Sept 2003
Back to School
Part 2: Things You Can Do to Squares
We begin our tour of the Learning Kit with The Sesame Street Book of Shapes, the controversial expose that shaped the way a generation looked at shapes.
To start us off, this is how they introduce the concept of circles:
... which, you have to admit, is entirely accurate.
"Here are some CIRCLES," the book says, and shows us some pictures of CIRCLES, before moving on to pictures of things that are shaped like CIRCLES: a phone dial, a tractor tire, bicycle wheels. Y'know. Circle stuff.
Then Bob introduces another shape, in a rare moment of self-awareness:
That's followed by this peculiar double-page spread, reproduced here in its baffling entirety:
So that, apparently, is what you can do to squares. You don't have to do that to squares, but it's nice to know that you can if you want to.
Then we move on to rectangles, and we're quizzed on whether we can find RECTANGLES in this picture:
Finally, in a shattering climax, Gordon makes the following admission:
After that, it's pretty much all downhill. It's hard to top a moment like that.
July 2003 -- The Jim Henson Hour: Monster Telethon
June 2003 -- The Jim Henson Hour: Science Fiction
April/May 2003 -- Breaking News: Sesame Street News Flashes
March 2003 -- The Muppet Show Comic Strip
Aug/Sept 2002 -- The Road to Hollywood
July 2002 -- The Decline and Fall of Gorch, part two: The Fall
June 2002 -- The Decline and Fall of Gorch, part one: The Decline
April 2002 -- April Frog's Day
March 2002 -- The Muppets Take Madison Avenue
February 2002 -- Kermit and Piggy : That Magnificent Hankering
January 2002 -- Off the Street
December 2001 -- It Feels Like Christmas
November 2001 -- Muppets: 1, Host: 0