Post by eightbitvixen on Oct 20, 2024 22:46:32 GMT
When I was growing up, if I happened to be in my parents’ house during the day, I would have PBS on and would catch a number of shows on the affiliate’s children’s day time educational television block. Around 1984–1986 I’d occasionally catch a TV show (which I’ll call “the show”) that included a parody of Sesame Street (the parody that I’ll refer to as “the show within the show”). There would be a parody of the Sesame Street intro song, and it would be followed by a parody of Bert and Ernie specifically. Of course, because this was PBS, it is possible that the show had been rerun for years by the time I saw it for the first time.
The intro parody played over children playing in a park. I seem to recall that the children were wearing coats, and there were autumn leaves all around.
I remember using a purple crayon the one time I tried to draw Bert’s and Ernie’s counterparts from memory. I believe they had faces or facial components (e.g. noses) that were cool colors (i.e. purple, green, or blue, contrasting with the warm colors of the real Bert and Ernie), or at the very least one of them had a purple face.
The show seemed to have been aimed at a demographic older than Sesame Street’s target demographic. The show within the show might have been called “Measurement Street”. This suggests that the show was focused on mathematics.
I don’t know if there were several episodes of the show that included the Bert’s and Ernie’s doppelgängers or if I just caught the same episode of the show multiple times.
The show within the show was not an especially mean-spirited parody. Again, this was another PBS series. At most the creators were giving the people behind Sesame Street a good-natured ribbing.
I am quite certain the show was not Pinwheel. Pinwheel was on Nickelodeon, and my parents did not have cable. I did catch an episode of Pinwheel once when I was growing up, and it was utterly unfamiliar to me. I’m aware that Pinwheel had characters named Plus and Minus. If I had seen them when I was growing up, I’m not sure they would have registered as Bert and Ernie knockoffs in my mind. On the other hand, the characters in the show within the show were very obviously parodies of Bert and Ernie.
Does anyone else remember the show?
The intro parody played over children playing in a park. I seem to recall that the children were wearing coats, and there were autumn leaves all around.
I remember using a purple crayon the one time I tried to draw Bert’s and Ernie’s counterparts from memory. I believe they had faces or facial components (e.g. noses) that were cool colors (i.e. purple, green, or blue, contrasting with the warm colors of the real Bert and Ernie), or at the very least one of them had a purple face.
The show seemed to have been aimed at a demographic older than Sesame Street’s target demographic. The show within the show might have been called “Measurement Street”. This suggests that the show was focused on mathematics.
I don’t know if there were several episodes of the show that included the Bert’s and Ernie’s doppelgängers or if I just caught the same episode of the show multiple times.
The show within the show was not an especially mean-spirited parody. Again, this was another PBS series. At most the creators were giving the people behind Sesame Street a good-natured ribbing.
I am quite certain the show was not Pinwheel. Pinwheel was on Nickelodeon, and my parents did not have cable. I did catch an episode of Pinwheel once when I was growing up, and it was utterly unfamiliar to me. I’m aware that Pinwheel had characters named Plus and Minus. If I had seen them when I was growing up, I’m not sure they would have registered as Bert and Ernie knockoffs in my mind. On the other hand, the characters in the show within the show were very obviously parodies of Bert and Ernie.
Does anyone else remember the show?
