The United States Postal Service (USPS) is a government-run corporation which oversees the mail system of the United States of America. The American postal system was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1775.
Unlike its commercial competitors such as UPS and FedEx, the USPS is the only mail carrier which delivers mail to the North Pole. This distinction played an important role in the special A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa, in which the Muppets had to deliver letters to Santa Claus by hand after the local post office had closed. The song "Delivering Christmas," which honors the postal workers who deliver the letters to Santa, was later made available on an album sold by the Postal Service.
Each Christmas season, the Postal Service uses a special holiday cancellation, usually featuring a licensed character. Kermit the Frog appeared on the 2009 holiday cancellation for holiday cards and letters mailed in the month of December.[1]
Postage stamps[]
The USPS has honored the Muppets with several postage stamps over the years:
- Big Bird's likeness graced a 1999 stamp honoring events of the 1970s.
- Jim Henson and the cast of The Muppet Show appeared on a set of 11 stamps, issued in 2005 to honor Kermit's 50th anniversary.
- For Sesame Street's 50th anniversary, the USPS issued a set of 16 stamps, featuring 17 characters and two transitional objects.
- Jim Henson and Rowlf also promoted the 1986 Love Stamp.
References[]
- During the third season of Sesame Street, Molly the Mail Lady was an official member of the cast. She delivered the post to her friends on the street and occasionally flirted with Bob.
- In a sketch from Season 1, a Pumpkin Anything Muppet mailman, performed by Frank Oz approached Ernie for directions so he could deliver a note to a certain music teacher named Mrs. Mary Ann ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.
- On at least four occasions, the work of a mail carrier has been sung about in "The People in Your Neighborhood".
- A Fat Blue mailman, performed by Jim Henson, once paid Count von Count a visit at his castle to deliver him three big bags chalk full of mail, which the Count wrote himself just so he could count them. The same mailman also appeared as a guest at a party that Ernie threw for Bert.
- In an early seventies Sesame Street News Flash sketch, a Fat Blue mailman visits grandma's cottage, where the Big Bad Wolf is chasing Little Red Riding Hood. He says he has a letter for the wolf, but the wolf rejects it because, being a wolf, he can't read.
- In an Old Western sketch, Sinister Sam mistakes a lavender saloon mailman for Doc Holiday.
- In the Monsterpiece Theater episode "The Postman Always Rings Twice", Grover waits for the postman to deliver a very important letter to him, and after being visited by other people in the neighborhood, he finally opens the door to a pumpkin postwoman.
- Harvey Kneeslapper gives a fat blue mailman a letter- the letter R to be exact.
- Cookie Monster is the Post Monster General in the Sesame Street special CinderElmo.
- A large orange live hand Anything Muppet mail carrier brings Big Bird his mail in an episode of Sesame Street.
- The Postal Service is shown multiple times in The Sesame Street Dictionary. Big Bird is shown to mail a letter, a mail woman delivers a letter to Bert and Ernie, Marshal Grover goes to the post office to mail a letter to his Mommy, and Farley goes to buy a stamp.
- Herry Monster runs over a mailman who delivers him an invitation to a tea party in the book My Doll Is Lost!.
- Ernie received a letter from his cousin Fred delivered to him by the mailman in the book Ernie's Little Lie.
- Uncle Traveling Matt sent his postcards via USPS, and his first encounter with a mailbox is shown in the book The Tale of Traveling Matt.
- A U.S. Mail Woman interrupts Grover's narration when she delivers a letter to Little Red Riding Hood in Grover's Little Red Riding Hood.
- 'I Am a Letter' - a film about the process of mail delivery, accompanied by a song, which was first featured in Episode 0120.
