Sesame Street is an educational television program designed for preschoolers, and is recognized as a pioneer of the contemporary standard which combines education and entertainment in children's television shows. Sesame Street also provided the first daily, national television showcase for Jim Henson's Muppets. More than 4100 episodes of the show have been produced in 39 seasons, making it one of the longest-running shows in television history.
In two 1980 episodes, C-3PO and R2-D2 landed on the street in a spacecraft, to deliver a holographic message to Oscar the Grouch (Episode 1364) from Lothar the Grouch from the seventh moon of Zircon, and another one to go to the park (Episode 1396).
Tony Daniels came in from London to play C-3PO for these episodes. Rather than have Kenny Baker reprise R2-D2, however, R2-D2 was radio-controlled in all of the episodes. Craig Miller was producer for Lucasfilm on the episodes and also operated R2s head. Also working on the shoot from Lucasfilm were Louis Friedman and Shelly Bobrick. A radio control specialist from Industrial Light and Magic whose name is lost maintained R2-D2 during the three day shoot and was R2's main operator.
Star Wars is also parodied/tributed in a Crumby Pictures parody sketch called Star S'mores.
Behind the scenes
During Anthony Daniels' event at Celebration IV, he showed some clips of his career as C-3PO—ranging from his Sesame Street episodes and The Muppet Show episode, to a C-3POs cereal commercial and The Star Wars Holiday Special. Daniels gave insight into these appearances, and told some stories of his experiences working on them.
A segment filmed for repeat appearances outside of the aforementioned episodes, was released on the 2009 DVD Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days.
Connections
- Frank Oz, performer of Yoda, is also the performer of Cookie Monster, Grover and Bert.
Bibliography
- Bantha Tracks 7
- "[[{{{2}}}]]" — The Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine 1
- "Caravan of Courage: Star Wars on Television" — Star Wars Insider 32
- "Anthony Daniels: Nuts and Bolts" — Star Wars Insider 46
External links
- Sesame Street on Wikipedia
- "Sesame Street" Episode dated 14 February 1980 (1980) at the Internet Movie Database
- "Sesame Street" Episode dated 15 February 1980 (1980) at the Internet Movie Database
- "Sesame Street" Episode dated 18 February 1980 (1980) at the Internet Movie Database
- C3PO MEETS BIG BIRD - At Encyclopedia Obscura.com