What is your favorite Sesame ABC's?

[Natalie]

yeah, i remember that too. and is the kids you're talking about, Janice & Mokey's Man, is that when there is a huge group of them and it's an overhead shot and they are forming the letters by being in the group?

 

[Jackie]

Definitely the African Alphabet!

 

[TravellingMatt]

One of my favorites was at the beginning of the show (in the early 70's). There was a spot where the camera panned around the street and various humans and Muppets held up cards with the letter their first name began with, then said the letter and their name.

A is for Alterrian (kid)
B is for Bob
C is for Cookie (That's good enough for me!)
D is for David
E is for Ernie
F is for Farley (green Anything Muppet with red hair)
G is for Gordon (Hal Miller)
H is for Hooper
I is for Ingrid (pink female Anything Muppet)
J is for Jake (kid)
K is for Kermit
L is for Luis
M is for Maria
N is for Nancy (another kid)
O is for Oscar
P is for Prairie
Q is for Queenie (another kid)
R is for Roosevelt (Franklin)
S is for Susan
T is for Trey (another kid)
U is for Ursula (another pink female Anything Muppet)
V is for Vanessa (another kid)
W is for Willy
X is for Xavier (pink male Anything Muppet)
Y is for YOU, and you visit us each day! (So speaketh Grover)
Z is for...I don't think we have anyone here whose name starts with Z, but you can't have everything! (So sayeth Big Bird in the early 70's. As of the late 90's, that changed with Zoe's arrival.)

I was also a fan of "The Sesame Street Alphabet Album" (I think it also enjoyed an incarnation as "The Muppet Alphabet Album"). It was reissued as "Sesame Street: Sing The Alphabet" with one bonus cut, of Elmo singing "ABC-DEF-GHI".

TRACK LISTING:

1. ABC-DEF-GHI--Elmo
2. The Sound Of The Letter A--Big Bird
3. Oscar's B Sandwich--Oscar the Grouch
4. C Is For Cookie--Cookie Monster
5. Dee Dee Dee--Ernie
6. What's My Letter?--Guy Smiley & Prairie Dawn
7. Four Furry Friends--Herry, Grover, Cookie, & Oscar
8. Two G Sounds--Grover & George
9. Ha Ha--Harvey Kneeslapper, Herry, and Big Bird
10. (I) Stand Up Straight And Tall--Grover
11. J Friends--Four Anything Muppets
12. Herb's "K" Poem--Herbert Birdsfoot
13. La La La--Bert & Ernie
14. MMM Monster Meal--Cookie & Herry
15. The Noodle Story--Big Bird & Oscar
16. Would You Like To Buy An O?--Lefty & Ernie
17. My Favorite Letter--Three Anything Muppets
18. The Question Song--Grover & a little girl
19. The R Machine--Bert & Ernie
20. Sammy The Snake--Sammy the Snake
21. The Tale of Tom Tattertall Tuttletut--Herbert Birdsfoot & the Anything Muppets
22. U Lecture--Professor Hastings & Ernie
23. Very Very Special Letter--Big Bird
24. The National Association Of W Lovers--Bert
25. X Marks The Spot--Sherlock Hemlock
26. Just Because--Grover & Prairie Dawn
27. The Zizzy Zoomers--The Zizzy Zoomers

I also hope to get "Numbers" or "The Count's Countdown" soon. I own this one as well as the two Sesame Street "Platinum" CD's, "A Sesame Street Christmas" (1996 version), and "Born To Add".

 

[Natalie]

oh yeah, i had the Sesame Street Alphabet tape you're talking about, it's probably still around here somewhere!

 

[TravellingMatt]

Of course, a million renderings of the alphabet on the Street cannot compare to my beloved Letter People (who borrowed Henson's puppeteering aspects on their TV show...which looked low-budget but I don't think it really was). Basically all the Letter People puppets were hand-and-rod puppets (think Kermit, Floyd, etc.) with the exceptions of Mr. M, Mr. F (who was a combination live hands/hand-and-rod), Mr. Z, Mr. G, Mr. W, Mr. Y (who went from a hand-and-rod to a live-hands), Mr. R, and Mr. X, who were all live-hands puppets (think Rowlf, Ernie, or Fozzie Bear). It was a terrific show! (And yes, Byron, if you're reading this, my girlfriend said she will copy the Letter People videos I have...she just wants to wait until her aunt--who has 2 VCR's--goes off to Vegas for a spell.)

