Sesame Street, Special

The Sesame Street Special was a pledge-drive special that first aired on PBS in 1988. It featured some new material as well as repeat segments from the show.

When the special was released on video, the title was changed to Put Down the Duckie, and had a few other changes made, the most major change being the editing of an entire sequence where Kermit the Frog interviewed Oscar the Grouch about public television. Since that scene was meant to lead to a pledge break, and the video didn't have any pledge break, this entire sequence was cut.

Several PBS stations repeated this special in 1994 during a pledge drive. The special was still called Put Down the Duckie and the Kermit and Oscar scene was present, but the Sesame Street Special Report was cut and replaced with an H. Ross Parrot sketch.

Cast

 * Human Cast:
 * Linda Bove, Northern Calloway, Alison Bartlett, Emilio Delgado, Sonia Manzano, Loretta Long, Bill McCutcheon, Bob McGrath, Roscoe Orman, Chet O'Brien, Kermit Love


 * Muppet Performers:
 * Carroll Spinney, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Martin P. Robinson, Kevin Clash, Pam Arciero, Fred Garbo Garver, Bryant Young, Camille Bonora, David Rudman, Jim Henson


 * Special Guests:
 * Phil Donahue, Martina Navratilova, Barbara Walters, Gladys Knight and The Pips, Ralph Nader, James Taylor, Patti Labelle, Seiji Ozawa, Robert MacNeil, Carl Banks, Celia Cruz, Danny DeVito, John Candy, Andrea Martin, Rhea Perlman, Paul Reubens, Madeline Kahn, Jean Marsh, Joe Williams, Paul Simon, Pete Seeger, Keith Hernandez, Mookie Wilson, Sean Landeta, Mark Ingram, Karl Nelson, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Jeremy Irons, Itzhak Perlman, Gordon Jackson, Wynton Marsalis, Jane Curtin

Crew

 * Directed by Jon Stone


 * Written by Norman Stiles, Chris Cerf, Cathi Rosenberg-Turow, Mark Saltzman, Nancy Sans, Luis Santerio


 * Muppets by Kermit Love, Caroly Wilcox, Jitka Exler, Richard Termine, Stephen Rotondaro, Peter MacKeenan, Mark Zeszotek


 * Conductor: Dave Conner


 * Music Coordinator: Danny Epstein


 * Production Supervisor: Frieda Lipp


 * Associate Director: Ted May


 * Production Designer: Victor Di Napoli


 * Costume Designer: Bill Kellard


 * Graphic Artist: Mike Pantuso


 * Set Decorator: Nat Mongioi


 * Production Stage Manager: Chet O'Brien


 * Stage Manager Mortimer J. O'Brien


 * Coordinating Producer: Arlene Sherman


 * Producer: Lisa Simon


 * Executive Producer: Dulcy Singer