Episode 3698

Picture	Segment 	Description
 	COLD OPEN 	Big Bird finishes a phone call by thanking the person on the other end of the line for helping him to spell aardvark. He lists today's sponsors, and tells the audience that today they're going to see Slimey and four other worms get into a spaceship headed for the moon.
 	SCENE 1 	Everyone on Sesame Street (including Maria, Luis, Big Bird, Snuffy, Herry Monster, Telly, Elmo, Zoe, Rosita, Tarah, John Tartaglia, Ruthie, Gina, Gordon, Susan, Miles, Lexine, a Honker, and various other residents) has gathered in front of the yard for the space shuttle launch.
 	SCENE 1cont'd 	The training officer from WASA addresses the crowd to commemorate the historic occasion and introduces the five worms who make up the crew of the space mission: Spaghettini from Italy, Squishta from Romania, Squashimi from Japan, Legusano from Colombia and Slimey from Sesame Street. To define their mission, the training officer shows an animated film illustrating what will happen on their trip.
 	SCENE 1cont'd 	Opening up the floor for questions, Telly wants to be clear on what's going on: these five very brave, very smart, very cute little worms are going to get into a tin can-looking thing, lift off the ground and go up, up, up as high as you can get. His rather excitedly posed question is, WHY? Why would anyone want to do this? The training officer launches into an inspirational speech about doing it because it's there, because they want to explore space and the moon. To explore means that they're going to travel into space and land on the moon to see what it's like. The training officer says that they're going to be gone for many weeks. This again sparks Oscar's previous concerns about how long Slimey's not going to be with him.
 	Song 	"Explore With Me" (reggae)
 	Animation 	Pencil box G / g
 	Film 	G for go, girls, guitar, goldfish, etc.
 	Animation 	Computer G / g
 	Muppets 	At night, Grover asks Samantha if she can count to 20, and she says she can count to 100. She starts counting, and Grover says they'll be back in a moment.Part 1
 	Film 	Wegman's dogs: Little Jack Horner
 	Muppets 	Samantha is still counting to 100, and has gone past 40. Grover says they'll be back later.Part 2
 	Song 	Leon Redbone sings "Blueberry Mouth."
 	Muppets 	Samantha is still counting to 100. Grover advises the audience to get a cup of coffee.Part 3
 	Cartoon 	Christopher Clumsy jumps over a hole, and falls into another hole.Artist: Cliff Roberts
 	Muppets 	Samantha finally reaches 100, and Grover cheers.Part 4
 	Cartoon 	Flash Gizmo, Space CadetOver, under, around and through
 	Song 	"Would You Like to Go Over?"
 	Cartoon 	Mary Shaboom reluctantly moves to a new house, and muses about the consequences.This segment was put right before the Two-Headed monster sketch in the 1999 rerun.
 	SCENE 2 	The mission control announcer (Jerry Nelson) comes over the loudspeaker to announce that the team is getting ready to board the ship. Oscar is adamant about Slimey not leaving until he's sure that his worm has everything he's going to need in space. He gets to see inside the ship and accounts for chairs with seatbelts, beds to sleep in, freeze-dried pizza, a library of books and a bowling alley. Oscar notes that they don't have any water wings packed, but he's told that there's no water on the moon and no pool in the ship. Appalled, Oscar decides that Slimey's not going if he can't swim.
 	SCENE 2cont'd 	Maria interjects because she recognizes that Oscar is making excuses for how sad he's going to feel with Slimey gone for such a long time. She convinces him that he wants Slimey to go to the moon more than he doesn't want him to go. Maria assures Oscar that Slimey will be back before he knows it. Oscar realizes how selfish he's being and agrees to let Slimey go to the Moon. Mission control announces a final inspection of the spaceship before boarding.
 	Cartoon 	Bobby's dog narrates why Bobby is sad.
 	Muppets / Celebrity	Ernie and Aaron Neville sing "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon."
 	Cartoon 	Noodles & Nedd eat lots of chocolates, but they don't litter.
 	Song 	"Papermaking Song"
 	Animation 	Portraits of kids display the alphabet.Artist: Lisa Crafts
 	Muppets 	The Two-Headed Monster looks at a star and sings "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
 	Cartoon 	Various alien creatures perform in an other wordly music performance conducted by a trumpet-nosed creature. (re-recorded soundtrack)
 	SCENE 3 	As the inspection crew readies the ship for take-off, it's time for the families to say goodbye to the astronauts. Dusty and Eartha hug their son and Sloppy says goodbye to her big brother. Oscar gives Slimey a tiny framed photo of himself so that he doesn't forget him, and Slimey gives him a large portrait of himself. They kiss, and Slimey boards the ship. Slimey assures Oscar that he'll be fine.
 	Song 	John Pizzarelli sings about feeling "happy and proud" on your birthday.
