Talk:Sesame Street News Flash

Ordering
I think these should be ordered by the episodes that they first appeared in, not by other categories or fairy tales. I think ordering them by episode is the only thing that keeps this from just being chaos. Why should the Three Little Pigs be higher on the page than Cinderella? etc. -- Danny (talk ) 02:22, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I disagree. We've ordered them by recurring themes since the page was created and there are pages all over the wiki that link directly to the sections. I also think it's more interesting and more informative to see that they did X amount of SSNews sketches on a particular theme. To keep from getting chaotic, I propose placing the themed sketches in alphabetical order like we do on every other list-like page. — Scott (talk ) 02:25, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I ditto Scott. Especially since we're missing most of the original appearance dates.  Plus, since there's so many of them, alphabetizing makes it easier to find specific sketches. -- Joe  (talk ) 02:46, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * A problem with alphabetizing is that the "titles" that we have aren't really titles. They're just stuff that people made up, and often those people are Frackles. -- Danny (talk ) 10:47, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * When I first started this guide, I guessed the order and listed the skits in how I guessed the order to be. Then people started editing the orde rby arranging them by theme. I like the way I originally did it better (which is how Danny is suggesting we do it). --Minor muppetz 14:28, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * "When I first started this guide, I guessed the order and listed the skits in how I guessed the order to be." See, that I'm against. Ordering by "guess" is no better than alphabetization based on arbitrary names. Andrew Leal (talk ) 14:56, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Looking at the history, the article was created by an anonymous user, but it would appear that it was Peter who set the layout of the page. In February, I organized them by theme, and no one had any problems with it for six months. Even after it was a featured article.
 * I still maintain that it's more interesting to group them together that way. If someone's looking for a Cinderella sketch they remember, they might find the one they're looking for at the top of a chronological list, but since it's such a large article, might never make it further down the page to see that there were at least two others with Cinderella. It's more informative and helpful this way. A Chronoligical list would be a big mess to read. — Scott (talk ) 15:09, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * You know, I think that since "The Tortoise and the Hare" was the first skit with Kermit as a reporter, it could've inspired the Sesame Street News sketches and then they introduced the logo and series the same season (1971), starting with the Rapunzel sketch (I learned this from the Muppet Central Forum) --Wile e2005 15:43, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

images
Why were the images moved from the side of the article to a gallery? They weren't creating white space at the bottom of the article. In other words, the number of images didn't exceed the amount of text in the article. I propose they go back to the way they were. — Scott (talk ) 20:11, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * That was me. I just thought it looked a bit disorganized since there was no order to the pictures, they didn't correspond with the text they were next to, and (in my opinion) they're prettier when you don't have to scroll all the way through the article to see them all.  If there's a consensus that the original way is better, I'll concede. -- Joe  (talk ) 20:47, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * You're a delightful mass of contradictions, Joe, as far as your gallery preferences go. <font color="Blue">Andrew Leal (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 21:53, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I have an idea. Nobody mess with the page for a little bit, I'm going to work on it. -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 22:31, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Ooh-ooh, I'll bet I know what your idea is! — <font color="Blue">Scott (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 22:35, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Hey, I said don't mess with it yet. I'm still working... -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 23:45, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * It looked like you were done, sorry. — <font color="Blue">Scott (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 23:48, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Okay, now I'm done. Sorry I reverted Scott and Dean's edits, but I did ask for nobody to mess with the page until I was done. I'm done now, so people can have at it. -- <font color="Blue">Danny (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 00:05, 3 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Muy bueno! And Anthony, I realize I'm such an enigma, I'm just trying to help keep thing pretty :) -- <font color="Blue">Joe  (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 01:37, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Don Music: a couple of nitpicks

 * 1) The Don Music sketches, as far as I remember, did not begin with a News Flash title card or a news theme. Kermit may still have identified himself as a reporter in some of them, although I'm not 100% sure of that myself.
 * 2) The band which appeared and played "Whistle, Whistle, Little Bird" didn't resemble ZZ Top musically or visually; it was a country-western group whose members included a white-haired old man in a checkered shirt (based on the Green Anything Muppet pattern).

