Street Knowledge (Chapter 3)

Chapter 3: 10 Out Of 10

When you have a TV show, and it manages to go through one whole season, that’s pretty good. If it lasts for 5 seasons, that’s even better, but when you get to 10 seasons, you know your show is gold.

In 1978, Sesame Street made that achievement. Big Bird, Oscar, Gordon, Maria, Cookie Monster and the rest of the cast proved that they were just as worthy of super-stardom as Scooby-Doo, Happy Days, and the Brady Bunch.

So it only figures that there would be some things to commemorate this milestone, and I will go through them, starting with the 10th season itself.

It introduced three new muppets. Two good, and one not so good.

A dog that first appeared in two episodes in season 9, began making more appearances in this season, where he was given the name Woof-Woof by Bob. Gordon, however, thought the name Barkley suited him better, so they got all their friends and neighbors to vote, like the good citizens they are, and in the end, Barkley won.

Oscar also got a new method of transportation in his trash man friend, Bruno. Much like Sully, Bruno never really talked, and was usually just there to carry Oscar’s can around.

And then, there was Telly. (He was the not so good muppet I was talking about earlier, just to be clear.) He was introduced as a monster who was very obsessed with watching television (real up close, too.), and had television antennae sticking out of his head and red spiral pupils.

After one episode, the CTW realized that maybe a monster who watches TV all the time might not be the best role model. So after this season, Telly was dropped, never to be seen again… or was he? (More on this later.)

Meanwhile, the human cast was still the same, except one of them came back.

That’s right, in episode 1206, Buffy, Sheldon and Cody returned to the street, and there they would stay for 2 more seasons.

Sesame Street would also take a dip into the disco pool, this year, with the release of their new album Sesame Street Fever. Needless to say, it was an instant hit, reaching #75 on Billboard's Top LPs and Tapes chart, and getting certified Gold by the RIAA.

Continuing their musical success, Big Bird, Kermit and Sesame Street composer Joe Raposo would be invited to the White House to perform some songs for their annual children’s diplomatic holiday reception.

And speaking of holidays, Sesame Street decided to release a full-fledged Christmas special, for the very first time, and on December 3rd at 7:00 PM, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street made its debut.

This special was amazing, with beautiful songs, a touching story, and attention given to every character in the main cast… Except for Luis, which I actually asked Mr. Delgado about, and this is what he told me.

"That may always be a mystery of why I was not in the classic Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. For about 10 years I lived 6 months of the year in NYC and 6 months in LA, from the mid 70s to mid 80s and often went directly from working on Sesame Street to acting jobs in LA. It may have been due to that. TV specials and location shoots were done outside the regular production season.”

Huh. Who knew?

Oh, and also they made another special called a Special Sesame Street Christmas that aired on CBS, but it wasn’t even half as good as the other one was.

But there weren’t just holiday specials made, they also made their first anniversary special, the following year. Sesame Street’s first ever guest star, James Earl Jones hosted A Walking Tour of Sesame Street where he and the cast went through what really made Sesame Street important and memorable. Kind of like what I’m doing right now, except shorter.

But speaking of which, next year meant the next season, so starting with episode 1316, Season 11 of Sesame Street was launched.

Much like seasons 7 and 9, this season also had a multi-episode story arc centered around a trip, this time Maria and Olivia traveled to celebrate Maria’s birthday with her family in Puerto Rico, with Big Bird, Bob, David, Linda, Susan, and Oscar tagging along to surprise her.

And much like the arcs before it, it was spent with the characters interacting with the new people and setting. Oscar even made a new friend in *Osvaldo, el Gruñon. (*Oswald the Grouch) Think of Oscar, except Puerto Rican, orange, and with visible a nose, and you’ll get a good idea of how he’s like.

But that’s not all, Oscar also got a new girlfriend. Her name was Grundgetta, (performed first by Brian Muehl and then by Pam Arciero.) and together the two grouches would show us how complicated grouch romance really is.

Another miracle happened this season. Caroll Spinney had swollen his ankle during production, which meant he couldn’t perform Big Bird, so Jon Stone quickly re-wrote certain episodes, this time featuring Telly. You know, that monster I mentioned a couple of paragraphs ago? Yeah, they used him, but this time, they stripped him of his antennae, crazy pupils and TV-obsessed personality, and turned him into a gruff voiced monster, who worries about pretty much anything. And a legend was born.

