Getting to know the Sesame Street Animators

[Boober_Gorg]

Okay, here's something that should help us all dig into our subconscious.

This is a thread that pays homage to the beloved, innovative, spectacular animations of Sesame Street.

This is an ongoing project I've started doing since June, for myself and the hard core SS fans. I'm trying to provide information on who did (nearly) animated sequence for the show. I need confirmation on a lot of these.

JIM HENSON
•Claymation series for first season
•The King of Eight

PAUL AND SANDRA FIERLINGER
•Teeny Little Superguy
•Six Soccer Socks
•Using a map to find a place to park

VINCE COLLINS
•Pinball numbers series
•Magician makes birds morph into fish

SALLY CRUIKSHANK
•Above It All (I Love To Fly)
•In With The In Crowd
•I'm Curious
•Part Of the Whole

JANET PERLMAN
•"That elephant just won't listen."

GAHAN WILSON
•"I made you another Igor."
•Space orchestra
•Alligator and elephant
•Animals escape from a building and encounter an ice cream salesman (that's how I remember it)
•The Bridgekeeper series ("No one crosses this bridge by me, unless they can answer my questions three.")

JOHN KORTY (his animations look like Eric Carle illustrations)
•"do you want part of my orange?"
•Irritated bird and the three boxes
•What's inside the street, according to a little bird

RICHARD CONDIE (who made a killer cartoon called THE BIG SNIT)
(I have no idea what he did, but I heard he did some work for the show)

KAREN AQUA
•Boy's book comes to life
•Dog dances between a girl and an alligator-headed figure

DEREK LAMB
•It Ain't Bad to Get Mad
•Simple Simon and the re-arranged animals ("Now I know what's wrong! Sheep don't wear boots!")

CRAIG BARTLETT
•Arnold uses his imagination

UNKNOWN (I must find out his/her identity!) (this is a list of sequences which I could swear were done by the same person/s)
•Snacks on Parade series
•The Carrot
•Me And My M
•The Noble Ostrich
•If You've Lost Your L ...
•Famous Inventions series
•Dr. Annie Eyeball series
•Dr. Nancy Einstein series
•The Cat That Hated Rain

UNKNOWN (various artists)
•Ten Fingers, Ten Race Cars, Ten Spies series (this is SO psycho delic)
•"MOM! There's an alligator in my room!"
•a cat struggles to open a can of cat food while his mistress is gabbing on the phone
•The Alligator King (and others in that series, from the LP [/b]The Count Counts[/b])
•Marty the chair looks around the dark room for his glasses (I think Marty Robinson did this voice!)
•Wanda The Witch, nancy The Nanny Goat etc.
•two hippie kids try to wake up a big house plant
•Henry the ape calls Muzby's Treetop Flowers with an emergency
•two apes scratch each other's backs (I swear this must be from the UK, since the music at the end is Rule Brittania)

Now I know I'm a geek. :D This list is far from complete, and I know there must be at least two or three animation fanatics who can help me out by correcting my mistakes and adding to the list.

Everybody post away!!

[scarecroe]

Awesome project! Good luck with it.

I was under the impression that also Jim did a lot of the quick-edit colored paper cut-out stuff too like what we see in TimePiece.

[Drtooth]

Mo Williems (who brought us the Cartoon Network series Sheep in the Big city):

Suzie Kabloozie
Unhappy artest (a tale told in rhyme in which this artist is miserable, and then he kicks paint on a canvas, making him laugh)
amonug others
His web page is www.sheepinthebigcity.com


John R. Dilworth (who brought us another CN cartoon, Courage the cowardly dog) along with Stretch Pictures:
Noodles and Ned series (incidentially, this was a cartoon films series before Sesame Street bought a new series of cartoons featuring the dou!)

Their webpage is at www.stretchfilms.com

[Ol' Buddy Bert]

Wow, man, I'm really impressed. How were you able to learn so much about the animators?

[MIKEB97]

Originally posted by scarecroe
Awesome project! Good luck with it.

I was under the impression that also Jim did a lot of the quick-edit colored paper cut-out stuff too like what we see in TimePiece.

Jim also did the psychedelic numbers that went from 1 to 10 duirng the first season. He also did a cartoon about the number 12 with rocks in a desert. Didn't Jim create "the Queen of Six"? The animation in that one is similar to "the King of 8". I wonder who did "Capital I" and "Lowercase N"?

[Drtooth]

www.artistmike.com/SesameStreet/Sesame1.html

[Boober_Gorg]

Originally posted by Ol' Buddy Bert
Wow, man, I'm really impressed. How were you able to learn so much
about the animators?
I started watching Sesame street in 1986, roughly, when I was about 3. I have had the ambition to work in the field of animation since I first attended Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation in 1994, and have been regularly attending ever since. My video collection has also expanding over the years. It now includes Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation and Sick and Twisted, The International Tournee of Animation, National Film Board of Canada, Paul Driessen, Bruno Bozzetto, and many others.

