ZM's Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley: Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley's Fact of the Day (of the Week!) - Sesame St Week!

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Play ZM's Fletch Born and Haley.

Hello and welcome to Fact of the Day of the Week.

This week, Burton Vaughny guide us on a walking tour of everyone's favorite thoroughfare,

Sesame Street. It's time for...

Fact of the Day, Day, Day, Day, Day.

This week's theme for Fact of the Day is Sesame Street.

Oh my goodness.

Love me some Sesame Street and I was told a fact,

and I thought surely over its run since 1969.

Nice.

Nice.

Sesame Street has been on TV pretty much non-stop.

Yeah.

So surely it's full of facts and this is the fact that's kicking off Sesame Street.

Fact of the Day is that there is an episode of Sesame Street that was recorded but never aired.

Oh.

The name of the episode is Snuffy's Parents Get a Divorce.

Oh.

Snuffle up again?

Snuffle up again.

Snuffle up again.

Snuffle up again.

Yeah.

Mr Snuffle up again.

Snuffle up again.

Yeah.

Some cultural inappropriate reaction.

Nope.

Okay.

Nope.

It was when they decided to cover the serious topic of children of divorce.

Oh, okay.

And when parents get divorced and what that means for the children because they got 1989,

which was when they first wanted to do this.

1992 was when the episode was finished and read for airing but they never aired it.

There was a report from the US Census Bureau that 40% of American children had experienced

divorce.

And they said, we've covered serious issues which have had significant or less across

the board impact.

So let's try our best to cover divorce in an episode.

And they were like, what muppet can we use?

And Snuffy.

Snuffle up again.

Snuffle up again.

Snuffle up again.

Snuffle up again.

Snuffle up again.

It was Wally Mammoth.

Wally Mammoth.

It was Wally Mammoth.

Yeah.

And for a while there, Big Bird thought, everybody thought Snuffle Up again was Big Bird's imaginary

friend because he was never around when Big Bird would talk about him and no one ever

saw him.

Like Fletcher's girlfriend in high school.

Just went to a different high school in a different town.

Yeah.

Yeah.

She was older though and super hot.

Yeah.

She's a model.

So it's hard to like get it to continue probably for the weekend.

Yeah.

But he wasn't imaginary.

Oh my God.

Well, he's a muppet.

He existed.

And she existed too.

No one's questioning that.

She was gorgeous.

So they made the episode and they made it in conjunction with like therapists and everything

that they always consulted for the sort of thing.

Of course.

And then they decided to do tests with focus groups for children, younger children, sort

of the core demographic of Sesame Street preschool and early years of school.

And they decided not to air it because of at the end of it, even though they were constantly

reassured by the other muppets of these things, they said, they believed that any argument

their parents had would, their parents had would leave to divorce.

Yeah.

Despite Big Bird saying quite the opposite.

They were also, when they were asked like about the relationship with the kids and the

parents, they said, oh no, I think the parents stop loving each other and they stop loving

their children.

So they were like, oh, we can't have that out there.

And they said that every argument meant divorce.

One of the parents had to move away and the kid could never see them again.

And the parents didn't love them as their children anymore.

And they said, despite like the whole episode was based around the fact that those three

things don't happen.

Yeah.

And divorce.

You still get to see the parent that you don't live with full time.

Everything.

So they were like, we just actually can't air it.

And the accountants were like, live it because they're like, this was a very expensive episode

to make.

We had to make it.

And the parents that snuffed the love of guests who had not been on Sesame Street before,

snuffed his mum had been snuffed his dad hadn't been.

And that's maybe why they got a divorce.

Yeah.

She was left at home raising the children in the mammoth cave.

And there was what, golfing and pissing up with his mates?

No doubt.

It's time she another Lance trip.

Yeah.

Think how big that bust would have to be to get a glance on it.

They were all mammoths.

So they never ended up, they never ended up using it.

It wasn't until in 2012 that they made a non-televised special for, it was called little children,

big challenges.

And this one was divorce where they did address it again.

