| Sesame Street | |||||||||||
| Gordon and Susan meet Sam the Robot | |||||||||||
| Air date | November 13, 1972 (season premiere) | ||||||||||
| Season | Season 4 (1972-1973) | ||||||||||
| Written by | Jeff Moss | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
The Count and Sam the Robot are introduced in the Season 4 premiere, and Hal Miller takes over in the role of Gordon. As usual in the premiere episodes, the early scenes reintroduce the characters, reminding the viewers of who everybody is.
| Picture | Segment | Description |
|---|---|---|
   |
SCENE 1 | A kid narrates: "Hey, I know that street! That's Sesame Street! You know what they really like on Sesame Street? They really like the alphabet." The characters hold up letters that introduce their names: A is for Athelstan, B is for Bob, and as Cookie Monster reminds the viewers, C is for Cookie! Then there's David, Ernie, Farley, Gordon, Hooper, Ingrid, Jay, Kermit, Luis, Maria, Nancy, Oscar, Prairie, Queenie, Roosevelt, Susan, Trey, Ursula, Vanessa, Willy, and Xavier. Grover says, "Y is for You, and you visit Sesame Street every day!" Big Bird admits, "And Z... well, Z is for... You know, I don't think there's anybody on Sesame Street whose name begins with Z! Oh, well. Can't have everything!" The problem that Big Bird describes was finally solved in 1993, with the introduction of a character whose name begins with Z. |
 |
Cartoon | Workmen construct a D building, filled with everything that begins with D. |
 |
Muppets | Ernie sings "Dee, Dee, Dee" as Cookie Monster hastily demonstrates each D word. (Cookie's faint at the end is cut.) (First: Episode 0319) |
 |
Cartoon | "Daddy Dear" (First: Episode 0367) |
 |
SCENE 2 | Mr. Hooper has a plate with cookies and another plate that's empty. He gives Cookie Monster a bag of cookies and asks him to make the two plates look the same. Cookie Monster eats the bag of cookies and then eats all the cookies on the plate. Now the two plates look the same! |
 |
Film | Examples of people and animals going down. Music: Joe Raposo |
 |
Film | D is a very useful letter -- there are animals, jobs, and hobbies that begin with D. (First: Episode 0367) |
 |
Muppets | Simon Soundman sings a song about finding a (MEOW!) stuck in a tree. |
   |
SCENE 3 | Gordon and Susan are two people. Maria and David are two people. Luis is alone, so he splits into a mirror image and becomes two people. |
 |
Cartoon | Julius and Jasper: "Why are you holding one leg up in the air, Jasper?" "Because if I hold two legs up in the air, I fall down!" Animation by Cliff Roberts |
 |
Film | "Two Song (Song of Two)" (First: Episode 0001) |
 |
Cartoon | A man counts two ears, two eyes, and two arms. He picks up each leg to count two legs, and then falls down. Animation by Cliff Roberts |
 |
SCENE 4 | Bob plays a game with Ernie, Bert and some kids, asking for examples of things that everybody does. Everybody walks, talks, breathes, eats breakfast and yawns. Ernie suggests that everybody loves to play in the tubby with their rubber duckie. Bert disagrees. He doesn't have a rubber duckie, and he doesn't want one. Bert says that everybody loves watching his favorite TV show, The Wonderful World of Pigeons. Ernie says, "You know what, Bert? I hate that show! It's a terrible show! That's a dull show, Bert!" Bert counters, "That's the most exciting show on TV! They have all the pigeons of the world on that show! Gray ones... speckled ones..." Bob gives another example by pretending to sleep, while Trey plays with Ernie's nose and Kathleen plays with Bert's. Bob "wakes up" and explains that everybody sleeps. |
 |
Song | Joe Raposo sings "Everybody Sleeps." |
 |
Muppets | A bridge of teeth come to an employment agency, looking for a job. He's offered jobs in the smelling line and in listening, but he's unqualified for those. Teeth demonstrates his talent in biting and chewing by chomping up the desk. |
 |
SCENE 5 | Susan and Grover play "Three of These Things." Grover thinks that the answer has something to do with fur, but Susan says that the car doesn't belong because it's not an animal. |
 |