What did they do besides Sesame Street? Let me think ... this is a list of releases that I saw, which made me recognize the artists' Sesame Street work. I have also given out several more links that I have found over the years.

PAUL AND SANDRA FIERLINGER (http://www.paulfierlinger.com/)
•It's So Nice To Have A Wolf Around The House (short subject)

SALLY CRUIKSHANK (http://www.funonmars.com/)
•Quasi shorts series
AWN site (http://www.awn.com/cruikshank/)

JOHN KORTY
•Twice Upon A Time (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9049/twice1.html) (1983 feature film featuring the voices of Paul Frees, Lorenzo Music and others)

MO WILLEMS (http://www.curiouspictures.com/commercials/directors_willems.html)
•Iddy Biddy Beat Boy (short subject)

VINCE COLLINS (http://www.vinceworld.com/)
My professor recently showed the class an educational short entitled Animation. Those pinball sequences came into my head.
I also remember this one called Malice in Wonderland (http://www.manga.com/chaos/malice.html).

PS. Drtooth - thanks for the artistmike link!! I forgot about those! And thanks to the rest of you! Keep posting!

[Drtooth]

Okay, these ones are guesses, but:

Pink Panther's K: Depatie Freeling Studios

Jugheads' J: Flimation? They did the cartoon version of the Archies at the time, so that's my guess.

Voice of Jughead: Howard Morris

And as for the little Artist Mike cartoons (the ones with the Aliens) I think Danny Mann did voices for those.

Danny Mann has been in numerous cartoons such as J. Gander Hooter on Darkwing duck and Hector on Heathcliff and the Catallac Cats!

here's a partial listing of his voice credits: voices.fuzzy.com/actor.idc?actor_id=244

[Fozzie Bear]

Hiya,

Great project idea...I think it would work well in some articles section at MC when the thing's complete!! What you all thinkin?

FOZ

[Jeffrey Gray]

I think Filmation did the Jughead "J" segment, the Superman "S" segment, and the Batman & Robin cartoon segments. I'm not sure, though.

[Jeffrey Gray]

Hey, Boober Gorg...do you know who did the Billy Joe Jive segments? Or is that another thing you haven't figured out yet.

Also, in case you want to know of another SS animator, I think Ken Snyder (who did Roger Ramjet, among other cartoon series) worked on SS segments at some point...I learned that from a now-closed site with a filmography of his, but I dunno what segments he worked on...

[Boober_Gorg]

Originally posted by Jeffrey Gray
Hey, Boober Gorg...do you know who did the Billy Joe Jive segments? Or is that another thing you haven't figured out yet.
I don't know what those are. Got any images or descriptions?

Originally posted by Jeffrey Gray
Also, in case you want to know of another SS animator, I think Ken Snyder (who did Roger Ramjet, among other cartoon series) worked on SS segments at some point...
Maybe some of the 1969 color segments, as seen in the first few episodes.

[Boober_Gorg]

A long time ago, back in 1998 or something, I was surfing the net and I found out about this 1996 screening exhibition called 25 Years of Animation For Sesame Street. I guess since I can't find the link anymore, I decided to start this thread.

Does anyone have any info on this? Did anyone here attend said screening?

[Jeffrey Gray]

"Billy Joe Jive" was a series of mid-70s cartoon segments about a black kid detective (Billy Joe Jive) who solved mysteries in New York City...maybe you've seen them, and you just don't remember them...they were still airing in 1986, when you started watching the show.

I'm sure someone else can describe them in further detail...

[ssetta]

I feel like I should reply to this. It's amazing you know all those animators! I happen to know a lot of songwriters for that stuff, and they're often writers who only ever did one thing for the show. Where do you get all that information?

[KPrell]

Hey folks!

Don't forget the great Bud Luckey, who designed, animated and created the music for 'That's About the Size of It' and 'The Alligator King'.

I met him while working at Pixar. He's been a designer there for many years. His original, beautiful storyboards for 'That's About the Size of It' are displayed at Pixar. I'll ask him for more info on his work and other animators for the show.

David Rudman's company has done some animation for Sesame Street recently but I'm not sure which bits.

cheers,

Karen

[mikealan]

Okay, okay. Do any of you guys know who wrote the "E...E...See me...eating a peach" animation?

[Phillip Chapman]

Karen,

Thanks for sharing about 'That's About the Size of It' and 'The Alligator King'. Those are two of my all-time favorite Sesame animation bits. Just shows how talented Bud Luckey is to design, animate, AND write the music for those pieces.

