Getting Ready to Read

Getting Ready to Read is a 1986 Sesame Street direct-to-video compilation.

The video promotes reading skills with various Sesame inserts, along with a new framing sequence where Big Bird operates his own "Reading Hotline."

Picture	Segment	Description
	FRAME 1	Big Bird has started his own “Reading Hotline”. Sam (a regular visitor) and his cat, Rocky, arrive to his stand, wanting to know what his box says. Big Bird reads it as “CAT FOOD” and teaches Sam to learn what it says instead of having to come to him all the time.
	Muppets	Grover talks about the word walk. He is accompanied by styrofoam letters that form the word walk, and they keep walking back and forth. (EKA: Episode 1858)
	FRAME 2	Ferlinghetti Donizetti fills in for Big Bird on a call, telling the caller about rhymes. However, he over does it and tells the caller about rhymes too much. Note: A portion of this scene appears in Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
	Muppets	Ernie and Bert: Ernie gets Bert to participate in a rhyming game, but Ernie ends the game just as Bert is starting to enjoy it. (EKA: Episode 0798)
	Cartoon	In rhyme, a man points out animals who stole and/or ruined his clothing. (EKA: Episode 1118)
	Muppets	Instead of cookies, Cookie Monster recites a poem about galoshes -- or at least he tries. (EKA: Episode 1933)
	FRAME 3	A monster caller (Old McDougal) asks Big Bird what rhyming has to do with reading. He puts him on hold as he calls Maria into his nest to ask the same question. As she demonstrates it, the monster caller gets fed up with waiting, hangs up and enters the nest himself, unnoticed. Big Bird tries to talk to the caller, but see’s he’s gone and tells the monster next to him he must’ve gotten tired of waiting, causing the monster to faint.
	Muppets	"Fat Cat" (First: Episode 0536)
	FRAME 4	Big Bird answers another call and helps Pammy learn to read by using the word ending “OP” to make new words.
	Muppets	"The "OP" Family Song" (EKA: Episode 0730)
	Cartoon	HEN / PEN / TEN / MEN
	FRAME 5	Oscar has set up his own reading hotline and tells his caller to learn to read by watching “Grouch TV”. The static on the channel fades away and reveals...
	Muppets	...Slimey and his band, "Earth, Rain and Mud", perform "Gimme Mud." Introduction and closing scenes cut
	FRAME 5 cont'd	The caller tells Oscar how much they hated the song and Oscar tells Slimey he has a hit on his hands!
	Muppets	Cookie Monster sounds out the word FOOD, then eats it. (EKA: Episode 0723)
	Muppets	Same Sound Brown shows Farley that "That's What Reading's All About." (EKA: Episode 1115)
	FRAME 6	Two Honkers try to get Big Bird’s attention, but since he’s on the phone, he asks the viewer to use the skills they learned to help the Honkers sound out their word (HONK).
	Cartoon	B ... US! We're on the bus! (EKA: Episode 0796)
	Muppets	Two-Headed Monster: RUN (EKA: Episode 1446)
	FRAME 7	Sam and Rocky come back with various boxes of food, not to learn how to read, but to show off their reading skills. Tired, Big Bird decides to field one more call, which he gets Maria to answer again.

Releases

Characters

Muppets (Linking Footage)

Big Bird, Sam, Rocky, Pammy, Oscar the Grouch, Old McDougal, Homer Honker, Honker, Ferlinghetti Donizetti

Muppets (Inserts)

Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Kermit the Frog, Grover, Farley, Same Sound Brown, Two-Headed Monster, Bip Bippadotta, Anything Muppets

Cast

Muppet Performers

Caroll Spinney as Big Bird and Oscar
Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog, Ernie, Lavender "Fat Cat" AM and Bip Bippadotta
Frank Oz as Cookie Monster, Bert, Fat Blue "Fat Cat" AM, and Grover
Jerry Nelson as Farley, Green "Fat Cat" AM, Lavender "OP" Family AM singer, and Two-Headed Monster
Richard Hunt as Two-Headed Monster

Fran Brill as Green "OP" Family AM singer and others
Martin P. Robinson as Monster and Rocky
Kevin Clash as Sam and Ferlinghetti Donizetti
Pam Arciero as Pammy
Northern Calloway as Same Sound Brown (voice, uncredited)

Cast

Sonia Manzano as Maria

Credits

Writer: Sara Compton
Segment Writers: Tony Geiss, Joseph A. Bailey, Ray Sipherd
Director: Jon Stone
Songs by: Joe Raposo, Jeffrey Moss, Cheryl Hardwick, Sam Pottle, Sara Compton

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