DefunctTV: The Curse of Sesame Street

250 150 - Wow I told Kody here to make my website look great and when I went to check it out it said he made 404 errors that means 404 wax 253 oh I should have you Squarespace throughout the late 50s and 60s one extraordinary person was climbing their way through the ranks of television her name was Joan Ganz Cooney as a public television producer she was creating some of the most provocative and challenging programming of the civil rights era on New York's public television station WN DT at a dinner party in 1966 a conversation between her and Lloyd Morissette an executive at the notable nonprofit the Carnegie Corporation sparked an interesting question could television be used to teach children complaints of the abundance of sex and violence on television as well as the influence of advertisements have brought upon a national debate as to the negative effects these trends could be having on the children watching there were a few popular programs directed at young children such as Captain Kangaroo but shows such as this were the outliers while the entertainment aspects of these programs were great the execution of the educational aspects was lacking Morissette who was also an experimental psychologist wondered if a program designed primarily to educate children could be successful ganz cooney known for never being afraid to step outside of her comfort zone found the proposition interesting after the conversation she secured research funding for an educational children's program she spoke to many experts in the field of early childhood development and educational media when she returned with her report titled the potential uses of television in preschool education WMDT rejected it after this she left the station joining Morissette at the Carnegie Corporation in a full-time role over the next two years ganz cooney in Morissette sought funding for their program starting the nonprofit production company the children's television workshop the two would eventually raise over eight million dollars for the show spending a large amount on research alone ganz cooney would be appointed as the executive director of the children's television workshop a monumental achievement in the male-dominated and biased television industry she and Morissette would begin to grow their team eventually adding television writer and director of John Stone to help with the show's creative development it became clear through the research process that in order to capture the attention of preschool children the program would need to be fast paced visually colorful and creative in its execution ganz cooney pointed to television commercials as a comparable to the type of segments the show would need to have luckily if she needed high-quality creative commercials stone knew the perfect person to do it hello there my name is Jim Henson and I'm a puppeteer I'm called a puppeteer because I work with puppets okay you're gonna love this story greatest story in the world [Music] in the summer of 1968 it was business as usual at Muppets Inc now operating under the new name Henson associates the company was still producing entertaining commercials for a variety of clients gymnast team continued to appear on variety shows performing Muppet skits and the Muppets were creating the occasional television special on pilots - pilots 1962 s tales of the tinker D and 1964 s the land of the tinker D featuring a group of medieval Muppets in a fairy tale Kingdom never saw the light of day in 1965 Jim had been asked to bring them up it's on to a pilot for his snow-white parody being developed by Johnstone for CBS Jim and stone hit it off and the duo would collaborate on other projects including an episode for NBC's experiment and television a program that was satisfying Jim's passion for experimental film now in mid-1968 there were a few months away from shooting the project that came from the snow white parody although the program had moved from CBS to ABC and the leading princess had been changed to Cinderella after stone joined the children's television workshop he would not hesitate to invite Jim to some of the developmental meetings Jim shyly sat in the back of the conference room slouching low in his chair as he would often do when he was finally introduced to ganz cooney his work preceded him Jim's quiet nature was overshadowed by the Muppets reputation for the loud and the chaotic and those at CTW especially ganz cooney were thrilled that he might bring that energy to their new show Jim on the other hand was hesitant if he provided the Muppets for the preschool program he could risk the thing he wanted most a prime-time up--it series using the Muppets for the young demographic could solidify their reputation as children's entertainment a verdict that would be detrimental to any pitch for a family or adult style Muppet Show however this concern was overshadowed by the mere fact that he respected what Ganz Cooney and CTW was doing they were pushing the boundaries of television a personal goal of his as well plus he couldn't deny that the format that they were describing was perfect for him in the Muppets he eventually agreed to work for the show leaving that due to the unpredictable nature of children's programming it would probably only last a month or two anyways Jim