Episode 0280

Sesame Street
Construction workers fill Sesame Street
Air date	November 19, 1971
Season	Season 3 (1971-1972)
Directed by Joost Van Rees Production October 12, 1971 Sponsors G, N, 6

Picture	Segment	Description
	SCENE 1	As Bob welcomes the viewers, Sesame Street is suddenly beset with an outburst of jackhammers and roaring compressors. Maria and Tom come by and see that workmen are fixing the street, and they complain about the noise. Oscar pops up wearing a hard hat and says he's heading to where they're digging, not wanting to miss all the noise, dirt and mess.
	Cartoon	An N-terview with an N (First: Episode 0131)
	Song	"Starfish"
	SCENE 2	Oscar shows Maria the items he retrieved from where the workmen were digging. Maria plays "One of These Things" with Oscar's trash and helps him store it in his can.
	Cartoon	Alice Braithwaite Goodyshoes displays a G, for "good." She gets kissed by a monster, who says, "Gee, that was good!" (First: Episode 0279)
	Muppets	Ernie & Bert — Bert goes out to mail a letter, and depends on Ernie to let him in when he knocks. Instead of letting Bert in, Ernie repeats his knocks on the drums.
	Cartoon	Nancy the nanny goat nibbles her nails and notices noodles. Artist: Tee Collins (First: Episode 0240)
	Muppets	Sherlock Hemlock investigates the letter N. (First: Episode 0253)
	SCENE 3	Rafael makes the letter N with a folding ruler, and teaches the kids how to say N in Spanish and English. Oscar appears to demonstrate some of his favorite words that start with N: nasty, noise, no, and nag. Rafael prefers the words nice, neat, and new. Oscar only has one word to say to that: nuts!
	Cartoon	N is naughty, nice, nodding, nickel, noon, nibbling, nest, nut, nose, night, nine, and nursing. (First: Episode 0140)
	Animation	The Queen of Six explores her garden. (First: Episode 0223)
	Cartoon	Jazz #6 (First: Episode 0011)
	Muppets	Grover the Assistant: The Amazing Mumford's pineapple subtraction act
	Cartoon	A black cat chases after a white one, until a white lion steps in. Artists: The Hubleys (First: Episode 0255)
	SCENE 4	Rafael and the kids make some shapes with a folding ruler.
	Cartoon	G is for Glue Artists: The Hubleys (First: Episode 0279)
	SCENE 5	Big Bird shows walking forwards and backwards. He's stuck on something he's supposed to teach about walking backwards. He continues to walk backwards until he crashes offscreen. He remembers that one should be careful when walking backwards because it's hard to see where you're going.
	Film	A very busy man is asked by a voice what "forwards" and "backwards" means, but the man doesn't have time to listen. Instead, he is shown what "backwards" means by watching everything around him go in reverse motion! (First: Episode 0166)
	Celebrity	Listen My Brother sings their own version of "The Alphabet Song." (First: Episode 0228)
	Cartoon	Alice Braithwaite Goodyshoes displays a G, for "good." She gets kissed by a monster, who says, "Gee, that was good!" (repeat)
	Film	A baby monkey Music: Joe Raposo
	Cast	Bob narrates a short story of how Tom, Rafael, Maria, Oscar and the kids cooperate to make the book fair a big success.
	Celebrity	Flip Wilson counts from 1 to 20. (First: Episode 0147)
	Muppets	Ernie & Bert — Ernie's doctor comes over. Ernie keeps trying to tell the doctor why he called him, but the doctor is too occupied with checking on Ernie, hardly allowing him to get a word in edgewise. (First: Episode 0137)
	Cartoon	A girl wonders what would happen if she popped her balloon. She imagines it would scare her sister, who would end up breaking a vase and getting in trouble.
	SCENE 6	A kid named John instructs the others to draw a 6 on a white cardboard. Bob helps them count the six sixes, six crayons, and six children. Bob then asks what happens when you have six Twiddlebugs, pointing them to the next segment.
	Muppets	Kermit's Lectures: Kermit counts six Twiddlebugs. When he's done, the Twiddlebugs have a party.
	SCENE 7	Rafael shows how to read the word LOVE, comparing reading from left to right to driving on a one-way street.
	Cartoon	Nancy the nanny goat nibbles her nails and notices noodles. (repeat)
	Animation	The Queen of Six explores her garden. (repeat)
	Cartoon	Jazz #6 (repeat)
	Muppets	Ernie & Bert — Ernie comes home to a sleeping Bert and tries to think of things to do that won't wake him up. He can't watch TV, and he can't play with his ball. Bored, he decides to take a nap too -- but then he starts to snore. This awakens Bert, who wonders out loud where the noise is coming from, in the process arousing Ernie, who gets mad at being woken up.
	Cast	Bob hammers in a nail, Rafael holds up a napkin, Maria puts a jewelry chain around her neck, and Tom lines up some nuts on a table in the shape of the letter N.
	Cartoon	N is naughty, nice, nodding, nickel, noon, nibbling, nest, nut, nose, night, nine, and nursing. (repeat)
	Muppets	Some Muppet kids (including Farley) plan to decorate their clubhouse, but each one is only able to find one item. They are upset at their individual failures, until they see what a difference each item makes when they're all hung up.
	Cartoon	An N-terview with an N (repeat)
	SCENE 8	Oscar has Maria and the kids imitate the rhythms he beats out on his can.
	Muppets	The Miss Muffet Play: Little Miss Muffet rehearses for a play about her nursery rhyme. At the "Along came a spider" clue, Muffet's co-star enters wearing a number of different animal costumes, including a rabbit and a duck. Miss Muffet becomes increasingly annoyed -- and when he shows up as a fish, she grabs the parts of his fish costume off of him, and puts his spider outfit on. Naturally, once she sees the spider costume on him, Miss Muffet is frightened, and a crazy chase ensues.
	Cartoon	G is for Glue (repeat)
	SCENE 9	Bothered by the lack of noise, Oscar says goodbye and bangs out some "goodbye rhythms." Rafael announces the sponsors, and the credits roll over the kids playing in the arbor.
	CLOSING SIGNS	Oscar holds up the Sesame Street sign, and Bob holds up the CTW sign at the end.

Notes

• The credit sequence for this episode appears on Old School: Volume 1 and was also used on the HBO Max edition of Episode 0276 (despite that episode having originally aired on a Monday).

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