Classic Sesame Street: Number Song (Song of 10--original version)

[JackSlugman]

There is nothing more genius and profound than teaching 2 year olds numbers by having a chef fall down the stairs with a given number of delectable pastries. I can imagine the Who playing this song for some reason, with Keith Moon falling down the stairs with the cakes. do you know what I'm talking about?

[terratec365]

Wow, this brings back memories.

[choosing2lookeast]

According to muppet wiki, In 1970, the New York Times Magazine reported on Joan Ganz Cooney's distaste for the baker's fall at the end of the segment: "'I don't like it,' Mrs. Cooney says flatly of the pratfall finale. 'Banana-peel humor is male and it's from age 4 on. Younger children -- 2-year-olds, say -- think he's hurt.' Then why does the guy stay? 'The show,' said Mrs. Cooney, 'is definitely male-oriented.'" I'm female and I LIKED the baker. That woman needed to lighten up a little lol

[LarcenTyler]

If you look closely at the pins, you can tell that they were rigged to fall over.

[JBWiz]

yeah the 2, 4, and 7 pins go down by themselves after the ball has gone by

[MrRemark21]

Spilling a whole group of desserts is not wanted when for real.

For spilling a whole group of desserts, as long as it's 100% fake, falling down the stairs is not wanted when in real life.

The best thing for America to do is to use drop zones plus "Family Feud" mushroom-style buzzers.

[greenblue1979]

Actually, on a serious note, the "Ten Little Indians" part may have been taken out because it looks like the Indians are actually in a shooting game, I guess a "Cowboys vs. Indians" carnival type game, where you'd shoot them and they'd go backward (as they are?).



[greenblue1979]

The "Ten Little Indians" part is NOT racist! I actually remember that, great upload!

If anything is "racist" in this clip, it's the black bowler using the black bowling ball to knock down all the white pins! I'm calling my attorney right to to sue....who, I don't know, but I'm suing someone because I'm so offended!

[TheIronSheikSociety]

Thank God!!!! The original "Baker Song of 10" film is out for the public to see. I could not understand as a kid why the 10 did not show up after the bells. Now I understand why. Someone had to be too politically correct about the Indians to avoid "offending" those people. Some people do not realize that they are only toys, not real people. There is nothing bigoted about this clip. The "Baker Song of One" clip is also available for the first time in over three decades. Awesome!!!

[buzzlewie]

10 10 10 let's sing a song about 10, how many is 10. And that's the song of 10

[DJCandyManMike]

This wasn't the song I was looking for originally, but I'm glad it popped up! I used to crack up every time the baker would fall down the stairs.

[captjo1966]

Remember this like it was yesterday was the best educational programme ever was always glued to the box

[MarkSentMe]

I know it's mean, but I STILL LMAO when the baker busts his butt on the stairs!!

[80zdude4]

Imagine if there were a Baker #11 and a Baker #12. Perhaps: 11 vinyl records, 11 trapezoids, 11 flowers, 11 rocks, 11 lizards, and 11 cheese pizzas (baker carries pizzas and falls down the stairs). Maybe: 12 dollars, 12 eggs, 12 seashells, 12 marbles, 12 baseballs, and 12 jelly-filled doughnuts (baker carries doughnuts and falls down the stairs). The kids would add 11 and 12 to the song.

[Pocockable]

I used to feel sorry for the baker when I was a little kid. At one point, I was especially disturbed by the # 4 song, because it bothered me to see root beer all over his clothes. For a while, I was afraid to watch Sesame Street, because I was afraid that the # 4 song would come on. Once, however, when it did, I went into my room and stayed there until it was over.

[DragonLord1975]

I wanted to EAT THOSE!!! COME ON!!!

[dferris7767]

is that Jim Henson's son that says "Ten Little Indians"?

[MuzikJunkyAES]

Yep, that's Brian Henson. Peace.

[MuzikJunkyAES]

Thank GOD the original version's here! Peace.

[Islandersb]

Does anyone have the Sesame Street Song of One segment (One Wedding Cake)? I was the "One Belly Button" boy and I have never been able to ind it.  If anyone can locate it in full please email me at Islandersb@aol

[acholl980]

Hoopersghost just posted it. Check it out.

[hoopersghost]

Actually, NantoVision did it--but I'm glad it's here all the same. :-)

[HoustonRules]

I can't email you from here but the Song Of One is on YouTube now and it's also on the new Sesame Street DVD "40 Years of Sunny Days" or something like that. Thank you (and your "outie") for being on the show!

[djwood1672]

That segment is on Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days...I bought it for my 2 year-old for her birthday in December 2009!

[angelgirl7473]

its on here.. hope you find it =)

[acholl980]

I notice the soundtrack here is much more in the quality of the other 9 than the revised version. The audio track with the 10 bells is flatter and lifeless almost like it was rushed in comparison to the fuller track here.

[mcog2006]

Here's something I found out about the baker, Jim Henson did the voice but a stuntman played the baker.

