Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends is a New York City cable access puppet show that aired from 1983 to 2017.
Show producer (and Rapid's puppeteer) Richard Concepcion performed a walk-on cameo in the opening shot of Episode 4184 at the invitation of director Jim Martin. He was seen wearing a baseball cap walking past Hooper's Store with his back towards the camera.
Appearances[]
- 1991 β The show filmed on the Sesame Street set. Big Bird appeared, and Telly Monster drop-kicked Rapid out of the Fix-It Shop.
- 2003 β For the 20th anniversary show, Telly came back to apologize to Rapid and make jokes with him. Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch made comments off-camera. (YouTube)
- Episode 455 (1997) β The costumed version of Rapid appeared at the opening of a carousel in Riverbank State Park in Hamilton Heights. At the end of the episode, a Sesame Street PSA by The Ad Council for car seats is shown. The filmed segment also appeared on Sesame Street (First: Episode 3784).
- Episode 625 β The dedication of a street block in New York City for the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street was featured. Except for a short intro by Rapid, the episode was essentially unedited footage of the event, including multiple minutes of uninterrupted photo taking. Grover talks to the camera, asking "is that Richard?" Oscar also talks to Rapid, commenting that the street will revert to its previous name the next day. Abby Cadabby and Elmo walk-arounds appear at the end for a public meet-and-greet; Leslie Carrara-Rudolph takes a photo of Abby. The episode ends with Big Bird doing a voice-only interview with Rapid T. Rabbit. The episode's credits use the song The Happiest Street in the World, and ends with a PSA about washing your hands.