Sesame Street News Flash

The Sesame Street News Flash was a recurring segment on the children's television show Sesame Street. First aired in 1971, the series starred Kermit the Frog as a trench coat-dressed roving reporter who interviews Muppet versions of characters from fairy tales, Mother Goose nursery rhymes and key moments in history.

Given the basic format of the segments, the "Sesame Street News Flash" series served several purposes, namely to act out simple stories and nursery rhymes with which the show's audience might be familiar, and to give children a basic understanding of history. Other skits were spoofs of popular culture (such as one which parodied the then-popular The Six Million Dollar Man), while others involved Kermit asking children simple vox populi, or "man on the street," style questions. With exception to the latter, the segments were often parodies and diverged from the traditional tellings.

The "Sesame Street News Flash" segments were introduced with a bumper slide, featuring a black background with a cloud outline, stars and lightning; the words "NEWS FLASH" were inserted in the cloud outline and flashed as a special bulletin-type jingle — an urgent-sounding version of the Sesame Street theme (composed by Joe Raposo), with Morse code beeps — played. An announcer (voiced by Jerry Nelson) then stated, "We take you now to Kermit the Frog with another fast-breaking news story!"

The scene then broke to Kermit, who was stationed nearby where his report was taking place; often, he would engage in banter with his crew before realizing he was on-camera, to add to the realism and spontaneity of his report. After introducing himself ("Hi-ho, this is Kermit the Frog of Sesame Street News...") before reporting where he is.

The reports began smoothly enough before something invariably went wrong, in most cases the work of the hapless Kermit. For instance:

Other segments were more serious. For example, one skit featured Kermit interviewing monsters at a daycare center about what they wanted to be when they grew up, while another featured Telly Monster and his sister being asked what they do on a rainy day. Another skit explored parential separation and divorce, featuring a young bird whose parents live in different trees; the song "They Live in Different Places, But They Both Love Me" was used to reinforce the moral.

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Wikipedia