The most DATED thing on classic Sesame Street?

[jeffkjoe]

Looking back at old SESAME STREET shows, what do you think is the most DATED skit or film shown on the show?

My top three:

1) Bob singing "Good Morning Sunshine" back in season one in 1969
2) The Jazzy Spies numbers
3) Stevie Wonder sings "123, Sesame Street" back in 1973


What's your vote?

 

[ssetta]

I would have to say "Good Morning Starshine" since it was only used the first 2 seasons.

 

[MuppetDude]

It also debuted in the third episode.

 

[SesameMike]

Any skit that includes a rotary phone. I'm thinking of one in which Ernie was awaiting an important phone call from Bert, but Cookie Monster wheedles the telephone out of Ernie to "call his mommy". CM makes what Ernie termed the longest phone call in history. For example, CM recounted to his mother, quite literally the jump rope game (I think that's what it was) he played. He counted "1, 2...," cut to some other sketch; upon returning he continued "One thousand <something>, Four thousand <something>.." After Cookie Monster finally hung up, he "thanked" Ernie by eating the phone. Whereupon the phone rang inside his belly. Ernie held CM's mouth open while he talked to Bert: unlike CM's phone call, we could all hear Bert's tinny voice on the other end. Ernie's last words on camera were "Can you talk a little louder? We have a bad connection."

I think Mr. Hooper's store also had a rotary pay phone.

Any street scene before about 1972 would automatically be dated by the mailbox on the set. During the first 2 or 3 seasons, most mailboxes were painted red on the top section, blue everywhere else, with the words "U.S. MAIL" in white block lettering on the side. The Sesame Street mailbox was painted solid blue at about the same time as the real world counterparts, but with one major difference: instead of the USPS bird symbol on the side, it had a painted "banner" reading "U.S. MAIL".

Any sketch featuring WALK and DONT WALK is now dated, since these are being phased out in favor of hand/man symbols in the US. Most other countries continue to use the red man standing/green man walking symbols instead.

There's this one film where a camera zooms in on a single letter on a sign somewhere in New York City as an unseen kid's voice reads out the letter. Of course the action is done 26 times for each letter in the alphabet, and a sedate, repeating musical score plays in the background. Aside from M for MAIL on the old two-toned letter box, and W for WALK (on a Marbelite pedestrian signal which hasn't been seen in New York City for 20 years) there are probably other anachronisms in that film.

 

[superfan]

The clothes, baby, the clothes!

Haha!

PURE seventies...just shining through!

And the end credits for the earlier 90's shows with the hip hop beat and those kids trying to do the running man and MC Hammer moves. Even Big Bird danced along.

 

[mikebennidict]

now may i ask why would anyone here even bother talking about the most dated thing on SS who cares?

 

[jeffkjoe]

now may i ask why would anyone here even bother talking about the most dated thing on SS who cares?

Because this is an open forum?

SHEESH!

 

[MuppetDude]

Plus, it's fun.

 

[superfan]

This is all in good fun, my friend! Feel free to join us!

 

[Mokeystar]

Fun is good. It's one of the things that makes life groovy. Three cheers for it.

When I think of dated stuff, I don't know why, but the clip of the "Ace, the Lost Dog" comes to mind. I guess in this millenial day and age, if someone wanted to print out a basic sign like that, they probably would go to their computer and print out a few using a word processing program.

In the lost dog clip, the kid goes to a real life printer who uses these funky word blocks and a big funky looking machine to get the desired signs. They seem to go through quite a bit just to get some simple monocolored signs printed up. I'll bet it cost that kid at least a weeks worth of allowance, man.