Sesame Street News Flash

The Sesame Street News Flash was a segment that featured Kermit the Frog reporting for "Sesame Street News." Reporter 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.

A prototype version of the series (entitled "Sesame Street Sports") first appeared in 1971, and a few regular News Flash skits debuted that year, starting the regular Sesame Street News series and lasted up until 1990. The skits were no longer produced after Jim Henson's death in 1990, but the skits continued to be rerun regularly on the show up until 2001, when Sesame Workshop lost the rights to Kermit the Frog. Currently, the show might air an occaisonal News Flash (once or twice a season), getting special permission from the Walt Disney Company.

Four sketches were included in their entirety 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. Pictures and scripts for many sketches were featured in the book Sesame Street Unpaved, while the "Rapunzel" sketch was included on Old School: Volume 1.

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. See also Reporter Kermit.

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 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), 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, although later prints would have the logo tacked onto the beginning. The opening did not appear on the Don Music sketches. 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, and with the background being a map of the world. The theme song remained the same. During the coverage of Slimey's moon trip, the broadcast started right at a news desk with a different logo on the wall: It had "NEWS" in big orange letters under the Sesame Street logo, and a different fanfare.

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 1996, on Elmo Saves Christmas, Steve Whitmire played Kermit in a brand-new Sesame Street News Flash with the frog reporting on the Christmas shopping craze, eventually leading to a man trying to purchase his microphone.

In 1998, Slimey the Worm traveled on a space mission, and Kermit reported 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.