But this time I'm using Abbey Cadabby, not snuffed love of this.

It was not used at that time.

They've also done episodes after September 11 and Hurricane Katrina with two other serious

ones.

Very serious.

Yes.

Those made it to ear, but that is the snuffies parents get a divorce, never made it to ear.

And of course, a burden in a gay marriage.

That was a big one.

That was contentious.

But they did it.

They did it.

They did it.

They did it.

We knew all along.

We've known forever.

Well, the key is the ones, you know, got vertical stripes and one's horizontal stripes.

That's how it's going to work.

That's right.

Okay, right.

That's how it's going to work.

Today is a 1992 Sesame Street made an episode about snuffies parents getting a divorce that

never aired because it didn't test well with children.

Zed Eames, Fletch, Vaughan and Hayley.

Just going to tomorrow's fact of the day for Sesame Street week.

So you do a little wiggle.

I was very excited.

It's one of my favorite.

I want to talk about hands today.

Okay.

For Sesame Street.

Hands.

Cookie Monster and Ernie are the only left-handed Muppets.

Shout out.

And they've made, they made them specifically to represent the left-handed community.

How do you feel about that, Hayley?

Being a lefty.

Represented.

Yeah, they were like, we need left-handed Muppets because they're a left-handed people.

And children who are watching need to be represented.

Righties won't notice it, but lefties will notice.

Lefties will.

I remember those early episodes where they tried to beat it out of them with a roller.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And whenever Cookie Monster wrote with his right hand, they gave him a cookie as a result.

And Gon was writing with his left hand, but he'd picked up a very bad food reward program.

Yeah.

He was rewarded with food.

He became addicted to food.

He developed an unhealthy relationship with food.

Yeah.

Do something good.

Get yourself a treaty.

We talked about in the show yesterday.

Get yourself a treaty.

So Cookie Monster and Ernie are the only left-handed Muppets.

Cookie Monster and the sweetest chef are the only left-handed Muppets.

The sweetest chef are the only Muppets with five fingers that all move.

Oh.

Every other Muppet has four fingers.

Have you ever seen how the Muppets with two hands work?

Like your Cookie Monster's, your Ernie's, your sweetest chef's.

There's two people, isn't there?

There's two people.

Yeah.

One person operates the mouth and the same person operates one of their hands.

Now, so Ernie and the Cookie Monster who are the left, the puppeteer would operate the

mouth with his right and their arm with the left.

Oh, yeah.

Meaning that they could do that and the other person would operate the right hand.

Right.

Individually.

Ernie does have five fingers.

Yeah.

No, he doesn't.

He's four.

No, no, no.

Not Ernie.

Oh, sorry.

Cookie Monster and sweetest chef are the only Muppets with five fingers that all move.

Oh.

Cookie Monster and Ernie are the only ones that are left-handed.

He does have five fingers.

I don't know why it looks weird that he's got five fingers.

Yeah.

You're just used to them having four.

Some of the other Muppets have five fingers, but they don't move because of the Muppets

that are controlled with like the sticks and the wires.

Yes.

The hands are not articulated fingers.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Now, it was during this, I just went to check something about the sweetest chef that will

bring us tomorrow's fact of the day for Muppet work.

I think he's one of my favourites.

I think he's one of my favourites.

Dude, the chaos.

When I was a kid, I loved animal.

Yeah.

I loved, animal was one of my favourites because it was just like chaos.

When he was playing the drums, it was chaos.

The sweetest chef because it was pure unadulterated madness that I just was just like, I love

this.

I love this.

And Fuzzy Bear because he just couldn't do it.

He bombed every time and that was what made him break.

You know what?

He never quit.

He never quit.

He got out there and he gave it another go.

He's got a beautiful message.

Yeah.

If you're a terrible comedian, just keep going.

Just keep trying to be funny.

Just keep going.

Just and try harder and harder and harder and harder.

Push.

Push.

Yeah.

Living the awkwardness.

Even if you weren't born with a sense of humour at all.

