a kid, you're just seeing whatever they

give you. So it's kind of interesting to get

a little bit of that background information as

to what was going on behind the scenes. Yeah.

That's like I said, I always remember seeing

every so often seeing Don music banging his head

on the piano like that. Yeah. And I remember

Harvey Neeslapper a little bit too. I don't remember

exactly what his laugh sounded like, but I'll

have to look that up and see if I can find it.

But, um, so I think that does it for the, uh,

things you might not have known about Sesame

Street. We usually, at this point in the show,

go into a whole VH1, where are they now? We're

not going to do that with this episode because

there's just literally too many people involved

in this. Can I interject one thing? No. I thought

you went to sleep. Really quick, the character

of David, who is played by... Northern Calloway

actually got fired from the show after 17 years

because of two incidences where he was diagnosed

as bipolar and apparently he was supposed to

be taking meds. He didn't. He bit someone during

an on -set fight and he showed up at, he once

appeared unannounced at actress Alison Bartlett's

high school and proposed to her. Calloway was

subsequently fired. For these two incidences.

Some more behind -the -scenes stuff. Yes. So,

interesting. But instead of going into, you know,

where all these different people are, because

that would take a lifetime, I just want to take

a moment instead to just kind of reflect on the

man that was Jim Henson. He died way too young.

And I'm glad that his death didn't mean the end

of Sesame Street or the end of the Muppet legacy.

I mean, I know Sesame Street is no longer run

by the Jim Henson Company, which is a sad thing

to me. It's run by a different company now. But

I'm glad that these characters have lived on,

and I'm glad that the legacy that was left. But

it just makes you wonder how much other stuff

we would have got if he hadn't died so young.

Oh, I know it. The guy was brilliant, to say

the least. I mean, has there ever been another

person that did more for children's programming

in history? Well, I would put Mr. Rogers up there,

but... In a different way. But I mean, just for

the fact that this wasn't just one show. I mean,

he had, you know, Sesame Street, the Muppet shows,

the Muppet movies, Dark Crystal. Like there's

so many different things that he was involved

with. And even like Star Wars, like a lot of

the stuff Star Wars wise was helped on by the

Jim Henson company. When I learned he did the

first Ninja Turtle movie, he worked on the suits

for the turtles. I was like, holy crap. I went

into a nerd rage, not in a bad way. It's just

the fact that one of my heroes is working on

Ninja Turtles. Hell yes. I mean, he was just

a freaking genius. Amen. I mean, that's all there

was to it. I mean, not really to say that it's

a good thing that he's not with us anymore, but

the good thing about his legacy... is that his

children, his son specifically, I believe, Brian

Henson, is, you know, is furthering the legacy

of his father, and it's not like, you know, it's

not like where you have a situation where this

father and son were estranged, and after the

father passes away, the son just dissolves everything.

Yeah. They're still continuing on with Jim Henson

production stuff. Yeah, and there was actually,

he had two different sons that were both involved

in, Either, I can't remember if it was actual

Sesame Street or if it was like the Muppet Show

or Muppets Tonight. And I don't know why I can't

remember the other son's first name, but Brian

Henson and I know there was one other son that

was also involved. And I don't know how much

each one of them was involved, but I do like

that they're following that legacy on. And, you

know, it's just, I don't know, like Jim Henson.

I don't know, icon, legend, put whatever phrase

you want to up there, and it fits. Yeah. No,

he's like one of those guys, like, he never grew

up. Because I don't believe for a second that

you could do what Henson did without having a

healthy dialogue with your inner 10 -year -old.

Yeah. Because, I mean, come on, Fozzie Bear,

Gonzo. Big Bird, Snuffy, any number of the characters

he created, that's something a 10 -year -old

comes up with. The fact that this man was a grown

man coming up with this stuff and making it relevant

and enjoyable by every age demographic is freaking

genius. Think of the stuff he had to do. I know

it wasn't just him. Frank Oz was helping and

some other people were helping. It wasn't just

coming up with actual characters. It's building

And making the Muppets and making them in a way

that kids are going to enjoy them and be interested

in them. It's training people and knowing how

to work the Muppets. It's doing the voices. It's

coming up with the show themes. I mean, it's

so there's so many different layers that people

don't understand that had to go into this. And

he was doing all of it. So, I mean. It's just

the fact that he could do all that, from coming

up with the actual character to building it to

voicing it to learning how to work it and then

to train other people to do the same thing, that's

not even touching on the actual coming up with

the shows or the movies. Right. I don't know.

