Sesame Street Explains the Madoff Scandal

Ernie and Cookie Monster explain what a Ponzi Scheme is with a little help from The Jimmy Kimmel Show.

Last week Jimmy Kimmel ran a hilarious segment that remixed clips from Sesame Street so Ernie and Cookie Monster could explain the Bernie Madoff Ponzi Scheme. I wonder, does this mean that the YouTube Muppet Mashup phenomenon has officially gone mainstream?

Via Guy Kawasaki.

Elmo Meets Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais meets Elmo and (of course) hilarity ensues.

This has been circulating around the web for awhile now (I shared it on Twitter earlier in the week)...outtakes from a shoot Ricky Gervais recently did for a guest appearance on Sesame Street. Gervais hits the ground running with Elmo, musing about being the only one on the Sesame set and pondering why Elmo wears pajamas at night but naked during the day. Off-screen you can briefly hear Sesame Street director Lisa Simon (at least I think it's Lisa's voice), who doesn't even attempt to rein these two in because obviously the Muppet and the Englishman are in charge.

Sesame Street Panel at William Patterson University

Sesame Street at 40: A Night of Celebration and Discovery with the Legendary Cast was held last Friday at at William Paterson University in New Jersey.

As I type this I'm bedridden with what's probably pneumonia, so I don't know how much I'll be updating the blog this week. Something that I did want to take a moment to share though was ToughPigs' two-part coverage of last Friday's special Sesame Street panel at William Patterson University (click for part one and part two). In addition to Friday evening's panel, there was also a special one for teachers held earlier in the day and Steve Swanson provides coverage in this week's installment of the Muppetcast.

Michael Davis on ToughPigs

Street Gang author Michael Davis (left) with puppeteer Caroll Spinney.

Tough Pigs has posted part one of a two part interview with Street Gang author Michael Davis (see previous post). If you have an interest in Sesame Street and haven't read Street Gang yet, I really have to recommend picking up a copy. It's a great read and available to order on Amazon.com.

This Friday, Michael is moderating a special panel discussion at William Patterson University celebrating the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. The panel is scheduled to include Frank Oz, Kevin Clash, Caroll Spinney, Sonia Manzano, Bob McGrath, Marty Robinson, Fran Brill, and David Rudman so if you're in or near New York or New Jersey this week don't miss it.

2/2/09 Update: Part-two of Tough Pigs' interview with Michael is now available.

Sesame on Scrubs

Elmo and bunch of other Sesame Street Muppets make a special appearance on Scrubs tomorrow night.

Sesame Street is coming to Scrubs.

A special episode of the ABC sitcom featuring guest appearances by Sesame Street's Muppets airs tomorrow night, January 27th. According to ABC, the plot of the episode revolves around Scrubs' J.D. "learning the hard way that not even Elmo and his friends from Sesame Street can teach the gift of compassion to those who don't care to learn."

The Muppet Newsflash has a set of promotional images of the Sesame Muppets on the Scrubs set. And if you're a fan of Scrubs (or even just Sesame Street) , don't miss Zach Braff goofing around with Elmo on YouTube.

Scrubs airs in most markets in Canada and the U.S. at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central Time); check your local listings.

Learning from Ernie and Bert

You can learn a lot about puppetry watching classic Ernie and Bert videos.

Last week Tom pointed to a classic Sesame Street segment as an example of what to do with a puppet when you have no lines. As he points out, pay close attention to the puppets' eye line, the positioning of their heads and how their emotions are communicated to the audience through their body language.

Honestly, if you want to study great puppetry you can't do much better than watching the old Ernie and Bert sketches with Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Most of them are available to watch online at SesameStreet.org and they are phenomenal resource for anyone wanting to learn or improve their puppetry.

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street

Street Gang, a comprehensive new history of Sesame Street written by Michael Davis was released just a few days ago. I haven't had a chance to read it just yet, but Joe Hennes has posted a Street Gang review on Tough Pigs. If you'd like to sample the book for yourself, you can read a special web-exclusive chapter of the book online.

Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street is available to order now from Amazon.com.

Big Bird: Caroll Spinney loves every feather

The Seattle Times profiled puppeteer Carroll Spinney earlier this year.

