Sesame Street season 5.
Sesame Street season 42.
The Harlem Globetrotters are a basketball performance team founded in 1926.
Members of the team appeared in multiple Sesame Street inserts beginning in season 5. In one segment, they briefly demonstrate their stunts (First: Episode 0536), and in another, they display parts of the body as they pass a basketball (First: Episode 0627). They also appeared in a series of segments in which kids (via voiceover) count the number of baskets they make (First: Episode 0649).
In 1979, they were featured in their own act for the variety concert Hello, Here Is Berlin. Half-way through their routine, they are joined by a team of large Muppets including Sweetums and several other full-bodied characters.
They returned to Sesame Street in Season 42, where they appeared in a segment about the number 3 with Elmo (First: Episode 4266). The featured Globetrotters were Kevin "Special K" Daley (#21), Anthony "Ant" Atkinson Jr. (#12), and "Blenda" Rodriguez (#10).
The team became the focal point of the documentary series Harlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward, which featured a Fraggle Rock feature in 2024.
References[]
Harlem Globetrotters trading cards in Episode 1545 of Sesame Street.
- Gordon whistles "Sweet Georgia Brown" while mime-dribbling a basketball with the kids in the courtyard on Sesame Street in Episode 0217.
- Mr. Hooper's brother Arnold explains to Big Bird and the kids what basketball cards look like in Episode 1545 of Sesame Street, using a set of 1971/1972 Harlem Globetrotters Fleer trading cards.
- A pastiche of "Sweet Georgia Brown" plays as Slimey practices playing basketball in Episode 1960 of Sesame Street.
- In Episode 3139 of Sesame Street, Big Bird helps a group of basketball-playing chickens find The Furry Arms Hotel. The scene is punctuated with a music button based on "Sweet Georgia Brown," the theme song for the team.
- Hero Guy hums a version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" in a segment where he dribbles a basketball extra fast using his one giant hand. (First: Episode 3965)