The Hands

"The Hands" is the script term used for recurring Sesame Street segments introduced in Season 2, featuring gloved hands, in varying colors, enacting sketches, usually in front of the usual Muppet wall or limbo background. A purple hand appeared in the opening scene of Episode 0268, asking Bob if it can do something and leading into the "Milk" sketch.
While "Milk" was performed as pure pantomime, other segments used either a voice-over narrator or observational off-screen comments by the Kids. Joe Raposo composed the background score, indicated in scripts as "rinky-tink music." A final segment debuted in Season 3, using a black background and surface top instead of the wall. The performers of the hands are mostly unidentified, although the script for the "Milk, Soup, Crackers" sketch calls for "Susan's hand" to play the second, purple gloved hand. 
The segments were similar to the "There Once Was a Hand" spots produced independently for the show by Clark Gesner, as well as a more simplified version of Jim Henson's previous experiments with literal hands as puppets (including the Aurora Bath Tissue commercials and "Cool Jazz" sketch used on variety shows).
==Sketches==
Picture	Title / First Appearance 	Description
 	Milk, Soup, CrackersEpisode 0184 	On a kitchen table, a yellow hand attempts to assemble a meal with milk, soup, and crackers placed in the appropriate dish. A purple hand arrives to correct him. Kids offer comments and corrections throughout.
 	MilkEpisode 0185 	A yellow hand tries to match a glass of milk to a picture of an object that produced the milk. A purple hand tries to help it out.
 	CakeEpisode 0189 	Fran Brill narrates as two hands argue over a piece of cake before they decide to share it.
 	Parents and BabiesEpisode 0194 	A yellow hand tries to match plastic baby animals to their plastic mother animals. A purple hand tries to help it out, while the kids offer voice-over comments.
 	Hands Make Faces, Part 1Episode 0212	Kids provide voiceover commentary as a green hand builds a face out of pieces. A purple hand tries to do the same, but gets all the parts mixed up. The green hand helps the purple hand make the face look like the one on the left.
 	Hands Make Faces, Part 2Episode 0212	The hands make faces again (with continued commentary by the kids), but this time the green hand copies the mixed-up arrangement of the face made by the purple hand.
 	Count to ElevenEpisode 0217 	Hands count to 11. Voice-over by Fran Brill.
 	Hands and ThreeEpisode 0231 	Fran Brill narrates as the Hands show different ways to count 3 fingers.
 	The Hand/Top BitEpisode 0362 	Jerry Nelson narrates a story about a green hand that learns to spin a top.
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Category:Sesame Street Recurring Sketches