TSSR- Season 4 (1972-1973)

 

So that’s 1, 2, 3, 4! 4 seasons so far! Ah ah ah!

Okay, so season four doesn’t have as much going on as season three did, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything new to take in at all. In every Sesame Street season, there always is.

This season would introduce many of the show's most memorable segments, a human cast change, and the debuted of one of the most popular muppet characters of the show. But we’ll get to those when we get to them.

So let’s get into this installment of the Sesame Street Retrospective, this time on Season Quatro.

Production History

Again, not really much to go over here. It’s strange how little BTS information there was on the first few seasons of the show. (Not including season 1) There were no big set changes, but the cast was whittled down a noticeable amount, and Jim Henson and his muppet crew gained a fifth member in the form of Richard Hunt, who would prove himself a very useful and versatile team player.

Also worth noting, this season was where Big Bird started appearing with the kids in the intro, and from the looks of it, he was having a blast.

Oh yeah, and the season debuted on November 13th, 1972, and ended on May 11th the next year. But yeah, nothing else to say here, so let’s get on with the overview.

Overview

Nothing REALLY noteworthy happens in season 4. It’s mainly just more of what we’ve seen before. Same characters, same lessons, same types of stories and situations.

There was one new thing they started teaching, though, and that was measurement. In certain episodes and segments, the characters would learn about how to measure distance and volume and use tools like tape measures and rulers.

Some of the most noteworthy adventures the cast gets into this season are Oscar wanting to move into Snuffy’s enormous trash can, Big Bird pretending to be a police officer, and for a couple of episodes, it snowed once again.

This was also the season where the muppet and kid segments that started in season 2 really started to hit their stride, as the muppets were becoming more well-defined characters and the kids were raw children just reacting to them. The chemistry they had was hilarious and really adorable. While each duo was enjoyable in their own right, the two most popular duos were Herry Monster and John-John Williams, who are most known for their epic counting session, and Kermit and Joey Calvan, who sing the alphabet with an extra letter.

Speaking of which, I guess now would be a good time to segue into how the characters were handled this season.

Characters

Like the three seasons that came before, season 4 does a good job of giving each character in the steadily increasing main roster focus and attention.

This time, I actually want to discuss the humans first, because not only did a good majority of the cast members from the last two seasons disappear, as I mentioned earlier, but there was a casting change among one of the original characters: Gordon.

Matt Robinson decided to take a step back from his acting career and resigned from his role on the human cast, and since Gordon was a character with an already established marital relationship with Susan, and the writers mostly didn’t want to break them up, Gordon got a new face in the form of Hal Miller.

Now like I said in my Sesame Seeds episode on Gordon, Hal Miller did an okay job portraying him, but he just lacked that Gordon-y charm that the actors on both sides of him had. To quote fellow muppet fan, Anthony Strand:

“Even though Matt Robinson and Roscoe Orman don’t look very much alike, it’s easy to accept them as the same character. They have the same gentle nature with kids, the same charismatic delivery to the camera, and the same confidence when interacting with the other adult cast members. Gordon is absolutely a leader of the community, and you know it as soon as you see either of those actors. Gordon may have started shaving his head, but he’s recognizably the same person.”

To me, Gordon is someone who seems to know everything about his neighborhood, how each of his neighbors is, and what makes them tick. Granted, you could make the argument that that’s the case for ALL of the SS characters, but I feel Gordon exemplifies this more than any of them. I can see it in Mr. Robison’s performance, as well as Mr. Orman’s, but I can’t see it in Mr. Miller’s.

Here’s an example of what I mean. I remember reading the synopsis for episode 503 of this season, which is about Oscar telling Gordon to scram, to which he responds by saying if Oscar doesn’t learn manners, he’ll stop giving him trash. And after I read that, I said to myself “Um… Gordon, did you forget who you were talking to? He’s Oscar the Freaking Grouch! Manners are the LAST thing you should EVER expect him to use!”

This is a plot that seems, dare I say, out of character for Gordon, because at this point in the series, Gordon should know Oscar is set in his ways and that he shouldn’t try and force him to do something that he and his species go against. And I know this is a problem relating to the script and story idea itself, but I also cannot imagine this situation with Matt Robinson OR Roscoe Orman as Gordon. It would just feel so jarring.

So yeah, Gordon wasn’t so hot this season, but luckily Susan, Bob, Mr. Hooper, Maria, Luis, David, and Linda are still the same as we’ve known them so far. Which is great.

And Matt Robinson wasn’t completely done with the show, because he had a different character he was performing who was slowly making his way up in the ranks with his own segment: Roosevelt Franklin.

Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School was opened to the public this season, where Roosevelt Franklin would play teacher for his cool cat friends, teaching them about certain topics and concepts, and I thought it was pretty great. Roosevelt, as I described, is a character that I’m not surprised caught on as well as he did since he wasn’t like any of the other characters in the main roster, and that’s still the case with these segments. He was the same smart, silly, cool cat he was with his mom, but he was now amongst peers his own age and helping them learn stuff.

When it comes to the controversy this segment sparked, I will admit Roosevelt’s friends do kinda come off as more rowdy and smart-alecky than the show usually is, but stuff is still being learned, and the performers bounce off of each other well enough that I can overlook it.

Our favorite bird and grouch are still dominating the street scenes, but this time, Oscar gets the majority of storylines, which include, but are not limited to, adopting a pet skunk, attempting to move into Snuffy’s trash can, getting a construction job, building a hat rack, ordering a million snowballs and winning the Grouch of the Year Award.

Snuffy is also appearing on the street more often, and he’s got a much less scary appearance now. He’s not just interacting with Big Bird either, he’s frequently seen with many of the neighborhood kids, as they sometimes tag along for the duo’s adventures. The adults still think he’s imaginary though, but I’ll talk about that later.

Ernie and Bert hardly make any street appearances this season and stayed in the confines of their segments, Grover and Cookie, on the other hand, were making more frequent street appearances, interacting with lots of other characters. But all four of them were slowly developing into who we know them as now with each appearance.

Kermit, like Roosevelt, got his own segment this season, where he was a reporter for Sesame Street News and would interview many popular fairy tale icons. This segment continued far longer than RFES did, and it’s not hard to see why: They were essentially the same as his lectures, but just with a different setup. Kermit is still the straight man setting up jokes and moments for his partners to pay off, and reacting to whatever they do in a realistic and funny way. The world of fairy tales is pretty absurd and chaotic as is, so when things go wrong, I guarantee it’s a treat to watch. If I had to pick any favorites I’d go with the Peter Piper interview with all of PP’s relatives, because of how many P words the puppeteers manage to fire out of their mouths, and the Little Red Riding Hood interview centered around the Woodsman, because of how the situation escalates near the end.

Guy Smiley also thrived in this season, becoming the host of some of the more popular game shows, like Beat The Time and Here Is Your Life, which helped cement his role as America's Favorite Game Show Host, more than it was.

In terms of new characters, aside from Roosevelt’s friends and a few characters that I want to save for future installments, we only got two this time around, one has been a mainstay ever since, and the other now sits in the pile of retired Sesame Street muppets.

SAM the Robot was a giant, rolling piece of metal, who thought he was greater than he actually was. He would try his best to help the characters with what they needed but suffered from glitches and malfunctions. I definitely think SAM is one of the more underrated street residents. Aside from having a super cool design, with all types of different gadgets, he’s a cool concept a general. I mean, he’s a robot that believes he can’t make mistakes because machines are perfect, but is constantly making them at every turn. It’s a funny form of irony. He’s also a little bit dorky when it comes to understanding human concepts, like in this scene below.

The one thing I’m still kinda confused about is how exactly does he operate? Is he remote-controlled, or does a puppeteer have to get inside him and operate him from there? If anyone knows please enlighten me.

And then, there’s the Count Von Count.

To me, it’s absolutely no shock that the Count is still on the show to this day. He’s such a geniusly written character. The Count works as a play on words, a parody of a popular TV monster, and an accurate depiction of how vampires were arithmomaniacs, and on top of all that, now the show has a go-to character for whatever number/math-related lessons they want to teach. Norman Stiles deserves so much credit for making a character that works on so many levels and one that was the perfect mascot for the 2020 elections.

But, like many of the other main characters, The Count wasn’t really the best version of himself yet. In his first season, instead of the jolly, friendly, and unintentionally annoying figure we know him as today, The Count was a lot more eerie and ruthless. The only thing he seemed to care about, besides his bats, was counting, he says he doesn’t have any friends, and he would even sometimes mentally screw with others to get his way, as you’ll see in his debut appearance below.

So yeah, it’s safe to say The Count had some work to do, personality-wise.

But yeah, despite a few of them going through a few weird changes, the residents of Sesame Street are still the same as we know them so far. So it’s definitely a good sign for things going forward.

My Top 5s

My Top 5 Favorite Street Stories

#5: (Episode 478) The One Where Oscar and Kate Have Dinner At The Robinsons’*: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Kate when I talked about characters. Played by Malvina Reynolds, Kate was a woman who like to sing songs and played the guitar, so basically, she was an older version of a much better character that we’ll get to later on in this series, but she’s not why this episode sticks out to me. It’s actually Oscar. Based on the synopsis I read, Oscar seems to be uncharacteristically helpful, as he willingly goes to get water from his trash can for Susan’s cooking and willingly showed up for this dinner party. It feels like the kind of scenario we would see in season 1, and I’d really like to see how the actual episode played out if it ever gets uploaded online.

