Seven Little Monsters FOUND

[minor muppetz]

I disagree, I think King of 8 is one of Jim's greatest earlier animated pieces... Queen of 6 I wasn't entirely impressed with, it seemed more like an attempt to recreate something that didn't need to be recreated.

I like King of 8 better now than I did as a kid. Back then, I didn't like the designs of the characters and was a bt freaked out by the jester, both his design and his voice. I saw the ending, with him crushed by an 8, as a happy ending (though with that kind of ending it is surprising that it continued to be shown until season 36).

Regarding Queen of Six seeming like an unneccessary attempt to recreate the King of 8, both were made for season two. Jim Henson was contracted to make number films that season. It would be interesting to know which of the segments came first, in terms of which was written/storyboarded first, which began shooting first (probably around the same times, but I guess our best chance of knowing would be if Jim Henson's red book noted the recording dates), and which was broadcast first.

 

[Drtooth]

I disagree, I think King of 8 is one of Jim's greatest earlier animated pieces... Queen of 6 I wasn't entirely impressed with, it seemed more like an attempt to recreate something that didn't need to be recreated.

King of 8 is more gag based than Queen of 6. I guess that's something for the girls or something. I mean, King of 8 is great, but it wouldn't have been if they didn't have that amazing punchline (and the Jester getting crushed by the giant 8).

The red book site noted that this segment had cannons, cited as "innappropriate for childrens television", and I don't see how firing cannons is innapropriate for a children's show (alright, maybe for an educational childrens show like Sesame Street, but cannons often appear in cartoons). And I was a bit disapointed with the size of the cannons, though I wasn't expecting the monsters to be giants.

I'd say it's more the fact that #7 can remove his head, albeit cleanly, and it is on a screw. Sort of a Frankenstein sort of way... plus that monster house face rampage bit at the end... like I said, I can't speak for anyone else but that would go down with I-Beam, the talking wall crack, and the skeletal elephant and bird basketball game as pointlessly weird and creepy for a little kid. The cannons, while in virtually every scene, shouldn't be a problem. They weren't exactly gratuitous. if you pay attention, they don't make a sound when fired, and the balls basically fall 2 feet out in front of them, not hitting anyone or anything.

 

[mr3urious]

The red book site noted that this segment had cannons, cited as "innappropriate for childrens television", and I don't see how firing cannons is innapropriate for a children's show (alright, maybe for an educational childrens show like Sesame Street, but cannons often appear in cartoons).

The #3 pinball animation had a cannon in it, and the censors didn't seem to have a problem with that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvGij3fmzZs

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if the Seven Monsters clip was uploaded by somebody involved with the segment. I noticed that the clip begins with a few seconds of black and cuts to black at the last second.

 

[Xerus]

In the new TV show version, the 7 monsters had a human mother who taught them right from wrong. While in that original version I just saw, the monsters caused chaos in the town and scared everyone with no mom to stop them.

 

[Drtooth]

I wonder if the Seven Monsters clip was uploaded by somebody involved with the segment. I noticed that the clip begins with a few seconds of black and cuts to black at the last second.

Probably managed to snag a Master tape somehow.

In the new TV show version, the 7 monsters had a human mother who taught them right from wrong. While in that original version I just saw, the monsters caused chaos in the town and scared everyone with no mom to stop them.

That's probably why the segment was banned and the show was produced. After all the show was one of those Pro-Social values dealies.. like Fat Albert or Arthur. Of course, a show's guaranteed to have more depth than something that's basically a counting rhyme. Of course, the show also made the monsters more Sesame Street like (irony?) and they weren't so much scary as they were giant hairy children. You can definitely tell in the sketch that at least #3 and #7 were out to scare people.

 

[minor muppetz]

It is interesting that both of Maurice Sendak's contributions were eventually banned. I wonder if both were dropped at the same time, or if they were dropped in different years. I would expect Bumble Ardy to have been banned sooner, as that one shows/ talks about the characters drinking wine, and the mother threatens to kill the pigs and make ham (otherwise I don't think the show has acknowledged that animals have to be killed to make meat).

It's also interesting how the Seven Monsters segment debuted on Sesame Street and then got adapted into a book and a series. I don't think very many other Sesame Street inserts have had this honor. And at that it's an obscure segment that got adapted. I think I have read something about an upcoming Bumble Ardy book, though.

 

[Drtooth]

I wonder if the Seven Monsters clip was uploaded by somebody involved with the segment. I noticed that the clip begins with a few seconds of black and cuts to black at the last second.

Probably managed to snag a Master tape somehow.

In the new TV show version, the 7 monsters had a human mother who taught them right from wrong. While in that original version I just saw, the monsters caused chaos in the town and scared everyone with no mom to stop them.

That's probably why the segment was banned and the show was produced. After all the show was one of those Pro-Social values dealies.. like Fat Albert or Arthur. Of course, a show's guaranteed to have more depth than something that's basically a counting rhyme. Of course, the show also made the monsters more Sesame Street like (irony?) and they weren't so much scary as they were giant hairy children. You can definitely tell in the sketch that at least #3 and #7 were out to scare people.

 

[BornToWemble]

As an adult the 7 little monsters thing creeps me...they're not litter they're HUGE. And drinking all the water in the world is kinda scary. Plus maybe they didnt want the kids to get scared by the smaller muppet monsters on the show and start thinking that everyone on sesame street were giants or something...

 

[The Shoe Fairy]

FFFFFFFF of all the times for my internet to be super slow, it's when someone digs up a collab of two of my creative idols.