Episode 0118

Picture	Segment 	Description
 	SCENE 1 	Gordon observes a mess of trash that has been thrown all over Sesame Street. He recruits Susan, Bob, and the kids to start gathering it and tasks Ronald with finding the largest cardboard box he can find. There's too much trash to place in bags, so they're just going to have to use a PLEZUZMI — a word he promises to define after spelling it out. Everyone starts taking up different posts along the street to clean up, and Gordon asks Joey if he knows what happens to the trash after it's collected.
 	Song 	"Where the Garbage Goes," a song film which explains what happens to garbage after it gets thrown away.Music by Peter Schickele
 	SCENE 2 	The cardboard box has been painted to look like a creature that has an opening and hinge acting as its mouth. It's a PLEZUZMI — "please use me" — as it holds a sign that says it likes to eat all kinds of junk.
Oscar sees what's going on and complains about his trash being messed with. He says he'll put the trash back in his can, but after he starts his new business.
As everyone continues to clean up the trash, Gordon is disgusted, so he tries to imagine something more pleasant...
 	Film 	A film shows parts of a flower.Music: Vivaldi's Concerto for lute, 2 violins, and continuo in D Major: II - Largo
 	SCENE 3 	Amongst a street now littered with PLEZUZMIs, Susan sees a smokestack coming out of Oscar's can. Gordon demands that he shut it down because it's producing vast amounts of pollution. Oscar complies, but complains about the millions he could have made selling bottled smoke to other Grouches. After Oscar retreats into his can, Gordon notes that grouches might like to breathe smoke, but everyone else wants fresh, clean air.
 	Muppets 	Lefty sells Ernie some air, but when Ernie waves to Bert, wanting to show it to him, he drops it. According to Bert (who didn't know what Ernie had), "It couldn't have vanished into thin air." But Ernie sobs, "Yes, it could, Bert! It could!"
 	SCENE 4 	Susan sings "The Garden" to Oscar, to teach him to take care of the environment. She pleads with the audience, "That's why, children of America, we're gonna clean up all this litter, and we're not gonna let the Oscars beat us out. Put it in a PLEZUZMI, I thank you."
 	SCENE 5 	Over in the yard, Bob sings "Picture a World" while the kids play jacks with a PLEZUZMI in the background.
 	Segment 	Alphabet Bates draws a P in the sky.
 	Cartoon 	A short poem about a pirate and his puppy demonstrate the letter P.
 	Cartoon 	An award for "U".Animation by Cliff Roberts
 	Cartoon 	Speech Balloon: U for Umbrella
 	Muppets 	An Anything Muppet presents the letter U. Another Muppet repeatedly insists, "That's not a 'me,' that's a U!"
 	Cartoon 	A Gary Owens-voiced man attempts to discuss the letter I, but is jeered by an offscreen voice. The man uses him as an example of the word "impolite".
 	Cartoon 	Speech Balloon: I - ice cream.
 	Muppets 	Kermit's Lectures: Kermit talks about clues. He shows that a boy has grown some carrots because he has garden tools, a watering can, and a packet of seeds. Next, he confirms that a man has built a birdhouse because of his blueprints and carpenter's tools. When he notices Beautiful Day Monster with a suitcase and an umbrella, Kermit assumes that the monster is going on a trip and using the umbrella as protection from the rain. The monster corrects him; he's planning to eat his umbrella, and uses the suitcase to carry the ketchup he'll use to eat it with.
 	SCENE 6 	Susan has to run off to Hooper's Store, so she asks Big Bird to answer the phone for her if it rings. Big Bird hears a faint knocking, which grows louder, spooking him into thinking that a group of monsters could be present. When Susan returns, she tells Big Bird that the knocking was coming from the bathroom door, which was moving because of a draft.
 	Cartoon 	Children describe how to draw an elephant.
 	Muppets 	An Anything Muppet boy teaches "forward" and "backward" with a group of Muppets who keep running over the boy when his back is turned.
 	Celebrity 	Pat Paulsen demonstrates "forward" and "backward".
 	Film 	"Seven Song (Song of Seven)"
 	Muppets 	
 	SCENE 7 	In the kitchen, Susan reads a book to the kids: Who Will Wake Up Spring? by Sharon Lerner. After, she explains that spring wakes herself up with things like the budding of the trees. One kid thinks it takes a hundred years.
 	Muppets 	Kermit's Lectures: Kermit plays a sorting game with squares and circles, until Cookie Monster arrives and takes a bite out of the shapes. Kermit is upset, until he tastes one of them, and he joins Cookie Monster in finishing off the rest!
 	Cartoon 	A male voice narrates a story of a jazzy triangle who loved to dance, and a square square. The triangle likes being flexible, but the square would rather be stiff and *square*.Music: "Waltz in Mean Time," David Lee
 	Muppets 	Kermit tries to give a lecture on being happy, but Cookie Monster eats Kermit's happy face prop, which makes him mad.
 	SCENE 8 	Gordon points out that the PLEZUZMIs you see in your neighborhood may not look like this, but please use it. Oscar admits that the street looks better all cleaned up. This makes him grouchy, so he announces the sponsors.
 	CLOSING SIGNS	Bob holds the Sesame Street sign, while Gordon and Susan hold the Children's Television Workshop sign.
==Gallery==
Ssbts.jpg|Loretta Long and Caroll Spinney rehearsing Scene 6.
==Notes==
* This episode of Sesame Street, along with Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, was aired as part the NET broadcast schedule dedicated to the environment on the first Earth Day held in 1970.American Archive of Public Broadcasting — AAPB ID cpb-aacip/512-125q815g35Rome, Adam. The Genius of Earth Day, page 160
* Caroll Spinney recalls the filming of Scene 3 in his autobiography The Wisdom of Big Bird. The original script called for thick black smoke to be produced by Oscar's smokestack.Script documents provided by a trusted source An electrician had devised a small shelf behind the trash can which held a pie pan containing a mixture of kerosene and black rubber to create the smoke.Spinney, Caroll. The Wisdom of Big Bird. p. 105-106
* Spinney shared another anecdote from this episode in a 1973 Chicago Tribune interview, regarding scene 6:
:He similarly describes this scene "about the hobgoblins in your imagination" in May 12, 2001 during his interview with The Archive of American Television.Caroll Spinney Interview: Part 4 of 6 (11:00) 
==Sources==
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 0118
 0118
Category:Environmentalism
Category:Sesame Street Episode Season 1