Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Encyclopedia
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
special that aired on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
on November 16, 1983. The title comes from a song in the special "Don't Eat the Pictures
Don't Eat the Pictures (song)
Don't Eat the Pictures is the titular song of Sesame Street's educational movie Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art....
," sung by Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster
Cookie Monster is a Muppet on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is best known for his voracious appetite and his famous eating phrases: "Me want cookie!", "Me eat cookie!", and "Om nom nom nom" . He often eats anything and everything, including danishes, donuts, lettuce, apples,...
. It was released to VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in 1987. The special has the regular cast of Sesame Street getting locked in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
overnight as they search for Big Bird
Big Bird
Big Bird is a protagonist of the children's television show Sesame Street. Big Bird, like many of the other Sesame Street characters, is a Muppet character. He is sometimes referred to simply as "Bird" by his friends....
, who has gotten lost looking for Snuffy
Aloysius Snuffleupagus
Aloysius Snuffleupagus, more commonly known as Mr. Snuffleupagus or Snuffy, is one of the Muppet characters on the longest-running educational television program for young children, Sesame Street. He was created as a woolly mammoth, without tusks or ears, and has a long thick pointed tail, similar...
. The cast must stay in the museum until the morning while avoiding a security guard. The special features the regular human cast of Sesame Street along with several of the Muppet characters, including Cookie Monster, Telly
Telly
The word telly may refer to:* A colloquial term for television* Telly Monster* Telly Awards* Telly Home Entertainment Server*Telly , a range of computer systems*Telly Addicts UK game show*Indian Telly Awards...
, Bert and Ernie
Bert and Ernie
Bert and Ernie are two muppets on the popular U.S. children's television show Sesame Street. The two appear together in numerous skits, forming a comic duo that is one of the centerpieces of the program. Originated by Frank Oz and Jim Henson, the characters are currently performed by Muppeteers...
, The Count
Count von Count
Count von Count, often known simply as "The Count", is one of the Muppet characters on Sesame Street, performed by Jerry Nelson. The Count is a vampire modeled after Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula.-Description:...
, Grover
Grover
Grover is a Muppet character on the popular television show Sesame Street. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a monster who almost never uses contractions when speaking or singing....
, and Oscar
Oscar the Grouch
Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street. He has a green body , has no nose , and lives in a trash can. His favorite thing in life is trash; evidence for this is the song "I Love Trash". A running theme is his compulsive hoarding of seemingly useless items...
. Snuffy also appears, however at this point in the show's history he is still the 'imaginary' friend of Big Bird, never seen by the other characters.
Plot
The cast of Sesame Street has gone on a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Big Bird has arranged to meet with Snuffy at the museum but before he can, it is time for the group to leave for the night. Big Bird decides to go off and look for Snuffy. Before the group can leave, they realize Big Bird is missing and run all through the museum looking for him. The chase has them going through different exhibits at high speed and missing, spotting, and chasing Big Bird. After a bit, the group gives up to find they are locked in the museum for the night. They decide to go back out and look for Big Bird and look at all the exhibits while they are at it.Big Bird eventually finds Snuffy and they wander the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian exhibit and encounter an Egyptian prince named Sahu and his cat who have been cursed to remain on Earth and not be able to become a star like his parents until he answers the question "Where does today meet yesterday?" Every night at midnight for thousands of years, a demon (James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
) appears to ask Sahu that and he has answered wrong every night. Big Bird suggests how about remaining on Earth and become "the only 4,000 year old kid on Sesame Street", but later agrees with Snuffy that they should work together to solve the riddle.
