Do you feel Luckey, kids?

Ever since Sesame Street changed its format drastically over ten years ago, the producers have been more and more reluctant to include any classic clips in new episodes--rationalizing that children would see them as outdated. For some topics, I can understand that logic; take this clip as an example--





So many technological changes have happened since then, that a newer version of the same film has appeared on Sesame Street--





I see nothing wrong with remakes in situations like that. But Sesame Street occasionally goes too far in trying to update its own classic material. During the early 1970s, Bud Luckey animated a series of musical cartoons for the show--each one using a silly song and unusual characters to teach a number between 2 and 12. Ask the average parent or grandparent of some toddler who watches today's Sesame Street, and chances are good that they'll remember these ditties well enough to sing a few bars:








Now, take a look at these versions of the same song-cartoons. The "Ten Tiny Turtles" remake appeared in the Season 40 finale; the "Ladybugs' Picnic" remake appeared late in Season 41--








Granted, I'm glad to know that some people at Sesame Workshop don't want to see a classic die out. I also appreciate the way that these particular animators tried hard to adapt Bud Luckey's drawings to a 3-D version. But would it have killed the producers to dub in the original music for these remakes? The musical style itself isn't outdated, nor are any details in the lyrics.

Speaking of lyrical details, I winced when the "Ten Tiny Turtles" remake changed "black-eyed peas" to "yummy peas." Did the original sound too racist to somebody on the staff, either because of the vegetable's name or its status as soul food? Either way, I suspect Bud Luckey felt a little upset himself. Come on, Sesame Workshop...you've done a lot to promote tolerance and integration for 41 years, without worrying about what some family thinks of black-eyed peas! If a classic isn't "broken" from details a 21st-century toddler wouldn't understand, don't fix it.

Another 4-gotten classic moment

Originally, Big Bird sang "I Just Adore Four" as part of a tribute show-within-a-show (Episode 734, from the mid-1970s). I distinctly remember watching this one as a girl; the Count's getting carried away with multilingual counting still sticks in my mind. If anyone out there got hold of a tape from some PBS station, I'd love to see the whole episode and refresh my memory...

Four--an album-only rarity

Many thanks to wattamack4 (talk about appropriate screennames!) for uploading this find.

Political correctness--by the numbers

Most people who've watched Sesame Street know that it teaches racial tolerance and diversity (among more academic lessons). For instance, this cartoon teaches children not to see Native Americans in terms of the Western-movie stereotypes:



Way back in 1969, though, this classic film taught about the number ten:



Did you catch the wooden figures that the boy counts on that foosball-like toy, about 1:04 seconds into the clip? I grew up hearing the song "Ten Little Indians" as a girl and never developed a bias against Native Americans; the lyrics never gave me a visual image, stereotyped or not. Most parents in the early 70s wouldn't have considered "ten little Indians" a racist reference either, if it weren't for that picture.

A few seasons later, the film replaced the "Indians" count with "ten bells". Not only does the film show a split second of the original at that point, but the audio is missing a sound effect when the digits of "10" zoom out:





Did CTW go too far banning the Indians from that clip? I'd say it was a gray area, considering the other series of counting cartoons that was popular in Sesame Street's early days. "Jazz #3" includes an image of "three blind mice" that some parents with disabled children might consider a stereotype (about 21 seconds into the clip), but no one ever edited those mice out!



Sesame Workshop has included a lot of disability-friendly material on their flagship show since the early years, but...when you see the way those two clips were handled, I can't help wondering if someone on the staff had a double standard.

NOT lost in translation!

I recently discovered this rare clip on YouTube, thanks to a user in Norway who uploads a lot of Sesame Street material. (The subtitles in this copy are my own, but still 100% accurate!) Judging by the style those numbers are written in, I'd suspect that Jim Henson was involved with animating this; even if I guessed wrongly, the cartoon is still funny 35+ years later. (Kids will be kids, in any country and language!)

Counting 1-10 and Back--Sort Of! (Norwegian/subtitled)

A classic little number

Considering that Season 39 of Sesame Street is going to focus on teaching basic math concepts, it's a shame that Sesame Workshop would reject some of their best number/counting clips as too old. Here's a tricky little gem from late in Season 1; the characters don't look too dated, but the music might seem that way to some children. Many thanks to user cdkscully for posting it--

Sesame Street - As I Was Going to St. Ives

I miss the days when Sesame Street used that kind of intelligent humor to teach, instead of talking down to kids...and played original musical arrangements, instead of having celebrities parody their own songs. Unfortunately, that won't happen until the Workshop gets enough funding to stop running six minutes of ads in every new episode...*sigh*

Six more minutes of fame

Since I've mentioned Nona Beamer's appearances on Sesame Street recently, I thought it'd be appropriate to show them here. First, from Episode 1092, Bob and Maria join Nona as she teaches them a Hawaiian counting chant.







Second, from Episode 1094, a short and simple clip with Nona counting to ten in Hawaiian. (Can any native speakers out there explain the other words she's using before/after the count, please?)







Incidentally, my copies of the trip episodes have some scenes edited out; does anyone recall other scenes where Auntie Nona appeared with the human cast? Please let me know in the comments, if you can!

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!