This was published back in June, but I only discovered it this week and I wanted to share - a nice profile of Big Bird/Oscar the Grouch puppeteer Caroll Spinney by the Seattle Times.

Oh, and in case you in missed it, here's the Sesame Street float from this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Pot Cookie Monster

Everybody's favourite snack-loving Muppet gets spoofed in Pot Cookie Monster.

I imagine the good folks at Sesame Workshop aren't too thrilled about it, but Pot Cookie Monster is a pitch-perfect send-up of Sesame Street from College Humour. I know I sometimes give videos that use swearing and/or drugs as their central premise a hard time here, but what I think puts this in a different category is that it's a funny premise (after all, the only way you're going to experience talking letters, numbers and monsters on your street is during some kind of drug-induced hallucination) and it's well written and well executed, which is not surprising since the puppets were built and performed by James Wojtal.

Oscar the Grouch on the Hour

Oscar the Grouch encourages Canadians to reduce their waste on The Hour.

Oscar the Grouch was on The Hour (probably Canada's most popular talk show) on Monday. He appeared in the show's cold opening with host George Stroumboulopoulos to help kick off the One Million Acts of Green campaign (Oscar is the mascot for Waste Reduction Week here in Canada this week).

More Oscar/Waste Reduction Week videos can be found on YouTube here and here.

Law & Order: Special Letters Unit

Sesame Street sends up Law & Order with Law & Order: Special Letters Unit.

I'd bet that the Sesame Street crew obviously had fun with Law & Order: Special Letters Unit. Also worth checking out: RSI: Rhyme Scene Investigation.

Via PajamaMama.

A Sesame Street Wedding

Sesame Street's Annie Evans and Marty Robinson were married on the steps of 123 Sesame Street on August 9th.

Congratulations to Annie Evans and Marty Robinson, who got married about a week ago on the set of Sesame Street. Annie is a Sesame Street staff writer and Marty is the talented puppeteer who performs (among others) Telly Monster and Mr. Snuffleupagus on the show. If you scroll halfway down the page I linked to above you'll find a mediaplayer with a really nice little video that tells the story of how Marty and Annie met and eventually got engaged.

I had the chance to briefly meet both Annie and Marty last year and was just blown away by how incredibly nice, talented and passionate they both are about their work. In fact, the thing that struck me most about Marty - aside from being just an incredible puppeteer - was the way he lit up when he talked about Annie, so it's really cool and wonderful to hear such great, happy news.

Sesame Street Season 39 Begins Today

Sesame Street welcomes lots of celebrities, including Sandra Oh (pictured) for its 39th Season.

Sesame Street kicks off its 39th season today and this year's highlights include the usual mix of Muppet parodies (30 Rocks, The Golden Triangle of Destiny, Pre-School Musical, etc.) and celebrities guest appearances (including David Beckham, L.L. Cool J., Sandra Oh and the previously-blogged spoof of 1-2-3-4 by Feist). This is also the first season of the series that has been shot in high-definition video.

Along with the new season, the Sesame Street web site has a new fresh new look. The new site wasn't done on the cheap (it reportedly cost about $14 million to develop) and looks great with over 3,000 videos available to watch. This new version of the site (which seems to expand upon the Sesame Video project launched last December) seems to indicate that Sesame Workshop is slowly preparing for the day when the web becomes the primary platform through which they distribute their content. According to the article at the top of this paragraph, Sesame wants to double the size of its online audience in the next year or two.

You can visit the new Sesame Street web site at www.sesamestreet.org. Sesame Street airs in the United States on PBS (check your local listings for air times).

Matt Vogel Talks To Tough Pigs

Sesame Street puppeteer Matt Vogel recently had a chat with the Tough Pigs.

Tough Pigs recently posted an interview with Sesame Street puppeteer Matt Vogel. In it, he discusses his work on the show performing Big Bird (Matt is the understudy of original Big Bird puppeteer Carol Spinney) and You Can't Rock Sittin' Down, the new album from Matt's band the Mighty Weaklings.

