Sherlock Hemlock
From Muppet Wiki
Sherlock Hemlock is a Muppet spoof of Sherlock Holmes, as seen on Sesame Street. Sherlock is the self-appointed "World's Greatest Detective," dressed in the iconographic Holmes deerstalker cap and Inverness cape, and usually brandishing a large magnifying glass. He prides himself on his powers of observation, and does succeed in deciphering small clues, but seldom arrives at a correct, final solution without assistance. When he does find a clue, he often shouts, "E-GAD!"
Sherlock first appeared in Episode 0131, the Season 2 premiere, looking for the missing half of Ernie's chicken salad sandwich. As it turns out, Sherlock himself ate half of the sandwich. Hemlock also appeared in the recurring Caveman Days sketches as "The Royal Smart Person." Though generally one of the less musical Muppets, Hemlock sang "X Marks the Spot!," a dire warning of what the letter/symbol X may signify, first on The Muppet Alphabet Album and then on the series itself.
In Season 21, he was given a sidekick of sorts: a faithful dog named Watson, who joined his master in the short-lived Mysterious Theater segments, and occasional street appearances. Sherlock was last seen in new material in a Season 27 episode, where the letter X wanted to quit the alphabet. After which, he was only seen in old sketches until the early 2000s.
According to Sesame Street Unpaved, Nelson's performance is based on Basil Rathbone's famous portrayal of Holmes in the 1939 movie The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and its early 1940s sequels.
Sketches
| Picture | Summary | Earliest Known Appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Missing Chicken Salad Sandwich | Episode 0131 | Ernie opens his lunchbox and finds that half of his chicken salad sandwich is missing. Sherlock Hemlock, the world's greatest detective, investigates this fiendish crime. It turns out that Sherlock himself ate half of Ernie's sandwich.
Video: Old School: Volume 1 |
 | The Case of the Broken Window | Episode 0238 | Sherlock Hemlock helps Ernie discover how his window got broken. Ernie finds that the only evidence is a baseball, and together with Sherlock Hemlock try to find out how who broke Ernie's window.It turns out that Sherlock Hemlock, of the Sesame Street Sluggers hit a home-run which caused the baseball to go through the window.
Online: Web Video Player |
 | Twiddlebug Mystery | Episode 0256 | Sherlock Hemlock tries to figure out why there is a mess outside. He speculates that the Twiddlebugs made a mess after a Twiddlebug dance. |
 | Exit sign | Episode 0300 | Everyone wants to go outside the cave, but they're not sure which way to go out until the Royal Smart Person invents an EXIT sign.
Online: Web Video Player |
 | "X Marks the Spot!" | Episode 0560 | Sherlock sings "X Marks the Spot!"
Online: Web Video Player |
 | Paper | Episode 0667 | King Ernie has a problem -- the cavemen write everything on rocks, which are too heavy to carry around. He calls upon the Royal Smart Person to invent something lighter to write on. (This sketch was adapted into a book, The Invention of Paper.) Online: Web Video Player |
 | Apple Mystery | Episode 0747 | Ernie finds an apple on a brick wall, and wants to know who it belongs to. Sherlock Hemlock helps solve the mystery, and realises that Ernie has a brown paper bag with a hole at the bottom, and that Ernie had an apple in the bag, therefore the apple belongs to Ernie.
Online: Web Video Player |
 | The Beach: Bert is Missing | Episode 0933 | At the beach, Ernie notices that Bert is missing; all he sees is Bert's hat. Sherlock Hemlock helps find Bert, and in the process, it turns out that Ernie accidentally buried Bert under the sand. |
 | Toothbrush | Episode 3144 | King Ernie needs to clean his yucky teeth. The Royal Smart Person brings a big brush (used for sweeping), then a middle-sized brush (used for brushing hair), then a smaller brush (used for painting), and finally a really small brush (a toothbrush). Just as Ernie proclaims that he'll "brush every tooth in the entire kingdom," a saber-toothed tiger comes in, seizes the toothbrush, and begins to use it himself.
Online: Web Video Player |
 | Something to Drink | King Ernie wants something to drink, so he calls on the Royal Smart Person for help. The royal cow has quit, so there's no milk available. Ernie also shows that there is no liquid inside a rock or a stick. Then the Royal Smart Person suggests that Ernie should try squeezing a round orange thing (an orange), which turns out to have juice inside. | |
 | "Mystery Guest" | Sherlock Hemlock competes with Cookie Monster and Don Music on Guy Smiley's game show "Mystery Guest". The mystery guest is the letter X. Sherlock guessed that the guest was the letter I. |
Book appearances
- The Together Book (1971)
- The Sesame Street Storybook (1972)
- Sherlock Hemlock and the Great Twiddlebug Mystery (1972)
- The Sesame Street 1, 2, 3 Storybook (1973)
- The Sesame Street ABC Storybook (1974)
- The Invention of Paper (1975)
- Big Bird's Busy Book (1975)
- The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook (1978)
- The Sesame Street Cookbook (1978)
- The Sesame Street Dictionary (1980)
- The Sesame Street Pet Show (1980)
- The Case of the Missing Duckie (1980)
- The Sesame Street Sun (1981)
- Prairie Dawn's Upside-Down Poem (1981)
- Sherlock Hemlock and the Creatures from Outer Space (1981)
- Which One Doesn't Belong? (1981)
- I Think That It Is Wonderful (1984)
- A Bird's Best Friend (1986)
