What sketches scared you as a kid?

[mr3urious]

I'll admit, the sparks logo is stylish... for the late 70's. They kept that one up until the 90's, if I'm not mistaken. I swear that the second they had a new logo for CTW they changed their name to Sesame Workshop.

This was what they actually used afterward.

 

[Drtooth]

I remember that one, and the glorious week it was their logo.

The fact they changed their name just as they changed the logo is hilarious. They went to all the trouble to update a very dated 70's sounding and looking logo, something they should have done years before, and in the end, it was a moot point.

I swear they changed the name once they greenlit Dragontales. I know a lot of great talent worked on that show, but it still came off as something that missed the 80's to me.

 

[Schfifty]

This black-and-white stop motion sketch from about the mid-1990s had children counting 1-10 and back down to 0 with the numbers showing up in hidden places. I used to be really afraid when it got to number 6. The old man in white just creeped me out so much.

 

[Siduri]

There was an unsettling short from the vintage era (early 70's, very early in the show's run) that seems to have vanished into the same rip in space and time as "Cracks" got lost in for so many years. I've trawled the episode guide for that period, and can't even find the sketch's "official" name in the SS archives.

It was a live-action segment about making bread. Two or three people, possibly a child helping an adult. Not a big deal, right?

But: everyone kept leaving the room for the yeast to do its thing. The film would then go into time-lapse mode to show to the dough "riiiising...and riiiiising..." as the child says in creepy voice-over, while a sound-effect plays that others have described as "slowed-down monster growls" and even "Godzilla's mating call" (!)

I'm not sure what child-me thought was happening, but some evil black magic seemed to be informing the process. They might as well have played "Ave Satani" from The Omen. How the sketch ended, or what their freaky Zool-summoning bread came out looking like, I have no idea; was probably hiding under the coffee table at that point.

Only one or two posters on these types of threads seem to even remember that this thing happened.

 

[cjd874]

There was an unsettling short from the vintage era (early 70's, very early in the show's run) that seems to have vanished into the same rip in space and time as "Cracks" got lost in for so many years. I've trawled the episode guide for that period, and can't even find the sketch's "official" name in the SS archives.

It was a live-action segment about making bread. Two or three people, possibly a child helping an adult. Not a big deal, right?

But: everyone kept leaving the room for the yeast to do its thing. The film would then go into time-lapse mode to show to the dough "riiiising...and riiiiising..." as the child says in creepy voice-over, while a sound-effect plays that others have described as "slowed-down monster growls" and even "Godzilla's mating call" (!)

I'm not sure what child-me thought was happening, but some evil black magic seemed to be informing the process. They might as well have played "Ave Satani" from The Omen. How the sketch ended, or what their freaky Zool-summoning bread came out looking like, I have no idea; was probably hiding under the coffee table at that point.

Only one or two posters on these types of threads seem to even remember that this thing happened.

If you're looking for someone who remembers this, I'm sure you could message Fuzzygobo, one of our longtime forum members. He watched Sesame Street in its earliest days (1969-1974 or so) and has many vivid memories of some extremely rare segments. Hoperfully he'll be able to share his recollections. And if he doesn't remember this segment, he probably knows someone that does.

 

[Luke kun]

I'm not sure if this one counts, but I'm going to tell you a little story about me and a Big Bird doll.

You see, I had this Big Bird doll, right? FIRST OF ALL, IT LOOKED LIKE Big Bird was slender and sickly, dying even (possibly the old version of Big Bird where he had no feathers on his head) and it was a talking doll. And like the early days of talking dolls, they'd break down and their voices would slow down and get all low pitched. This absolutly terrified me. I was afraid of talking toys for countless years after that ( see and Says especially) it took me years to get over it. In fact, I still have the doll, alright. But good ol' Ma cut the pull string off. Talking Big Bird's reign of terror is now over! Now I own a bunch of toys that talk.

Qué puntazo, Drtooth. That reminds me of something that messed me up as a child.

...The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Slowww Going". Sonic gets hit by a ray gun and loses his speed, fine enough, but - here is the scary part...

HIS VOICE GOT FREAKING SLOWED DOWN AND LOW-PITCHED!

That scared the everloving crap out of me as a kid. I remember I hid behind the couch, waiting for it to be over and the next scene to come on so I could turn the TV off...

...next time it came on I ran out of the room and told my mom to change the channel.

Drtooth, why do you bring back all these bad memories?

 

[Stephen's Girl]

Hi everyone I hope you all are doing well I just had to to post this. This is the nightmare of clips, I sort ofscared myself from going back on to YouTube, , I'll tell you why, does anyone remember that clip awhile back about the cartoon I posted a while back? The lady that the nose changes, well I never thought in my wildest nightmares that it would ever emerge again, but it has, it's called morphing face. I only saw the little thumb nail and I went into a total creep out, it took my hubby 3+ hours to calm me down, I even slept with the lights on, for weeks, I know that sounds strange but it still very disturbing, my hubby and daughter watched it and they even said what the ****, I had to step out of the room because I didn't want to hear or see anything, I wouldn't even go back on my iPad cuz I was that terrified. I'm getting goose bumps just typing about it. I couldn't even comment on it. But if u wanna take a trip down nightmare lane check it out and see if u remember but it is a total scare! Kinda makes the apple tree a walk in the park heheheh. I wonder if I'm the only strange one that had/has night mares about that. I wonder if the man version will appear. I know I sound nuts but that was and still is a total creepiest clip ever!

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah... this!?!

I don't get it either. Don't know what CTW was thinking back then thinking that was kid friendly. The dead silence in the skit really sells the nightmarish quality.

 

[Luke kun]

Yeah... this!?!

I don't get it either. Don't know what CTW was thinking back then thinking that was kid friendly. The dead silence in the skit really sells the nightmarish quality.

So fun it's illegal. Like copyright infringement.

Muppet dude told me the sounds reminded him of Nintendo, and I replied "IT'S-A ME, MARIO! AND I AM-A HIJACKING-A SESAME STREET!" We lol'd all night long.

 

[Drtooth]

The fact the woman's head seems to be collapsed from the back makes it even worse. And this animator has done all of our "favorite" "What the Crap was That?!?!" horrifying, abstract animations with no educational content.

So... okay...

The episode with the Wicked Witch from Wizard of Oz was considered too horrifying for kids and was pulled. But "severely concussed woman on an LSD trip contemplates her nose to creepy moog synthesizers that can pop up any minute" managed to squeak by?

Sounds legit.