Tony Geiss



Tony Geiss (1924- 2011) was a staff writer and songwriter for Sesame Street and related productions, often teamed with Judy Freudberg. Geiss conceptualized the Honkers (based on his own childhood habit of honking his nose) and Abby Cadabby.

Geiss' early TV career was spent in London scripting The David Frost Show, and first joined Children's Television Workshop as a writer on the health series Feelin' Good. He also scripted television specials and revues for the likes of Dick Cavett and Bill Cosby. In the 1980s, after scripting Follow That Bird as his cinematic debut, Geiss and Freudberg co-wrote the Don Bluth animated features An American Tail and The Land Before Time. He was also credited as head writer for several Sesame Street home videos.

Father Anthony Geiss was a painter and an animator, while mother Marjorie Thirer was a press agent. Geiss grew up in Greenwich Village, spending two years as a radar technician for the US Navy, before attending Cornell University from 1943 to 1946. He began acting in theatre productions in his freshman year. Wife Phyllis Eisen was met on campus.

Writing Credits

 * Sesame Street
 * Don't Eat the Pictures
 * Follow That Bird
 * Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting
 * Sing-Along Earth Songs
 * Elmo Saves Christmas
 * The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street
 * CinderElmo
 * Elmo's World segments: Dinosaurs, Doctors, Ears, Fish, Jumping, Penguins, School, Skin, Weather, Wild Animals

Books

 * The Count Counts a Party
 * Elmo Saves Christmas
 * The Four Seasons
 * Honk If You Like Honkers
 * The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook
 * The Sesame Street Treasury Volume 4
 * The Songs of Sesame Street in Poems and Pictures
 * Susan and Gordon Adopt a Baby
 * Vegetable Soup

Interviews
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation interviewed Geiss in 2004 for the Archive of American Television. The hour and a half interview was posted on YouTube in 2008.

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