[Fozzie Bear]

I LOVE that!! It's one of my favorite things on SS!!

FOZ

[Boober_Gorg]

Originally posted by ssetta
I feel like I should reply to this. It's amazing you know all those animators! Where do you get all that information?
It's a long story, but it involved years of research. One of my (long) replies in this thread answers your question to some extent.

[Drtooth]

Man!!! I LOOOOOVE Alligator King. You can only see it if you're really reeally lucky (If you don't get this joke, reffer to Muppets at Disneyworld).

Did Bud Luckey also do Martian Beauty (9) and 8 Penny candy Man?

[Jeffrey Gray]

Karen, besides the two DrTooth listed, did he also do Ten Turtles and Ladybug Picnic?

[ssetta]

Yes, he did. Here's a list of everything Bud Luckey did:

Ladybugs' Picnic #12
It's A Lovely 11 Morning
Ten Turtles
Martian Beauty #9
Candy Man #8
The Alligator King #7
Country 6 (Snail Song)
Country 5 (Funny Farm)
Four Big Lions
"3" Song
Country 2 (Toucan Two-step)
Infinity Song (That's About The Size)

All of these were done by an animation company called Imagination, Inc. I believe they also did Schoolhouse Rock.

[Boober_Gorg]

Thanks for the list! Keep them posts comin'!

You know, it;'s funny how a lot of those tracks appear on The Count Counts LP.

[Jeffrey Gray]

Also, even weirder...almost all of those skits are sung by Joe Raposo himself!

[Drtooth]

Karen Prell just reminded me of something I completely forgot!!!!!

Pixar animated the little lamps segment, after their cartoon Luxo Jr. (which is on the Toy Story 2 Video). Man, I used to love those.

Pixar did do them, right?

[Boober_Gorg]

You're absolutely right! As I said, this list is far from complete. :D:D:D Thanks drtooth!

[Splurge]

"Wanda the Witch" was done by Tee Collins. He was one of the few African-American cartoon animators of that time period, according to a NY Times Magazine article from 1970. ("Report Card on Sesame Street")

[Jeffrey Gray]

Boober_Gorg: Yet another addition for Paul and Sandra Fierlinger..."Seven Sopranos". It is listed on their site as an example of one of the SS segments they did.

On another note, I saw that segment on SS Unpaved last night...it contains the Fierlingers' signature "sketchy" animation style, and those freaky black-and-white backgrounds...

[ssetta]

What is the address of Paul and Sandra Fierlinger's site? I think I know some of their other animations. And the music for that one, and probably some others, was done by Larry Gold.

[Jeffrey Gray]

http://www.paulfierlinger.com/

There are three animations Boober_Gorg listed in the first post that they did, and I just listed a fourth. Do you know of any more?

[Jeffrey Gray]

You know, I think Vince Collins might not have done the Pinball segments...on alt.tv.sesame-street, someone mentions that this was an entry at the 1978 Ottawa Animation Festival: "Pinball #4 and 6" For Sesame Street, United States, Jeffrey Hale.

So the pinball segment could have actually been done by this Jeffrey Hale...

[MIKEB97]

Wow! This is so interesteing! Besides drawing the picture of Mr. Hooper and the adults, Caroll Spinney must have done other artwork for Sesame Street. I'm not sure if he created cartoons for the show. Frank Oz created the #3 ball film and built that huge metallic structure. That film and the King of 8 were from the second season, 1970. Does anyone recall Muppets being portyrayed in cartoon form on the show?

[Drtooth]

Originally posted by MIKEB97
Does anyone recall Muppets being portyrayed in cartoon form on the show?

I think that there may have been an animated opening to Sesame Street in the early days. Someone told me that, and I didn't believe them. Big Bird appeared in a short animation (in a style that you could juuuust recognize him) about birds. (the same animator who did Snacks on Parade, and "Cover your nose when you sneeze."

I do know that in the Shalome Sesame opening, it has a cartoon version of Bert and Ernie flying around in an airplane. Plus, There was a brief fantasy segment in "Follow that Bird" in which Big Bird is a cartoon (note: They also use Big Bird as a cartoon for the WB logo at the begining of the film0.

Here's an animator that animates segments on Mexico's Plaza Sesamo...

www.rammprod.com/Projects.html

I'm not sure what exactly they animate, but they could have done the opening animations, as well as several Spanish letter segments. They might have also animated the end of Plaza in which Abelardo, Lola, and Pancho pull the lever on this machine...

