Episode 3820

Sesame Street
The adults are too busy to tell Elmo a story
Air date	February 12, 1999
Season	Season 30 (1998-1999)
Sponsors S, 18 Syndication 123 Sesame Street, PBS Sprout

Elmo wants to hear a story, but all of the adults are too busy to spend time with him. Bob is teaching clarinet lessons, Alan is swamped with lunch orders, and Maria has too many toasters to repair. Maria encourages Elmo to make up his own story, so he imagines that he's the Royal Elmo, who's never too busy to help his friends on Sesame Street. But as the story continues, the Royal Elmo gets tired of all the requests, and he's too busy to play.

Finally, all of the adults are finished with their jobs, and they want to tell Elmo their stories. Elmo has to rush off and feed Dorothy, so he leaves Big Bird in his place.

Segments

• Film: A class makes up a story about a fish named Billy, which is told through animation based on the kids' drawings. (EKA: Episode 3765)

• Cartoon: An alien spins around Saturn's rings 18 times.

• Film: Growing Numbers #18 (EKA: Episode 2933)

• Cartoon: A spoof of Alice Cooper's "Eighteen" - the number of sandwiches the singer has to choose from. (EKA: Episode 2859)

• Cartoon: A boy learns to play his violin by practicing. (EKA: Episode 1736)

• Ben Stiller sings " The People in Your Neighborhood" with Telly, and decides that he'd like to be a person in the neighborhood. But does a cheese count as a person? (First: Episode 3812)

• Cartoon: African quilt pattern (EKA: Episode 3145)

• Animation: A cowboy sings about S words. (EKA: Episode 3720)

• Prairie Dawn gives Grover 15 seconds to say an "S" word, but Grover has trouble concentrating due to the ticking of the clock. (EKA: Episode 3723)

• Cartoon: Seymour the snail presents himself. (EKA: Episode 3756)

• Leon Redbone sings "What Do They Do When They Go Wherever They Go?" (EKA: Episode 3370)

• Cartoon: A boy imagines his room turning into a jungle.

• Ernie can't sleep, because he's afraid of dark shadows and spooky things. Bert comforts him, and the two sing "Imagination" before falling asleep.

• Cartoon: Three balloons take away two leaves one, and a ringing in the ears.

• "S, You're the Best" (EKA: Episode 3720)

• Sesame Street Goes to Day Care: Telly and Baxter name S words.

• Animation: Airplanes carve the capital and lowercase S. (EKA: Episode 3240)

• Film: A visual representation of the nursery rhyme "To Market" with Wegman's dogs. (EKA: Episode 3684)

• Cartoon: Ladies, birds, and fish march forward and backward. (EKA: Episode 3083)

• Elmo's World: Books (First: Episode 3817)

Notes

• One of the customers at the Fix-It Shop in this episode is Guy Smiley, making one of his first new appearances since Jim Henson's death.

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