Episode 4168

Sesame Street
Elmo and Zoe's hat contest
Air date	August 22, 2008
Season	Season 39 (2008)
Written by	John Weidman
Directed by Joey Mazzarino Production April 8, 2008 Sponsors U, 14 Syndication PBS Kids Sprout Releases Elmo's Magic Numbers

Picture	Segment	Description
	COLD OPEN	What's the Word on the Street?: Persistent
	SCENE 1	Gordon welcomes the viewer to Sesame Street, when Elmo alerts him that today is "Who can wear the most hats on their head" day, and drags him to the yard, where an enthusiastic crowd cheers.
	SCENE 1 cont'd	Elmo is going to be playing against Zoe in today's game, which is covered by Chris and Alan, assuming the role of both sportscasters and hat assistance. A marching band member does a drumroll while one hat after another is placed upon Zoe's and Elmo's heads at the same time, until there are four hats on each head.
	SCENE 1 cont'd	A Dinger pops up and dings, which means it's time for the challenge round: Elmo and Zoe have to say the alphabet while standing on one leg, while making sure their hats don't fall off. They win the challenge, and everyone chants, "More hats! More hats!" More hats are added to their heads until they are each wearing 7 hats, as counted by the Hat Check Girl.
	SCENE 1 cont'd	In the next round, two more hats are added to each of their heads, and Alan and Chris realize that there are no more hats to add. ("It looks like we have a persistent hat-wearing bunch here today, Chris!") Just then, they get the idea to contribute the baseball caps from their own heads. The Dinger pops up and dings again, signaling the next challenge: Elmo and Zoe must estimate how many hats are on their heads. Elmo makes a wild guess that the seven hats he had before, plus the three hats, equals 9, while Zoe's guess is 11. The amount of hats is once again confirmed by the Hat Check Girl.
	SCENE 1 cont'd	Elmo and Zoe are tied, and there are no more hats, but the game's not over yet -- Abby Cadabby poofs into view, and comes up with a spell to add more hats on their weary heads. By accident, her spell puts some hat-wearing bats on their heads, and The Count comes over to pick them up ... right after counting them, of course.
	SCENE 1 cont'd	Abby remembers the right spell this time, and successfully multiplies the number of hats on their heads -- which are stacked so high that they have trouble keeping their balance, having to run as they sway back and forth. Alan and Chris chase them, causing Susan to drop her basket of clean clothes, and Grover's block tower to get knocked over.
	SCENE 1 cont'd	Zoe and Elmo end up back in the courtyard, where Abby calls her mommy for the spell to get rid of hats. It turns out that a spell isn't needed, so Alan and Chris lift the hat towers their heads. The Hat Check Girl counts the hats by fives, and finds that each head was able to withstand 30 hats. Elmo and Zoe were tied once again, which makes them proud. They go off to play another game -- one which doesn't involve hats.
	SCENE 1 cont'd	Everyone leaves, and Abby tells Gordon that she'll never say that hat spell again, yet by saying it for that last time, she ends up putting a stack of hats on top of Gordon's head!
	Song	Leon Redbone sings "Have You Ever." (First: Episode 3274)
	Muppets / Celebrity	David Beckham explains the word persistent while Elmo repeatedly asks to play soccer with him.
	Film	Kids demonstrate near and far with soccer balls. (First: Episode 3538)
	SCENE 2	Big Bird finishes reading a book about a dinosaur to Connor and Tiffany, and picks up another book: the "Letter of the Day" book. He opens it, and sees the next segment ...
	Film	The letter U dances at the beach. (First: Episode 3529)
	Cartoon	An umbrella, gorilla, ambulance, and orange are displayed on the screen. Which begins with the letter U and protects us from the rain? (First: Episode 4143)
	Muppets	Murray Has a Little Lamb Murray's lamb, Ovejita, gives clues about which escuela they'll be visiting today, each one a different color belt (cinturon), green (verde) and white (blanco), as well as a kick (un patea). The school turns out to be a karate class, where Murray and Ovejita learn how to do karate, and Murray eagerly anticipates breaking a board (First: Episode 4161) cut from the Sprout version
	Cartoon	"Big Kid Photo Album" (First: Episode 3441)
	SCENE 3	Big Bird finishes reading a different version of Cinderella to the kids, opens the "Number of the Day" book, and sees ...
	Film	Kid mural painting #14 (beginning edited) (First: Episode 3613)
	Animation	Traction Jackson makes 14 baskets. (First: Episode 4070)
	Muppets	30 Rocks Liz Lemon needs 30 rocks for the rock sketch, which a delivery guy gives to her. Jack, the boss, doubts that there really are 30 rocks, so she counts them. Next, they get rained on by the 2,000 ping-pong balls they're expecting.
	Song	"They're Not Alive" (First: Episode 3661)
	Muppets	Grover interrupts the program for the Weather Bulletin and attempts to announce the weather, but it changes, making it difficult for him to keep up. In conclusion, tomorrow's weather would be partly sunny, partly rainy, and partly snowy,... and partly windy! Grover then returns the viewers back to their regularly scheduled program and adds that he needs a different job. (First: Episode 3526)
	Animation	Elephants appear in the clouds as Vivaldi music plays. (First: Episode 3627)
	Muppets	Elmo's World: Weather (First: Episode 3984)
	SCENE 4	Big Bird finishes reading Hey Diddle Diddle, and suddenly notices that there are no more books in the stack. Telly rushes over with another book, titled "One of My Favorite Books," and Big Bird reads today's sponsors from it.

Alterations

Picture	Segment	Description
	Muppets	Global Grover: Grover travels to Nicaragua and learns how to make bricks like his friend Gilberto. (First: Episode 2744) The film segment's original narration, by Gilberto, is replaced with a narration by Grover. (First: Episode 4043) This segment replaces "Murray Has a Little Lamb" in the Sprout version.

Gallery

Notes

• Footage from the street story was used for a game on Sesamestreet.org, "Count Hats With Elmo and Zoe", and Elmo and Zoe Count Hats.

Sources

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