Sesame Street: Season 29: Episode 3698 (1998)

PictureSegmentDescription

COLD OPENBig 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 1Everyone 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 courtyard for the space shuttle launch.

SCENE 1

cont'dThe 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 1

cont'dOpening 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)

(First: Episode 3531)

AnimationPencil box G / g

(First: Episode 3042)

FilmG for go, girls, guitar, goldfish, etc.

(First: Episode 3269)

AnimationComputer G / g

(First: Episode 3112)

MuppetsMuppet & Kid Moment — 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

FilmWegman's dogs: Little Jack Horner

(First: Episode 3460)

MuppetsMuppet & Kid Moment — Samantha is still counting to 100, and has gone past 40. Grover says they'll be back later.

Part 2

SongLeon Redbone sings "Blueberry Mouth."

(First: Episode 3300)

MuppetsMuppet & Kid Moment — Samantha is still counting to 100. Grover advises the audience to get a cup of coffee.

Part 3

CartoonChristopher Clumsy jumps over a hole, and falls into another hole.

Artist: Cliff Roberts

(First: Episode 0439)

MuppetsMuppet & Kid Moment — Samantha finally reaches 100, and Grover cheers.

Part 4

CartoonFlash Gizmo, Space Cadet

Over, under, around and through

Song"Would You Like to Go Over?"

(First: Episode 3034)

cut from reruns

CartoonMary Shaboom reluctantly moves to a new house, and muses about the consequences.

(First: Episode 2959)

This segment was put right before the Two-Headed monster sketch in the 1999 rerun.

SCENE 2The 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 2

cont'dMaria 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.

CartoonBobby's dog narrates why Bobby is sad.

(First: Episode 3455)

Muppets / CelebrityErnie and Aaron Neville sing "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon."

(First: Episode 3242)

CartoonNoodles & Nedd eat lots of chocolates, but they don't litter.

cut from reruns

Song"Papermaking Song"

(First: Episode 3563)

cut from reruns

AnimationPortraits of kids display the alphabet.

Artist: Lisa Crafts

(First: Episode 3203)

MuppetsThe Two-Headed Monster looks at a star and sings "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

(First: Episode 2737)

CartoonVarious alien creatures perform in an other wordly music performance conducted by a trumpet-nosed creature. (re-recorded soundtrack)

(First: Episode 1181)

SCENE 3As 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.

SongJohn Pizzarelli sings about feeling "happy and proud" on your birthday.

(First: Episode 3421)

CartoonA 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

(First: Episode 2951)

cut from reruns

MuppetsKermit shows what's inside of Herry Monster using the X-ray machine.

(First: Episode 1974)

Song"They're Not Alive"

(First: Episode 3661)

FilmPaper crumples to reveal G, g, and Gg.

(First: Episode 3128)

FilmKids on a jungle safari spot an ornate G swing through the trees.

(First: Episode 3498)

AnimationPlanet G / g

(First: Episode 2844)

SCENE 4The 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!

CartoonGeronimo 10-0: Instead of a parachute, she has a helicopter propeller.

(First: Episode 2262)

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.

(First: Episode 3266)

This was switched with the above segment in the 1999 rerun.

MuppetsSuper 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.

FilmA boy narrates a film of what happens when it changes from fall to winter.

(First: Episode 2459)

Cartoon5 of various things found in space including 5 spaceships on Mars.

Animation "Five Waltzing Chairs" Artist: Jane Aaron (First: Episode 2983)

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 5 cont'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 5 cont'd As the ship takes off, a farmer 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 5 cont'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?