demanded his typical condition that he owned the rights to any Muppet characters he created for the program during negotiations Jim would end up allowing a 50/50 split of any character merchandising from the show but him in ctw Henson and his team would begin in 1969 and Jimin stones Cinderella spoof was set to film in late 1968 the hour-long special called hey Cinderella received mixed reviews when it aired in the spring of 1969 the most notable part of the special would be that it officially completed Kermit's transition from abstract monster to frog a gradual transformation in design that produced the recognizable version of the beloved character throughout 1969 gymnast team worked to produce their scenes for the CTW project the Muppets would create small insert segments teaching children about letters and numbers that would then be placed in between the show street segments which featured the main storyline of human actors Jim took creative Liberty with his part of the show not only creating Muppet segments but shooting live-action and animated sequences as well one of the first assignments for Henson was to create the pitch reel for the show which had recently been given the name Sesame Street hey these kids can't read or write can they then how's about we call the show hey stupid hey stupid what are we gonna do for a title hey ruff hmm why don't you call your show Sesame Street my entire career as a TV educator you're a genius Sesame Street I love it the kids will love it I can see it up there in lights the children's television workshop presents Sesame Street new Muppets we need to be creative for the puppet segments of Sesame Street two of the residents would be a pair of roommates named Bert and Ernie performed by Frank Oz and Jim respectively the gruff Stern Bert would be constantly pestered by the squeaky-voiced goofy Ernie not unlike the more serious aahs on the often goofy Henson the comedic relationship between Ernie and Bert was immediate likely because odds and Henson's friendship was so strong a semi new character was a blue googly eyed monster with a large appetite performed by oz utilizing a painfully gravelly voice the character had evolved from previous Muppets that the team had used in various commercials throughout the years and throughout the first season of Sesame Street he would be the name Cookie Monster Kermit would also be used in many segments to teach concepts acting is one of the few mature Sesame Street Muppets if you test cuts of the show were created using gym segments and other footage shot by CTW and the episodes were shown to the show's target demographic these early tests revealed that children's attentions dropped significantly during the show street segments in which only human actors were shown it was then decided that Muppets would need to be added to the main setting of the program this wasn't exactly good news for Jim he could easily provide the show's inserts as he could create them in bulk on his own shooting schedule but becoming members of a cast would mean a more strenuous time commitment he could assign his fellow performers Frank Oz or Jerry Nelson to the post but they had proven to be indispensable in the Muppets year-round work on various projects this meant Jim needed new talent so as he had done year after year he returned to the puppeteers of America convention this time seeking out a young puppeteer named Caroll Spinney who he had met a few years prior he convinced Spenny to come work on Sesame Street full-time performing two characters for the street segments a large childlike yellow bird named Big Bird and a grumpy trash dwelling orange monster named Oscar the Grouch the position was perfect for Spenny as he seemed to excel in solo performances as opposed to a member of an ensemble he set up shop in New York in 1969 and he would immediately give life to the full body Big Bird puppet performing him as a naive curious character that children could relate to at the urging of Jim who thought the character could be very popular with the audience popular would be an understatement Sesame Street premiered on November 10th in 1969 on national educational television the show instantly became popular among the young children tuning in and it would start a national dialogue on the roles and responsibilities of children's entertainment the show featured a diverse cast of human characters and it would have to overcome widespread racism and Prejudice but the decision to feature a realistic cast was one of the show's best there were a few critics of the show during its first few months on the air but the consensus seemed to be that Sesame Street was a groundbreaking and incredible show one that would remain on the air and in the minds of children for years to come this was great news for everyone except Jim Henson while he was thrilled the show was successful and was even more happy to see his 50% of merchandise in sales over the next few years the popularity of Sesame Street largely thanks to his and the Muppets contrib you Asians had realized his worst fear he was now a children's puppeteer this wouldn't become an issue right away as he made plans to capitalize off the Sesame Street success with other Muppet specials for children when he would eventually try to step outside of this demographic he would learn just how