No, very important.

You keep going or get into politics.

So today's faculty of the day, Sesame Street hands.

Cookie Monster and Ernie are only left handed muppets, and Cookie Monster and the sweetest

chef are the only muppets with five fingers that all move.

there was a good point raised by producers that I'd maybe dabbled a little too hard in Muppets.

The Muppets side of Sesame Street. Yep. They're still part of Sesame Street. So the Muppets were

on Sesame Street, but they were also on the Muppet show. Now a lot of Muppets did 10 years on

both. Yeah, right. But there were some better known for their time on the Muppet show, such as the

Swedish chef who we talked about yesterday. Yes. Your favorite. But Big Bird was more Sesame.

Correct. But made a rogue appearance on the Muppet show. But not like you wouldn't say Big

Bird. You'd say Big Bird was a Sesame Street. Grover. Sesame Street. Elmo. Sesame Street. So

I'm pitching back. I will save my Swedish chef fact that I was going to use today for a Muppet

week sometime in the future. So you don't have a huge Jim Henson fan. Recently rewatched Labyrinth.

Flawless. Beautiful. August has become obsessed with it. Knows all the words to

dance. Magic dance. The David Bowie classic. Right. Beautiful song.

How to keep your eye off his package though, isn't it? Very tightly wrapped. Very large.

It's a factory tuck. It really is. It's a factory tuck. Well, today's factor today is the first ever

celebrity special guest that they had on Sesame Street. The year was 1969. This man was 38 years

old. He is still alive, making him 92 years old. More close. He's got an amazing voice,

arguably, like the best voice in history. Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra is dead. I have

terrible news for you. You did just say he's still alive. He's 92 years old. He's been the voice of

two very famous film fathers. Morgan Freeman. No. The Darth Vader guy. Yes. James Earl Jones.

James Earl Jones at the age of 38. Approximately nine years before he was even Darth Vader.

He was an actor. He'd done theatre. He'd done film. He was Sesame Street's first ever special

guest. Look, this man's nothing for everybody at home, but look what a handsome handsome black man

this was. A beautiful black man. Beautiful. Like timeless too. That's 1969. That could be today.

Just a long sleeve black. Do you want to hear him what he did on the show? Sure. Now, not the strongest

first ever celebrity special appearance by somebody for Sesame Street, but James Earl Jones

read the alphabet. C. At this speed. Oh, okay. D. God, we could really run it along a little bit.

Yeah, there's a song now, but like, and even his pacing, obviously his voice and

his theatrical delivery, but it could have totally, modern television would have run

him through a booker. But yeah, all he did was he took one minute, 35 seconds to read the alphabet

and that beautiful voice. That's a 20 second job. Yeah. Well before it became Darth Vader,

well before it became Mufasa from Lion King. Yeah. So today's factor that is the first ever

special guest and there has been a myriad of them since. Everybody who's anybody,

Ricky Gervais has talked to Elmo. Everybody that's everybody's been on Sesame Street,

but the first ever celebrity guest on Sesame Street was James Earl Jones.

I was crossing the street when I met the love of my life.

I chased after her. Nothing would stand in my way, not the dog walker nor the hot dog vendor.

Finally reaching her, I asked, what do you call that amazing smell? It's gain flings gain flings.

My love had a name, but more importantly, it had a scent fall in love with gain flings.

Seriously, good scent. Try gain flings today with special savings at Family Dollar.

Today's factor today on Sesame Street week is that there is approximately 30 international versions

of Sesame Street. Oh, yeah. And they're different colors or something. So big birds are a whole lot

of different colors. That's right. Purple somewhere. Yeah. The different big birds also were made to

represent birds known to the area. So like the South American big bird had a slightly bigger

beak, so had a sort of a parity sort of a vibe to it. But yeah, big bird addressed this.