One bit of sad news, I think, is as far as the

business legacy of Jim Henson. On February 17,

2004, it was announced that the Muppets, excluding

the Sesame Street characters, which are separately

owned by the Sesame Workshop, And Baron the Big

Blue House properties had been sold by Henson's

heirs to the Walt Disney Company. As much as

I love Disney, I'm sorry. That is just to me.

They did retain the Creature Shop, which is the

famous thing that used to help with the Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles and Star Wars and Fraggle

Rock and Dark Crystal and etc. Just so you guys

know, if you hear some sobbing noises from my

end, that's me crying for the death of Sesame

Street. Or Muppets. I'm sorry, Disney. I like

Disney, but God, why? Well, I mean, it was bound

to happen because as a family, you can't expect

to be able to hold on to something like that

forever when you lose the driving force behind

it. Yeah, exactly. And it's just bound to eventually

be overtaken by a company. And as sad as that

is, that's just the way our world works. Yeah,

so I'm still trying to think of the darn kid's

name, but anyways. I'm looking forward, so just

keep going. Okay. But anyways, so John Henson

is the one that did Sweetums. Oh, okay. Cool.

At one point. I mean, he doesn't necessarily

still do it, but. Right, yeah. You know, instead

of talking about where they were now, you know,

I just wanted to take that time and talk about

Jim Henson a little bit and reflect on his life

and his career like we did with Mr. Rogers. Kind

of sad to do, but I think it's necessary. And

the good thing about Jim Henson, not really,

the good thing about his legacy, I don't know,

for those of you who are on Facebook, I believe,

let me just look in Facebook here. There is a

Facebook fan page, Jim Henson Public Figure,

where they... do various postings of a look into

his journals. Like they'll give you a posting

from March 3rd, 1969, got to Hershey PA to VTR

short shows on puppetry. So, I mean, if you're

on Facebook, become a fan of this page and you

can actually, you know, see the mind of Jim Henson,

even though he's no longer with us. Um, you know,

I thought that was really, really interesting

as well. Yeah, so there's definitely different

ways to keep going with the legacy. We're going

to take a quick break. You're going to hear some

commercials. You're going to hear some retro

Sesame Street coolness and epicness. So you'll

want to stay tuned for all that, and we'll be

right back after that. After these messages,

we'll be right back. Hello, nurses and friends

of nurses. Yakko Warner here, and you're listening

to a podcast on the Geekcast Radio Network. Lucky

you. Oh, Rubber Ducky, you're the one. You make

bath time lots of fun. Rubber Ducky, I'm awfully

fond of you. Bo -bo -bo -deo, Rubber Ducky, joy

of joy. When I squeeze you, you make noise. Rubber

ducky, you're my very best friend, it's true.

And now it's time for everybody's favorite reunion

show, Here is Your Life. And now, here is your

Here is Your Life host, Guy Smiley. and welcome

to the show. Tonight's guest has had a wonderful

life and is someone you all know and love, a

loaf of bread. Hey, guys. Raphael here, the Teenage

Mutant Ninja Turtles. Did you say podcast? Dudes,

do that. You're listening to a podcast on the

Gatecast Radio Network. Cowabunga. One, one flower.

Two. Two flowers. Three. Three flowers. Four.

Okay, listen to this. Everyone on Sesame Street

is always talking about love. Yuck. But now it's

time for me to tell you what Oscar the Grouch

loves. The thing that grouches love best of all.

Oh, I love trash. Anything dirty or dingy or

dusty. Anything ragged or rotten or rusty. Optimus

Solo from the Geekcast Radio Network. And I was

thinking the other day that maybe I've been too

hard on the folks over at IGN. I mean, they had

to put some effort into their top 100 animated

series of all time list, right? I mean, maybe

it's just me that wants to punch a baby when

I read it. So in all fairness, I thought we should

gather some of the people who were involved with

this list and get their opinions. So what do

you guys think about the IGN list? I didn't think

it was physically possible, but this both sucks

and blows. Okay, anyone else? Dudes are so dumb!

I'm afraid to ask, but anyone else? Epic fail.

