Sesame Street News Flash

The Sesame Street News Flash is a recurring Sesame Street segment that features Kermit the Frog as a roving reporter for "Sesame Street News." Reporter Kermit, wearing a trench-coat and hat and holding a microphone, interviews characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other popular stories, even appearing at key moments in history. As with most such parodies, the stories often diverge from tradition.

A prototype version of the series (entitled "Sesame Street Sports") first appeared in 1971, and a few regular News Flash skits debuted that year. The skits were no longer produced after the 1980s, but appeared in reruns regularly on the show up until c.1998. In the 2000s, the sketches became increasingly rare on Sesame Street, but remain regular features on certain international co-productions. Recently, many of the skits have appeared online on Sesamestreet.org.

Some sketches are included here that may not have used the opening Sesame Street News Flash theme music and logo, but can be considered to be a part of the same series as evidenced by the presence of Kermit in his reporter garb, and the manner in which he goes about his duties. In addition to the sketch interruptions to "regularly scheduled programming," Kermit has occasionally served as a Sesame Street News reporter in street scenes and in specials such as Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting, Elmo Saves Christmas, and Elmopalooza, among others.

Sketches
The News Flash often returned to the same story for multiple reports. For example, there were several visits with Cinderella, and a series of interviews with Don Music, etc. The list is alphabetized to order them by theme. Click the arrow to sort by Earliest Known Appearance.

Logo
Most of the sketches began with a logo of the words "NEWS FLASH" on a cloud with stars and a lightning bolt against a black background. A news theme written by Joe Raposo (registered with BMI as "Kermit News Theme") consisting of Morse code-like sounds and an urgent-sounding version of the Sesame Street theme was accompanied by an announcer (voiced by Jerry Nelson) usually saying "We take you now to Kermit the Frog with another fast-breaking news story!" The colors on the logo occasionally varied (one version had it in black and white), and it would sometimes be superimposed over footage with Reporter Kermit talking with someone off-camera, though it usually had a basic color scheme, as pictured here. In the mid-80s News skits, the "NEWS FLASH" text would flash on and off.

A few of the sketches originally did not begin with a logo or announcer, and it did not appear on the Don Music sketches, though some reruns had those sketches had the opening plastered onto the beginning of the segment. One known early sketch had an alternate logo, too; they had a title card reading "news bulletin" in big white lowercase letters on top of a blue screen.

On Elmo Saves Christmas, a new News Flash logo was used, without the cloud and lightning, featuring the text on a red "splotch" symbol on a map of the world. The theme music remained the same, and had Jerry Nelson reprising the role of the announcer.

Other variations
Kermit gave a news report about Big Bird planning on returning to Sesame Street in Follow That Bird, though he was probably reporting for a news program other than "Sesame Street News."

In Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting, three new Sesame Street News segments were created, featuring Kermit on location to ask the question of the day, "Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?"

One segment featured a subsitute reporter, a brown wolf named Warren Wolf. Nonetheless, it was featured as part of the series and included the "News Flash" logo at the beginning.

In the 1996 special Elmo Saves Christmas, Steve Whitmire played Kermit in a brand-new Sesame Street News Flash with the frog reporting on the sudden Christmas shopping craze since it will be Christmas again, eventually leading to an Anything Muppet man trying to purchase his microphone.

Kermit also appeared as a reporter at the Royal Ball in CinderElmo.

In 1998, Slimey the Worm traveled on a space mission for WASA, and Kermit reported on the worm's moon landing (with assistance from Robert MacNeil) and return to Earth.

Kermit's last news report on Sesame Street was in 2001, when Kermit teamed up with Al Roker to report on a hurricane that came to Sesame Street in a five-part episode.

Video releases
Four sketches were included on the video Big Bird's Story Time, although Kermit's pre-on camera comments were cut out, as well as the News Flash logos and references to it being a news broadcast. The "Rapunzel" sketch was included, uncut, on Old School: Volume 1, and a brief clip of this sketch was seen in the 1994 documentary film, The World of Jim Henson. The "Jack Be Nimble" sketch was included on Old School: Volume 2, as well as the "Humpty Dumpty" sketch as part of Episode 0796. A clip montage of various News Flash segments was included in The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street video and a brief clip of the Old MacDonald's health resort sketch was seen in the film montage when Elmo was thinking of Sesame Street in Elmo's World: The Street We Live On. The sketch where Don Music writes "Mary Had a Bicycle" was included in Sing Yourself Silly and Old School: Volume 2. The sketch where Don Music rewrites "Yankee Doodle" was also included in Old School: Volume 2.