Spaceship Surprise

Spaceship Surprise was a recurring sketch on Sesame Street. Inspired by Star Trek, the segment was designed to teach consonant digraphs, the pairing of two consonants to create a new sound. The series focused on the crew of the titular ship, headed by an excitable captain and his stoic officer. In each segment, the ship would crash land on a different planet, whose populace demonstrated a specific sound. Alliteration was used heavily ("cheering chairs," "shouting shovel," etc.) The skit would generally end with the entire group performing a dance named after the digraph.

Sometime in the 1990s, a sequel series, Spaceship Surprise: The Next Generation, was launched. This time, the emphasis was on consonant sounds in general, and not digraphs. The new crew included:

The Captain, a Purple AM parody of Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard
The Security Officer, a Pumpkin AM parody of Michael Dorn's Worf
The Science Officer, a Green AM parody of Brent Spiner's Data
The Doctor, a Lavender AM parody of Gates McFadden's Doctor Crusher

The original series had music similar to the Star Trek theme and featured Martin P. Robinson as the narrator. The new series had new music similar to The Next Generation series of Star Trek, and featured Jerry Nelson as the new narrator.