#4: (Episode 505) The One With Grover and Queenie The Dog*: This episode is literally about Grover hanging out with a dog, what could possibly be cuter or greater than that?

#3: (Episode 514) The One Where Stevie Wonder Visits: I’ve talked a bit about this episode, or more so, the opening number, in my top 55 moments list, but there’s more to it that makes it entertaining. Stevie actually gets some cute moments with Grover and most surprisingly even gets to sing one of his most popular songs “Superstition” in its entirety, but I’ll talk about this more when I get to the songs list.

#2: (Episode 484) The One With Cookie Monster’s Birthday: Naturally, an episode about my favorite character’s birthday would find a spot on this list. Once again, Cookie Monster makes this episode with his excitement for all of the confectionaries he thinks he’s gonna receive, and namely, his reaction to the giant birthday cookie the humans present to him, just watching him shake the way he does is so fun and hilarious. Also, despite what I’ve said about Hal Miller as Gordon, he and Luis do have a nice interaction at the beginning.

#1: (Episode 406): The One That Introduces The Season: I’ve already done a review on this episode on my DeviantArt account, which you can read here, and my thoughts on it haven’t really changed at all. It succeeds in reintroducing each main character from the roster, it has good to serviceable introductions to the newbies, and it features one of the greatest SS moments that utilizes its large cast in a very clever way. Definitely, one that’s worth your watch.

Honorable Mentions: Episode 407, Episode 415, Episode 442, Episode 476, Episode 515, Episode 516, Episode 530, and Episode 535

My Least Favorite Street Stories: (Episodes 441, 448, and 513) The Ones Where Snuffy Goes Missing, Runs Away From Home and Receives A Postcard*: Yep, it’s a three-way tie in this section this time around, and all three of these episodes revolve around the one running gag I hate most in this show, but two of them have the same version of this problem, while the other has a different one entirely. In 441 and 448, Snuffy is actually separated from the ones he cares about (his parents and best friend), either unintentionally or on purpose, without giving them any warning ahead of time about where he might be, and Big Bird is put into very scary and complicated situations that someone his age shouldn’t have to be dealing with. In the former, he doesn’t know where Snuffy is, or if he’s ever gonna see him again, and in the latter, he knows where Snuffy is but is forced to keep this information hidden from Snuffy’s very concerned parental figures. No kid should ever have to go through that, and if they do, they need help and support from the grown-ups in their life. And do the grown-ups in Big Bird’s life give him that help and support? Nope. Not even a little bit. Big Bird’s parental figures basically just tell him to forget about his best friend and that his issues don’t matter. I know I keep asking this, but, are we SERIOUSLY supposed to find ANY of this funny? Yeah, I know the adults think Snuffy is just an imaginary friend, but frankly, I don’t care! These are serious situations that Big Bird needed actual help and advice with! Even if the grownups think Snuffy is imaginary they could still help Big Bird find Snuffy or tell him how to best handle a secret that could harm whoever’s involved with it, but from the synopses that I’ve read, what the human cast tells Big Bird is one iota away from being:

“Big Bird, your imaginary friend DOES NOT MATTER, so stop whining about it, and buzz off!”

I mean, yeah, Snuffy did appear again and did decide to go back to his parents in both episodes, but it still doesn’t change the fact that Big Bird didn’t get the support he needed to help his friend out. Not helping is the fact that both episodes end with the grown-ups once again scoffing that the events Big Bird went through ever actually happened, which is just adding insult to injury. I mean 441 at least has the plus of having a muppet police officer named Officer Krupky actually take Big Bird’s dilemma seriously and volunteer to help find Snuffy, but even that’s undercut when he mistakes him for Gordon, and then they most likely tell him not to bother because he’s imaginary.

Now 513, has a different problem. You think it’d be from the humans again, but it actually features a fresh take, with Mr. Hooper still not believing Snuffy exists, but remembering his experiences with his imaginary friend as a kid, and agreeing to hold Snuffy’s postcard for him. No, the issue comes when Snuffy comes to pick his card up. After another failed attempt to get his friends to see and meet each other, Snuffy comes to the logical conclusion that… Mr. Hooper must be Big Bird’s imaginary friend.

Come on writers, if the adults not believing Snuffy is real wasn’t funny, then Snuffy not believing the adults are real isn’t gonna be funny either. It just adds more unpleasantness to the steadily growing pile and makes Snuffy just as bad as they are. (groans) This is gonna be a long long LONG retrospective.