Homer, they put your show at the top of your

list. You gotta like their list, right? I stand

by my disappointed groan. So I guess we should

do something about it then. Are you pondering

what I'm pondering? I am, brain. I think we should

unveil the Geek Cast Radio Network's Top 100

Animated Series of All Time list. I second that

emotion. And I know that our list will be much

better than the IGN list. Do you know why? We

watch a lot of TV. That and the fact that we

are teaming up with This Week in Geek, the Pop

Culture Network, Chicken Pop Pod, and some other

great geek sites. By your powers combined. We

will give you a list geeks everywhere can be

proud of. Kermit the Frog with another fast -breaking

news story. Well, I never understood why he goes

up the hill to fetch a pail of water. I mean,

logically, water would be down at the bottom

of the, uh... Oh, uh, hi, all. This is Kermit

the Frog for Sesame Street News. Excuse me. And

today I'm speaking to you from the base of a

world -famous hill, and I'm standing next to

a world -famous hill climber whose name is Jack.

Now, what starts with the letter C? Cookie starts

with C. Let's think of other things that starts

with C. Who cares about other things? C is for

cookie. That's good enough for me. C is for cookie.

That's good enough for me. C is for cookie. That's

good enough for me. Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie

starts with C. Hey, Chad. Pinky here, of Pinky

and the Brain, the smarter one, if you don't

mind saying so. I love listening to the Geekcast

Radio Network. Love. All right, thanks for staying

with us, everyone. And you may be wondering how

you can watch some Sesame Street now, besides

tuning in weekly when it's still airing. But

as far as the previous stuff, we'll try to give

you a little bit of information here. As far

as DVDs go, you have five different DVDs that

have been released as far as sets go. One of

them is called 20 Years and Still Counting, which

is basically just an hour -long thing, just giving

highlights and stuff. There's 40 Years of Sunny

Days, which is five hours of stuff. You have

a documentary called Henson's Place, Man Behind

the Muppets, which just is an hour -long documentary

about Jim Henson. Then you have two volumes called

Old School Volume 1, which is 1969 to 1974, and

Old School Volume 2, which is 1974 to 1979. Each

one of those is about three discs, about 484

minutes. The one says it contains the premiere

episodes from each of the five seasons covered,

completely restored. It gives you some animation

cells, a 12 -page booklet, 57 bonus segments.

So that seems like it gives you the most as far

as the DVDs go. So hopefully they're going to

come out with old -school volumes, you know,

three, four, five, et cetera. Since the last

one came out in 2007, maybe they're not going

to be doing that. It's hard to tell. I could

have sworn there was a recent news item about

Sesame Street on TV shows on DVD. There was a

recent one about a DVD release for the 1989 special

starring Bill Cosby and Kermit the Frog. And

then the other one was about the last DVD that

came out. The 20 Years and Still Counting came

out last July. So that was the last release as

far as DVD goes. So there are some DVD sets that

you just kind of have to pick and choose what

you want to get out of them. As far as other

things go, there are a quadrillion things available

on Netflix. Yeah. You know, there's different

specials, there's different educational type

mashups, there's... There's no seasons or anything

like that, but you can get a lot of different

things through Netflix. You said you want to

talk a little bit about iTunes? Yeah, the iTunes

store, the iTunes US store, I don't know about

the Canadian store, but the iTunes US store has,

let's see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. It has

10 different volumes, which most of them are

partial seasons. A selection of episodes from

seasons 38, 39, 35, 36, 37. Yes, I know I'm going

to order 40, 41. Let me just see. So you can

get a lot through iTunes. Does it give a price

for that? Yeah, it does. For some of them, for

like season 40, 41, 39, and yeah, 39 through

41, they actually have two prices. The main price

is like $17 .99 for each season. But the individual

episodes, if you just want to buy the individual

episodes, they're $0 .99 to rent and $1 .99 to

buy them. The other ones that I was mentioning,

39 to 41, if you want to buy them in HD, their

season 39 is $35 .88, 40 is $27 .99, and 41 is

also $27 .99. I would just buy them in standard

definition. You don't need high definition. Not

for Sesame Street. And the old school volume

is the DVD sets were $40 a piece, to give you

an idea for that. So you have multiple options

for Sesame Street. It's probably one of the shows

that has the most different variety of options

available on DVD. It's too bad that they're not

actually doing straight -up season sets. That

would be kind of cool, but I know that would

take a lot of work since you've had 42 seasons.

