Sunny Day
I have formed a habit of watching the Street while running in the morning so I can get ideas for Muppetry. Also because I like it.
So the plan for New Sesame is to use the newer generation of puppets (Elmo, Telly, Zoe, Rosita, Baby Bear, and the new Abby Caddaby) in the “plot” parts of the show, with the older cast in daily inserts. This means they can come up with new stuff every day using the Muppeteers who only work on the Street, but will still have plenty of material featuring traditional Sesame stars every day that can be taped whenever. Big Bird and Ernie do “Journey to Ernie,” Prairie Dawn tries to stop Cookie from eating the “Letter of the Day”, the Count gives us the “Number of the Day” and we finally get “Greetings from Grover.” (The two-headed Monster even shows up in “Journey to Ernie”!)
Today’s main Street plot point was that Zoe needed a rock-sitter for her pet rock, Rocco, so she asked Elmo, Gina, and Telly to look after her. Now, I’ve never been a fan of these newer plots (they seem hackneyed, even for kid’s TV) ever since Jerry Juhl died, but I actually really liked this one. It featured both Elmo being a totally unprompted douche-bag and a hilarious Elvis parody. See, Elmo flat-out refuses to rock-sit Rocco, on the grounds that he’s just a rock. A real kid probably would have started crying at this point, but Zoe is made of sterner stuff (polyester, I think.) She just presses on until she finds a suitable candidate - Telly. Then, with the confidence that many working single moms display, she jets off to her swimming lesson, convinced that her rock is in capable hands. This eventually culminates in Alan and Bob sporting thoroughly ridiculous Elvis dos and singing “Rock around the Rock”, and “hoo” should show up but Hoots the Owl? He doesn’t speak (which is odd, since he and Elmo share a Muppeteer) but I was still thoroughly pleased.
As pleased as I was by this, Cookie Monster is still the king of skits. In today’s “Letter of the Day” Cookie is met with heavy skepticism from his partner, Prairie Dawn, who has become jaded by her repeated attempts to protect the Letter from him.
“Oh, no, I know what’s going to happen, Cookie. You’re going to eat the letter.” “No, no, me not eat letter.” (Is this David or Frank? Either way, he sounds good.)
“You’re going to say, oh, ‘H’ make me ‘hungry’!”
At this point Prairie Dawn does a hilarious Cookie Monster impression (you go, Fran Brill!) and launches into a tirade in a deep voice:
“‘H’ remind me of honey and hazelnut cookie, and oh, me can’t Help meself, me is getting Sooooo hungry!”
At this point Cookie looks bemused (yes, I’m as surprised as you are, but somehow Frank/David made him do it) and says “That voice coming from you?”
Upon which Prairie Dawn, in a fit of method acting, eats the letter herself to the amusement of her pal. Filled with remorse with what she has done, she slinks away as Cookie Monster shrugs smugly.
“Journey to Ernie” is a daily spot that has Big Bird looking for Ernie in various locations. Not much to say about this, other than I really like Steve Whitmire’s Ernie, and Matt Vogel is SOLID as The Bird. This skit led into a classic Ernie song where Ernie sang to his little plant as he watered it. (It made me notice how much neater Ernie’s hair is looking these days.)
Grover appeared in two spots in half an hour - one in which he told everyone the Spanish Word of the Day, which was “Hola.” Maria (who is actually getting on in years!) and several children walk by, but pass before Grover can greet them. Oh no! Who will Grover say “Hola” to? Luckily, Grover does what he always does when skits put him in a jam: he breaks the fourth wall. The viewer is “Hola”’d by Grover, and all is well with the world.
We cut to Gloria Estefan singing "You Say Hola and I Say Hola", which sounded really familiar to me because apparently Luis and Maria sang it on the Street when I was a little monster.
