| Sesame Street | |||||||
| Bernie, a piano tuner, tunes Oscar's piano; Olivia dates with Bernie | |||||||
| Air date | December 22, 1983 | ||||||
| Season | Season 15 (1983-1984) | ||||||
| Written by | Jeff Moss | ||||||
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| Picture | Segment | Description |
|---|---|---|
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SCENE 1 | As Olivia rushes to work, she bumps into Bob and his friend, who Olivia shows signs of interest in. Bob’s friend does so as well. When they pass Oscar's trash can, Oscar tells them to stop hanging around him and is introduced to Bob’s friend, Bernie (a piano tuner). Bernie (Ben Harney) shows Oscar his tuning fork, which he uses to help tune pianos. Oscar asks him to help him un-tune his piano. |
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Film | A wheel rolls away from a junkyard. A boy captures it to complete his wagon. (First: Episode 0522) |
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Cartoon | Kids hear an L poem. (First: Episode 0198) |
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Muppets | Alphabet Chat: Mr. Chatterly's poem on the letter L ends in chaos as usual. (First: Episode 0762) |
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Animation | Sand L/l (First: Episode 0632) |
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Film | A young girl talks about her friend, Joe, who's training to be a fireman. |
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Cartoon | The Typewriter: L for lion (First: Episode 0762) |
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SCENE 2 | Bob listens to the piano being un-tuned in horror. Bernie comes up from the trash can with a slightly grouchier personality. Just then, Grundgetta arrives and is smitten with Bernie’s dirty persona. She is driven even more when she hears his piano “playing,” which makes Oscar jealous. |
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Cartoon | Three birds enter a cuckoo clock to do their job. (First: Episode 0407) |
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Muppets | The Martians examine a grandfather clock. (First: Episode 0407) |
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Cartoon | Sign Sounds: BINGO (First: Episode 1171) |
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Muppets | An Anything Muppet sings a "Pretty Little Song" with a canary, but neither of them can figure out when it ends. (First: Episode 1298) |
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Cartoon | The long rattlesnake thinks he's better than the short one, until the short one outsmarts him by making him bite his own tail. "Wanna borrow my snakebite kit?" Artist: Bud Luckey (First: Episode 0955) |
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Film | Old Time Movies: Anne Meara narrates a silent film about an automobile that can be either long or short. (First: Episode 0521) |
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Cartoon | Five Purple Konkers (First: Episode 0775) |
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SCENE 3 | Oscar listens to Grundgetta being wooed by Bernie’s playing and worries he may be losing his best friend. Olivia arrives and Oscar wants her to take Bernie off his hands so he can have his Grundgetta back. Olivia decides to help him out when she witnesses how desperate the situation has become (especially when Grundgetta pokes her head out of the can and bellows, "Hold my calls! He plays the songs Grundgetta LOOOOOVES!") and goes to get changed. Bernie tries to come out of the trash can, but is pulled back down by Grundgetta. |
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Cartoon | Three penguins dance. Artist: Owe Gustafson (First: Episode 1480) |
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Film | Number Three Ball Film: A red ball follows a rollercoaster-like track through checkpoints (each, a set of three) that are counted in voiceover. At the end, the ball turns into a cherry which is devoured by a girl. (First: Episode 0744) |
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Cartoon | Sporty 3 demonstrates his agility in various sports. (First: Episode 1642) |
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Muppets | A Jimmy Durante-type monster sings about the importance of the nose. (First: Episode 1517) |
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Cartoon | A cartoon man (voiced by Bob Arbogast) is irritated to find that he has a succession of animal noses. (First: Episode 0769) |
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Muppets | Muppet & Kid Moment — Grover and Erik surprise each other. (First: Episode 1689) |
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SCENE 4 | Olivia comes out of 123 Sesame Street all dressed up (and believing Bernie is a Grouch rather than a human). Maria passes by and brings her back inside to get more grouchy clothing on. |
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SCENE 4 cont’d | Bernie finally rises from the trash can and becomes excited when Oscar tells him he has a date with Olivia. He runs home to get cleaned up. |
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SCENE 4 cont’d | Maria and Olivia return with Olivia all in ratty clothes and a frizzy green wig. Oscar is shocked and upset and feels his plan will fail. Bernie returns and Olivia sees him and realizes he’s not a Grouch. They share a laugh at the situation and go off talking about it. |
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Cartoon | A man explains to a girl what a surprise is. Artist: Bruce Cayard (First: Episode 1358) |
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Song | Joe Raposo sings "Kangaroo Blues." (First: Episode 0277) |
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Cartoon | A man chases a runaway "no." (First: Episode 0794) |
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Insert | The Alphabet Dancers form a letter L. (First: Episode 0449) |
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Cartoon | "The Little Letter L: A Poem by Louise" Artist: Bruce Cayard (First: Episode 1526) |
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Muppets | Kermit explains the importance of listening, using the Two-Headed Monster as an example. (First: Episode 1767) |
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Cartoon | "Have you seen my NO?" (First: Episode 0773) |
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SCENE 5 | Oscar loans Bernie his Sloppy Jalopy for their date. However, they can’t get it to work. They need Oscar to show them how to get it started, but can’t think of a way of getting him out of his trash can. Olivia sees he hates music and they sing a song (“If You Listen to a Tune”) to get him out. Oscar can’t take the nice song and shows them how to start his car, then rejoices as he now believes he has Grundgetta all to himself again. |
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Cartoon | The secret drawing is a mailman. (First: Episode 0220) |
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Muppets | The Martians find a telephone. (First: Episode 0398) |
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Cartoon | An aviator and his son cooperate to start their plane. (First: Episode 1476) |
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Cartoon | Bridge #7 – Rectangle Bridge A (First: Episode 0290) |
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Cartoon | Y for yawn (First: Episode 0301) |
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Cast | Linda signs the word disappear - which David does. (First: Episode 1330) |
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Cartoon | A boy can yell and yodel, and his dog can yelp and yowl. They can both yawn. (First: Episode 0353) |
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SCENE 6 | Olivia and Bernie push the Sloppy Jalopy back to the street, both enjoying the date they had. They return the keys to Oscar and Grundgetta sees how nice looking Bernie is and is turned off. Oscar whines over the trouble he went through when he had a simple solution, but Olivia and Bernie don’t think it was a waste at all as they walk off together. Grundgetta tells Oscar that he's the most "miserable rotten grouchy Grouch in the world" and promises him that she could never love anyone more than he. Then, they argue as they announce the sponsors. |
Notes[]
- The plot to this episode would later be repeated in Episode 2107, with different inserts.
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