Episode 0480

Sesame Street
Oscar auditions new Grouches
Air date	February 23, 1973
Season	Season 4 (1972-1973)
Directed by Stan Lathan Production November 27, 1972 Sponsors R, T, 10

Picture	Segment	Description
	SCENE 1	Maria and Luis greet the viewer, and Maria invites them to do some imagining with her. She imagines that she's almost as small as a group of jacks, and is worried that the enormous kitten that Luis is petting might want to eat her.
	Cartoon	I Thought a Thought ... about small things. A man thinks about small things, and lists them. A sea monster thinks it is small, especially when compared to its father! Artist: Cliff Roberts (First: Episode 0241)
	Cast	Bob comes across a DANGER sign next to a frozen pond. Ignoring the sign, he skates on the ice (via pixillation) until it starts to crack. Bob then concedes the sign is there for good reason. (First: Episode 0279)
	Film	"Ten Song (Song of Ten)" (revised version) (First: Episode 0021)
	Cartoon	Adding up five ladybugs and five lizards (First: Episode 0277)
	SCENE 2	Mr. Hooper and Luis find Oscar in Hooper's Store, preparing to interview a number of Grouches lined up outside since he will be leaving for a few days and he wants a replacement Grouch. A Southern Grouch with a cowboy hat is the first applicant, and Oscar hands him a flowerpot with a flower in it, asking what he'd do with them. The applicant says he'd throw the flower in the wastebasket, but Oscar says a real Grouch would throw away the flower and the pot, and throw the dirt everywhere – which he does, to Mr. Hooper's dismay.
	SCENE 2 cont'd	The next applicant, a Grouch from Denver with bushy hair, comes in. Oscar asks him what he'd do with a dirty old torn shirt like the one he produces, and the Grouch says he'd wear it to the opera. Oscar counters that a real Grouch would tear the shirt up even further and hang it up on the living room wall. Next!
	SCENE 2 cont'd	Oscar asks the third applicant what they'd do with a bunch of old newspapers. The mustached applicant proceeds to tear them to shreds, dirtying up the store even further. Oscar lauds this display of grouchiness, and gives the applicant the job – but the applicant makes the mistake of showing gratitude (a big Grouch no-no). Oscar concludes that it's up to him to keep Sesame Street grouchy.
	Cartoon	A poem filled with T words, including a teacher, toys, Texas, and "turtles with brains". Voice: Bob Arbogast (First: Episode 0024)
	Film	The Mad Painter #10 (First: Episode 0328)
	Cast / Muppets	"The People in Your Neighborhood": Cleaner and Shoemaker (First: Episode 0436)
	Cartoon	"Ten Turtles" Artist: Bud Luckey (First: Episode 0425)
	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. (First: Episode 0406)
	SCENE 3	A voiceover instructs Maria to try to pick up Mr. Hooper, who is heavy, then to pick up Luis, who is light (because he's chroma-keyed into the shot).
	Cartoon	Drawing a kite that turns into a fish (w/ child voiceover). (First: Episode 0222)
	Insert	In voiceover, kids count out twelve in a deck of playing cards.
	Film	While watching her goldfish, a girl wonders what the world is like from her goldfish's perspective. (First: Episode 0288)
	Celebrity	Flip Wilson shows how his teacher, Miss Johnson, taught the ABCs. (First: Episode 0151)
	Film	The letter T is a very useful letter. (First: Episode 0402)
	Cartoon	T for top Artist: Cliff Roberts (First: Episode 0298)
	SCENE 4	Luis plays a “Here Are Some Things” game at the Fix-it Shop. What goes with the three big circles: the big square or the small circle?
	Cartoon	Counting 10 to 1.
	Song	Joe Raposo sings "Take a Breath." (First: Episode 0347)
	Cartoon	Speech Balloon: T for train (First: Episode 0022)
	Muppets	Ernie & Bert — Ernie makes a clay bust of Bert, but runs out of clay for the nose, so he pulls Bert's nose off and puts it on the statue. (First: Episode 0463)
	Cartoon	A woman fixes her car by putting a letter r under the hood, and it goes "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" (First: Episode 0410)
	Muppets	Kermit's Lectures: Kermit plays a sorting game with squares and circles, until Cookie Monster arrives and takes a bite out of the shapes. Kermit is upset, until he tastes one of them, and he joins Cookie Monster in finishing off the rest! (First: Episode 0094)
	Cartoon	La letra T es para tigre, tomate, taxi, toro, telefono, televisión, y el terrible tiburon. (First: Episode 0351)
	Insert	The Alphabet Dancers form the letter T. (First: Episode 0454)
	Cartoon	A wizard turns into R things. (First: Episode 0369)
	SCENE 5	Big Bird recites a poem he wrote after pretending to be a woodpecker: he banged his beak on a tree all day, and now it's bandaged.
	Film	Knock knock. Who's there? The woodpecker! (First: Episode 0437)
	Muppets	Ernie (playing Robin Hood) auditions Anything Muppets to be his Merry Men. After screening two individuals who don't meet the requirements, Harvey Kneeslapper is sent in laughing. Ernie thinks he's found a merry man and hires him immediately, but following a string of incessant jokes, decides he's too merry after all and fires him.
	Cartoon	Drawing a kite that turns into a fish (w/ child voiceover in Spanish). (First: Episode 0277)
	Muppets	Muppet & Kid Moment — Cookie Monster asks David to read a DANGER sign. (First: Episode 0279)
	Cartoon	T for top (repeat)
	Animation	The story of Dan and Nan, as told with words ending in "an." (First: Episode 0450)
	Film	A letter T drives through a tunnel. (First: Episode 0454)
	SCENE 6	After trying to play hopscotch with the kids, Mr. Snuffleupagus leads them into a game they can all play: “Doin' the Snuffleupagus.”
	Film	Kids watch a silent movie with a man resting on the train tracks with an oncoming trolley - DANGER!
	Muppets	Grover reads a sign that says DANGER and looks around for said danger. He doesn't find it anywhere until he trips and falls on the sign. (First: Episode 0182)
	Cartoon	A girl explains (in poetry) how she failed trying to make a snowman without using snow.
	Animation	Drawing a chicken (child V/O in English and Spanish) (First: Episode 0451)
	Muppets / Cast	Kermit's Lectures: Bob holds an American bullfrog and asks Kermit to talk about frogs. However, due to living a somewhat different life than normal frogs, what Kermit says about frogs is somewhat incorrect; for example, Kermit believes that frogs eat fried chicken and pizza, and live in apartment houses. (First: Episode 0277)
	Muppets	Muppet & Kid Moment — Grover and John-John count to 20. (First: Episode 0476)
	SCENE 7	Mr. Snuffleupagus gives hopscotch with the kids another try as Mr. Hooper announces the sponsors, and the credits roll.
	CLOSING SIGNS	Ernie and Bert hold the Sesame Street sign, and Maria and Luis hold the Children's Television Workshop sign.

Notes

• Jerry Nelson performs all of the Grouches that Oscar interviews, as well as doing the narration for scene 3. The potential Grouches are all made from an extra Oscar puppet with features added and voices to differentiate them.

Previous episode:	Next episode:
Episode 0479	Episode 0481