[LoriTadey7]

@mcog2006

You can tell just by listening to it ~ the voice sounds like Ernie's !! :)

[CanadaFamilyMan]

What if there was a Baker #0? Maybe: 0 silver dollars (or "loonies" in Canada), 0 dinosaurs, 0 arcade games, 0 tails, 0 airships, 0 pelican potpies. The baker would just fall down the stairs & stay nice & clean, & because the kids only sing 1-10, there would be no flashing 0 section, & several other oddities. But maybe they would make some unusual changes for Baker #0!

[hoopersghost]

Counting nothing for its own sake would seem a bit bizarre; the way Sesame Street usually handles teaching zero is by having objects disappear. So the whole film (if it existed) would be a series of "where did it go?" moments, possibly with the kids counting backwards each time. (And since the original series was made in 1969, Henson would've chosen "countables" familiar to that generation of kids: pinball machines, toy cars, maybe some large animal vanishing in a magic act.)

[hoopersghost]

P.S. For the falling-baker moment, he'd probably get thrown off balance after discovering his dessert tray was empty; he'd fall with the usual big noise but not much mess.

[wattamack4]

"Zero desserts on this tray!".

*Trips anyway*.

[angelgirl7473]

lol

[HoustonRules]

Baker: Zero chance of keeping my balance!

(falls)

Kids: And that's the song of zero!

[CanadaFamilyMan]

"10 Little Indians" was certainly inspired by the Agatha Christie novel with the same title. Not racism!

[hoopersghost]

I'm betting on the children's counting song of the same name--which would've been more familiar to preschoolers than any novel.

Still, if CTW edited the Indians out of this clip for fear of stereotypes...why didn't they edit the "three blind mice" reference out of the Jazz #3 cartoon? (Search for "Sesame Street Jazz #3" here and you'll see what I mean: three mice with dark glasses and canes climb out of three holes..)

[CanadaFamilyMan]

Oh yeah, you're right, I forgot about that song! As for the 3 mice, my guess is that people are more touchy about race issues than they are about physical disabilities.

[acholl980]

I also mentioned somewhere that they took 15 years to delete a scene from #5 where a monster breaks a window which led some to believe it provoked gang violence. It seemed that was less touchy than minor ethnic incidents.

[madamewoselle]

@hoopersghost I actually sang "one, little two, little three little Indians" in Kindergarten. We also stood "single file Indian style" and sat "Indian style." I could never tell if they meant American Indians or India Indians.

[TheEpicProportions]

Wow. No wonder we all had short attention spans.

[MattShizzle]

When I was little the baker (I referred to him as "The Man Who Falls Down") falling scared me so bad I'd leave the room when this came on.

[dadadruma]

ok that is so awsome mattshizzle it used to bring me to tears im sure the quality of the black and white tv we had and the picutre tube being messed up had a great deal to do with it, i was hesitant to check this video but glad i did

[sallyjosie]

The ten little Indians is not racist! And I AM PART AMERICAN INDIAN....no baloney! If they were being shot down by cowboys maybe but they were just standing there! How stupid can some people get?

[peter4hou]

Is it just me, or is the kid with the wind-up toys a dead ringer for Obama?

[HoustonRules]

It's just you.  :)

[CelesteK]

Did they take that "10 little indians" part out because someone got offended by it?

[hoopersghost]

Apparently, some (Native American?) parents did think the "10 Little Indians" part was racist; they might not have objected if the toy in the film didn't show Wild West movie stereotypes. (I grew up hearing the *song* "Ten Little Indians", which doesn't have any racist imagery at all--and which Jim Henson probably had in mind when he included that part here.)

[CelesteK]

Oh I see what you mean.

[StevoT10]

That chef is very clumsey!!

[hoopersghost]

That's part of the joke; physical comedy and "banana peel gags" were common during Sesame Street's early years.

[pullybrit]

Here I am in my forties, and to this day I still laugh my ass off when the baker trips down the stairs!

[KazuyaPrower]

This is a very rare find! The "10 little Indians" part is usually replaced with "10 bells".

[MichaelBrookham]

@KazuyaPrower I don't remember seeing the 10 little Indians, but like the 10 bells, they were counted slowly.

[Koontakinte]

the baker- DERRRP!!!

[wiley207]

Finally, a version WITHOUT the new sound effects added!

[johnny10301968]

Was,nt there a number song called 1

[hoopersghost]

A "Song of One" clip did exist, but it was extremely rare--only six known episodes of Sesame Street included it, and none of those are available to the general public. (Most adult fans who've seen the "Song of One" clip have seen it only once in a lifetime, approprately enough!)

[Tubernaut]

One Cow and one wedding cake were featured in the one clip

[CanadaFamilyMan]

I saw the 1 clip when I was little. Did you see it? If not, there are "frozen" pictures of it available on Muppet Wiki. I hope to see the whole thing again someday.... I REALLY hope!

[OofusTwillip]

One of the wind-up toys is an extremely rare collectible today. The little red-haired boy in the striped shirt is Pinocchio, from the very first Rankin-Bass TV series, "The New Adventures of Pinocchio". The series used voice talent in Canada---including the same voice artists who worked on the classic Rankin-Bass special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". It's a terrible injustice that those voice artists haven't gotten any residuals for their work since 1969.

[CGAWLEY]

@OofusTwillip I've been trying to track down one of those Pinnochio toys for years with no luck! :( I wonder what its valued at today?