Sesame Street News Flash



The Sesame Street News Flash was a segment that featured Kermit the Frog reporting for "Sesame Street News." Kermit, wearing a trenchcoat and hat and holding a microphone, was seen interviewing characters from various fairy tales and nursery rhymes as well as other popular stories, even appearing at key moments in history. As with most such parodies, the stories often did not go according to tradition.

The segments usually began with a logo with the words "NEWS FLASH" on a cloud with stars and a lightning bolt on a black background, along with a "generic" news theme and 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), though it usually had a basic color scheme, as pictured here. Reports often began with Kermit speaking to someone, sometimes off-camera, until a crew member alerted him to the fact that he was "on." A few of the sketches originally did not begin with a logo or announcer, although later prints would have the logo tacked onto the beginning. The opening did not appear on the Don Music sketches, as those segments were produced separately from the regular News Flash series.

One segment, however, did not feature Kermit the Frog as the reporter, but instead 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.

The sketches began appearing on the show in 1971, and lasted up until 1989. The skits were no longer produced after Jim Henson's death in 1990, but the skits continued to be rerun on the show up until 2001, when Sesame Workshop lost the rights to Kermit the Frog.

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?"

In 1996, on Elmo Saves Christmas, Steve Whitmire played Kermit in a special segment with the frog reporting on the Christmas shopping craze, eventually leading to a man trying to purchase his microphone. The logo in this sketch was redesigned, with the background being a map of the world. In 1998, Kermit the Frog reappeared on the show again when Slimey the Worm traveled on a space mission, with Kermit reporting on the worm's moon landing.

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.

Four sketches were included in their entirety on the video Big Bird's Story Time. Pictures and scripts for many sketches were featured in Sesame Street Unpaved.

Some sketches are included here that may not have used the opening Sesame Street News Flash theme music and logo, but they are undoubtedly meant 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 along his duties. Outside of these interuptions to the "regularly scheduled programs," Kermit has appeared in his reporter persona for the recurring Galley-o-hoop-hoop sketch, in the television anniversary special Elmopalooza, and most recently from the red carpet of the 2006 TV Land Awards.