Fat Blue Johnson

If you don't know who that is, it's this guy.

His apparent OFFICIAL name is "Mr. Johnson" (wow, how lazy), but the puppet itself was referred to as "Fat Blue."  In the 1970s that was just behind-the-scenes, but we have the internet now so everybody gets to know everything.

Therefore I have decided that his name should be "Mr. Fat Blue Johnson," but I do not have the authority to make that real.

Fat Blue Johnson is the guy that keeps getting upset with Grover when he goes to the restaurant.  Such as here.

Click to view... "He comes here a LOT."

It's a really great comedy tandem.  Sort of like the inverse of Ernie and Bert.  Usually in comedy it has to be a short guy picking on a tall guy otherwise it's "bullying."

But I guess since Grover is such a goofball and Mr. Johnson is very stuffy it was deemed to be acceptable in this case.  Nobody usually likes a "stuffy" person, especially with a mustache.  Which brings me to my next point.  What is Mr. Fat Blue's home life like?

He seems like he might be kind of lonely, he should socialize more.  You never see him hanging out with Big Bird or anything.  and what is his job, exactly?  He has the suit on and everything and is so frequently "out to lunch," but I would guess that his success is fairly hollow.  Poor guy.  Always alone.

Even in his leisure time he gets picked on, doesn't seem to know what to do with himself.  Just standing around in casual clothes and along comes Harvey Kneeslapper to bug him.

(Look how angry he gets at the very end, like he is going to chase down Harvey Kneeslapper and BEAT HIM UP.  Poor Mr. Johnson.)

Click to view... Fat Blue Johnson has finally had enough.

What's the deal with Lefty the Salesman?

Is he an actual bad person or just kind of a misfit?  He picks on Ernie a lot, which is interesting in itself.  Ernie picks on Bert, then when Lefty comes along Ernie is all intimidated and afraid.  What goes around comes around, I guess.

Click to view... "That's kind of a weird thing to be selling."

I don't recall Lefty ever interacting with Big Bird, who seems like the easiest person to pick on.  "Hey Big Bird, Mr. Hooper isn't REALLY dead."

Does Lefty have friends?  There were other residents of the Street that seemed sort of displaced and lonely.  Maybe he could have been good friends with Mr. Macintosh or Herbert Birdsfoot.  Sitting at Hooper's Store drinking ice cream sodas together.

Like with most of the other puppets, I wonder about Lefty's home life.  a lot of them live with their "Mommies."  Does Lefty?  If so, I guarantee he calls her "Ma."  Putting on his hat and trenchcoat all like "Ma, I'm gonna go try to trick Ernie into buying the letter O."

As for whether or not he's an actual criminal, the surprising answer is apparently YES.  Here is the EVIDENCE!

Click to view... Crime.

Sesame Disco

As the popularity of Sesame Street was growing, the popularity of disco music was falling.  Yet it was inevitable that the two would somehow collide.

Disco was infused everywhere during the 1970s.  Including into children's music.  Problem was that it wasn't always educational.

Click to view... Grover's nightlife.

So, it does stand to reason that most of the Sesame Street characters would be taken with disco culture as well. It did seem to go kind of overboard though, at least in the strictest sense.  I mean look at this...

Click to view... Wow, disco was EVERYWHERE.

I really have a hard time imagining the puppets themselves piling onto a bus in disco suits to be escorted to a night of inebriated escapism.  With them, it mostly seemed to be about dancing itself.  Dancing is fun and free.  It also begins with the letter "D", same as disco.

It is a bit funny that the human characters were never seen dancing to disco music.  No Bob, no Susan, no Luis.  Always just the puppets.

HOW COME?

I sorta wonder if they would have been presumed to be on drugs.  If so, why were the puppets not protected in the same way?  It's curious.

All of the puppets boogied on, and nobody got hurt as far as I know.

Click to view... Disco Frog

Sesame Street Episode 1: The Comprehensive Review

All fans of Sesame Street, young and old, are frequently delighted to notice the significant differences between 1969 and now.

I can assure you that things on the Street were WAY different back in 1969.  For example...

This is how it all started.

Click to view... The beginning of Sesame Street!

The first episode of a television show is never going to be the best.  You make initial mistakes, things get retooled.  So it's understandable that Ernie was apparently going to be a puppet that never left his bathtub and that Big Bird seems very freshly hatched with a brain problem.  Good thing they fixed all of that!

Another odd thing, while well-intended, was this concept of the "anything" people.

I can understand the reasoning behind it.  "You can be whatever you want to be!"  Since the Street didn't have very many well-established characters yet, the idea was that a blank-headed puppet could have any combination of eyes, hair, and whatever else stuck onto its face.  To "become" something.  This was not received very well, it was quite creepy.  Therefore the idea was quickly scrapped in favor of more PERMANENT faces like Prairie Dawn and Kermit.  Interchangeable face parts probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but children didn't like it.  Go figure. 

Another thing that didn't work out too well was Buddy and Jim.

They didn't DO anything WRONG, they just were not entertaining at all.  As opposed to this...

Click to view... Entertainment.

I'm glad that changes were made for the better.  Would anybody enjoy seeing Buddy and Jim putting faces on "Anything Puppets?"  I'm pretty sure NO.  But Bob, Gordon, Susan, Oscar, Ernie, Bert, Mr. Hooper, and what would eventually grow up to be a normal-looking Big Bird all stuck around.  Those people are the REASON everyone wants to get to Sesame Street.  Even now.

Click to view... Can you tell me?