Added by Scarecroe

Spaceship Surprise was a recurring sketch on Sesame Street. Inspired by Star Trek, the segment was designed to teach consonant digraphs, the pairing of two consonants to create a new sound. The series focused on the crew of the titular ship, headed by an excitable captain and his stoic officer. In each segment, the ship would crash land on a different planet, whose populace demonstrated a specific sound. Alliteration was used heavily ("cheering chairs," "shouting shovel," etc.) The skit would generally end with the entire group performing a dance named after the digraph.

Sometime in the 1990s, a sequel series, Spaceship Surprise: The Next Generation, was launched. This time, the emphasis was on consonant sounds in general, and not digraphs. The new crew included:

• The Captain, a Purple AM parody of Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard
• The Security Officer, a Pumpkin AM parody of Michael Dorn's Worf
• The Science Officer, a Green AM parody of Brent Spiner's Data
• The Doctor, a Lavender AM parody of Gates McFadden's Doctor Crusher

The original series had music similar to the Star Trek theme and featured Martin P. Robinson as the narrator. The new series had new music similar to The Next Generation series of Star Trek, and featured Jerry Nelson as the new narrator.

In an interivew for Tough Pigs, Noel MacNeal explained that Patrick Stewart was meant to make a guest appearance in Spaceship Surprise, but refused, and a different segment featuring Stewart aired instead.

Original crew.

The new crew.

The additional "Next Generation" logo in the new series.

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SketchesEdit

Original SeriesEdit

Picture	Theme	Earliest Known Appearance	Description
	Planet "CH"	Episode 2455	The crew lands on the Planet CH, where they are greeted by Chunky Cheese. Online: Sesamestreet.org (SSvideo) Hulu (Hulu) SesameStreet's YouTube Channel (YouTube)
	Planet‎ "TR"	Episode 2607	The crew lands on the Planet TR, where they are greeted by Trevor Trout.
	Planet "SH"	Episode 2776	The crew lands on the Planet SH, where they are greeted by Sheriff Shrimp, and meet a shouting shovel and shopping sheep.

Next GenerationEdit

Picture	Theme	Earliest Known Appearance	Description
	Planet "H"	Episode 3195	The crew lands on Planet H. They are greeted by Hopalong Hamster, and see Happy Harry the Hopping Haystack and hula dancing hens. Video: Best of Sesame Street Spoofs! Online: Sesamestreet.org (SSvideo) Hulu (Hulu) SesameStreet's YouTube Channel (YouTube)