My Top 5 Favorite Songs

#5: Simon’s Song: Simon Soundman is one of the funnest muppets the show has ever created, and this song really highlights that. Kids will have a great time figuring out what Simon is talking about with each sound he makes.

#4: Imagination: Not only is this just a beautiful song on its own, but with context, for the first time, we get a mixup to the regular formula of E&B bedtime sketches that is extremely touching. After Ernie has a nightmare, Bert decides to sing this song to comfort him and show him the wonders imagination really has to offer. This was a stepping stone in developing the relationship between these two. They’re not just two guys who live and interact with each other because the show said so, they’re true friends who care a lot about each other despite their differences.

#3: The Ballad Of Casey MacPhee: First of all, it’s about a train, so that’s already a huge plus. And second, it features probably the most selfless thing Cookie Monster has ever done thus far, and quite possibly, in the whole series. Give it a listen, and you’ll see what I mean. Like Imagination, this is another song that shows these characters are evolving from who they started as. (Side note, I’m sure some Thomas fans would complain that carrying cookies in open wagons is extremely unhygienic.)

#2: The Song Of The Count: I’m not sure how many people will agree with me on this, but I think THIS song should have been the Count’s first appearance and not his sketch with Ernie and Bert. I mean, think about it, this song spells out everything you need to know about the guy, he’s called the Count, he loves to count stuff, he’ll count anything he can get his hands on, and it doesn’t show him hypnotizing or stunning anyone. I feel this would have been a better introduction to his character. Painting him as less of a ruthless threat, and more of a mysterious figure that the audience may want to see more of.

#1: 123 Sesame Street and Superstition: I couldn’t really choose which one of these songs I liked more, so I decided to let them share the top spot. One is a fun, catchy tune that paints SS as the fun place it is, and the other is an official song by the artist performed in its entirety with no cuts and no educational re-writes whatsoever. You can’t go wrong with either.

Honorable Mentions: Proud, Still We Like Each Other, Sad, Handclapping Number and I Don’t Wanna

My Least Favorite Song: Nobody: This was a song that was infamously cited by Lindsay Ivan from MostAmazingTop10 as evidence that Snuffy has an inferiority complex, and I’ve already debunked why that’s not true, but even without that, it’s just a mopey reminder of the current situation the writers have put this poor guy in, and it’s just not enjoyable to listen to.

My Top 5 Favorite Segments

#5: Everybody Sleeps: This is just a very calming and relaxing segment with a very calming and relaxing song that teaches us that sleeping is a natural part of life.

#4: The Lost Boy: Not only does this segment provide some great visuals, but it also gives a great message on what to do when you get lost somewhere: Go back to wherever you were, and eventually, you’ll be back where you started.

#3: Ladybugs’ Picnic: This season was actually home to some of the show’s most popular animated segments. Ladybugs’ Picnic is a testament to how genius Sesame Street’s music composers and songwriters were. I mean, this song is about insects having a picnic, and yet it’s still one of the most hummable, ear-wormy tunes that you’ll have the pleasure of getting stuck in your head.

#2: The Alligator King: This segment also has a very catchy tune, but also a very good lesson that people should know: You don’t always have to do something big to make someone happy. Many times, doing little things, like helping when someone needs it, makes all the difference.

#1: I Can Remember: Now this one is a reminder that simplicity really is one of the greatest tools in entertainment. It was meant to teach people how to remember stuff, and it succeeded and then some. Ask any Sesame Street fan what three things make up a grocery list, and I’m 95% sure they’ll answer: “A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter” in that order. Just more proof that Sesame Street is a master at teaching lessons to its audience.

Honorable Mentions: Train Song, Bird on Me, I’m an Aardvark, and Frog/Fly Body Swap

My Least Favorite Segment: Cat and Mouse Circles: Not particularly bad, just nothing to write home about.

Conclusion

Season 4 was really just more of what season 3 did. The only difference was there was a more noticeable balance of good and not-so-good stuff. Yeah, Gordon’s replacement actor wasn’t great, but one of the greatest and most long-lasting muppet characters made his debut. Yeah, Snuffy’s near misses were getting more infuriating every time, but we also got introduced to some of the most popular animated segments of all time. And yeah, not everyone got as much screen time as they COULD have, but we still see them slowly becoming their true characters.

Despite a few hiccups, Sesame Street was really showing it had sticking power and would continue to do so with every new season, which we’ll hopefully see when we get to season 5.

Well, another SSR installment has come and gone. Thanks so much for reading, I hope you’ll stay tuned for the next installment, and now, I’ll let this video play us out.

*(Images from Tony Whitaker, Muppet Wiki, and Google Images