Trash Gordon is a science fiction adventure book which Oscar reads to Slimey to help him sleep. Introduced in Sesame Street Season 35, the segments appeared at the end of every episode, and replaced the older sponsor tags.
"Trash Gordon" features Gordon as a parody of "Flash Gordon," who finds himself stranded on strange planets and comes up with non-combative ways of overcoming his adversaries. Each segment ends with Gordon reiterating the sponsors of the day.
During Season 38, Trash Gordon is only seen occasionally. Other times, Oscar reads Slimey a different story, which also ends with Gordon announcing the episode's sponsors. In two episodes, The Adventures of Gina the Veterinarian replaced Trash. The segment was dropped by the end of the season.
The Adventures of Trash Gordon is also a newspaper comic strip, as seen in the 2006 direct-to-video special Elmo's Potty Time. In the 2007 book Abby Cadabby's Rhyme Time, Oscar is reading Trash Gordon: Space Glory.
Segments[]
Several of the beginning and ending sequences are reused in several episodes; thus the chapters feature random numbers that are duplicated and progress out of order.
Season 35 (2004)[]
| Adventure | Description | Appearance(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
Planet Mud |
Trash is attacked by the Muddy Mudons, until he gives them some apple pie a la mud.
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Planet Wormhole-5 |
Trash combats of a gang of worms by reading them to sleep from a book of his own adventures.
Video: Bedtime with Elmo (sponsors scene cut out) |
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Planet Gorgonzola |
Trash's nasal passages are threatened by the Stinky Cheese Guys, whom he clears with a sneeze. |
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Planet of Rotten Bananas |
Trash saves himself by taking out an Intergalactic Space Monkey, which makes the "bananas split." |
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Planet Pizza |
Trash is chased by a smelly pepperoni and anchovy pizza (with extra garlic), until he boxes it and sends it off to New Jersey.
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Planet Honk |
Trash is cornered by a gang of noisy Honkers. He solves the problem by hosting a Honker-Duckie-Dinger Jamboree. |
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Planet Penguin |
Trash feeds a big smelly fish to a gang of hungry penguins. |
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Planet Dinger |
Trash is almost driven off a cliff by Ding the Merciless, until he whips out his hotel bell, and they both have a ding-a-long. |
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Giant Space Chicken |
Trash drives his spaceship around a giant space chicken, for no other reason than to get to the other side.
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Planet Very Hairy |
Trash brushes and combs the hair of the planet's residents. |
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Planet Chicken |
Trash handles a mob of angry chickens by playing "Clucky Clucky Chicken" on a tape player. |
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Planet Oink |
Trash is bothered by a gang of oinking pigs, until he puts on his earmuffs. |
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Planet Snore-a-Lot |
Trash can't get to sleep because of the snoring Snorecians. He solves the problem by playing his bugle and waking them up. |
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Planet Dirty Laundry |
The smelly dirty laundry runs away when confronted with Trash's box of laundry detergent. |
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Planet Stuck-in-the-Muck |
Trash frees a duck from being stuck on a mucky rock - but then becomes stuck himself. |
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Planet Scram |
Trash is confronted by a gang of Grouches shouting "SCRAM!" until he pulls the old snake-in-the-can trick on them. |
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Giant, Grumpy Guppy |
Trash scares away a giant grumpy guppy by pretending to be a kitty cat. |
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Planet Huff-and-Puff |
Trash handles the wind of a Big Bad Wolf by fighting air with air.
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Giant Cranky Monster Baby |
Trash handles the baby by giving it a giant bottle.
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Season 36 (2005)[]
| Adventure | Description | Appearance(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planet Itch-on-Your-Back |
Trash and the Itchies have an itch on their backs which they can't reach. They all cooperate by scratching each other's backs. |
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Planet Trashpile |
Trash is cornered by giant piles of trash, which he scares away with a trash can. |
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Planet Triangle |
Trash finds himself taunted by the planet's residents until playing his triangle. |
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Planet of the Shoes |
Trash plays music to get a pair of wingtips to dance away. |
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Planet Nothing |
Trash breaks a cycle of inactivity by reading a book of his own adventures. |
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Space Bunnies |
Surrounded by Space Bunnies (all played by Benny Rabbit), Trash throws a head of cabbage, thereby dispersing the crowd. |
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Planet Pots and Pans |
Trash bangs the biggest pot tops together, persuading the Pots and Pansians to stop doing the same.
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Planet Spaghetti |
Trash distracts a pasta dish with a pair of meatballs. |
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Planet of the Cakes |
On the Crummy Planet of the Cakes, Trash blows out a birthday cake's candle. |
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Planet Double-Trouble |
Trash Gordon comes face to face with his double. |
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Planet Surprise |
Trash looks for a surprise, but gives up. Suddenly, a gang of Surprisians pop up and surprise him with a party! |
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Season 37 (2006)[]
| Adventure | Description | Appearance(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
Planet Spaghetti |
Trash fends off a meatball with a sneeze.
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| Planet of the Giant Ringing Telephone  |
Trash conquers the phone by answering it. |
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Planet of the Stinky Sock |
Trash copes with its lone resident by taking off his own sock, forming a pair. |
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Planet Upside-Down |
Trash turns himself upside down to avoid frightening the Upside-Downians. |
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Planet Screechy Violins |
Trash conducts the Grouches' playing with a baton. |
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Furballs |
Trash encounters a flock of furballs, which he finds are actually friendly.
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Planet Fairytale |
Trash contacts Little Bo Peep by interstellar cell phone to bring her sheep home. |
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Planet Vacation |
Trash is heroically tired and relaxes on a lawn chair. |
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Planet Conga Line |
Trash is unable to stop dancing ... until he changes the Conga Liners' radio station. |
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Planet Booboo |
Trash bandages the Booboobians' booboos. |
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Planet Pebble In Your Shoe |
Trash shakes the pebble out of his shoe, inspiring the Pebble People to do the same. |
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Notes[]
- Gordon wasn't always eager to be a superhero, dismissing Captain Vegetable's suggestion that he could be the next superhero in the mid-1980s. (YouTube)