Next, it was back to our favorite, cute, furry blue pal, riding a talking horse voiced by Jerry Nelson. (This was hella meta, as Jerry Nelson also voiced the horse on the Bob Hope episode of The Muppet Show. When Jerry Nelson voices a horse, he will crack bad jokes, and there is little you or I can do about it.)
Anyway, one of the odd things about this was that this is New, Shaggier Grover. This Grover is like the Beatles after their trip to India - older, wiser, hairer, and with hells of open mind. New, Shaggier Grover was seen only fifteen minutes after, Old, Buzzcut Grover, but I don’t think the kids would have noticed. I think this new muppet was done for Eric Jacobson, but I know Frank used it at least once on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Grover opens with “It is your favorite cute, furry blue pal, Grover!” (It’s lucky he’s been saying “blue” since the 70s, or Elmo would probably have Elmo’s lawyers all over him. As Cookie would say, “Truth in advertising!”) Anyway, we are exhorted to guess where Grover had been. (He is dressed like Dudley Do-Right.)
Grover yelled “Saskatchewaaaan!” It is clear that Eric Jacobson loves to say “Saskatchewan.” (“Send someone to fetch us, we’re in Saskatchewan!”)
Er, moving right along. Grover repeats “Saskatchewan” several times then says, “Boy, are Fred’s legs tired!” Fred appears resentful of this burden, agrees, then tells Grover to stop saying “Saskatchewan” and get on with it. After explaining that he and Fred just visited a ranch, Grover gets in one last “Saskatchewan” before the film rolls.
The film is about a girl who has a pony named Mony and lives on a horse ranch. Pretty good.
When we cut back to Fred and Grover, Grover asks Fred “Do you herd cows?”
Oh, boy, here it comes.
There’s a “Moo!” and Fred replies, “Well, I just ‘herd’ one.” “That is using your horse sense.” “Moo!” “Maybe there’s more than one…” “Straight from the horse’s mouth.”
Grover is delighted, and so am I.
A horde of hefers hoof it on screen and moo the duo away, with Grover screaming, “But monsters should be seen and not herded!”
A plus, New Shaggy Grover. A plus. And A plus, New Sesame.
So the plan for New Sesame is to use the newer generation of puppets (Elmo, Telly, Zoe, Rosita, Baby Bear, and the new Abby Caddaby) in the “plot” parts of the show, with the older cast in daily inserts. This means they can come up with new stuff every day using the Muppeteers who only work on the Street, but will still have plenty of material featuring traditional Sesame stars every day that can be taped whenever. Big Bird and Ernie do “Journey to Ernie,” Prairie Dawn tries to stop Cookie from eating the “Letter of the Day”, the Count gives us the “Number of the Day” and we finally get “Greetings from Grover.” (The two-headed Monster even shows up in “Journey to Ernie”!)
Today’s main Street plot point was that Zoe needed a rock-sitter for her pet rock, Rocco, so she asked Elmo, Gina, and Telly to look after her. Now, I’ve never been a fan of these newer plots (they seem hackneyed, even for kid’s TV) ever since Jerry Juhl died, but I actually really liked this one. It featured both Elmo being a totally unprompted douche-bag and a hilarious Elvis parody. See, Elmo flat-out refuses to rock-sit Rocco, on the grounds that he’s just a rock. A real kid probably would have started crying at this point, but Zoe is made of sterner stuff (polyester, I think.) She just presses on until she finds a suitable candidate - Telly. Then, with the confidence that many working single moms display, she jets off to her swimming lesson, convinced that her rock is in capable hands. This eventually culminates in Alan and Bob sporting thoroughly ridiculous Elvis dos and singing “Rock around the Rock”, and “hoo” should show up but Hoots the Owl? He doesn’t speak (which is odd, since he and Elmo share a Muppeteer) but I was still thoroughly pleased.
As pleased as I was by this, Cookie Monster is still the king of skits. In today’s “Letter of the Day” Cookie is met with heavy skepticism from his partner, Prairie Dawn, who has become jaded by her repeated attempts to protect the Letter from him.