Also, this season featured the debut of a generic red background monster used in skits, and the occasional street story. What’s his name? You’ll find out soon enough.

As for guest stars, it was a pretty good line-up, but there were two in particular that really out shined them all. But here’s the thing: They weren’t humans, they were robots.

Yes, C-3PO and R2-D2 from the Star Wars franchise paid a brief visit to Sesame Street in a two-part episode, where they delivered a message to Oscar, learned the alphabet and fell in love with a fire hydrant. (Only R2-D2 did that last one.)

Now it’s time to talk about season 12, and this is where the muppet portion of the cast grew. Let me just go through the highlights.

Telly Monster really got to shine this season, but we also got introduced to…
Honkers, bright colorful creatures that communicate by honking their noses to produce sound from the horns on their heads.
Countess Dahling Von Dahling, the Count’s fifth cousin, along with her dog, Masha.
Dr. Nobel Price, an inventor who kept inventing things that had already been invented.
Deena, a red, then purple monster, who was a more than accurate representation of kids who love to play all the time, and her not-mother, Pearl.
Ferlinghetti Donizetti, a poet who rhymed pretty much all the time.
And last, but not least… uh, um… Gee, I forgot who I was talking about… Oh yeah! Now I remember! Forgetful Jones, a cowboy who can’t for the life of him remember stuff. And also his girlfriend, Clementine and his horse, Buster.

Grover also got another job, this time as a camp counselor at Camp Wannagohoma. Why this only lasted three sketches is anyone’s guess.

The celebrities this season were all pretty good. Victor Brady performed Fur Elise for everybody, Itzhak Perlman did a duet with Telly. But the one that trumps them all is when Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, the OTHER most popular children’s TV show, stopped by and helped Big Bird better understand the difference between what’s real and what’s imaginary. And then later on, Big Bird would stop by the Neighborhood of Make Believe, pleasing fans of both TV shows.

Then in 1980, the CTW, Jim Henson, and what would become Seaworld thought to themselves.

“Hmm… Sesame Street is a pretty popular and well known show… Hey, we should make a theme park based on it!”

And so, eventually that year in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, Sesame Place was born, (Gonna skip ahead again.) over the years it was constantly updated, to create new rides, different walk-around versions of the muppets, and an abundance of live shows performed there. And hopefully next year, it’ll be in San Diego, as well.

Speaking of live, this was around the time where Sesame Street’s live stage show was first performed in Bloomington, Minnesota, and since then has been performed in arenas and theaters around the world.

But let’s get away from the stage and back to the set, and talk about season 13. Not a lot happened in terms of street stories, but there was quite a bit in other areas.

For instance, there were three new characters made.

Dingers. Pretty much exactly like the Honkers, except to communicate they ding bells on top of their head.
Mona Monster, Telly’s older sister, who only appeared in the season, and would later be repurposed into three more characters down the road.
Aristotle, a muppet who is blind and loved helping people and collecting stuff.

There were also a number of memorable inserts that debuted this season.

Bert and Ernie go fishing, and Ernie shares a special fish call he has.

Grover, Herry, Cookie and Frazzle sing about the texture and color of their fur.

And Ernie falls asleep by tap dancing and bugle blowing with sheep.

But now we got to season 14, where something DID happen in terms of street stories, and that something was Big Bird went to a place called Camp Echo Rock for 5 episodes.

Also, Ernie and Bert built a snowman.

James Taylor sang about how much he loves Oscar’s face.

And Cookie Monster thought about what would happen if the moon was a cookie.

I’d also like to point out that this was about the time the street set was moved to Teletape Studios’ Third Stage at 9th Avenue and 55th Street, moving from the former Second Stage on 81st Street, which meant more room for both the street scenes and inserts.

So with Big Bird back from camp, and a new filming area, the crew were ready to begin their 15th season. But it wouldn’t be all sunshine and rainbows, because some serious things were getting ready to happen.

Oh, but before we get to that, I have to show you this awesome performance the cast did for 1982 Daytime Emmy Awards Ceremony.