I heard it through the grapevine...

Long before the growers in California were using claymation to sell raisins, this rare stop-motion clip ran on Sesame Street; I haven't seen it since I was in kindergarten, until today. Enjoy!

What's happening to Gina?

Thanks to a message at Muppet Central, I've just seen some studio footage from the next season of Sesame Street. (That would be the 39th, if you've lost track... :-) ) One major change to the set bothers me: Gina has been on Sesame Street for twenty years (long enough to qualify as a classic character, in my opinion). She's run a veterinarian clinic there for seven of those years...but next season, the vet's office is going to be replaced by an auto-repair shop! Since Gina becoming a mechanic seems totally out of character, I'm worried that the Workshop is planning to write her off the show. Hopefully, an official press release will either confirm or deny my suspicions in a month or two.

Threaten Me Elmo?

When a friend on Muppet Central passed on this news video about a defective Elmo doll making death threats, I couldn't help thinking: "This is what happens when Sesame Workshop depends too much on tie-in products to raise money for their programs." No, I'm not going to turn this post into a rant about Elmo ruining Sesame Street; he's been on the show in some form since 1979, and was actually a decent supporting character at first. Still, I miss the days when the Workshop didn't need  to cash royalty checks from toy companies...or mention corporate sponsors at the beginning and end of every Sesame Street episode.

[Update: After Googling for more information about the story, I found another user's blog post explaining the malfunction. What James' mother mistook for "kill" is actually the name "Keir"; the doll was saying two names accidentally!]

Alphabet Conversation

Here's another cute Muppet clip that should have been on the Old School DVDs, but didn't make the cut; enjoy!

Sesame Street - Alphabet Conversation

In the beginning...

In honor of Sesame Workshop's 40th anniversary, I thought I'd post the first clip they broadcast to test the show. (Believe it or not, I was lucky enough to trade for a copy of the test show before Old School Volume 2 came out; this one is clearer than the one on the "official" DVD set!)

Test Show #1 Opening (take 2!)