Results tagged “sesamestreet”

              

Yesterday, a day before its 40th birthday, Sesame Street was designated with a temporary street naming at... 64th and Broadway? While there are many neighborhoods that went into the set design for the show, many seem to think the Upper West Side isn't the best spot to dedicate a street in its name. However, while the show is filmed in Astoria, the corporate headquarters are actually on the, wait for it, UWS.

It took 40 years, but earlier today Sesame Street was honored with their own corner of New York (64th and Broadway, to be exact). We're told, "On the eve of the program’s big birthday, a temporary street sign was unveiled and a Mayoral Proclamation bestowed by the City of New York, proclaiming November 10 Sesame Street Day.” Do we get off for that?

As you've probably noticed from Google's art this week, it's Sesame Street's birthday! Oh the times we've shared. The television show is in its 40th year (here's the pitch), and there's lots of celebrating going on. This coming Monday "the City of New York will unveil a proclamation and announce a temporary street naming in honor of the program’s permanence and everlasting impact on New York City’s history and four generations of children across the country." Yep, Sesame Street is getting a street! The dedication will take place at noon at 64th and Columbus Avenue.

It's hard to imagine a time that Sesame Street wasn't on the air, but here's the pitch video that was made to sell it to networks back in 1968 (it was altered in 1969 once a name was decided upon). Muppet Wiki describes it as such: "The film features Rowlf describing what the new show will be like to Kermit. Interspersed between the explanatory scenes are board room sequences, in which various Muppets try to come up with a name for the show. The reel is also marked by extensive use of the word 'groovy' and phrases like 'I'm hip.'" Dig it:

What happens when Don Draper leaves Madison Avenue for Sesame Street? He has non-alcohol-fueled emotions! Here he is with his team of sycophants feeling mad, sad and even happy.

Just a few more days until the return to school comes for students across the city as medical experts anxiously await just how badly swine flu might affect the upcoming academic year. Already at Cornell University in Ithaca, 140 students have come down with flu-like illnesses in the two weeks since school has reconvened.

The gang from Sesame Street was out walking the red carpet last night for their 7th Annual Gala benefiting the Sesame Workshop. Held far away from their Astoria home at Cipriani on 42nd Street, the muppets (friends of the First Lady) greeted some bold-face names, and Sheryl Crow even performed a duet with Elmo. Here are some of your Sesame faves (glad to see Grover made it out!) with the likes of Mayor Bloomberg, Brian Williams and Al Roker. Why do you think muppets hate Al Roker so much; maybe he didn't deliver enough "sunny days" to the street?

Michelle Obama has experienced a lot of exciting, historic stuff this year, but yesterday she visited Sesame Street and according to Newsday declared it to be the most exciting thing to happen since her time as First Lady.

We knew that Office creator Ricky Gervais doesn't hold back on his signature off-color smarminess when he appears on award shows, but apparently children's shows aren't safe from it either. Gervais recently visited the set of Sesame Street and taught Elmo a word we're pretty sure the show hasn't learned before. But despite Gervais's notorious quick wit, puppeteer extraordinaire Kevin Clash didn't miss a beat. Here's the AP's clip of the two of them behind the scenes.

The cover of Sesame Street magazine circa October 1976 depicts a giant Cookie Monster putting aside his favorite snack for a few bites of the Twin Towers. Sort of makes you think about how innocent the world seemed before the terrorists started blowing shit up, no?

                     

As mentioned, yesterday we found ourselves on Sesame Street, where even the sunny days couldn't sweep the rain clouds away—but Elmo & Co. sure made it all seem a little bit brighter. Speaking of the lil red guy, he had a message for you all:

Today we spent some time on Sesame Street (yes, that one), and guess what: there's good news there. The headlines at the newstand included one about a man smiling for 30 days straight (sure, the smile was contagious, but that's a good thing), and a diaper plant being redeveloped into a tv production school (at least it's not a luxury condo). And take a look at that price, just 25 cents—that's half of the cost of the NY Post!