Meanwhile, the other group has split up and are all in different exhibits. Bob and Cookie Monster find themselves looking at pictures with food in them. While Cookie tries to eat the pictures, Bob points out to him a sign that says "Please don't eat the pictures." He replies with "Oh, this going to be a long night." He later sings the song "Don't Eat the Pictures" about this. Oscar finds an exhibit of Greek and Roman statues that have been broken by natural disaster
Natural disaster
A natural disaster is the effect of a natural hazard . It leads to financial, environmental or human losses...
s. He looks in and breaks into song on how beautiful they are to him. Grover finds an exhibit filled with armor from medieval times and thinks a suit of Maximilian armour
Maximilian armour
Maximilian armour is a modern term applied to the style of early 16th-century German plate armour apparently first made for the Emperor Maximilian I...
is a guy named "Max" and tries to befriend him by changing into his Super Grover costume and singing a song. Bert and Ernie view the painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware
Washington Crossing the Delaware
Washington Crossing the Delaware is an 1851 oil-on-canvas painting by German American artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. It commemorates General George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on December 25, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War...
, to which Bert comments on the dedication of Washington and his men, but Ernie comments how Washington was silly to cross in the winter and should have waited until Easter or taken the George Washington Bridge
George Washington Bridge
The George Washington Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey. Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1/9 cross the river via the bridge. U.S...
.
As the night passes, Big Bird and Snuffy continue to try to figure out the answer to the question. Soon before midnight Big Bird unknowingly figures out the answer is "a museum." When the demon appears that night, the question is answered correctly and Sahu is sent to Osiris
Osiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
(Fritz Weaver
Fritz Weaver
Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School...
) to have his heart weighed. When the feather to weigh his heart doesn't appear, Big Bird offers one of his to help. But when Sahu's heart is too heavy, Big Bird claims that it wasn't fair since Sahu was on Earth for so long and so alone his heart would be heavy, so he cannot become a star.
After this, Sahu's heart becomes lighter and he is now ready to join his parents and take his cat. Big Bird and Snuffy then exit the museum, look up into the night sky and see four stars in a straight line (representing Sahu, his parents, and his cat), and are glad that they reunited Sahu with his parents. When morning comes, Big Bird finds the other group and Snuffy is not there. He left early to get to "Snufflegarden." Cookie Monster is promised anything on a hot dog stand as a reward for not eating anything in the museum, and decides to eat the entire stand.
After the credits, Big Bird is pretending to be a statue. He encourages the audience to visit their local museum, and comments on how staying perfectly still is tiring and wonders how statues do it.
Song List
- "Broken and Beautiful" — Oscar (Caroll SpinneyCaroll SpinneyCaroll Edwin Spinney, sometimes credited as Carroll Spinney or Ed Spinney , is an American puppeteer most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on the children's television show Sesame Street.-Life and career:...
) - "I Want To Be Your Friend" — Grover (Frank OzFrank OzFrank Oz is a British-born American film director, actor, voice actor and puppeteer who is known for creating and performing the characters Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear in The Muppet Show, Cookie Monster, Bert and Grover in Sesame Street, and for directing films, including the 1986 Little Shop of...
) - "Don't Eat the PicturesDon't Eat the Pictures (song)Don't Eat the Pictures is the titular song of Sesame Street's educational movie Don't Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street at the Metropolitan Museum of Art....
" — Cookie Monster (Frank OzFrank OzFrank Oz is a British-born American film director, actor, voice actor and puppeteer who is known for creating and performing the characters Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear in The Muppet Show, Cookie Monster, Bert and Grover in Sesame Street, and for directing films, including the 1986 Little Shop of...
) - "You're Gonna Be A Star" — Big Bird and Sahu (Caroll SpinneyCaroll SpinneyCaroll Edwin Spinney, sometimes credited as Carroll Spinney or Ed Spinney , is an American puppeteer most famous for playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on the children's television show Sesame Street.-Life and career:...
) and (Aram Chowdhury) - "Mothers and Children" — Olivia (Alaina Reed HallAlaina Reed HallAlaina Reed Hall was an American actress best known for her roles as Olivia, Gordon's younger sister, on the long-running children's television series Sesame Street, and Rose Lee Holloway on the NBC sitcom 227.-Early life and career:Born Bernice Ruth Reed in Springfield, Ohio, she began her career...
)