News Flash: Rapunzel (1971)

[Grover]

Does anybody know who pupeteers Rapunzel it think it's probably Fran Brill but I am not so sure.

Jim Henson as: Kermit the Frog
Frank Oz as: Prince Charming
Jerry Nelson as: Anouncer
? as: Rapunzel

 

[minor muppetz]

Jerry Nelson performed Rupunzel. The Announcer appeared off-screen, so it's not like he was busy performing another character.

 

[Grover]

Thanks MM I always tought it was Fran Brill.

 

[wiley207]

It sounded like Jerry Nelson to me. Anyways, when it comes to male Muppet performers doing female Muppets, I like it when Frank Oz did that (even on the Sesame skit with Miss Muffet!)

 

[minor muppetz]

It sounded like Jerry Nelson to me. Anyways, when it comes to male Muppet performers doing female Muppets, I like it when Frank Oz did that (even on the Sesame skit with Miss Muffet!)

It seems like Frank Oz was assigned female roles alot, even though Jerry Nelson could do more different female voices.

 

[Ziffel]

This one was also uploaded on youtube a while ago. It hadn't been that long since I last saw it though so I already had it in perfect memory. I always loved the exchange:

Kermit: Would you mind sharing your plan to rescue Rapunzel from the tower?
Prince Charming: Yesh
Kermit: Oh you do mind?
Prince Charming: Yesh
Kermit: So you're not going to tell us?
Prince Charming: No way.

And when he gets increasingly angry each time he says, "Rapunzel Rapunzel, let down your hair" and she says, "What? I can't hear you. Can you talk louder?"

And when he says, "Leave it with the frog!"

And his final line, "I lost my horsie!"

This had to be just about the funniest News Flash skit of them all.

 

[wiley207]

You know, I read somewhere that the Rapunzel sketch was the very first Sesame News Flash to be made. I can tell it's an older one because Kermit's voice is a little different (and it DEFINITELY sounds like Jim Henson's Kermit, too), he's wearing a brown fedora instead of a gray one, the "NEWS FLASH" logo has different colors (the cloud outline is PINK) and the Sesame Street News theme is also heard at the end of the sketch playing over the action with the bald Rapunzel carrying on about how she can't hear what they're saying, and Prince Charming wailing about his lost horse!

 

[Ziffel]

The Rapunzel skit certainly goes back to just about my earliest days of remembering viewing SS so it wouldn't surprise me if it's the first. The other News Flash segment that goes way back for me is the Tortoise and the Hare. That one was also VERY FUNNY!

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

You know, I read somewhere that the Rapunzel sketch was the very first Sesame News Flash to be made. I can tell it's an older one because Kermit's voice is a little different (and it DEFINITELY sounds like Jim Henson's Kermit, too), he's wearing a brown fedora instead of a gray one, the "NEWS FLASH" logo has different colors (the cloud outline is PINK) and the Sesame Street News theme is also heard at the end of the sketch playing over the action with the bald Rapunzel carrying on about how she can't hear what they're saying, and Prince Charming wailing about his lost horse!

Yeah. I saw that one the other day. It did look pretty darn old. Even Jerry as the announcer sounded quite different. I'd sort of like to see a timeline of these things if possible.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was looking at the Muppet Wiki page for Sesame Street: Old School, Volume 1, and according to that page, this skit is listed as a season four bonus skit. So this sketch is from 1972, and not 1971. Either this wasn't the first news flash segment, or the news segments didn't appear on the show in 1971.