--Ingeborg 00:52, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

I already added a note on the article about the NEWS FLASH logo not appearing on the Don Music sketches, and noted that they were produced separately from the Sesame Street News series. --Wile e2005 16:48, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I was wondering myself if they did feature openings. It's been a long time since I last saw any of them on the show. I knew that Mary Had a Bicycle didn't have an opening on Sing Yourself Silly, but I also figured that maybe the opening logo was just cut from the video release. As for the band in "Whistle, Whistle, Little Bird", I read a transcript of this sketch on a Sesame Street lyrics site and it identified the band as a ZZ Top-like band, so my misinformation came from a webmasters mistake. I didn't remember what the band looked like. --Minor muppetz 00:29, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Every episode
Is it just me, or did most 80s and 90s "Sesame Street" episodes (almost all of them) have a News Flash sketch in them? (including ones from older episodes) --Wile e2005 23:55, 29 July 2006 (UTC)


 * What is your opinion of "most"? Do you mean something that was in nearly every episode, with maybe one or two exceptions a year? Do you mean something seen as frequently as Elmo's World? I think this sketch was seen as frequently in the 1980s and 1990s as other recurring sketches (Monsterpiece Theater, Waiter Grover, etc.). I remember that the 1998-1999 season didn't feature very many Kermit sketches, and most Kermit skits shown were News skits, though not really that many (I recall four news skits shown that season, and only two other Kermit skits shown). I can also think of some other episodes from the earlier 1990s that didn't feature these sketches. --Minor muppetz 03:36, 30 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that is what I meant, a frequent recurring sketch. --Wile e2005 02:22, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Yip Yips
I've added the Old MacDonald/Yip Yip News Flash to Yip Yips, but there's no date. Anyone have even a rough guess? -- Zanimum 15:04, 8 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, in that skit, the Martians mentioned E.T., and that movie was released in 1982, so it was obviously before 1982. My guess would be sometime between 1983 and 1985. --Minor muppetz 15:22, 8 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Those are fine for guesses, but without a source, we should say early-mid 1980s. -- <font color="Blue">Scott (<font color="Blue" size="1">talk ) 15:30, 8 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I presume you mean after 1982, Minor. Okay, I'll put it as early-mid 1980s. There's a gap from 1979 to 1987 otherwise, so it's still chronological no matter what. --  Zanimum 17:21, 8 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, I meant after 1982. --Minor muppetz 03:32, 9 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm guessing it's from 1983 to 1989 at least, because it uses the later version of the "NEWS FLASH" opening with the words in red and flashing on and off. --Wile e2005 20:05, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Sesame Street Sports
Hey, was the original "Tortoise and the Hare" segment (with Kermit in the snappy sports jacket and starting with him planning a bet) really classified as a Sesame Street News Flash, or was it from a different one-time category? (I mean, they say it's "Sesame Street Sports.") Does it even start with the "News Flash" logo and theme music or whatever? -- Wile e2005
 * The early "News Flash" sketches didn't have the logo or theme music yet... It developed slowly into the News Flash that we know. If you look at the Tough Pigs Anthology, those first three sketches didn't have a logo or theme music. There's an obvious development from the "Tortoise and the Hare" to "The big cow jump" to the Three Little Pigs. That's why we consider the early sketches like "Tortoise and the Hare" a News Flash -- it wasn't at the time, but it was part of that development. -- Danny Toughpigs 23:08, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I suppose so, but the "hey Diddle Diddle" and "Aladdin" one look recent, the two earliest ones there seem to be the first Three Pigs (from 1971) and the Cinderella Midnight Escape (the one that ends with the glass slipper getting destroyed). I can tell because Kermit had a brown fedora hat before switching to the gray one. It has the announcer scripted on them, and I am sure those two featured the title card. (I'm a member of the Closing Logo Group) The first three skits transcripted don't have the announcer scripted, but I am sure the logo was in the segments except for the Tortoise and Hare one (they must have cut them from the lines) to save time; they were posted once a month. -- Wile e2005
 * I'm not sure I know what you mean. I'm the person who did the transcription for Tough Pigs; it's my site. When I do a transcription like that, I include every word, because I know how important it is to get things like that right. -- Danny Toughpigs 02:06, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Maybe so, but here's how I'll tell ya. Except for the first three transcripts, the others have "Anncr: We take you now to Kermit the Frog with another fast-breaking news story!" at the beginning, or some other variant. So I am sure that the first couple of skits may not have used the News Flash logo, but later ones in that year could have started using it. -- Wile e2005

Speaking Stick
Does the Dr Nobel Price sketch with Warren Wolf have Kermit in it at all? -- Scott Scarecroe 15:04, 11 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Actually, no. But it has the same Sesame Street News Flash intro, so I figured it was a part of the series... -- Jog 09:14, 12 February 2006 (UTC)Jog


 * Okay, that's what I was going to ask: if it used the same logo and music. Huh; so no Kermit. Weird! Are there other News Flash segments without Kermit?


