Episode 1397

Sesame Street
Oscar invents a trash can lid lifter
Air date	March 18, 1980
Season	Season 11 (1979-1980)
Production October 10, 1979 Sponsors U, V, 3

Picture	Segment	Description
	SCENE 1	Big Bird shows Susan his coloring book, but she points out he's colored things incorrectly. Big Bird sings "In My Coloring Book" to explain why he makes things the colors he wants.
	Cartoon	Sign Sounds: Hand (First: Episode 1179)
	Muppets	Grover asks The Amazing Mumford if he could make his carrot disappear, provided that some smoke appears. Mumford performs the trick and Grover is impressed by the puff of smoke, however he fails to notice Mumford chomping on his carrot. When Grover asks Mumford to make the carrot reappear, he replies that he can't because he ate it ("You didn't say anything about magic!"). (First: Episode 1210)
	Cartoon	V in space (First: Episode 0481)
	Cast	The Alphabet Dancers form the letter V. (First: Episode 0455)
	Cartoon	Small v... (Spanish version) Artist: John and Faith Hubley (First: Episode 0389)
	Film	The celebration of Chinese New Year (First: Episode 0495)
	Cartoon	The Typewriter: V for Vacuum (First: Episode 0774)
	Film	A wall painter on a high-rise spells and paints the word "WET PAINT" in red, but accidentally puts his hand on one of the painted letters and looks at his hand, all painted red, and shouts, "WET PAINT!" (First: Episode 1036)
	SCENE 2	Gordon paints a picture of the façade of Hooper's Store/the Fix-It Shop, which Big Bird admires. ("It's almost impressionistic, and yet somehow it makes me think of Edward Hopper.") Gordon heads off to lunch and asks Big Bird to make sure nobody touches it while the paint is still wet. Big Bird accomplishes this by retrieving his WET PAINT sign, which he sticks right onto the painting itself...
	Cartoon	A painter pops out of a box and paints a lion, then hangs a "wet paint" sign on it.
	Muppets	Little Chrissy and the Alphabeats sing "Exit" as the audience leaves the room. (First: Episode 0666)
	Animation	Sand V/v (First: Episode 0637)
	Film	Kids ride horses. Music: Joe Raposo (First: Episode 0541)
	Cartoon	Speech Balloon: U for UP (First: Episode 0650)
	Celebrity	Joe Namath tosses a football forward to a kid. The film then runs in reverse to demonstrate backward. (First: Episode 0530)
	Film	A very busy man is asked by a voice what "forwards" and "backwards" means, but the man doesn't have time to listen. Instead, he is shown what "backwards" means by watching everything around him go in reverse motion! (First: Episode 0166)
	Cartoon	U for Ugly: A man removes his mask, revealing a hideous monster face. (First: Episode 0468)
	Insert	Bob, Linda and Timi show some kids how to say "butterfly" in sign language. They sing a song about it. (First: Episode 1064)
	Cartoon	A child learns there's many things one can do with a stick. (First: Episode 0803)
	Muppets	Caveman Days: EXIT sign (First: Episode 0300)
	Cartoon	Pinball Number Count #3 Artist: Jeff Hale (First: Episode 0978)
	Film	The Mad Painter #3 (First: Episode 0343)
	Cartoon	A bear counts bees and disturbs their beehive. (First: Episode 0083)
	Cast	A Howard Cosell-type announcer narrates as athlete Maria subtracts a chair from a group of three. (First: Episode 0431)
	Cartoon	"Uncle Gus and all of us went for a ride to Ho-Ho-Kus". Features a Snuffleupagus cameo. (First: Episode 0926)
	Song	"Three Is My Favorite Number" (First: Episode 0429)
	Cartoon	A bird subtracts two balloons from a group of three. Artist: Cliff Roberts (First: Episode 0530)
	Cartoon	Look both ways before you cross the street Artist: Ray Favata
	SCENE 3	Gordon brings some cookies for the kids to snack on. However, there are six in total of them and only five cookies. They try to think of a way so they'll each have a cookie until Katie breaks each cookie in half, giving each of them a portion.
	Cartoon	A little girl shows the building and apartment where she lives -- both with the number 6. (First: Episode 0783)
	Cartoon	A boy imagines that if the clouds were cows, it would rain milk. (First: Episode 0650)
	Muppets	A Large Lavender Live Hand Anything Muppet cowboy shouts across a canyon to hear the echo. "Yippee ki-yi-yo!" is repeated back to him perfectly. When he shouts "One!", the echo repeats back, "¡Uno!" The cowboy is startled. "Two!" he shouts, and the echo repeats, "¡Dos!" "You s'pose that's Mexico over there?" he asks. He continues to count to ten, with the echo repeating the numbers back in Spanish. Frustrated, he shouts, "How are you?" "¡Muy bien, gracias!" is the reply. "Oh, this is ridiculous," the cowboy says, and throws his cowboy hat into the canyon. A sombrero is thrown back in return. (First: Episode 0698)
	Cartoon	What if we celebrate Valentine's Day with chickens instead of hearts? (First: Episode 0488)
	Cartoon	A photographer tries to look for some animals quietly, but they all end up secretly following him. (First: Episode 0799)
	Muppets	Cookie Monster comes to the bakery looking for something delicious that rhymes with BUY. He tries the I (from the MIKE'S BAKERY sign) and the baker's TIE, both of which aren't that delicious. Finally, Guy Smiley comes in and loudly announces that he would like to BUY a PIE. Cookie then knows what he can get in the bakery that rhymes with BUY and is delicious: it's GUY! A chase ensues, and Cookie requests for the baker to send him the bill. (First: Episode 0481)
	Cartoon	On a snowy day, a cold man desires firewood. He carries a huge log up the hill multiple times, but it rolls down each time. Using his "wits", he pushes his house down to the bottom of the hill to be closer to the giant log. (First: Episode 0799)
	SCENE 4	Oscar has made a complicated contraption involving ropes attached from his trash can lid to Big Bird's front door. He tells the viewer that when Big Bird opens his door, the contraption will open the lid without Oscar having to do any work at all. He calls for Big Bird and ducks inside the can. Big Bird opens his door, but the lid lifter only yanks the handle from the lid.
	Muppets	Harvey Kneeslapper sets up a bucket of confetti above a door, so that whoever pulls the rope attached to the bucket will get the confetti dumped on them. Instead, a little girl walks by and pulls the rope, so that the confetti lands on Harvey! (First: Episode 0353)
	SCENE 4 cont'd	Oscar sets up his lid lifter again, hoping this time it works properly. Big Bird comes out to Oscar's call and the lifter pulls the lid from the can, but now it's much too high for Oscar to even reach.
	Cartoon	An old man recites a poem about the time he had the flu. Artist: Bruce Cayard (First: Episode 1274)
	SCENE 4 cont'd	Oscar reattaches the lid lifter and calls for Big Bird. The lifter now lifts the entire can off its place and into the air. Oscar calls for help while announcing the sponsors.
	CLOSING SIGNS	Grover holds the Sesame Street sign, while the Count holds the CTW sign.

Notes

• Big Bird and Oscar are never seen in the same shot during their scenes together, allowing Caroll Spinney to perform both characters thanks to various camera edits.

Previous episode:	Next episode:
Episode 1396	Episode 1398