strong of a reputation Sesame Street had given him with the flexibility of the show's shooting schedule thanks to spinies work Jim pursued a script for a children's special written by Jule entitled the great Santa Claus switch in which an evil magician takes santa's place on Christmas Eve to steal from homes the script had been rejected countless times over the past few years but to Jim's delight Ed Sullivan who had frequently invited the Muppets on his program offered to air the special in place of an episode of his show the good news meant that Henson would have to hire additional puppeteers and in the summer of 1970 oz Nelson and Henson open auditions for additional Muppet performers this resulted in two new puppeteers joining the team fran brill and richard hunt both were a perfect fit for the Muppets the great Santa Claus switched saw the introduction of a group of monsters named the Fraggles as the henchmen for the film's filming these would continue to be used in other Muppet works and one frackle referred to as the cigar-box frackle would eventually evolve a knack for adrenaline the great Santa cost which was well received but had little cultural impact upon his premiere in December of 1970 Jim pleased with the results was already on to his next project the next year Henson began development on a follow-up to hey Cinderella now billed as the anthology series tales from up at land the second film in the series the Frog Prince would be filmed in March of 1971 the film featured Kermit alongside a new cast of Muppet frogs including the small robin performed by Jerry Nelson they call me sir Robin the brave a new full body muppet would also be introduced in ogre named sweetums performed by Richard Hunt the growing fanbase of Sesame Street resulted in more attention for tales from up at land the team would shoot another special for the series the muppet musicians at Brennan in 1972 adding a full cast of rats and chickens to the Muppets while the ensemble of month before MERS was enough to fulfill the various projects the Muppet Workshop needed additional hands builder Don Saleem a mastered his craft in a recent addition the talented Bonnie Erickson would be joined by two new designers Franz vizag's a builder that specialized in adding unique mechanisms to each puppet and Dave goals a puppeteer with little confidence in his performances the workshop was now preparing for a Broadway show starring the Muppets the Jim had been pitching to investors titled in evening with the Muppets plans for the show would be canceled in late 1973 and Jim set his sights back on television his hope was to secure a series of Muppet holiday specials or ideally a weekly show Henson Oz and Nelson would come into office after office getting rejected by executive after executive who was either uninterested or confused by the pitches the consistent concerns seem to be that puppets including the dynamic Muppets were merely children's entertainment as proved by Sesame Street luckily Jim would eventually convince one of the suits a young energetic executive at ABC named Michael Eisner Eisner loved the Muppets and the pitch and he would greenlight a pilot for a weekly Muppet series while Jim imagined the series is a disjoined a variety show starring the Muppets and human guest stars for this pilot he wanted to explore one of his Muppet holiday special concepts deciding on the Muppet Valentine show Jim and his team would shoot the special in late 1973 and finishing in January of 1974 the show was written by jewel and co-writer Jerry Ross in Jim's hope for a human guest star would be fulfilled with Mia Farrow joining the cast of the Muppets the show had an interesting format it was hosted by a muppet named Wally the show screenwriter that was having a difficult time writing about love the Muppets living in a house with overgrown foilage helps him describe the feeling of love from each of their own twisted perspectives the show would also implement a variety of musical numbers throughout other featured Muppets included the army of frogs from the Frog Prince a frackle Kermit who was given a hilarious musical fantasy segment with the song froggy went a-courtin Oh in a few newcomers the new Muppets included Brewster a muppet both designed and performed by Dave goals and his first step outside of the workshop Mildred miss mousey and THOG all performed by Jerry Nelson George the janitor performed by Frank Oz mopes and a maniac arsonists named crazy Donald performed by semi frequent performer John Love lady there were also a new race of Muppets from the fictional planet of Coos Bane and one of the show's segments featured the species demonstrating their alien mating ritual the 25-minute long pilot aired on January 30th 1974 critics and audiences loved the energetic and funny special an ABC opened the door for Jim to produce more holiday specials and pilots later that year the Muppets would appear on her Albert and the Tijuana brass a special starring the jazz musician in which the Muppets would add a comedic element to the band set he often forgot special is notable in that one of the Muppet interruptions featured a newly built character and in less than 2 minutes of screen time a star was born where are some of the other puppets that you've been developing oh I guess well the ones on Sesame Street are