Speech Balloon

During the first season of Sesame Street, several animated inserts were produced called Speech Balloon, in which a character says a letter and a word that begins with that letter. The word appears in a word balloon, accompanied by an image.

According to the book Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street, these segments were inspired by the Muppet piece "Visual Thinking" as performed on The Ed Sullivan Show.

As part of the show's bilingual project, certain segments also aired on Sesame Street in Spanish.

Season 1 (1969-1970)

Picture	Segment	First	Description
	A - Ape	Episode 0006 Included in This Way to Sesame Street.	An ape appears with a menacing expression. Later, the ape wears a wig and plays "Tiptoe Through the Tulips"' on his ukulele.
	B - Butterfly	Episode 0006	A man catches a butterfly in a net, only to find himself captured into another net.
	C - Cat	Episode 0029	After a dog trots into the balloon, a cat angrily boots him out.
File:SSTS-30.jpg	D - Dog	Episode 0016 Included in Sesame Street Test Show 1.	The roles between dog and master are reversed.
	E - Egg	Episode 0002 Included in This Way to Sesame Street.	A cow hatches a chick, which says, "Moo."
	F - Fly	Episode 0032	A man attempts to dislodge a fly with a swatter, but ends up smacking himself in the face instead.
	G - Gorilla	Episode 0085	A man appears instead of a gorilla, but then he unzips his costume, revealing himself to be a gorilla, which growls.
	H - Hole	Episode 0080	A boy gets a pie in the face when he looks out of his speech balloon.
	I - Ice cream	Episode 0033	An ice cream scoop scoops up a bowl of ice cream, runs away with the ice cream container leaving ice cream on the boy's face.
	J - Jam	Episode 0012	A little boy gets jam poured all over him from within the balloon. But he doesn't mind -- it's strawberry, his favorite flavor.
	K - Key	Episode 0040	A man puts a key into a keyhole, but instead of just opening a door, he opens the entire front of his house. His wife calls to him from the bathtub, "Close the house, Leonard!"
	L - Lunchbox	Episode 0031	When the box is opened, a jack-in-the-box head pops out.
	M - Mailbox	Episode 0013 Included in This Way to Sesame Street.	A hand reaches out of the mailbox, attaches a stamp to the man's forehead, and pulls him into the box.
	N - Nail	Episode 0040	A man pulls a nail out of his speech balloon.
	O - Open	Episode 0014	After the man steps into the bubble through a door on the side, the bubble slams shut and cannot be opened.
	P - Pin	Episode 0054	An abstract woman pushes a pin into her balloon, bursting it.
	R - Rabbit	Episode 0014
	S - Snake	Episode 0063	A snake charmer plays a tune on his recorder; the snake doesn't enjoy the tune and decides to play another tune on the recorder. Also in Spanish (serpiente).
	T - Train	Episode 0022	A railroad engineer catches a ride on a train.
	U - Umbrella	Episode 0038
	V - Violin	Episode 0052	A musician plays a violin, which makes a sawing noise and instantly breaks in two.
	W - Water	Episode 0062	A man's speech balloon becomes a water cooler.
	X - X-Ray	Episode 0064	A bald man steps behind an x-ray machine.
	Y - Yo-Yo	Episode 0036	After snipping a boy's yo-yo with scissors, a man becomes the boy's makeshift yo-yo.
	Z - Zipper	Episode 0025	The balloon unzips and falls onto the speaker.

Later Seasons

Picture	Segment	EKA	Description
	B - Bug		A woman sprays an insect, which fights back with a cannon.
	C - Cap	Episode 0573	A man puts on an oversized cap.
	C - Carrot	Episode 2402
	E - End	Episode 2164
	H - Horse	Episode 2682	The horse rides on the cowboy.
	I - Iron	Episode 0815	An iron irons the word.
	I - Island	Episode 2727	A man discovers that he is standing on the head of a crocodile.
	L - Light		A man turns on a light, interrupting another man's sleep. Also in Spanish (luz).
	L - Lips	Episode 0198	A large pair of lips smooches a man.
	L - Loud	Episode 1845
	U - Up	Episode 1899	Two men demonstrate "up" on a teeter totter; one man ends up crashing through the ceiling.