 * Season 36 had a take-off from SSNF with Prairie Dawn hosting Nursery Rhyme News or something like that. They did at least a few of them and it was very reminiscent. -- Scott Scarecroe 15:26, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

The Mystery Muppeteer
Does anybody know who the puppeteer (the one in the middle) in the behind the scenes shot of the "first/last in line" sketch is? All I know is that he's the same one who played Mary in the Rhymies, and Squeaky in the Elves and Shoemaker sketch. I'm pretty sure it isn't Caroll, or John Lovelady. -- MuppetDude 17:18, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
 * It's obviously Caroly Wilcox. -- Deanmo19 16:47, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Uh, you do realize Caroly Wilcox is a woman, right Dean? It's definitley a man...Scooter 23:47, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
 * I've heard tell that it could be Bob Payne. --Dave Splurge 01:54, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

1971 News Flash Logo?
Hey, I found the 1971 "Three Pigs" segment on YouTube. I am sure that the Rapunzel and Tortoise/Hare sketches didn't use the News Flash opening, but the Three Pigs sketch did! It's a bit different from the regular versions: it's a bit longer, it is instrumental for a few seconds before the announcer kicks in (this time he says "And now we take you to Kermit the Frog for another fast-breaking news story"), and the colors are a bit different (the cloud outline is PINK!). I imagine that this logo was originally on the sketch when it debuted in 1971. The other ones transcripted (from the mid-70s to the late-80s like the Aladdin one) not mentioning the logo could have had it edited out for timing. Anyone else notice this? --Wile e2005 20:34, 3 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Wait! The Rapunzel sketch DOES have a News Flash logo! It's the old one with the pink cloud, plus the announcer sounds different! --Wile e2005 23:18, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

"Each report often began..."
Was it each report that began with Kermit talking to someone off camera, or only often? -- Zanimum 12:55, 6 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I saw a few where after the opening, it immediately starts on Kermit saying "Uh, hi-ho Kermit the Frog here, etc." --Wile e2005 00:32, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Chronological Order
Hey, I was wondering if anyone thinks that the Sesame Street News Flash skits should be at least listed in chronological order, with their original air dates? It will be kinda hard, but I think it can be done. Here is how I can usually tell older News Flash skits from newer ones...

The first News Flash segments from the early 70s had the News Flash logo in slightly different colors (with a pink cloud outline), Kermit the Frog wearing a dark brown fedora hat instead of a gray one, plus his voice was a tiny bit different back then. A few mid-80s sketches had a variant of the logo with "NEWS FLASH" in red and flashing on and off, plus the sets looked a bit more realistic, plus there was some newer sound effects, too. Here are the years I know for them so far...

1971 Rapunzel, Pig's Straw House, Pied Piper, Cinderella at the Ball, Tortoise and Hare (semi-SS News skit)

1972 Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty 1 (the one with the princess becoming a frog)

1974 Hey Diddle Diddle (Cow Jumps Over the Moon)

1975 Humpty Dumpty, Holiday Mix-Up

1976 George Washington's Father

1980 First Day of School (with Cookie Monster in the classroom)

1981 Speaking Stick (Warren Wolf reports this one)

1983 Spaceship on Old McDonald's Farm

1984 After the Wolf Blew the Pig's Houses Down

1986 Tortoise and Hare Rematch

1988 Cinderella Prepares for the Ball

1989 Two Trees

This is what I know so far


 * I think the logos were replaced in showings of the sketches after new logos were made. I recall the same logo being used in every sketch I've seen, but the clip montage of News sketches in The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street begins with a shot of a logo that I haven't seen elsewhere. Monsterpiece Theater has also changed it's logo on a few occassions, and skits with the earlier logos had their openigns replaced with the then-current ones. --Minor muppetz 23:28, 2 August 2006 (UTC)


 * That's right. In the YouTube print of "The Pied Piper" sketch it has the later version of the News Flash logo (probably made around the late-80s), but I can tell it's from 1971 because of Kermit's brown hat, and it has the Sesame Street News theme playing over the action at the end. Plus the user says it's from 1971. --Wile e2005 15:09, 3 August 2006 (UTC)