the ones people know most Big Bird and Oscar and most places frogs and their puppets are for adults but in this country they're for children how do you account for that either one can answer that well I think we're in terms of the Muppets where we're working to sort of do some some things different we're working on am an adult television show right now and we're working on a theater show so Jim would pitch another pilot for a weekly show to ABC called the muppet nonsense show which would include more sketches and short segments this time however he was determined to reach a more adult audience to further distance himself from Sesame Street which was by this point a cultural phenomenon when the second pilot was Greenland Jim title it The Muppet Show sex and violence to emphasize the targeted adult audience and comment on the current state of television the show would be shot in mid-december the pilot centered around a group of Muppets putting on a variety show culminating into a pageant for the seven deadly sins each represented by a grotesque stylized Muppet the show was also a lot more quick paced and cynical than the Muppets Valentine show and the Muppet Workshop was tasked with creating an even larger ensemble of new characters this will include a new house band called the Electric Mayhem featuring a keyboardist dr. teeth performed by Henson a guitar player Janice performed by fran brill a saxophone player Zoot played by Dave goals the sarcastic bassist Floyd performed by Jerry Nelson and the wild and violent drummer animal performed by Frank Oz there were also a series of skits featuring two elderly gentlemen Statler performed by Richard Hunt and wool dwarf performed by Henson who passed the time making small talk in their antiquated home there was a cooking show segment with a Swedish Chef demonstrating some unconventional cooking methods and less than accurate Swedish the chef had been born from previous chef skits that the Muppets had performed the character was a live hand puppet similar to Rolf and Ernie in typical live hand Muppet performances the head and left arm are performed by the primary puppeteer providing the voice while a second performer would operate the right hand a job referred to as simply right-handed the Swedish Chef was unique in that the character would be voiced by Jim but he would only be controlling the head the hands would both be controlled by a second puppeteer Richard hunt in the sex and violence pilots with his actual human hands being used this created an entirely different performance style as Jim would be providing humorous dialogue and facial expressions not necessarily knowing what the hands of the muppet would do next the sex and violence swedish chef skits also featured chinese subtitles another odd element to the skit running the show back stage was Floyd Sam the Eagle a large blue eagle with a strong moral backbone played by oz and perhaps the most peculiar addition to the Muppet cast and sex and violence the show's host a nasally almost drowsy frontman named Nigel played by Jim what we have here is the conference room which is sort of the nerve center of the place Nigel had little character or charm especially considering his role as host Herman and Rolf the established dynamic and recognizable muppet host would appear only briefly as would various other Muppets that Jim had built for the previous pilots and specials of segments were created for the pilots including Mount Rushmore in which the four presidents would tell bad jokes and a fake movie review segment called returned to beneath the Planet of the Pigs a Planet of the Apes parody featuring a new version of piggy performed by fran brill and a mad scientist pig named dr. naga played by jerry nelson there was also a segment called at the dance where a series of gags were played off his Muppets danced in a ballroom the special ended with a wide shot reviewing the muppet performers beneath the puppets an idea originally conceived for them up at Broadway show in an ending that would have presumably continued should the show have been picked up however this was not the case ABC was unhappy with the pilot from the beginning urging Jim to change the name and the special he stood firm on the sex and violence title which seemed to be more funny to him than anyone else another issue was the show's characters whose personalities did not work together as an ensemble it seemed that in each scene from the pilots a plot a different character was halting the energy whether it be nigel with his sleepy dull delivery or sam with his strict obliviousness it didn't help that most of the time the characters backstage were not preparing for the show but were instead playing board games on top of this the show's pacing was atrocious and the editing was too quick in some segments and too long in others he had to dance in the Swedish Chef segments which both only had enough footage to be a single insert were chopped up and placed throughout with some bits lasting less than 10 seconds well you see this show jumps from place to place okay despite these issues Jim hoped that this was the pilot that would solidify a weekly muppet show Jim made the rounds on late-night shows heavily promoting the airing of the pilot are you gonna be on the special tomorrow night when the reviews came in it