Tripping down amnesia lane...

My last entry was about happy songs...in one of the comments, hereistand provided a link to a Sesame Street oldie but goodie: What's The Name of That Song?



Thanks to the magic of YouTube, it's now possible to peruse these wonderful old Sesame Street clips, many of which will probably never be seen again on TV, if only for the sake of continuity. Bob, Gordon, Olivia, Maria, and Luis are all still on the show, but as one might guess, they've all aged considerably...I could just imagine the look on Kiddo's face if these people who look sorta like the characters he knows (but wearing weird clothes and hairstyles) and with those characters' voices suddenly broke into song on tomorrow's episode of Sesame Street.

Yeah, I understand why they can't run some of these clips. But with others, it's a crying shame.

Take for example anything having to do with Kermit the Frog. Correct me if I'm off-base, but it's my understanding that after Jim Henson's death, his family had some sort of dispute with the Children's Television Workshop which resulted in them denying CTW's use of Kermit whatsoever in future Sesame Street episodes. No matter what the reason, the bottom line is that there's an entire generation of kids missing out on classics like this "Sesame Street Newsflash" from Peter Piper's Pickle Patch:



Well, after looking up those two clips, I couldn't just stop there, could I? My next stop on my Sesame Street journey was the segment that, as a kid, I lived for. Every episode, I watch, hoping this segment would be a part of it. And when it did come on, I'd sing along, run around, and just make a general fool of myself. Still brings warm fuzzy feelings when I hear it. It's the song Hard Workin' Dog:



And of course, no exploration of Sesame Street would be complete without a classic Bert and Ernie sketch. This is one that I always loved...it all starts when Ernie broke the cookie jar...but then the cookies had to go somewhere, so he put them in the sugar bowl...and...well, you can see where it's going:



So many wonderful old clips and sketches...I could spend all day doing this if I let myself! So one last clip. One of the things they've done (and still continue to do) that I just love are the unrehearsed one-on-one conversations between a muppet and a young child. In this one, Kermit's trying to get a little girl to sing the alphabet. Adorable and hilarious!



LH