Most TV shows only dream of reaching the milestone of 130 episodes, but Sesame Street did in its first season. So many episodes! That’s why it was only natural that the producers felt like celebrating when they made it halfway through the season. And thus, between episodes 65 and 66, they made Sesame Street: A Celebration of Half a Year of Experimental Children’s Television!
Now that we know the show would go on for at least another 49.5 years, it’s fun to watch this special and see how they were celebrating then. Highlights include:
-A montage of the most memorable songs featured on the show so far, including “Consider Yourself,” “Yellow Submarine,” “Good Morning Starshine,” “Lulu’s Back in Town,” “If I Knew You Were Coming I’d Have Baked a Cake,” and of course, Mr. Hooper’s classic solo “See, Kids, This Is How an Anteater Washes Itself.” Today we think of these musical numbers as always having been around, but back in 1970 nobody knew Bob and the Hippies’ performance of “Starshine” would be a perennial classic.
-A never-before-seen “director’s cut” of the famous “Hey Cow, I See You Now” film from the first episode. This one ran 35 minutes, and ensured that its viewers would never have any questions about milk, ever again.
-A “Where Are They Now?” segment featuring children who had appeared on the show. This was a bit anticlimactic, because it had only been a few weeks since they had started production and all the kids were still the same age and still in preschool.
-An interview with Caroll Spinney about the characters of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. On Big Bird, Spinney said, “Well, he’s kind of a hayseed, Mortimer Snerd-type character. Just a big dumb guy. I think there’s a lot of potential there for many years of this character.” And on the subject of Oscar: “Jim Henson and Don Sahlin came up with this great design that’s so simple, but so distinctive. When you think of Oscar the Grouch, you just think of this orange guy. And that’s definitely, 100% what people are always going to think of when they think of Oscar: an orange guy. There’s no doubt in my mind. He’s just an orange guy. Orange, orange, orange, orange guy.”
-A segment in which Gordon asks children from the television viewing audience to talk about their favorite Sesame Street memories. Unfortunately, the show had not premiered yet when this special was taped, so the kids mostly stared blankly or gave answers like Romper Room, Captain Kangaroo, or “I want a corn dog.”
Overall, it’s just a lot of fun to watch this special and realize that none of the people involved had any idea how long the show would run, how beloved and successful it would be, or how inexorably it would be associated with them for the rest of their lives, whether they liked it or not. Happy half anniversary, Sesame Street!
Click here to halve a happy anniversary on the Tough Pigs forum!
by Ryan Roe – Ryan@ToughPigs.com