Hey, the muppets are here to help you prepare for the next big terrorist attack, and other terrors—like nature's wrath! Of course, not even Super Grover can help clean up George Bush's war, but he can lend a brightly colored smiling face to fearmongering. Wired reports that Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and his wife Meryl have worked with the Sesame Workshop and the Ad Council to come up with a campaign focusing on preparedness. They've declared that "it's a fact of life that not every day is a sunny day," and "recent events have exposed families to a range of disasters; the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 have particularly emphasized the need to ensure children's physical and psychological protection." Grover and others will be the face of the campaign, which includes DVDs, magazines and more! But what they really ought to do is update The Monster at the End of the Book by writing Dick Cheney into the denouement.

One West Coast baby blog has had it up to here with the lack of respect Grover is getting on Sesame Street, asking "has anybody gotten screwed over" more than the lovable blue guy? The one time Big Muppet on Campus has been overshadowed by that fame whore Elmo. They claim the red muppet, who has less of a pot belly and a dumbed down version of Grover's schtick, has become what Al Roker is to Willard Scott. It's also noted that the other Sesame Street elders, like Big Bird, get more respect, with "classy elder statesman" roles. What's next, will Super Grover be taken out of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?

Tilly and the Wall is best known as the indie rock band that has a live tap dancer onstage performing the bulk of their percussion. After three well-received albums on Conor Oberst's Team Love label and a live show that has earned them a reputation as one of the more exciting acts to see on the indie circuit, they've proven themselves as more than a novelty act. Tilly will be playing two shows in New York, tonight at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and tomorrow at the Bowery Ballroom. Keyboardist Nick White took some time to talk to Gothamist as the band was heading up to New York yesterday.

Earlier this week a video of Feist singing a Sesame Street-ized version of her hit song "1 2 3 4" showed up on YouTube. Now a highlight reel for the upcoming 39th Season is out, and even adults will probably be adding the show to their DVRs.

Just when the iPod jingle got out of your head, it's back! Feist stopped by Sesame Street to sing a new version of her song "1 2 3 4" to Elmo & Co. The episode featuring the Canadian songstress will premiere on August 11th, but you can watch the video here. Other celebs who will be stopping by the Street during the 39th season include: Will Arnett, Jessica Alba, David Beckham, Heidi Klum, Neil Patrick Harris, and Jack Black.

The creator of Big Bird and Snuffleupagus, Kermit Love, died at the age of 91 this past Saturday from congestive heart failure; he was in Poughkeepsie, close to where he lived with his long-time partner Christopher Lyall. Though many rumored Kermit the Frog was named after him, the character was created long before Love began his career.

Sure, with the All Points West Fest announced, Coachella may not have the same appeal for east coasters this year, but the lineup announcement is still an exciting annual event. Over the last few years, it has established itself as the granddaddy and standard bearer of the American festival circuit. Unfortunately, most people are finding this year's lineup is a bit of a dud. Coachella's been operating at such a high level since 2003 that it was really only a matter or time before the lineups would stop exciting everyone, and while last year had it's plusses and minuses, this year seems to have really fallen off. Many of the smaller acts played the fest recently, something they used to try and avoid, and the headliners seem to be all over the place. Sure, a Portishead reunion is a treat, but how many Roger Waters fans are into Jack Johnson? Is a Love and Rockets reunion and Death Cab for Cutie really above the fold top draws? Doesn't seem like it. While we can't speak for their bottom line, which surely is doing okay, it might serve them well to try and scale back a bit in the future if this year has a bit of a drop off. Two days in the desert is more than enough for most, and to pack those days full with bands everyone can get excited about is a much more appealing scenario.

