 | |
| Music by | Bill Gibson, Sean Hopper and Huey Lewis |
| Lyrics by | Cathi Rosenberg-Turow and Norman Stiles |
| Date | 1988 |
| First | Episode 2615 |
Sesame Street It's Hip to Be a Square
"It's Hip to Be a Square" is an animated song segment first seen on Sesame Street in Season 20, spoofing "Hip to Be Square" by Huey Lewis and the News. The short features a band of colored squares with stick-figure limbs against black-and-white, photographed backgrounds. Cut-outs and direct cel-drawings were utilized. The lead singer (voiced by Paul Jacobs) sings about his differences from other shapes, but they still get along.
Notes[]
- Lyricist Cathi Rosenberg-Turow detailed the conception of the piece at a 1992 event at The Paley Center for Media. Turow was inspired to spoof Lewis' "Hip to be Square" after listening to a tape of his and planned on re-titling it "I'm Hip 'Cause I Share." With head-writer Norman Stiles, the two re-worked the piece to be about shapes and later, racial acceptance. Initially conceived as a Muppet piece, the producers decided it should be animated instead. Huey Lewis and his team were contacted to use the original music as opposed to creating a sound-alike melody. The segment was animated by Candy Kugel and Vincent Cafferelli at Buzzco Associates, Inc..
Releases[]
- Video
- Rock & Roll! (1990, edited with a brief comment from Bert)
- Guess That Shape and Color (2006)
- Elmo's Shape Adventure (2011)
- Other
- Numbers computer game (audio)