Whether you want to go through Netflix, DVD,

or iTunes, it's available through all of them,

so you have lots of options, unlike most of the

shows we've covered this season. As far as YouTube

goes, there's a lot of stuff available for Sesame

Street. Like I said, there's not really whole

episodes. There probably is out there, but it's

not as easy to find an entire episode of Sesame

Street. But if you just want to see something

to do with Cookie Monster, you type in Sesame

Street Cookie Monster, you get a quadrillion

results that you can see. You type in Bert and

Ernie, you're going to get something. If you

type in This Is Your Life, Guy Smiley, you're

going to be able to see that. So if you're just

looking for an actual individual clip to jog

your memory, YouTube's going to be a good option.

Most of them are pretty high quality that I saw.

Yeah, they are. There's a few that are done by

some kid that's holding a video camera to a TV

or something like that that you can skip. But

for the most part, they're pretty good quality.

And even when I was finding my 700 different

characters' pictures for BTBA, it was pretty

easy. All you had to do was type Sesame Street

and type a character name in, and you basically

could find a clip of that. Yeah. Sorry, as far

as clips go, like a character that just popped

into my head, Sherlock Hamlock, and I found like

a dozen clips of that character on YouTube. Like

you can type in the Law and Order, you'll get

that. You can type in the Deal or No Deal, you'll

get that. I mean, it's almost all available on

YouTube. So if you're just looking to see what

a few of those things were like or jog your memory,

YouTube's a fine event. It's going to give you

lots of options there too. I mentioned earlier

that I watched the Jimmy, not Jimmy, Stevie Wonder,

1973 episode. If you just search for Sesame Street

episodes, they will give you episode 3 ,000.

It'll give you some episode number, and they'll

say the year. And the person that actually uploaded

it was a 54 -minute and 2 -second clip. It was

pretty much an entire episode, but that was the

only one I could find. And in the description

of that video, the guy's like, I'll put more

of these up as long as people don't ask for them.

If people ask for them, I'm not going to put

them up. And I'm thinking, what the hell? Yeah,

that's funny. So the moral of the story is it's

available in a thousand different formats. So

whatever is the one that you prefer, it's available.

Time to rank our show IGN style. Let's start

with Mike. One, two, three, or four. Four. Yeah.

I mean, like you said, Sesame Street is not something

which it would be awesome if there was all 42

seasons in a giant Sesame Street box, but it's

never going to happen. And Sesame Street to me

isn't, like you were saying earlier, Kevin, most

of us like specific clips or segments. It's not

like you have to have every single episode of

this show. So I think the DVD route is very good.

If you're a person that downloads stuff, iTunes

is a very good resource. So yeah, four. I'm going

to be the party pooper and give it a three, only

because I would never buy this. in any form because

I feel like I don't need to because it's all

up in my head and I can go to YouTube and watch

it. I don't know if I'd actually want to sit

down and watch episode after episode of this

show. It's one of the greatest shows of my childhood.

It's a fantastic show. It's one of the best kids.

It is probably the best kids show of all time.

But I just say, and I'll give it a three because

I would never actually spend money to own the

DVD sets if there was. The one thing that, before

JT goes, the one thing that I would absolutely

spend money on to get this, if there was an entire

DVD set, three, four, five disc set of nothing

but Bert and Ernie, I would so buy that. There

you go. If you could pick your character and

just get all the clips that they were in. JT,

what about you? It's going to be a solid three

for me. I still love the show. It's not like

if it's on TV, I'm going to sit down and watch

it. But I've got nothing but love for Sesame

Street. If I ever have kids, I'll probably buy

one of the DVD sets. Unless it's still on TV

at that time. Well, yeah. It's like what Jerika

said in the chat. It's like Keith Richardson

cockroaches. It's going to be there after the

nuclear apocalypse. Sesame Street will continue.

There's no stopping it. It will never die. Before

we move on, I know we're still in the IGN ranking.

Jerika also brought up that we kind of missed

talking about Follow That Bird. I even remember

having the VHS of that film. I have a page for

it on BehindTheVoiceActors .com. Yeah. So I have

all the characters there, and the only thing

I'll say about that is that the bird or the family

that Big Bird goes to live with freaked the crap

out of me. They were weird. But no, it was a

good movie. I remember watching that when I was

a kid. I remember when I first saw the trailer

for that back when I was a kid and how – Like,

morose and devastated I was when it came to,

like, we had to drive, like, almost an hour away

from where I lived. It was the closest theater,

but, you know, it's the middle of Canada. Our

towns and cities are spread way too far to ever

be successfully invaded. Yeah, we had to go to

the theater, and we got the flyer. It's like,

oh, Fall of the Bird. We got to go see it. We

got to go see it. We got to go see it. And then

we got to go see it, and I was just, like, bereft.