Somebody actually sent this to me on Instagram saying, has this been your factor today? I said,

well, to be honest, today we are doing a fact about Sesame Street around the world. So I can

totally mention it. And big bird addressed it in February 2021. I heard my friends on Twitter

were asking about my cousins around the world. There's a lot of bird cousins in different countries

and here's a little bit about them. And then he told the story of all the different

birds that appear on Sesame Street and his place for around the world. Afghanistan's got

its own Sesame Street. It's got a lot of the same characters, but it's got Zari who is a six-year-old

girl. Muppet girl. Yeah. And Zirak who is Zari's brother. So there's countries all around the

world with their own. Israel, Indonesia, India, Gali-Gali-SimSim is the name of Sesame Street.

Gali-Gali-SimSim. But there's no like Australasian. So in Australia, there was Oli, a yellow-orange

Muppet who is a cousin of Elmo who introduced Sesame Street when it played on Nick Jr.

So he's like, oh, g'day. G'day, guys. It's me. It's Oli. Oh, yeah. Now I'll talk. Check it out. Yeah.

Guzzled a couple of bloody pieces and I'm with you today. Oh, I'm just going to whoop outside and

have a smoke. You watch what's happening with my mate Elmo. My cousin Elmo taking care of

things down on Sesame Street. Yeah. So China, Egypt, Germany. Germany's had a very extensive

history of Sesame Street. Japan, Kuwait even had its own Sesame Street with its own characters,

including regional versions and just different colors of Sesame Street favorites.

It would be cool if we had a Māori Muppet who like intro'd our show. Yeah. Little Māori Muppet.

It would be cool. Got a mokko? Yeah. Bit of a tani-fava. Yeah. There's an idea. So today's

factor of the day on Sesame Street week is that there are over 30 local versions of Sesame

Street around the world, including many a different color than slightly different looking big birds.

Today's factor of the day. And this week entirely has been Sesame Street week.

And there's been heaps of little facts that I haven't been able to squeeze in. So today's

factor of the day is five super quick facts about Sesame Street. Number five,

Cookie Monster's first name is Sid. Yes, I knew this. His British cousin's name is Biscuit Monster.

Didn't know that. And Snuffleupagus' first name is Aloysia Snuffleupagus.

Aloysia Snuffleupagus. What a great name. Number four on the Sesame Street facts,

Carol Spinney who was Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch who passed away in 2019 and was the only

person until that day who had played Big Boy. Big Boyd said he based Oscar the Grouch's voice

on a cab driver from the Bronx who took him to the audition. He was auditioning for the

voice. He had no idea what he was going to do for a voice. And he got in this guy's like,

Wow. What a whaaat. And just talk to him the entire drive to the audition. Absorbing. Trying to work

out how to do his voice the best. How did he drive a cab in a trash can? That's amazing.

Hand controls. Okay. Number three, the oldest Muppet. Who do you think the oldest Muppet is?

One of those old guys in the box. No, technically it's Count Von Count, the vampire.

Who was born October 9, 1.8 million BC. He's very, very old. Number two,

Telly, the sort of like nervous, purpley monster, telly monster, the skinny one.

Yeah. He was originally, the Telly stood for television monster and he was called that because

he liked Cookie Monster. He was obsessed with cookies. He was obsessed with television and

watched too much of it. Right. And so the whole lesson to be learned was watch some TV but not

too much. And now he's just medicated. So he watches as much as he wants. He's medicated.

Potatoing out on the couch. Absolutely. And number one, another Sesame Street fact,

five quick ones today. There is now an actual Sesame Street in early 2019 in the honor of the

show's 50th anniversary and its impact on New York. New York renamed a street in Manhattan

at the intersection of West 63rd and Broadway to Sesame Street. So you can actually go to Sesame

Street. That's right. And the sign looks like the Sesame Street sign, despite looking different

oil signs around it. Fact of the day, day, day, day, day.

Oh, I just realized I did the whole show with my headphones on backwards. So.

Well, that means the show's backwards in, isn't it? We're going to have to play this

in reverse. Well, should we speak in reverse and hopefully they'll, they'll work out the other way.

ZM's Fletch Von and Haley.

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.