[Boober_Gorg]

Originally posted by Drtooth
I think that there may have been an animated opening to Sesame Street in the early days. Someone told me that, and I didn't believe them.
Check the first episode! ;)

Originally posted by Drtooth
Big Bird appeared in a short animation (in a style that you could juuuust recognize him) about birds. (the same animator who did Snacks on Parade, and "Cover your nose when you sneeze."
You're thinking of The Noble Ostrich, where the narrator states, "Unlke Big Bird, the ostrich has no vocal chords, and can only hiss."

I also distinctly remember this one sequence where a hand was drawing something (or was it the line forming itself?), which turned out to be ... Big Bird. It was that kind of sequence where something is being drawn, and an unseen group of kids tries to guess what it is. At the end of this one, the Big Bird drawing says, rather grumpily, "It's me, you silly." I swear I'm not exaggerating. Has anyone else seen this?

[Convincing John]

Here's another animator you can add to your list.

I visited "The Vision of Jim Henson" exhibit in 1999, and it had some of the original sketches for the animation segments, including a picture of Jim putting the rocks together for the number 12 film.

But next to it was a sketch of Boy Bumble (originally called Bumble Arty) and the sketch was drawn by Maurice Sendak! Sendak wrote "Where the Wild Things Are".

Remember Boy Bumble? He was voiced by Jim Henson ("please let me in. It's your Boy Bumble") He let 9 swine in his mother's house on his birthday. They drank wine, trashed the place and shouted:

"Cheers, cheers, cheers! May Bumble live 900 years!"

By the way, the "2 little dolls in the little dollhouse" sketch with the cats was filmed using one of Jim Henson's daughter's dollhouses, FYI.

Convincing John

[Splurge]

By the way, the "2 little dolls in the little dollhouse" sketch with the cats was filmed using one of Jim Henson's daughter's dollhouses, FYI.

Convincing John

Do we know who these little girls were? I wonder whether the blond one was one of Jim's daughters. I don't exactly know what Cheryl or Heather Henson looks like, so I couldn't tell what a young one would look like. I guess she and the Asian American girl could have ultimately come from a child talent agency, but I think it would be could if they were friends or relatives of the family.

[Drtooth]

Reguarding Pinball Number Count, I'll put this link posted in another thread for convinience http://www.frownland.com/archive/2003/september/a_letter_from_walt_kraemer.html
According to the post he made, Pinball Number Count was Animated by Imagination, Inc, but the studio went bankrupt or something and all the cells were destroyed or lost...

[Astro4004]

Remember Boy Bumble? He was voiced by Jim Henson ("please let me in. It's your Boy Bumble") He let 9 swine in his mother's house on his birthday. They drank wine, trashed the place and shouted: "Cheers, cheers, cheers! May Bumble live 900 years!"


Wow, I had totally forgotten about that one! I remember seeing it quite a bit in the late 70's.

Does anyone know who did these animations?

-Letters of the alphabet are lined up by a drill sargent, counting off roll call. They then pile into a boat, which sinks.

-An elephant counts to the number four on it's legs, then falls over.

Also, I believe some Season 1 animations were done by the same company that did the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."

[Boober_Gorg]

-Letters of the alphabet are lined up by a drill sargent, counting off roll call. They then pile into a boat, which sinks.I'm guessing that was Gahan Wilson.

Also, I believe some Season 1 animations were done by the same company that did the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."I've often thought the same thing, that George Dunning did those "Jazzy" segments.

Do any of you guys know who wrote the "E...E...See me...eating a peach" animation?I think it might have been the Hubley studio.

Also, I just saw some SS cartoons I haven't seen in a long time:

-Jill went up the hill (could this be done by Jim Jinkins, "Doug" creator?)
-Frank the fish calls a boy who accidentally lets the water run, draining the lake in the process (Peter Chung, creator of "Aeon Flux" and director of "Rugrats" pilot episode)

[Splurge]

Wow, I had totally forgotten about that one! I remember seeing it quite a bit in the late 70's.

Does anyone know who did these animations?

-Letters of the alphabet are lined up by a drill sargent, counting off roll call. They then pile into a boat, which sinks.


I believe those were numbers 1-20, both in the roll call cartoon and the sinking boat. The latter, I feel, is a fun animation to watch.

[Convincing John]

Do we know who these little girls were? I wonder whether the blond one was one of Jim's daughters. I don't exactly know what Cheryl or Heather Henson looks like, so I couldn't tell what a young one would look like. I guess she and the Asian American girl could have ultimately come from a child talent agency, but I think it would be could if they were friends or relatives of the family.

It could have been one of Jim's daughters. I'm not sure about that, though. If you have "The Works" book, one of his daughters is seen hugging Ernie, and bearing a resemblance to Prairie Dawn in the background. I forgot which page, but it's in the "Sesame Street" section, Chapter 3.

