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Ingeborg Nordén

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Contents 1 Finally: possible source for "Matt Playback"! 2 More details needed on Episode 4081 3 Anybody seen this one? 4 "Poverty" letter cartoons: official title? 5 And another one... 6 Another missing Spanish segment 7 Another Grover & kid moment 8 Which episodes were these?

Finally: possible source for "Matt Playback"!

While looking over MuppetVJ's "Squeal of Fortune" clip on YouTube, I noticed this user comment:

This may have been the only Squeal sketch; there was another Wheel spoof that happened during the "street scenes" of another episode, in which Maria was the contestant; that spoof, "Sight Word", was hosted by another Sajak spoof, Matt Playback, with Velma Blank at the puzzle board.

Sounds as if this user remembered the same spoof I saw back in the late 80s/early 90s; does it ring a bell with anyone else here? --Ingeborg 05:58, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

More details needed on Episode 4081

After reading the article on My Fair Lady, I remembered that Episode 4081 of Sesame Street included a parody of "The Rain In Spain". The key lines were "The pig is big and did a wiggly jig", but I need to know more about the character who sang the song to Rosita. He was a new, one-shot Muppet loosely based on Professor Higgins from the movie; does anyone else have more information on him, so I can add that reference in the article? -- Ingeborg 19:35, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Anybody seen this one?

Sometime in the early 70s, I recall seeing a strange cartoon about the number 5 on Sesame Street: a box-like machine was suspended in outer space, and would transform 5's entering one side into five objects (a different object each time) that came from the other side. A male voice-over identified the numeral, and counted the objects created by the machine, whenever this happened. The cartoon ended with a letter M trying to enter the machine--and crumbling to bits with no result on the other side. Does anyone else remember a clip like this one? -- Ingeborg 15:24, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

"Poverty" letter cartoons: official title?

I've noticed that a lot of the older Sesame Street episodes refer to a certain style of letter cartoon as the "Poverty" cartoons: they all use potato-shaped, minimalist characters who discuss/lecture about the letter. Is that an official title (or at least one listed in the CTW Archives)? Just curious... -- Ingeborg 18:07, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

If you look at the First Season Show Content scans at Talk: University of Maryland, you'll find that the term "Poverty" is used in many pages for segments for different letters. So I'd say that they are the official titles, though I don't know what "poverty" means. --Minor muppetz 13:33, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

The "Poverty" refers to Poverty Pictures, who originally animated the cartoons referred to as such. Bob, the animated character from Old School: Volume 1, was based on their designs. -- MuppetDude 17:23, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I see! Thank you for answering the question (and giving me the background information), everybody...  ;-) -- Ingeborg 22:33, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

And another one...

After fixing a typo in Spanish Word of the Day, I discovered another missing segment: Rosita starred in a Season 36 clip that taught the word canta (sing). I remember her practicing scales with Slimey in that one; does anybody out there have an EKA citation? -- Ingeborg 01:24, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Update: This sketch has been added to the article since my original question. --Ingeborg 18:39, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Another missing Spanish segment

After adding to/cleaning up the Spanish Word of the Day article, it occurred to me that another segment was missing: this one taught the word zanahoria (carrot), and included a chorus of kids singing a bilingual song about the vegetable. Grover directed the singing, if I'm not mistaken; this sketch followed some segments about the letter Z, although I'd have to hunt through an episode guide offsite to get the season/EKA citation. --Ingeborg

Update: The episode in question (Episode 4095) aired on PBS today, so I added the sketch to the "Spanish Word of the Day" page. -- Ingeborg 18:35, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Another Grover & kid moment

After seeing the list of sketches starring Grover and various kids, I was reminded of a sketch similar to the "tickle/stop game"--except that it involved hugging Grover. In the end, Grover (still hugging the kid) remarked that he didn't feel like stopping this time... Being a sucker for "huggy" segments (especially with Grover, who loves hugs), I'd give almost anything to track that one down! --Ingeborg 17:04, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Which episodes were these?

I'm looking for help identifying some old Sesame Street episodes by the plot; since the main Wiki doesn't have a "number this episode" page, I thought I'd see if anyone with better access to the tapes would recognize these.

• Big Bird helps with a "P" sale: Ruthie is selling all "P" items for a penny each at Finders Keepers, and Big Bird offers to help. Unfortunately, Big Bird wants one of the "P" items (a truck with a peanut-shaped body) for himself, and keeps trying to hide it in various places. When Ruthie finds out what Big Bird wants, she pays him a penny for helping at the store--and Big Bird finally buys the truck.
• Telly enters the Grand High Triangle Lover's contest (an older, pre-Baby Bear plot): Telly asks various neighbors for help creating the perfect entry to show how he feels about triangles. Savion demonstrates a dance; another Muppet (I forget which) composes a song for Telly. In the end, though, Telly enters a hand-written sign with the word "LOVE"...and wins.
• Joey and Davey (the two Muppet monkeys) are not getting along, because one of them (I forget which) has eaten the other's bananas without asking. The guilty monkey creates a greeting card and writes a song to apologize, but the only thing that satisfies his ex-friend is another banana. The original situation reverses when the hungry monkey has taken a few too many...
• Elmo claimed the Alphabet Song was "his" because the lyrics contained his name. (He had apparently misheard "L, M, N, O, P" as "Elmo, P".) One of the human cast (I forget who) heard Elmo sing his version of the Alphabet Song, then corrected the mistake. Elmo, however, liked singing his name repeatedly--and set it to the same tune, forgetting about letters altogether.

--Ingeborg 05:01, 13 July 2007 (UTC)