I was devastated because I could not go see Big

Bird. I was like, but, Mom, it's Big Bird. Yeah,

the Dodo family just kind of threw me off from

that one. All right, let's get into any last

words for Sesame Street. JT, why don't you go

ahead and sum up your final thoughts on Sesame

Street. Greatest show ever. I'm not going to

sully its proud history and brilliance by trying

to proselytize it. It is one of the greatest

shows of all time, and I love it unequivocally.

Mike? Best educational show ever. I mean, no,

seriously. It's one of those things where, you

know, I mean, Kevin and I have often joked about

this, and Steve and I, a lot of us at Geekcast

Radio have often joked about this. If any of

us ever have children, the first thing that we're

going to show them is Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers,

not that dumb purple dinosaur. That's for sure.

This is educational programming. Yeah. You know.

And I understand generations change and stuff

changes, but this is real educational programming.

Well, and every educational show that has come

out since, I guarantee, has had the thought,

how can we do what they do? How can we be like

them? Without being like them, how can we be

like them? It's an amazing show. I'm not going

to say it's the best show ever, but I will say

it's one of the best kids' educational shows

ever. That's what I'll say for this one. Obviously,

it was probably my favorite show when I was,

whatever, three, four, somewhere in there. So

I'm not going to say anything bad about it. All

right, I think that does it. I'd like to thank

JT and Mike for joining me on this epic 13th

episode of the Telecast, and I would like to

thank everyone else for listening in. If you

want to leave us feedback on the show, three

main ways to do that. First and foremost, go

to the website, www .geekcastradio .com. You

can find the Sesame Street episode. You can find

all the other episodes. You can comment there.

We'll react and reply to your comments. We can

have a discussion there. It's all good. That's

where you should go. Second, go to iTunes right

now. Stop what you're doing. Go to iTunes. Search

Telecast. Give us feedback. The last feedback

we got was February 26th. It was from Democulus,

which is a frightening name. Five star. Titled

it excellent. And the write -up is, very cool

podcast and a trip down memory lane to hear about

the shows we grew up with in the 80s and 90s,

and it's awesome. Kevin and the GCRN people,

help us remember them and give a good summary

of each show. And while you listen to them, your

head fills with the memories and gets the nostalgic

feeling back. Thank you, guys. And that was from

Democulus, also known as Jason Jackson. So thank

you, Jason, for that review. So we're up to 10

different reviews on the American side, and we're

holding Pat with that five -star rating. So thank

you very much for that. Let's see. If you want

to keep up with everything Geekcast -related,

the best way is to become a fan of us on Facebook

by going to facebook .com slash geekcastradionetwork.

And if you like hearing your voice, call the

voicemail line 502 -526. 5821, and most likely

we will play your voicemail clip on the episode,

and you can leave voicemails for any episodes.

The entire Season 1 schedule is over at geekcastradio

.com, so just look it up and leave us a voicemail

on whatever show you want to. Don't forget we

have a theme song contest going on. I've had

three entries so far for the theme song contest.

The theme song contest clip plays at the end

of every single episode. outside of episode 00.

So listen to that and try to guess what order

the show's theme songs are played in. And also

we have the Listener's Choice episode voting.

Please go choose a show for me to pick for our

Listener's Choice episode. Mike will not, cannot,

shall not get his way. Okay, hold on, hold on.

Shut up. Shut up. Because I actually have another

suggestion for that since you bring it up. My

three suggestions are Video Power, Nick Arcade,

and Ghostwriter. Everybody loves Ghost Rider.

If you like any of those shows or if you have

shows of your own that you want me to cover,

remember it has to be a kids show, strictly kids.

We're not talking about sitcoms or stuff like

that. Just go to thegeekcastradio .com, find

the listener's choice post, and comment on what

show you want us to cover. So that does it for

now. We hope we succeeded in entertaining you,

informing you, and most importantly, unleashing

the geek in you on this episode of The Telecast.

And we hope that you will tune in for our next

episode when we continue with our puppet quest

with Fraggle Rock. For now, I am your host, Optimus

Solo, with... JFJ and Mike. JT from Saskatoon.

And tune in in 10 days for another episode of

The Telecast. Discover this.