was clear that sex and violence had not resonated with audiences while some found it entertaining a majority of viewers felt the humor didn't work and ABC decided against picking up the series Jim was hopeful than another network would who was disappointed when others rejected the concept as well some because of the response to the special anothers because of the same reason Jim had been hearing again and again they felt puppets were for children in the morning not adults at night if a Muppet TV series was going to happen Jim would need help so he reached out to a person that he believed could make his dream come true an IBM executive named David lazer the Jim had worked with in the past to provide a few funny short films for IBM board meetings laser would join them up its team and a producing capacity and his knowledge of business and energy would prove to be an asset that the team had been missing the first step was to create a pitch to networks this would take the form of a 25-minute reel featuring the Muppets in a variety of settings in short skits interacting with humans and in musical numbers the climax of the reel would feature an enthusiastic Muppet pitchman making his case the network executives to greenlight a Muppet Show praise the United States of America needs the Muppet Show and you should buy this show now we're not pulling any punches here I mean there's nothing subtle about this pitch so buy the show and put it on the air cause we'll all be famous and we'll all get temperamental and hard to work with but you won't care because we'll all make a lot of money [Music] Jim's agent Bernie Brillstein would shop the real round to no avail during this process real Steen had made a deal with NBC to have the Muppets appear on a new live variety show debuting in the fall of 1975 the Muppets were brought on to his waste the fears of executives at the new show named Saturday Night Live would be too edgy as it took on the hot topics of the day this was perfect for Jim's attempts to get the Muppets into the adult comedy scene or Michael's SNL showrunner and also a client of Brill steam enjoy Jim's work and was happy to have him perform a skit on each episode of the show Jim's recurring sketch would be called the land of Gorch and would feature mature alien Muppets in adult situations the Muppets were designed by recent workshop addition Michael Fred and the bizarre alien certainly looked the part for late night however the Muppets an SNL were not a match her writers guild rules all the sketches had to be written by SNL staff writers and their subtle sarcastic style did not lend itself well to the more slapstick Muppets that said the writers weren't necessarily trying their hardest they would have much rather written the other sketches and those forced to write for the Muppets were often angry head writer Michael O'Donoghue reportedly scoffed quote I won't write for felt the cast also did not enjoy giving enough airtime to the Muppets cast member John Belushi's anger would lead him to coin the phrase mucking fuch 'it's it was difficult for Jim to bring his team every week into a tense situation where they clearly weren't welcome although despite the behind-the-scenes drama he would never speak ill of the SNL staff publicly and when asked he would be quick to praise the talents of Lorne Michaels we had a deep respect for Michaels appreciated Jim's work but it was clear early on to the both of them that the Muppets do not belong on SNL luckily Jim wouldn't have to live in 30 rock forever a British television producer named Lew grade had been following the work of Jim in the Muppets for the past few years and he was interested in discussing a potential Muppet TV series one of his employees located in New York invited Brillstein laser to a meeting the two past on the 25-minute pitch reel and the next day a deal was made a 24 episode first season with a total budget of three million dollars would be produced the episodes would be distributed via a new practice called primetime syndication in which a show would be produced independently an unsold station by station after the deal was reached five CBS owned and operated stations bought the show's first season biggest ask Abril seen was that gym in the muppet shoot the new show at a studio in London borough scene agreed without even consulting gem and after a deal was reached he called Henson to tell him the news jim's response was simply I love you the Muppets were going to the UK this episode of defunct TV is sponsored by 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Channel: Defunctland

Views: 1,577,707

Keywords: defunctland, kevin perjurer, theme park, extinct, abandoned, defunct, history, sesame street history, sesame street documentary, muppet show history, muppet show documentary, jim henson history, jim henson documentary, bert and ernie history, cookie monster history, big bird history, kermit history, kermit the frog, jim henson, miss piggy, defuncttv, saturday night live muppets

Id: 1_eOs_CSVas

Length: 25min 45sec (1545 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/jrgolden42]

Well Michael Eisner showing up was a fucking twist

[u/WinFinn11]

Michael Eisner has now acquired all the companies, making up his Disney Gauntlet. When he snaps, half of all his plans for theme parks will vanish.