Sesame Street at Night? (found "Sesame Street" television special; 1977)
Sesame Street at Night? is a half-hour PBS special that aired on March 11th of 1977 to celebrate Sesame Street's 1,000th episode. The question mark in the title is not a typo and actually is the special's name; it's loosely based on a critic's remark when Sesame Street first came out - "it's too good for kids".
Film critic and Today Show co-host Gene Shalit hosted the special, following a previous Today Show skit in which Bert played a new interviewer who disguised himself as Shalit at Ernie's suggestion (to avoid being harassed by fans later). The special subsequently featured a Muppet lookalike of Shalit himself. Featured segments included Grover and Lena Horne singing "How Do You Do?".
While Betamax was already common in some homes at that point in time, there weren't any recordings available for many years. Only a few press releases and photos, as well as a couple of brief mentions in the Jim Henson's Red Book blog (run by the Jim Henson Company), proved that the special existed.[1][2] That was, until April 8, 2024, when the full special was finally uploaded to YouTube by Pasteris Archive.
Gallery
Gene Shalit's Muppet
Script
References
- ↑ An entry in Jim Henson's Red Book which has some information on the special. Retrieved 18 Jan '19
- ↑ Another entry from Jim Henson's Red Book, which has more information on the special. Retrieved 18 Jan '19