Not Posting, Heart Attacks (not really) and Feist

Hi all, it's been almost 3 weeks since my last post, for which I truly apologise. I've been working on some puppetry stuff pretty intensely lately as I mentioned before. A few people actually emailed me because they were concerned something had happened to me, which was ironic because I was fine until last weekend when I collapsed in the wings during a show and had to be rushed to the hospital. The initial fear was that it was a heart attack, but it was most likely Pericarditis (inflammation around the heart).

I'm fine and going to be taking it easy for awhile. Can't promise I'll be updating daily for a little while, but I'll try to post a few times a week for the rest of the summer. While I go tackle the 200+ emails waiting for me in my inbox, why not check out puppetry-loving Canadian singer Feist on Sesame Street singing (what else?) 1-2-3-4.

Update: Not sure why graphics are missing from the page, but that's one of the things I'll get right on.

Rest in Peace Kermit Love

Big Bird, director Helmut Hermann, Samson and Kermit Love on the set of On the set of Sesamstrasse (the German-language version of Sesame Street).

I just got the sad news that Kermit Love passed away last Saturday at the age of 91. Kermit was an incredible puppet builder and costume designer who was long associated with the Muppets. Kermit worked with marionettes as a child, which led to a career working on Broadway shows and eventually collaborating with Jim Henson. He was one of the key people responsible for refining the look of the classic Sesame Street Muppets; probably his most famous work was building Big Bird.

Carol Spinney (Big Bird's puppeteer) often tells a famous anecdote about how Kermit convinced him to stick with the Muppets when he was ready to leave. After his first year on Sesame Street, Carol felt he wasn't making enough money to live in New York and planned to tell Jim Henson he was quitting the show, but Kermit convinced him to give it another month. The next week Big Bird was on the cover of Time magazine and Carol never had another thought about leaving.

Kermit also worked on a number of successful non-Muppet puppetry projects, including the Great Space Coaster and Snuggles the Fabric Softener Bear. Although he was primarily a behind-the-scenes figure, he stepped in front of the camera to play Willy the hot dog vendor on Sesame Street for many years in the 1970s and `90s.

The puppetry world has lost another giant.

Cookie Monster on Colbert

Stephen Colbert chatted up the world's most famous cookie connaisseur last week.

I missed this when it aired last week because as usual I fell asleep before the show came on, but Cookie Monster made an appearance on The Colbert Report. In the segment Cookie Monster defends himself against charges from Colbert that he's abandoned his love of cookies for fruit. It's pretty funny stuff.

Americans can watch the video on the Colbert Report web site; everyone else should check it out quickly here before Comedy Central orders it taken down because they apparently hate viewers in the rest of the world.

Japanese Sesame Street Parody

Two Japanese comedians spoof Bert and Ernie.

This a Sesame Street parody from a popular Japanese comedy show called Lincoln. In it the two hosts dress up as Bert and Ernie and teach some poor unsuspecting guy inappropriate phrases in English (I don't know what else he was expecting when two guys dressed like this showed up to to teach his English lesson).

Funny if you understand Japanese; surreal and a little disturbing if you don't.

Via Japan Probe.

New Books Celebrate 40 Years of Sesame Street

Two new books planned for release later this year will celebrate Sesame Street's 40th anniversary.

It's hard to believe, but next year will be the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. To help celebrate this amazing milestone Sesame Workshop is planning to release two all-new books that look back on the history of the groundbreaking children's series. Sesame Street: A Celebration of Forty Years of Life on the Street by Louise Gikow will be released November 1st and provides an inside look at every aspect of Sesame Street from the making of the pilot episode to the show's evolution over four decades. Also planned for release later this year is Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis, which aims to capture the oral history of Sesame Street and take a thorough a look at the show's development and success.

Although both books aren't scheduled to be released until later this year, you can preorder them now from Amazon by clicking on the links above and you'll save 34% off the regular cover price.

Cookie Monster on NPR

Cookie Monster pays a visit to National Public Radio.

Cookie Monster was featured tonight on National Public Radio (NPR) in the U.S. as part of a series called In Character. Don't miss the video of Cookie - as performed by Eric Jacobson - taking the famous Proust Questionnaire.

Via The Muppet Newsflash.