Convincing John

[ssetta]

There was also one called "Henson Computer #10 Song." It was an animation from season 2, and it looked like it was a muppet made of wires, but it was actually computer animated. Must have been state of the art for the time.

[Splurge]

I've often thought the same thing, that George Dunning did those "Jazzy" segments.



I remember reading that the "Jazzy" number sequences with Grace Slick came from Imagination, Inc., the same company responsible for "Pinball Number Count". I believe the source was either from one of the musicians or the defunct animation company.

I wonder if the "Jazzy" animators were also responsible for the psychadelic 1-20 cartoon, starring the yogi with four arms? And if so, would the singer be Grace Slick? Sounds like a stretch, yet plausible.

[Convincing John]

There was also one called "Henson Computer #10 Song." It was an animation from season 2, and it looked like it was a muppet made of wires, but it was actually computer animated. Must have been state of the art for the time.


Yes! I remember that one! It was similar to the "Nobody" character, which was made from string.

"That's 10."

"Watch the screen and we will try to count how many dots go by..."

How about that psychadelic guy with the yo-yo? He was one of my favorites as a kid! He helped the one boy get home: "Try to remember everything I pass, but when I go back, make the first thing the last."

And he also talked about "over, under, around and through" with a rhyme about two fish and a sunken ship, and another rhyme with a worm and a green apple.

I don't know who did those clips, but they were COOL!

And here's another question (it fits, sort of, with the animation thread) I was listening to the "Lowercase n" song today...and is that Richard Hunt singing that song? It reminds me of him, kind of. Anybody know?

"The wind is very still...for the lowercase n."

Convincing John

[Convincing John]

I remember reading that the "Jazzy" number sequences with Grace Slick came from Imagination, Inc., the same company responsible for "Pinball Number Count". I believe the source was either from one of the musicians or the defunct animation company.

I wonder if the "Jazzy" animators were also responsible for the psychadelic 1-20 cartoon, starring the yogi with four arms? And if so, would the singer be Grace Slick? Sounds like a stretch, yet plausible.

The four-armed guru! That's one of my all time favorite clips! Yeah...the kaleidoscopic backgrounds for each number, the factory scene...the version in Spanish...that was truly one of the best!

Say, speaking of the "Pinball Number Count", did they do ones for "1" and "9"? I've never seen them. I have "2"-"8" and "10"-"12" on tape, but "1" and "9"...don't know.

Convincing John

[ssetta]

The Indian Counting 1-20 song was written by Darby Slick, so I would assume so.

There were Pinball segments for all numbers from 2-12.

The animation with the yo-yo man with the lost boy, the song was written by John Magneusson.

Imagination, Inc. was a very big animation company. They did many things for Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Schoolhouse Rock. You wouldn't happen to remember an animation where Simple Simon meets animals that have their body parts mixed up? That was by Imagination as well.

[Splurge]

The four-armed guru! That's one of my all time favorite clips! Yeah...the kaleidoscopic backgrounds for each number, the factory scene...the version in Spanish...that was truly one of the best!

Say, speaking of the "Pinball Number Count", did they do ones for "1" and "9"? I've never seen them. I have "2"-"8" and "10"-"12" on tape, but "1" and "9"...don't know.

Convincing John

There was one for "9" - in a baseball diamond. There was never one for "1", according to this info about the CD track of "Pinball Number Count":
http://www.ninjatune.net/ninja/release.php?id=763

[Jeffrey Gray]

According to the post he made, Pinball Number Count was Animated by Imagination, Inc, but the studio went bankrupt or something and all the cells were destroyed or lost...

Unless Jeffrey Hale (who was credited for one of the segments when it was entered in the Ottawa Animation Festival) worked at Imagination, Inc., those segments were done by Jeffrey Hale, not Imagination, Inc.

[ssetta]

Jeffrey Hale did a lot of animations in the late 80s. And he wrote music for songs by that banjo playing turtle, as in the song "Green Grow the Rushes."

[Drtooth]

It's funny that one was never made...

can anyone give me a brief rundown of 2-12? It's been so long I forgot. I'm really fuzzy, but 2 may have been an amusement park...

[AnimationArchiv]

Hey Jeffrey,
I thought I would drop you an email in response to your Question about Billy Joe Jive.
I do not know who did the Animation, but I saw several animation cels from the Segment.
The Cels were in a Gallery called TheDeepArchives.
Their email address is TheDeepArchives@aol.com

Good Luck
AnimationArchiv

Hey, Boober Gorg...do you know who did the Billy Joe Jive segments? Or is that another thing you haven't figured out yet.

