Ernie reading the story in a commercial for Walk & Talk Pals.
"The Once and Purple King" is a story which Savion reads in a Sesame Street insert in Episode 3121.
Savion reads to four kids named Peter, Brittany, Sophia, and Bernadette, as well as Telly Monster, who keeps interrupting, worrying about what he is hearing. The story is about a royal monarch who, upon discovering that he is purple, is so proud of this fact that he decides that everything in his kingdom should be that color, and no other (besides which he now wants to be called "your purpleness"). So he orders his servants to paint everything purple, starting with the walls of his palace, then all the fruit and flowers in the kingdom. The servants dutifully obey his orders without complaint. However, when the king orders that they have to be painted as well, as they are all different colors, they flatly refuse. The king is none too pleased with this and banishes them. However, he soon becomes lonely and misses all the color diversity. So he begs his subjects to return to his service, and the story ends with everyone redecorating his castle with all kinds of different colors.
The story's name is a reference to The Once and Future King. The segment was written by Joey Mazzarino.
Ernie is seen holding a book of the story (a reused prop from the original segment) in a 1998 commercial for Walk & Talk Pals.
Performers
- Frank Oz as His Purpleness the King
- Dave Goelz as the Lavender Royal Sycophant
- Jerry Nelson as the Pumpkin colored servant
- David Rudman as Lazlo, the Green Royal Painter
- Fran Brill as the Fat Blue colored servant
