Sesame Street Lost Episode

I am writing this because I just have to tell someone about it. It was the freakiest thing I have ever seen. To begin, I have always been interested in movies about nuclear war – from the 1950s until today. I ended up joining a forum about them – I won’t tell you what forum. I don’t want anyone to be able to find me or it. I don’t want anyone else to ever see this and especially never want to risk a child seeing it. Soon after joining I became friends with another member. No, I won’t even give you his screenname – as I said I want to keep this from getting out. Well, last year he told me he had something for me and wanted to meet to give it to me. I have some disabilities to the point I can’t have a driver license. I also live in an area with no public transportation. Because of this, we agreed to meet in a park in my town. When we did, he handed me a VHS tape. You read that right – in 2015 it was a VHS tape. Luckily (or maybe I should say unluckily) I still have a late 1990s era VHS player. He told me he didn’t know the story behind it – just that it was made in late 1983 or early 1984 – not long after The Day After movie aired (if you don’t know what this is, it’s on YouTube.) He also said it involved the long running children’s TV show Sesame Street. He didn’t know if it was a sick joke, if the show tried to make something for kids about nuclear war for some reason or it was something else. He left rather quickly. I can definitely say it was far too high of quality to be bootleg. Whoever made it had to either have access to the real studio of Sesame Street or had a LOT of money to make it look exactly the same. Anyway, I went home and decided to watch.

I poured myself a beer then went in, turned on the TV and put the tape in the VCR. Immediately something was disturbing. The Sesame Street logo appeared and stayed on for a couple minutes. There was no normal intro. I stopped watching around 1982 but saw it coming on when my parents babysat my younger cousins as late as about 1989 so I know it hadn’t changed by then. There was no “this episode is sponsored by the letters (whatever) and the number (whatever) or the “sunny day” song. It just went to a shot of the typical street setting. Then there was a flash of light and a loud “boom.” Next there was a scene of cartoon human figures turning into skeletons – like in the attack scene in “The Day After.” Then it went black for a few seconds. This is when things got worse. It started panning across what was normally seen. Mr. Hooper’s store had collapsed. That 123 building had some pieces missing, all the windows were shattered, and the building was on fire. All you could hear was the find, fires burning and occasionally a scream or moan. When it went past some ruined buildings you could see skeletons and shadows on the walls. None of the “human characters” (Bob, Maria, Gordon, etc) were in this episode – only muppets. Were they all killed? Things continued to get worse. The scene panned to an alley with a trash can laying on its side. Soon, Oscar the Grouch appeared crawling in the street – obviously in pain. He then turned to the camera. Half his face was burned.

Cut to a cartoon – it was that 1950s “Duck and Cover” one. I don’t know if it was an early PSA or only shown in classrooms at the time. I didn’t ask as I didn’t want this getting out, but that was well before I was born. Would have even been before my mom could remember. Maybe even my dad. None of my grandparents were alive yet, and I wouldn’t have asked them anyway. Next it went to a dark room. Outside a broken window you could see fires burning. Then the sound of sobbing came. The camera moved and Bert was in Ernie’s arms – obviously dead. Ernie sobbed maybe a minute and then started hysterically bawling. Mercifully, it didn’t last long. Next was another cartoon – this time a crudely drawn unidentified city. An animated missile flew over and detonated. There were scenes of the city destroyed – including cars turning over, overpasses being crushed, etc – much like the attack scene in the British 1980s nuclear war cartoon “When the Wind Blows.” This faded out and it returned to the 123 building – the fires had mostly burned out, but now fallout was falling from the sky. The camera panned down through a basement and a room below. Apparently, the building had a fallout shelter. In the room were some shelves, a table with a battery operated lanter giving off light with several chairs around. Sitting around the table were Cookie Monster, Harry, Prarie Dawn, and Grover. They had a combined look of shock, fear, sadness and confusion. None made a sound. I swear this scene lasted more than 5 minutes with no sound. It finally faded out.

Next was back out on the street. Big Bird was lying in the road moaning and asking for Mr. Snuffaluffagus. The show never made quite clear (the show in general, not this episode) if he was real or a figment of Big Bird’s imagination. This was bad. Some of his feathers were burned while others had fallen out. He had vomited in the street. Mr. Snuffalufagus never showed up and this scene was mercifully short. Next was those aliens who always tried to figure out what things were and usually got it wrong. The one who would say “yep yep ah-hah ah-ah.”) They were out in the country and saw the mushroom cloud appear. They were saying “NO! NO! NO!” (not nope-nope) – they got into the flying saucer and took off.

The last scene was back in the bunker. Cookie Monster went to a shelf and turned on a radio. There was at first static and then the voice of Kermit the Frog. He sounded MUCH more scared than I ever heard him on there, the Muppet Show, movies or anywhere else. His voice every so often would break as he was trying not to cry. He said “This is the Sesame Street news. I don’t know why (EMP I imagine) but our TV cameras don’t work. I found an old radio and am using it. The city has been hit by an atomic bomb and Sesame Street has been hurt bad. If you don’t know, an atomic bomb is a really, really big and really bad bomb that can wreck a whole city. It also has something really bad called “radiation” that can really hurt you if you’re near it. I can’t find anyone who knows anything more but will get back when and if I can. Kermit off.” Cookie Monster switched the radio off.

The scene then faded to black, and the normal credits rolled – with no sound or music whatsoever. I haven’t watched this video since as even at 42 years of age it was too disturbing. What was whoever made this thinking? I haven’t contacted the guy who gave it to me since. I keep the tape locked in a cabinet – there is no damn way I will EVER let there be a chance a child could see this. Don’t try to contact me to ask me if you can watch it – no way. Or to ask me anything about it – for one thing I don’t know. For another I wouldn’t tell you if I did.