Also, in case you want to know of another SS animator, I think Ken Snyder (who did Roger Ramjet, among other cartoon series) worked on SS segments at some point...I learned that from a now-closed site with a filmography of his, but I dunno what segments he worked on...

[Zet]

WOW my kind of thread. : )
I hope people are still interested...some info and comments (warning - long!):

First off, here is a link to the site boober_gorg mentioned with the "25 years of animation for sesame street" event:

http://www.awn.com/asifa-sf/may/sesame.html

When I first saw it, I e-mailed the contact at the bottom of the page asking if the event had happened yet. The person's response was something like "what are you talking about? where did you see this?". They didn't know what I was talking about...wierd. It's cool that's it's still online, but why _is_ it online still?

DID ANYONE HERE ATTEND?!?
I would love to see something like that.

Anyway, to convincing john: the site above mentions that Jim Henson Productions was responsible for Bumble Ardy...maybe they had artists animate it based on Sendak's drawings?

To expand on what Jeffrey Gray said: Ken Snyder's studio was Pantomime Pictures, and they reportedly did several films for Sesame Street. The only one I know for certain is one with a boy that mentions parts of his body...it's the first non-street segment in episode 1037. Snyder btw passed away in 2000 IIRC.

The Hubley studio is one that I've heard mentioned a lot...Emily Hubley (and?) apparently did many films, but the only ones I've been told about (other than the brief description on the 25 Years... site link above) are the one about the guy who invites an M to dinner, and one that sounds very very familiar but I haven't seen since childhood, described as: a boy pours glue over himself, mentions glue, glove, gate as words that start with G.

One person who did a lot of the early classic stuff was Cliff Roberts. His recognizeable style is the simple, outlined characters. Some of his many famous films are: the Q with quivering stem (that falls); Christopher Clumsy: Jasper & Julius; A with a lot of things that crash into it (ends with ambulance): F = food, fern, feather, fudge ("no thanks, couldn't touch another bite").

The first person comissioned to do animation was reportedly Fred Calvert, and the film was Joe puts junebug in jar, goes to jail, moral with many J words at end. I don't have all the Noggin shows, but on the 20 I have this doesn't show up (though others may have seen it recently). He, like Roberts, did many films...(maybe both of them did one for every letter?). One that most people may remember (and has been on Noggin) is the one where a woman talks about H for horseshoe, and a horse follows her around nudging her with his head while she laughs.
The following are some Calvert definitely did (note - the text is from an e-mail someone sent me, I'm just reprinting as is):

"man does "e" for "elephant," "egg," "eagle," etc., as an "e" gets taken away from him each time (he also does "empty");
"c" for "cat" speech balloon;
the "R" story with the man and dog remember R;
"S" for "snake";
"TOL" with "L" crossed out, replaced by "M" (which I don't remember ever seeing);
"X" for "X-ray" speech balloon;
man talks about "K" for "kitten" and gets carried away by a mother cat like one;
and "Q" for "quarter," starring a man and a piggy bank."

I don't know for sure if I've seen any of the above since childhood, unless the snake one is with the flute, and the R one is robber, rooster, rake, rowboat, down the drain, R-R-R-R talking dog.

Others that may be Calvert:
*Man listens to radio, then sings and hand comes out of it and switches off his nose.
*Man discusses TV (similar to above): "It's a T.V. ! Say, that's good!" (starts singing and TV shuts him off).
*The boy who goes fishing and catches letters, makes alphabet soup.
*"hello boys, would you like to hear a story about the letter L?" (leopard wakes lion which chases it, shepherd, lion falls off ledge)
*V: 2 men on opposite tops of giant V ("you shouldn't put anything in your ear it could damage your hearing!")
*A: archer takes ant's apple, ant bites archer on *ankle* (not toe). "DARN it, I'm hungry!"

The leopard one and ant one above are 2 of my favorites, and I've wondered if there was a film like these for every letter. One potential resource for figuring this out is "The Sesame Street Encyclopedia" (I think that's the name), a set of about 15 books released in the late 70's. These mostly contain artwork and stories that aren't from Sesame Street, but there are some nice photos (and stories IIRC) that are. What I'm referring to specifically is one page, that figured a tiny picture beside every letter of the alphabet, and some if not all of these pictures were from animated films (i.e. the leopard one and others I remembered). I have the entire set of books, but unfortunately haven't been able to find them since I got a scanner. If I ever do (or if someone else has that particular volume?), maybe we can get a picture online and try to recall all of the films. The A and L one described above have a "moral" at the end, but so does Wanda the Witch...maybe more than one animator/studio contributed to make a complete alphabet series?
Calvert's style isn't as obvious to me...the Horshoe one and S-snake (assuming again it's the one with snake playing flute) ones, for instance, don't to my eyes have the exact same style. He might or might not have done the one with 2 guys on opposite ends of a V, as well as the one where V lands on a guy's knee.

