Thread by @Dystopiandy

In honor of Carol Spinney, I'm "live tweeting" the classic Sesame Street special Don't Eat The Pictures.

Watch it here if you wanna follow along.

Yes. I am "live tweeting" something from 1983. On my Commodore 64. Do try to keep up.

Awesome fun times with the Sesame Street gang at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the intro. Including... well, crumbs. It's that one Degas statue. Maria and a couple of kids are emulating it, because... it was a much more innocent age, folks...

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I'm not saying Degas was a bit... shall we say... R. Kelly-ish, but...

ANYWAY. Sesame Street fun.

Speaking of more innocent times, Snuffy is still Big Bird's "Imaginary Friend" (so far as the adults are concerned.)

Big Bird is supposed to meet him at the museum. None of the adults take him seriously. There's a wonderful chase sequence all sped up and wacky around the exhibits, very Keystone Cops.

Does Sesame Street even do this kind of thing anymore? The wacky silent film comedy stuff?

David (rest in peace, Northern Calloway) figures out that their pursuit of Big Bird, who is apparently IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND EVEN THOUGH HE IS LITERALLY A GIANT YELLOW F**KING BIRD, has gotten them all locked in the Met.

Someone tell Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

Anyway, this gives the Sesame Street grownups and the kids the opportunity for some... strangely culturally not-insensitive (?) mockery of ancient Asian art?

Like... I think this is okay, but I don't actually know?

Meanwhile, Oscar's sneakin' past the security guard in his flippin' can like a BOSS

Oscar then sings a delightful song about his love of broken statues, and... it's actually kind of rad, considering he's sorta the villain-ish, that he gets an honest, earnest tune about the coolness of old broken historical stuff.

And then... the Egyptian prince kid shows up!

His mother and father are dead and he wants to be a star in the sky with them. He's stuck here at the museum in ghost form. Don't think too hard about it because... look, obviously his mummified corpse is probably downstairs, right?

Emma: Oh my God, it's the Pandorica.

Big Bird: He's from ancient Egypt!

Prince Kid: We called it MODERN Egypt!

Audience:

Anyway, we're actually learning some stuff about Ancient Egyptian beliefs, which is... more or less correct, actually. They weigh your heart against a feather, Osiris, etc.

Oh, also PRINCE KID HAS A FREAKING INVISIBLE GHOST CAT.

You know who else had a freaking invisible ghost cat? Me. As a kid. I think I got it at the carnival, but... yeah, it was one of those novelty invisible dog leash things. I don't know what happened to it.

Hopefully, it's, like, a star now.

Bob and Cookie Monster are looking for Big Bird. They find a still life with fruit.

You know where this is going.

You know what this special is named.

But they're teasing it out. Clever Sesame Street. Clever.

Cookie does not - in fact - Eat The Picture. Not yet.

Soon, thinks Cookie. Sooooon.

Meanwhile, Grover has a moment with a suit of armor.

Pictures are a sometimes food, Cookie Monster.

Meanwhile... the little ghost boy can see Snuffy, which probably confirms Snuffy's "real" status before the show did it officially

(for very good reasons. Degas-ish reasons. Ahem.)

Emma: What if Big Bird is hallucinating Egypt Kid? Maybe it's early onset dementia. How old is he? Six? What's that in bird years? Dead, right?

(that's Emma's joke. I take no responsibility.)

I gotta say this: the late Mr. Spinney wasn't just a great puppeteer - he might have been one of the best voice actors ever. He's certainly diverse. The guy convincingly plays Big Bird AND Oscar, and makes both characters feel authentic and lived in. Innocent and crabby.

Like, they're just authentic and you know how they'd react to any situation. Very differently, obs.

Aaaand there's the show-stopper: "Don't Eat The Pictures" which is a *bop*. Cookie hallucinates... I guess his aunts? They're dressed like angels and singing to him.

The show has definitely weeded out everyone *except* Big Bird, Snuffy, Prince Kid, Bob, Cookie and Oscar by this point. Like, Maria and David and Olivia and a buncha kids were there, too. I guess it was getting late.

The kid has to answer some kind of riddle. "Where does today meet yesterday?" Once he answers it, he can go to the afterlife, because Egyptian Heaven is basically the Ravenclaw common room.

Cookie should also not eat the mummies, because DUDE WHAT IF ONE OF THEM IS THAT PRINCE KID jeez bro

There's a song where Big Bird cuddles the kid, who's starting to think he might not make it to the afterlife after all. He has to do it by the stroke of midnight, or he turns into a... sponge gourd, I think? I'm not paying attention. Also, that joke is a deep cut. Look it up.

Emma: ::choked up, remembers that song.::

Pacing-wise, this special - which aired at night, I believe, has one major issue: all the slow songs are loaded near the end, so the kids are bound to fall asleep before it's ove- oh wait I get it, I'm a Dad now, this is brilliant.

Wait.. hang on. Big Bird is figuring out the riddle. This riddle, that this freaking kid has been working on for 4000 damn *years*, and goddamn BIG BIRD figures it out by accident!

I'd call this some white savior bullcrap, but Big Bird's yellow so WHATEVER.

And don't be like "well, he's a kid" because BIG BIRD IS SIX.

Wait, hang on... Big Bird has no idea what he just said. Really. The kid's the one who puts two and two together. It's fine. It's fine.

OH GOD WHAT IS IT AAAAUGH

Seriously, the big giant Pharaoh head must have freaked some kids out. I know I had weird nightmares about the big Ramses statue at the MFA as a wee bairn.

By the way. This is James Mason. That's why Eddie Izzard uses him as the Voice Of God.

Aaand here's Osiris to weigh Prince Kid's heart, which... ohhhhh WHAT? It's heavier than a feather! How the hell... what the.... what mischief has this little ghost kid been up to? HAS HE BEEN EATING THE PICTURES??!?

I mean, look at this punim.

But wait! Big Bird steps in to advocate for Li'l Guyliner over here.

"It's not fair!"

Yeah, of course his heart was heavy - he was stuck here in the freaking museum for like ever with no one to love him. It's honestly kinda touching, really.

And so, the kid ascends the staircase and goes off to Egyptian heaven and becomes a star AND SO DOES HIS NO LONGER INVISIBLE CAT!

Ghostbusters (1984)

Look what you've done, Big Bird. He's a muthaf***in' StarBoy.

Look what you've DONE.

So, that was DON'T EAT THE PICTURES, which - as a "get the kids to understand art, entry-level Museum Studies, and Basic Egyptology" kinda thing, is pretty great. There's just enough old school Sesame "wink and nod" to the adults (Ernie's joke about the GW bridge still holds up.)

And we've had a lot of fun snarking this thing, but... onto more serious matters.

Carol Spinney played the first television character I recognized and related to in any way - Big Bird - and my favorite character as a crappy adult - Oscar the Grouch.

He lived a long life and got to share his talents with literally hundreds of millions of people. Everyone knows Big Bird. Everyone knows Oscar. These are characters that stick, and the warmth and heart he gave *both* of those characters (yes even Oscar) made them iconic.

Someone who didn't live a long life - sadly - is Aram Choudhury. He played Prince Kid (Prince Sahu, actually) and his life was cut short in a car crash in 1994. He was 18 years old.

There's not much more I can say, except that it makes that one scene even more poignant.

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