Cartoon | A peacock counts twenty feathers on his tail. |
 |
Film | Kids count ten buses as they drive by. Music: Joe Raposo cut from the Noggin version |
    |
Muppets | Ernie & Bert — Ernie asks Bert to keep an eye on his pyramid of blocks. The Count walks by, and counts the blocks, moving them out of the pyramid shape. Then he counts them again, putting them back into the pyramid. Bert yells at the Count for moving Ernie's blocks, so the Count counts the blocks again, taking the pyramid apart. In the Count's first appearance, he's slightly more sinister than he would later become. He enters the scene with his cape in front of his face, in an exaggerated Bela Lugosi pose. The Count can momentarily hypnotize people, waving his fingers to temporarily stun Ernie and Bert. When the Count finishes counting, lightning flashes in the background. |
 |
Film | A film of butterflies Music: Joe Raposo |
 |
SCENE 6 | Mr. Snuffleupagus can't find Big Bird, so he asks the kids to play "London Bridge" with him. Snuffy sings the song, and the kids crawl under him. |
 |
Cartoon | The alphabet appears in a little box. |
 |
Muppets | Two Anything Muppets sing "Me" in both English and Spanish. (First: Episode 0372) |
 |
SCENE 7 | Oscar shows Gordon his new hat. Gordon puts the hat on Oscar, who wants his head to be covered more and more so he can't see Gordon! cut from the Noggin version |
 |
Film | A girl gets on, in, and under a blanket in a park. cut from the Noggin version cut from the Max version |
 |
Cartoon | A picture of a girl playing a guitar is drawn as off-screen kids (speaking English and Spanish) try to guess what the drawing will be. |
 |
Muppets | Grover demonstrates heavy and light. First, he picks up a heavy barbell. Then he tries to pick up a light feather, but he can't move it. It turns out that the feather is attached to the top of Big Bird's head. |
|
Film | "Song of Two" (repeat) |
  |
SCENE 8 | Gordon and Susan meet the Super Automatic Machine, also known as Sam the Robot. Sam boasts that he can do anything: "Machines are better than people!" Gordon asks what he's doing on Sesame Street, but Sam insists that he's on Mulberry Street -- that's where his programming told him to go, and machines never make mistakes. He leaves to meet a cement mixer friend for lunch. |
 |
Cartoon | "Danny knows the alphabet, and is he proud! If you can follow him, then sing out loud!" |
 |
Muppets | Guy Smiley hosts Here Is Your Life, surprising Oak Tree with the story of his life. The guests include Granny Fanny Nesselrode, who planted the tree as an acorn, Cloud and Sun, who gave the tree rain and sunshine, and Marty Table and Sarah Chair, who were made from the tree's friends. |
|
Cartoon | Workmen construct a D building, filled with everything that begins with D. (repeat) cut from the Noggin version |
 |
SCENE 9 | Oscar the Grouch introduces the warthog -- what a beautiful-sounding word! |
 |
Film | A warthog runs around. Music by Joe Raposo |
 |
Muppets | The letter R joins U and N to make the word RUN. Anything Muppets run into the scene and take the letters. |
 |
Cartoon | A man explains that the letter E begins both Enter and Exit. Another man named Roy runs through the doors. |
 |
Muppets | Waiter Grover: Grover serves Mr. Johnson a bowl of chicken soup. Johnson says that he can't eat the soup, and Grover can't guess why. "That settles it," Johnson sighs. "From now on, I'm bringing my lunch to work in a paper sack." He finally explains to Grover that he can't eat the soup because he doesn't have a spoon. (First: Episode 0358) |
 |
Cartoon | What if a frog and a fly switched bodies? What do you think would happen? Artist: Cliff Roberts |
 |
SCENE 10 | It's time for Mr. Snuffleupagus to go home. He asks the kids to walk him back to his cave, as Cookie Monster announces the sponsors. |
  |
CLOSING SIGNS | Ernie and Bert hold the Sesame Street sign while Bob and Susan hold the sign for Children's Television Workshop (Cookie Monster: "Whatever that is"). |
Gallery[]
Joey Calvan (as Queenie) with Jon Stone and Ursula.
| Previous episode: | Next episode: |
| Episode 0405 | Episode 0407 |