Sometimes it might help if the voice acting matches to determine if it's the same artist or studio...the voice of the narrator in V landing on a guy's knee sounds like the narrator in the boy who makes alphabet soup film. This might not be a foolproof way to determine artist though. The guy who voices many early Roberts films (I love him whoever he is) I heard narrating what looks to be a 90's-era film, & I think the animator is Craig Bartlett (who did Penny for Pee Wee's Playhouse, as mentioned in another thread "rare animation"). The film is about a bird and a fish, if they were taken out of their enviroments... it's claymation and obviously very different than the Roberts films.

About Wanda the Witch...as someone pointed out, it's Tee Collins, so I think it's safe to assume that Nancy the Nannygoat is also by him (they look similar to myself and others).

Also I believe it's safe to assume Jim did Queen of Six...

Lastly, regarding Billy Joe Jive, nothing about the animator...but I do have an audio file of a toy commercial from the 70's that uses the same music as the Billy Joe theme! Public domain?

***I have audio files of the commercial (& Joe Jive) I would be happy to post online, along with several other Sesame audio files.
Can anyone who's done some research tip me off to a good, free web host so I can post them? Preferably a fast one/large bandwidth...banners and popups aren't a concern since I can tell visitors an easy way to avoid these).

-Zet

[Sally C]

Hi- Just came across this forum! Jeff Hale owned Imagination Inc. in San Francisco and hired different animators to produce animated pieces for Sesame Street. Bud Luckey was freelancing there at the time. Ernie Fosselius and a partner were responsible for the Pinball animations, as I recall. He later produced "Porklips Now" and "Hardware Wars", two very popular satires that played a lot at independent movie theatres in late 70's.

I produced many songs for Sesame Street in the 1990's, designing, directing, animating, with producer Arlene Sherman, who was wonderful to work for.

These include:
From Your Head (sung by jazz great Betty Carter)
Island of Emotion
Your Feets Too Big
Part of the Whole
I'm Curious
Oh What a Fabulous Party
In and Out Crowd
Above It All
Beginning, Middle and End
a counting series
a couple of rhyming songs ("ake", eg)
Caribbean Amphibian for SS special/ with Jimmy Buffett
Dance Yourself to Sleep
There probably are others too. It's very frustrating to me that this animation, not just mine but so much of it, has never been reissued as a collection, or properly credited. The first three above are my favorites yet were not seen much, produced later in the 90's.

Sally Cruikshank
http://www.funonmars.com

[ssetta]

Wow, it's great that people who worked for the show are joining the forum. Some of those listed above are my favorite songs, like the ones by Christopher Cerf and Paul Jacobs. Now, that counting series you're talking about, would that be "Mask Any #"? Like I remember the '1' had green hair, and its eyes were closed, the '2' had a very long bottom, and a foot stepped on the tail, a fish with a '3' on it, a kite with a '4' on it, a black '5' with eyes, a growing '6', a '7' that bows, and a red '7' appears above it, an '8' that sort of dances up and down, a '9' with a long tongue that eats a butterfly, a '10' where the water in the 0 empties or something, an '11' with wings, a '12' that scoots away, a '13' waving goodbye, a '14' that fills the screen with watter, a '15' that flashes red and green, a yellow '16' on a red background, a '17' dancing, an '18' that swallows a small red ball, and a '19' that spits fire, revealing a frame. This series had marimba music, and men and women singing. Is that the one? It was always one of my favorite counting series.

[D'Snowth]

Who does the animation for the "channels" on Elmo's World? I swear the animation looks so familiar, but I can't put a finger on it.

[Pino]

Here is a site with Dutch cartoon example!
http://www.keepvogel.dds.nl/reek/Anim.html

[Astro4004]

Sally Cruikshank, no way!! I am so impressed that you replied here. Your animations for SS deserve a collection all their own, and I'd be the first in line to buy it.

[GeeBee]

Does anyone recall Muppets being portyrayed in cartoon form on the show?

There was an old cartoon about counting to 20 where an animated Cookie Monster appeared and ate the number 17.

[GeeBee]

Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if they had the cartoons interacting with humans on the street like the Muppets did. They already had the technology to do that when the show started. I got this idea from a book about Sesame Street that had a picture of a street scene with the early cartoon characters drawn in with everyone else.

[Zet]

a bio from PBS site (http://www.pbs.org/itvs/independentspirits/collaboration.html)

unfortunately (and ironically) just a blurb about their Sesame involvement and no pics that I could recognize...but a nice bio anyway (links at bottom of that page to more).

