The Beatles

"With the Mupples" - Calendar parody of With the Beatles album cover

Sesame Road

George Harrison and a Fisher Price Kermit doll; photo allegedly taken at the Saturday Night Live studios.

Elmo crossing Abbey Road.

Telly encounters a yellow submarine.

Illustration by Bruce McNally.

The Beatles were a British rock music group from Liverpool, England held in very high regard for both their artistic achievements and their huge commercial success, and have amassed an enormous worldwide fanbase that continues to exist to this day.

The Beatles comprised of John Lennon on rhythm guitar and mouth organ, Paul McCartney on electric bass, George Harrison on lead guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums, with all four on vocals. The group shattered many sales records and charted more than fifty top 40 hit singles. They disbanded in 1970.

Some of the former Beatles were originally slated as guests for different episodes of The Muppet Show, but due to budget and schedule conflicts, these episodes were never produced. McCartney's band, Wings, was considered for an episode. Jerry Nelson said in a 1999 interview, "They tried their best to get the Beatles, Paul was willing to do it, but we had to hire the whole band… When he was with Wings. It was too big time. We just didn’t have the money. I think George would have done it, but they kept trying to negotiate with Paul... Ringo probably would have too. If they had asked me, I would have said, 'Hey! Get them! Don’t dicker... Get the ones who are ready to commit.'"

Sir Paul McCartney appeared on stage with Kermit the Frog to celebrate Golden Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth II.

Ringo Starr appeared in a February 2008 Disney Xtreme Digital video with Kermit the Frog and Pepe the King Prawn during the Muppets' coverage of the Grammy Awards ceremony.

Beatles producer George Martin appeared on The Ghost of Faffner Hall episode, "Sounds Become Music".

Songs

• "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
  • Sesame Street (First: Episode 0003)

• "All Together Now"
  • Sesame Street (First: Episode 0015)

• "Yellow Submarine"
  • Sesame Street (First: Episode 0017)

• "Octopus' Garden" -- Sesame Street (First: Episode 0019)
  • The Ed Sullivan Show, March 1, 1970
  • The Muppet Show episode 312

• "Help!"
  • Sesame Street (EKA: Episode 0135)

• "Come Together"
  • The Ed Sullivan Show, April 12, 1970

• "I'm Looking Through You"
  • The Muppet Show episode 119

• "In My Life"
  • The Muppet Show episode 121

• "She Loves You"
  • The Muppet Show episode 407

• "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
  • The Muppet Show episode 419

• "With a Little Help from My Friends"
  • The Muppet Show episode 419
  • parodied on Sesame Street as "With a Little Yelp from My Friends"

• "Blackbird"
  • The Muppet Show episode 503

• "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
  • The Muppet Show episode 517

• "Good Day Sunshine"
  • The Muppet Show episode 522

• "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
  • Muppets on Location: Days of Swine and Roses

• "All Together Now"
  • Kermit Unpigged

• "Drive My Car"
  • Sing-Along Travel Songs

• Let It Be
  • parodied on Sesame Street as "Letter B"

• "Hey Jude"
  • parodied on Sesame Street as "Hey Food"

References

• In an early Sesame Street segment, Kermit demonstrates "between" with a ping-pong ball, a donut, and a Beatles record. Beautiful Day Monster ends up eating the record, shouting, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" in reference to the song She Loves You.
• In another Sesame Street segment, the Twiddlebug Family has a smoke detector installed in their home. Before they learn what it is for, they guess it could be a radio. Timmy Twiddlebug likes its "groovy sound" and twice sings "Yeah, yeah, yeah" from She Loves You.
• The Mighty Favog claimed to be a personal friend of the Beatles, and told Chevy Chase that he would get them to appear on Saturday Night Live if Lorne Michaels would let the Muppets stay on the show.
• Sgt. Floyd Pepper's name references the Beatles album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
• Janice and Zoot referenced the group in a Muppet Show At the Dance segment:

Zoot: Say, do you wanna come to my place and listen to the beetles?

Janice: Oh, I love their music!

Zoot: Not music, I mean real beetles!

• In episode 106 of Muppets Tonight, Johnny Fiama shows off his Tony Bennett album, Sergeant Tony's Lonely Hearts Club Gang, which he claims came out a week before the album with "those other guys" (referring to the Beatles' album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band).
• In episode 201, Rizzo jokes that the only song that can possibly come up with in the commissary is "I Wanna Hold Your Ham," referencing the Beatles' song "I Wanna Hold Your Hand."
• In a Sesame Street cartoon by Joey Ahlbum, the number 9 is featured in various forms underwater, and also shows up on a yellow submarine (also a reference to "Revolution 9").
• Prince Paul Charming is modeled after the Beatle in episode 4139 of Sesame Street. He also suggests "coo coo ka-chack" as a rhyme for "back", referencing a lyric from "I Am the Walrus".
• A poster that came with copies of Dinosaurs: Big Songs had a photo of the 4 main Sinclair family members crossing a street in Pangea parodying the cover of Abbey Road.
• On the "Things That Go Day" video on Sesamestreet.org, among the forms of transportation that go by Telly is a yellow submarine.
• In the Sesame Street video, Count It Higher: Great Music Videos from Sesame Street, the music video captions for "Letter B" list the record producer as "Lemon Records", referencing The Beatles' record label, Apple Records. After the music video, The Count sings "Yeah, yeah, yeah", referencing "She Loves You".
• In the Sesame Street season 40 press kit, Oscar lists two of his favorite songs: "All You Need is Trash" (a parody of "All You Need is Love") and "I Wanna Hold Your Trash" (a spoof of "I Wanna Hold You Hand").
• In episode 4067, 1970s band The Electric Three (consisting of Bob, Luis, and Gordon) is practicing, but Luis is distracted by a girl he's met, named Maria. The rest of the band worries she's break them up; this is a reference to Yoko Ono.
• "With the Mupples" parody in the 1997 Muppet Parody Calendar: The Sequel
• The cover of the Sesame Road album spoofs Abbey Road.
• The Muppet Show band is dressed as the Beatles from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in a 1977 puzzle.
• In Muppet King Arthur #2, Baskerville sings "Baby, You Can Drive My Car.", which wins the heart of Merlin, but fails to phase Arthur and Morgana Le Fay, who have no idea what a car is.
• The title of The Green Album is a reference to The Beatles' record, "The White Album".

T-shirt parodies

Revolver

Revolver

Meet the Beatles

Yellow Submarine

Abbey Road

Abbey Road

Abbey Road

Abbey Road

Spoofs

• The Beetles
• The Beagles

External Links

• Official Site
• Official Site for Paul McCartney
• Official Site for the Lennon Family
• Official Site for George Harrison
• Official Site for Ringo Starr