 	Cartoon 	A girl thinks she hears a monster doing a cha-cha outside her window, but it's only the wind and crickets. Her snores frighten the real monster.Artist: Deanna Morse
 	Muppets 	Kermit shows what's inside of Herry Monster using the X-ray machine.
 	Song 	"They're Not Alive"
 	Film 	Paper crumples to reveal G, g, and Gg.
 	Film 	Kids on a jungle safari spot an ornate G swing through the trees.
 	Animation 	Planet G / g
 	SCENE 4 	The time for the countdown to lift-off has come. The training officer makes sure the worms are in lift-off position, and the WASA countdown specialist is called in to count down from 10 to 0. The Count is very proud to be a part of this noble project (he's proud to be a part of anything that lets him count in any way). As he counts down, the shuttle smokes and shakes, but does not achieve lift-off. The training officer assures everyone that the highly trained worm technicians are going to find out what went wrong. Oscar can't stand the suspense!
 	Cartoon 	Geronimo 10-0: Instead of a parachute, she has a helicopter propeller.This was switched with the below segment in the 1999 rerun.
 	Song 	"I'm a Little Airplane", with film of kids pretending to be airplanes.This was switched with the above segment in the 1999 rerun.
 	Muppets 	Super Grover asks Baby Natasha, as Super Baby, to help him demonstrate big and little. But Super Baby won't sit still long enough -- she keeps flying around, and ends up crash-landing on his head.
 	Film 	A boy narrates a film of what happens when it changes from fall to winter.
 	Cartoon 	5 of various things found in space including 5 spaceships on Mars.
 	Animation 	"Five Waltzing Chairs"Artist: Jane Aaron
 	Animation 	The number 5 in space (with astronauts)
 	SCENE 5 	After the worm technicians finish fixing an oscillator that was not oscillating, it's time for the countdown again. The Count is hopeful that it will not work so he can count down from 10 once more.
 	SCENE 5cont'd 	On the second countdown attempt, the ship smokes and shakes, but still doesn't seem to have enough power. It looks like Slimey won't be leaving after all. Concurrently, the smoke is making Snuffy sneezy. He huffs and puffs and finally lets out a huge sneeze that sends the ship rocketing into the air, giving it the boost it needed. Everyone waves goodbye to Slimey as the ship leaves Sesame Street.
 	SCENE 5cont'd 	As the ship takes off, a farmer (Joey Mazzarino) arrives and sees that his chicken was on that ship. Indeed, it is the same Selma Worm that had tried out at WASA days before.
 	SCENE 5cont'd 	As the ship leaves the Earth's atmosphere, the announcer orates their mission in a direct take-off from Star Trek. It is at this time that the name of the ship is revealed: the Wiggleprise.Fittingly, the announcer also mentions the sponsors.
 	COMING SOON 	Coming soon on Sesame Street: A lady must wait for her beloved Georgie under the Sesame Street sign, but where is it?
==Alterations==
Picture	Segment 	Description
 	COLD OPEN	In the 1999 rerun of this episode, the cold opening is replaced with a Star Wars-esque introduction, titled Star Worms, Episode III: The Launching of the Worms.
 	INTRO 	The season 30–32 intro sequence is used in place of the season 29 opening.
 	Song 	"Shadow Show"This segment replaced the Wegman Dogs sketch in the 1999 rerun.
 	Film 	A child performs a poem called "Night" in sign language.This segment appeared after "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" in the 1999 rerun.
 	Cartoon 	Noodles & Nedd: Noodles tries to get Nedd to feed him while Nedd is fixated on looking at the stars through his telescope.This segment appeared before the "Alphabet Photo Booth" film in the 1999 rerun.
 	Cartoon 	In an homage to the musical cartoons of the 1930s, Cab Callomouse attends a revue at the Lunar Lounge.This segment replaced the alien symphony cartoon in the 1999 rerun.
 	Muppets 	Grover and Patrick observe that the moon doesn't talk.This segment appeared after "Birthday Emotions" in the 1999 rerun.
 	Animation	An Elvis Presley-type man sings "Rockin' Rockets" as he blasts off into space.This segment appeared before the Kermit and Herry sketch in the 1999 rerun.
 	Muppets 	Elmo sings about the "Planets, Moon and Stars."This segment replaced the Super Grover and Natasha sketch in the 1999 rerun.
 	Film 	A girl narrates a segment about how astronaut Mario Runco visited her school and answered kids' questions.This segment replaced the film about fall and winter in the 1999 rerun.
==Notes==
*This episode was among a select group of Season 29 episodes that were reran during the last few weeks of 1999, shortly before Season 31 began airing the following January. This particular episode aired on November 17, December 8, and December 28.
*A rendition of "Mars, Bringer of War" from Gustav Holt's "The Planets" orchestral suite is heard during the launch.
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 3698
 3698
Category:Space
Category:Sesame Street Episode Season 29