How to get to Sesame Street

Virtually every adult over the age of 30 will have memories of growing up with Sesame Street. Anyone younger than that has more than likely seen some of the clever parodies that have appeared on the show and then on the internet. Either way, almost everyone on the planet has heard of Sesame Street. My parents would often leave me in the capable care of Big Bird and Cookie Monster when I was growing up. Years later, during the long Summer school holidays, friends and I would regularly factor the lunchtime showing on Channel 4 into our busy schedule of skateboarding, sunbathing and general all-important loafing around that seems to take up so much valuable time as a teenager.

It was retro, it was cool, it was nostalgic and it was great fun…and secretly, deep down, I always hoped that I’d be watching an episode bought to us by the number 12, so that they might show the legendary “Pinball Number Count” or the “Number 12 Song” as it was sometimes called. First introduced in 1977, everything about it screams the ’70s, from the strutting music composed by Walt Kraemer, arranged by Ed Bogas to the groovy vocals from The Pointer Sisters, to the crazy pop art style.

Apparently, the song had 11 different versions, each highlighting an individual number and passing through changing pinball contraptions. A lot of these were animal-based, like circuses, farms and the jungle. But the best was the insane “5,” where the ball goes from the backseat of a car, to a bicycle basket, to a locomotive, to a plane, to a sinking tugboat, to a volcano, to a blimp. It has become such a cult hit that Brooklyn psych-pop band Wicked Hemlocks released a fuzzed-out cover version a while back and in 2003, the song was remixed for a compilation on the label Ninja Tune, home to dozens of electronic and hip-hop artists who sampled a similar breed of worldly funk.

Why is any of this relevant? Well, New York City has long served as an inspiration to the look and feel of Sesame Street. The Upper West Side is home to Sesame Workshop’s corporate offices and the show has taped in various studios around New York City and on location throughout the five boroughs. The brownstone building of 123 Sesame Street, where residents Susan, Gordon, Bert and Ernie live, was designed to look like the typical middle-income brownstone homes on Amsterdam and Columbus Avenue, in Manhattan, in the 1970s and 1980s.

This year marks the 45th anniversary of Sesame Street and during that time it has become a global institution. Almost every celebrity imaginable has appeared on the show, from Buzz Aldrin to Alan Arkin, Joe Pesci to Prince and Henry Winkler to Oprah Winfrey. Sesame Street has not only won a truckload of awards, 159 Emmy Awards and 8 Grammy Awards, but it has become a key part of popular culture. Many references and memes are parodied, from the hilarious version of the Old Spice advert “Smell Like a Monster” starring Grover, to the recent “Too Many Cookies” take-off of the viral video made by Adult Swim.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has a small exhibition on that runs until the end of January, but here to honour one of the all-time greatest shows in the history of television, are my personal top five Sesame Street moments…

1. Pinball Number Count
2. Smell Like a Monster
3. The Count sings with Harry Belafonte
4. Rubber Ducky Song
5. REM sing “Furry Happy Monsters