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television:

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a shooting on Franklin Ave. and 169th St. in the Bronx, a missing child on West 54th St. in Manhattan, and a stabbing on Fulton St. and Red Hook Lane in Brooklyn.
• Walter O'Malley was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame recently. The former owner of the Dodgers, he infamously moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles because the city wouldn't build him a new stadium.
• Times Square subway station music store Record Mart is back in business.
• The director of personnel at the NYC Board of Elections wants to travel to Iraq and Afghanistan to help soldiers vote in the next election.
• David Lemus, who spent 13 years in prison for the 1990 murder of a bouncer at the Palladium, was declared not guilty in a retrial after the real killer confessed.
• Childhood flashback: a piece of geometric animation scored to music by Phillip Glass that appeared on Sesame Street.
• The ACLU filed a suit against the NYPD seeking to get them to cease stopping and questioning photographers they see taking pictures of city landmarks.
• A Queens mother was arrested after her 3-year-old son brought 14 bags of pot to daycare with him to show his friends. The incident went unnoticed until the kid screamed "Give me my stuff back!"

As we mentioned this summer, Anderson Cooper briefly left CNN for GNN! That's the Grouch News Network for those not Sesame Street-savvy. Here's his hard hitting interview from a trash can (if anyone has a better quality video let us know!)...

The NY Times takes a look inside the ping-pong world of New York. Sure, it may not be as big as the US Open, but the Naked Ping-Pong tournament is growing bigger and better every week out of a loft in Tribeca.

Hopefully Monday's season opener of Sesame Street will help in sweepin' these clouds away! The new season will begin how it always does, by determining the educational needs of their tv-watching tot demographic.

- Better train bus drivers, station agents, and othersWhich is nice, but it's really the MTA's way of saying: Suck it, up.

Neal Pollack, author of Never Mind the Pollacks and The Neal Pollack Anthology of Literature discusses his latest book, Alternadad, his childhood, and his foray into the world of screen writing.

Last week, the Jets warmed up for their road game against the Vikings by showing up on Sesame Street. Head Coach Eric Mangini has a son who loves the show. Chad Pennington, Laveranues Coles and, most interestlingly, Australian punter Ben Graham all shared the Queens sound stage with Elmo. The Jets make their only Monday Night Football appearance -- and will probably get higher ratings than the Seasame Street episode -- when they face the Dolphins in Miami on Christmas Day.

You might envy the charm of brownstone life, but apparently one pitfall is that the some mail carriers don't like to deliver the mail to them. The NY Sun examines the situation after some Brooklyn residents realized their mail wasn't coming. Mail carriers feel stoops are dangerous especially in winter weather, and lately some residents' mail has been "rained upon, blown away, and destroyed." You'd think the mail would have to be delivered at the house, but:

The U.S. Postal Service wants the ongoing tiffs between brownstone residents and their letter carriers to soon be a thing of the past. The Postal Service is attempting to phase out door delivery in Brooklyn and other cities across the country.

Continue reading "Some Mail Carriers Won't Stoop to Deliver Mail"

And not only that, they're getting Chevy Chase to star as a star who is anti-Semitic AND has blood on his clothes. What Law & Order season this will be - Cobrasnake-lite, murder victim photographs posted online on Friday's episode - we suppose the sensationalism needs to be extra high now that they are on Friday nights. Producer Dick Wolf said that they are in production for an episode about "a former television star who is arrested for drunk driving," and NBC added, "while wearing blood-soaked clothes, and whose religious prejudice comes out after his arrest." Zap2It says the murder victim is a Jewish producer of the star's show (no word on whether the phrase "sugartits" will be used). Well, it is cool that they got a former television star to play a former television star. Maybe he'll be a former television star with a terrible talk show!

We were flipping through the NY Post this morning, and of course the headline "MCG FINDS HIS INNER KERMIT" jumped out at us. What? Is he going to be on Sesame Street? No, it's better: Apparently former governor James McGreevey "sobbed in therapy while clutching a Kermit the Frog stuffed animal." And what kind of therapy? To battle his addiction to be loved by the public and to "have a public." Well, writing a book and going on tour is certainly a way to feed the addiction! McGreevey went to the same Arizona clinic that Kate Moss and Whitney Houston went to for their drug issues, and that Eric Benet - Halle Berry's cheating ex - went there for his sex addiction.