Happy Birthday Sesame Street
I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that today is the 40th anniversary of the debut of Sesame Street. Last Friday, Fresh Air did a great tribute show, replaying older interviews with Jeff Moss, Frank Oz and Christopher Cerf, all of whom were essential in creating the show. Growing up, my favorites were Oscar The Grouch and Cookie Monster, so it was great to hear Moss talk about how he created those characters. Here are some videos.
Oscar was definitely a role model for me.
Speaking of role models, Statler and Waldorf (yeah, I know they weren’t from Sesame Street, but I still love them)…
Here’s a candidate for Greatest Thing Ever. Certainly the funkiest moment in the history of children’s television.
By the way, has anybody else noticed how the guitar line from Superstition sounds a lot like The Stranger by Billy Joel? As much as Billy’s been sued for plagarism, how come nobody ever picked up on this?
And these are just sublime as all get-out.
Does shaving five minutes off the original count as improvement?
“And we scream into that bitter night ‘Hey, 3 plus 1 makes 4!’”
1. If I remember correctly, your room was much messier than Oscar’s and you ate like him too.
2. Statler/Waldorf were the percursors to David Letterman’s routine of throwing stuff off buildings.
3. My favorite was Kermie – what was sweeter, more tender and “instructional” than “It’s not easy bein green?”
1 & 3. Definitely.
2. I saw Statler and Waldorf as the Muppet version of Borscht Belt comedians.
Oh, leave Billy Joel alone. He has enough problems already. Just take a look at his entry on this list of Top 10 Celebs on Sesame Street Who Were Abusers, Boozers & Losers. http://www.tvtango.com/news/detail/id/114
Ronaldo, I grew up on Long Island in the 70s and 80s, and my love of Billy Joel is well-documented here. I was just making an observation on the similarities of the riffs.
[...] the Springsteen-Sesame connection has been well-blogged today (by Friend of Blogness Wings for Wheels, among others), and I’ve done it in the past, but I feel a need to mark the occasion here as [...]
Count von Count stole his schtick from Count Blah.
Alison: Laura, have you interviewed Count Blah yet? He is such a talent, and so professional.
Warren: Oh, yes, if by professional, you mean stealing his entire act from a Sesame Street character.
Blah: That’s a filthy lie! That son-of-a-bitch stole my bit, blah!
Alison: Blah and the–and the Count from Sesame Street have this, like, playful rivalry. I love when you do that. It’s totally fake.
Blah: Fake, just like his accent. I’m from Romania. He’s from New Jersey. And I’ll tell you another thing about him. Yeah, he once showed up in an emergency room with 1, 2, 3 — 3 gerbils!
I always thought he stole it from Count Chocula…