Sesame Street, Special (1988) Online
There's a special going on at Sesame Street. First, Gladys Knight and the Pips sing the theme song, then Phil Donahue interviews the residents; Alastaire Cookie tells us the tale of "The 39 Stairs" with Grover. Bob sings the "Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood" song with Ralph Nader, Barbara Walters and Martina Navratilova; Hoots teaches Ernie about how if he wants to play a saxophone, he must put down his duckie; Kermit tries to get Oscar interested in public television; a classic Grover waiter sketch; James Taylor sings an interesting song and finally, some culture: an opera.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
 | Linda Bove | - | Linda |
| Northern Calloway | - | David |
 | Emilio Delgado | - | Luis Rodriguez |
| Loretta Long | - | Susan |
 | Sonia Manzano | - | Maria Figueroa Rodriguez |
 | Bill McCutcheon | - | Uncle Wally |
| Bob McGrath | - | Bob Johnson |
 | Roscoe Orman | - | Gordon |
 | Alison Bartlett | - | Gina |
 | Caroll Spinney | - | Big Bird / Oscar the Grouch / Bruno the Trashman (voice) |
 | Frank Oz | - | Bert / Grover / Cookie Monster (voice) |
 | Jerry Nelson | - | Pretty Great Performances Announcer / Mr. Johnson / Count Von Count / Additional Muppets (voice) |
 | Richard Hunt | - | Placido Flamingo / Additional Muppets (voice) |
 | Martin P. Robinson | - | Telly Monster / Manolo (voice) |
 | Kevin Clash | - | Elmo / Hoots the Owl / Additional Muppets (voice) |
There are unsourced claims that when 'Ralph Nader' was asked to perform the "Sesame Street" staple "The People in Your Neighborhood", he refused to sing the lyric "the people that you meet each day" because it is grammatically incorrect. He insisted on singing "the people whom you meet each day". The claims allege that the producers agreed to this change but convinced him to sing the original lyric on the set. However, listening to the clip Nader can clearly be heard to sing "whom" on his first duo performance - as in fact does the preceding singer Barbara Walters - but on the next two occasions, when he sings in quartet, all four singers appear to use the word 'that'. If not apocryphal, Mader's alleged insistence in changing the words of this known song out of concern for grammatical exactness, becomes ironical given the recording shows him seconds earlier stating "I'm making sure the wheels of this wagon were put on right". A more grammatically pedantic expression would not use the word 'right' as an adverb, but would rather have substituted the word 'correctly': "I'm making sure the wheels of this wagon were put on correctly".
User reviews