Only thing from Electric Company was two pics:
Letterman (http://www.pbs.org/itvs/independentspirits/photos/phInCollabLetterman.jpg)
and
Truth Ruth (pic on the left) (http://www.pbs.org/itvs/independentspirits/images/row2-4.gif)

you might recognize their work in other Sesame films from those examples, though their style could apparently vary quite a bit.
-Zet

[Splurge]

One of the animations I can recognize as Hubley is the polar bear who brandished the "EXIT" sign. Another is the "SToP" animation, where a bouncing "o" kept being told to stop.

[Boober_Gorg]

This Saturday, as part of my temporary Saturday-only visiting animators course, my class will have an opportunity to meet the great "Bud" Luckey (http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showpost.php?p=42446&postcount=23), whose recent Pixar short, Boundin' (http://www.pixar.com/shorts/bdn/), just got nominated for an Oscar. And Pixar is allowing Bud to show it in that class, so I'll be one of the first here to see it, before The Incredibles (http://www.pixar.com/) hits the theaters! :D :crazy: :D :crazy: :D

If there's any questions you feel like asking him, post 'em right here and I'll see what I can do (chances are they'll be asked by someone else - either way I'll be taking notes).

[spinwithagrin]

Oh man - Billy Joe Jive! That's a blast from my past I can still remember that line he always had "I'm Billy Joe Jive super crime fighting ..... my partner Suzy Sue (was that her name?) and I are on the case".

Well that's just me reminicing - wouldn't have a clue on any of the animator's identities there were just so many of those short little incidental shorts (12 Lady bugs picnic, the letter 'J' train "now I'm just ..J..J..J..junk" so many others..) that have been stored away in the grey matter over the years.

Anyway boober best of luck with compiling your list!

[DustiroseRoush]

have you found anything about the cat who is trying to open a can of cat food while his owner is talking on the phone?? if you have, can you please email me at tennmanlover1_12@yahoo.com Thanks in advance!!

[MJTaylor]

Also, in case you want to know of another SS animator, I think Ken Snyder (who did Roger Ramjet, among other cartoon series) worked on SS segments at some point...I learned that from a now-closed site with a filmography of his, but I dunno what segments he worked on...
If this is true, then Ken Snyder must have done that cartoon where the man plays his captial letter U like a guitar. You see, there was an episode of Roger Ramjet that started with the narrator saying something like, "As the episode begins we find Scotland Yard's greatest detective Armlock Hurts, playing his Violin". Indeed he is, and he is playing extactly the same thing that the man in the letter U cartoon was playing! :eek:

[Baughdie Howes]

More animation that looks like it's by the Hubleys:

S - A man has to dodge the "S" modes of transporation as he names them (scooter, skis, speedboat, subway...). At the end of the segment, they're all approaching him together from the distance, and just as they're about to hit him, he yells, "STOP!", and they all freeze.

V - A letter V is sitting listlessly atop a wall. The announcer says, "V is for Vitamins. You forgot to take your Vitamins." The V gulps down some polka-dots (the vitamins) and is suddenly full of "Vim", "Vigor" and "Vitality". This prompts the background to go all abstract polka-dotty, to an upbeat jazz piano tune. (Remember, the Hubleys did a number of animated shorts to jazz soundtracks.)

"Hey Diddle Diddle" - Jazz song aired on "The Electric Company", sung by a jazz trio of cats with 2 fat female cat backup singers (wearing large hats).

Opening credits for "Vegetable Soup" (produced by the New York State Department of Education in the early 1970s).

[Baughdie Howes]

Does anyone know who did the "I've Got a Mind" segments?

Each one started with a blank screen, on which a short horizontal line appeared, followed by an identical line beside it. Then hands appeared beside the lines, and a longer line appeared below the first lines. Then that line would turn into a smile.

The new character would then juggle some balls and recite this poem:

"I've got a mind
And my mind helps me
With ev'rything I do, or
See."

The segments proceeded differently from there.

One went:

"My mind tells me this is a toy
A wind-up, walking little boy"

When the character wound it up, it didn't work, so he gave it a bit of a nudge. And it turned around a bit him!

In another segment, the character found a ball, which then deflated.

In another segment, he found a box and reached inside it to try to figure out what it held. It was full of glue!


Does anybody know who did this?

[Baughdie Howes]

:excited:

Besides the "Billy Joe Jive" cels, TheDeepArchives animation store also has cels from "Twelvia", "Cooperation", "Cousin Canny" and "Fruita Mansana" (all by Irra Verbitsky), and what appears to be the complete series of storyboard drawings for "The Letter H" (appears to have been done by Cliff Roberts).

http://www.thedeeparchives.com/products.php?studio=ctw&ctgy=aa