 

[Gonzo]

The African Alphabet Song
Alphabet Chat "credits"
"ABC-DEFGHI-JKL-MNOP-QR-STUV-WYXZ" (Big Bird's song)

Quinnnnnnnn

 

[Janice & Mokey's Man]

Originally posted by TravellingMatt
(And yes, Byron, if you're reading this, my girlfriend said she will kopy the Letter People videos I have...she just wants to wait until her aunt--who has 2 V"SEE"R's--goes off to Vegas for a spell.)

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

*suddenly kannot WAIT for Matt's g/f's aunt to get her kiester off to Vegas*

*Really!*

*He kan't!*

 

[The Count]

Thanks to TravellingMatt's posts, I now know who Xavier and the "Alphabet on the Street" segments are. I also remember the spacey machine that converted one letter into the next as Janice & Mokey's Man commented, although I can't recall many of the specific mechanisms. Here are my favorites:
1 The alphabet fireworks, in its entirety. There was a second version which was interrupted by a Sesame Street News Flash.
2 Another one I remember with fondness is the one that has different beings assume the positions of each letter while a small child is trying to go to sleep. Examples include two Chinese men bowing before each other (M), two geese slapping their tails together (W), two worms hugging each other at their midsections (X), and the small child in the shape of the letter Z. One exception is a ladybug who spins cotton into the shape of the letter H.
3 I don't know if anybody else recalls this one, and I don't have any concrete examples, but there's another "Alphabet on the Street" segment where Uncle Wally walks the length of the street and different sections move themselves to show each lower-case letter.
That's all I can think of for now.

PS: TravellingMatt, I happen to have both number records, so if you want maybe we can strike up some sort of business with each other. Please let me know if you're interested.

Thunder clashing and Lightning flashing, the Count.

 

[TravellingMatt]

I already mentioned this to Byron, but if Henson had done "The Letter People", here's who I think would have voiced which Letter People:

JIM--Mr. M, Mr. W, Mr. X
FRANK--Mr. D, Mr. G, Mr. K, Mr. R, Mr. T
JERRY--Mr. C, Mr. N, Mr. P, Mr. V, Mr. Z
RICHARD--Mr. F, Mr. H, Mr. J, Mr. L
DAVE--Mr. B, Mr. Q, Mr. S, Mr. Y
KATHRYN--Miss A, Miss U
KAREN--Miss E
LOUISE--Miss O
FRAN--Miss I

Nowadays, I think it would probably be:

FRANK--(see above)
JERRY--(see above)
DAVE--(see above, subtract Mr. Y)
KATHRYN--(see above)
KAREN--(see above)
LOUISE--(see above)
FRAN--(see above)
DAVID R.--Mr. F, Mr. J, Mr. W, Mr. X
KEVIN--Mr. M
ERIC--Mr. H
STEVE--Mr. Y

 

[mikealan]

Here are my favorite spots of Sesame Street ABC's:

ABC-DEF-GHI
Madrigal Alphabet animation
Fireworks Alphabet film
Kermit & Joey sing the ABCDEFG Cookie Monster
Alphabet animation that start and end with twenty-six letters on the yellow background
Alphabet animation with letters on black background flashing in different colors where the lady's voice went "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZeeeeeeeeee!" before we hear the soft, dreamy man's voice announcing all the letters
Animated segment where boy catches the alphabet to make alphabet soup (this was an old animated segment, but it can be shown on Sesame Street Re-paved, the 2000 episodes on the new Noggin when SSU and 123 SS from Season 25 are decreased from Noggin)
Live-action film where Tiger's Karate team chops the alphabet
Live-action film where kids on island perform the alphabet calypso
Live-action film where letters from signs or titles of places flash toward you
Letters In Sand animation series with the banjo-and-fiddle music where the man's voice announces the capital letter then the child's voice announces the small letter
Play-doh like machines create capital and small letters with the funky music
School tools form capital and small letters
Planes use clouds to form capital and small letters