“Oh, no, I know what’s going to happen, Cookie. You’re going to eat the letter.” “No, no, me not eat letter.” (Is this David or Frank? Either way, he sounds good.)
“You’re going to say, oh, ‘H’ make me ‘hungry’!”
At this point Prairie Dawn does a hilarious Cookie Monster impression (you go, Fran Brill!) and launches into a tirade in a deep voice:
“‘H’ remind me of honey and hazelnut cookie, and oh, me can’t Help meself, me is getting Sooooo hungry!”
At this point Cookie looks bemused (yes, I’m as surprised as you are, but somehow Frank/David made him do it) and says “That voice coming from you?”
Upon which Prairie Dawn, in a fit of method acting, eats the letter herself to the amusement of her pal. Filled with remorse with what she has done, she slinks away as Cookie Monster shrugs smugly.
“Journey to Ernie” is a daily spot that has Big Bird looking for Ernie in various locations. Not much to say about this, other than I really like Steve Whitmire’s Ernie, and Matt Vogel is SOLID as The Bird. This skit led into a classic Ernie song where Ernie sang to his little plant as he watered it. (It made me notice how much neater Ernie’s hair is looking these days.)
Grover appeared in two spots in half an hour - one in which he told everyone the Spanish Word of the Day, which was “Hola.” Maria (who is actually getting on in years!) and several children walk by, but pass before Grover can greet them. Oh no! Who will Grover say “Hola” to? Luckily, Grover does what he always does when skits put him in a jam: he breaks the fourth wall. The viewer is “Hola”’d by Grover, and all is well with the world.
We cut to Gloria Estefan singing "You Say Hola and I Say Hola", which sounded really familiar to me because apparently Luis and Maria sang it on the Street when I was a little monster.
Next, it was back to our favorite, cute, furry blue pal, riding a talking horse voiced by Jerry Nelson. (This was hella meta, as Jerry Nelson also voiced the horse on the Bob Hope episode of The Muppet Show. When Jerry Nelson voices a horse, he will crack bad jokes, and there is little you or I can do about it.)
Anyway, one of the odd things about this was that this is New, Shaggier Grover. This Grover is like the Beatles after their trip to India - older, wiser, hairer, and with hells of open mind. New, Shaggier Grover was seen only fifteen minutes after, Old, Buzzcut Grover, but I don’t think the kids would have noticed. I think this new muppet was done for Eric Jacobson, but I know Frank used it at least once on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Grover opens with “It is your favorite cute, furry blue pal, Grover!” (It’s lucky he’s been saying “blue” since the 70s, or Elmo would probably have Elmo’s lawyers all over him. As Cookie would say, “Truth in advertising!”) Anyway, we are exhorted to guess where Grover had been. (He is dressed like Dudley Do-Right.)
Grover yelled “Saskatchewaaaan!” It is clear that Eric Jacobson loves to say “Saskatchewan.” (“Send someone to fetch us, we’re in Saskatchewan!”)
Er, moving right along. Grover repeats “Saskatchewan” several times then says, “Boy, are Fred’s legs tired!” Fred appears resentful of this burden, agrees, then tells Grover to stop saying “Saskatchewan” and get on with it. After explaining that he and Fred just visited a ranch, Grover gets in one last “Saskatchewan” before the film rolls.
The film is about a girl who has a pony named Mony and lives on a horse ranch. Pretty good.
When we cut back to Fred and Grover, Grover asks Fred “Do you herd cows?”
Oh, boy, here it comes.
There’s a “Moo!” and Fred replies, “Well, I just ‘herd’ one.” “That is using your horse sense.” “Moo!” “Maybe there’s more than one…” “Straight from the horse’s mouth.”
Grover is delighted, and so am I.
A horde of hefers hoof it on screen and moo the duo away, with Grover screaming, “But monsters should be seen and not herded!”
A plus, New Shaggy Grover. A plus. And A plus, New Sesame.