Classic Sesame Street - Roosevelt Franklin Elementary Poison

[cstoczyn]

HUZZAH!!!!

[cstoczyn]

Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School

LOL

[cstoczyn]

Long Live Matt Robinson!!!!

[cstoczyn]

RIP Matt Robinson

[gotohell714]

roosevelt vs. elmo = no contest

[Pooleman96]

@gotohell714 Elmo should take some classes on how to be cool from this guy, that way he'd be less sappy and more popular with adults!

[notfragile33]

I wished they would bring this muppet character back! HE WAS A RIOT!!

[cstoczyn]

@notfragile33 OMG!

[salinagrrrl69]

He should have spelled out C R A C K.

[cstoczyn]

@salinagrrrl69 GADZOOKS!!!!

[SunnyWinters718]

even sesame street used to have a more black theme - remember roosevelt franklin ?

of cause you don't

these niggas took EVERYTHING away from us - they will not let us be us

everything got whitewashed broken down from Lion to house cat

[cstoczyn]

@SunnyWinters718 Yeah

[zappahart]

i remember this when i was a kid excellent!!

[cstoczyn]

@zappahart FTW

[jayne2357]

This is Sesame Street series is way more offensive that Katy Perry's appeareance. Where shall we begin? Perhas with the fact that these elementary school students look like they are middle-aged jitterbuggers. Is the message that black kids stay in grade school until their 40's? Then there's the school's name, Roosevelt Franklin. Is the message that black kids aren't aware that their alma mater got the president's name backwards...

[aliyablossom]

@jayne2357 This was in the 70s and not today.

[jayne2357]

@aliyablossom Well the 70s was still nearly 100 years after slavery ended...

[cstoczyn]

@jayne2357 I Know

[cstoczyn]

@aliyablossom I Understand

[cstoczyn]

@jayne2357 IDK

[LawMal]

I am currently reading the 40th anniversary Sesame Street book, It's really big, cute Roosevelt is one of the puppets on the cover. I was very young, but I recall Roosevelt and his mom too. I have not seen the current SS, I know Bob , Susan, and Carroll Spinney are still there, as well as Frank Oz. There is a segment discussing the removal of Roosevelt due to the rowdiness of the puppets. That was really unfair. Remember Herry Monster and Little Bird?

[acesobrian]

Awesome!

[012345678939489]

I Know What To Do In Case Of Anybody Swallows Poison , You Ask What That Person Has Taken , And Somebody Has To Call The Poison Control , And Somebody Has To Call 911 , Love Scott Orvik

[Wozzletoff]

"He didn't speak with a Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one."

[ironworkerwella]

Yo i was raised on this shit, now 39 years later and two grandsons it completes my g status into og status!

[Pocockable]

@ironworkerwella

Hey, no foul language. Children may be watching these!

[Yangtze331]

Hear, hear - lets start a bring back RF campaign for the King of Sesame Street!

[AgaMbadi]

I feel so bad for Matt that his creation got banned because of the protests of a bunch of upper-middle class Uncle Tom's who were afraid of their children not blending in properly with white society. They should bring back Roosevelt Franklin in honor of Matt's memory!!!

[WarmPBR1]

Holy crap. They just sang "Hail to thee, our alma MAMA, Roosevelt Franklin Elementary School."

[wellesradio]

Hey, mater - mama - same thing.

[husat77]

Shows you how far PC bullcrap has pushed us from reality.

[Ja100453]

spoofing presidnet Franklin Roosevelt because he like him teachs us about the dangers of poison becasue during WW2 poisonus divises are acivacted on the battlefild

[SpankRamen2]

I want to hear Roosevelt Franklin say, "I'd like some Chinese spareribs". LOL

[rang3r34]

God, I remember this one! I laughed my ass of at this even back then as a kid!

[55westend]

I too have a Roosevelt Franklin puppet and it is my kids favorite - - I use it to entertain them frequently! Why can't they bring this back as a limited edition - - I'm sure the baby boomers and Xers would buy it!

[jrlh67]

Thanks for posting this video. I am 40 and I too used to sing the Roosevelt Franklin "Ba" Elementary School to my own children. They thought of course that I was crazy. I also pleased to see the  story of the lower case "n" posted too! When those pieces aired, every one had to be quiet, because I said so! Sesame Street really has changed over the years. I truly miss the old episodes. Keep posting every one!!!

[oiog]

I am 49 years old and still sing that quackity quack song to children! It must be from 73 or 74??

[oiog]

there was a song that went Quackity Quack said the little old duck

it's bad luck to be born a duck

so the duck took a dip and the chicken did too and the duck was cool but the next thing you knew, he pulled out the chicken and pulled him on land and said if we weren't birds, I would shake your hand, you just proved one thing to me, a chicken is the last thing I want to be. just another number one golden rule from the roosevelt franklin elementary school.

Can someone pleae post that song!

[ISNorden]

So do I...too bad CTW dropped him as a bad example to schoolkids, he knew what's what!

[teecayb]

I don't get why the dropped Roosevelt Franklin. Those Roosevelt segments were my favorites! He was cool and intellegent--how does that set a bad example?

[hoopersghost]

His classmates were loud and disruptive (calling names and throwing paper planes in the classroom, for instance); and the teacher never seemed to be there at the same time.

[Pooleman96]

I guess it's true what they say: you're only a reflection of the people you hang around with. Roosevelt Franklin may have been able to settle a crowd down, but his classmates were rowdy and unsupervised. People linked him with the negative behavior rather than his positive leadership, so he was dropped. Funny how the world works, right?

[cstoczyn]

@Pooleman96 Right

[Mascherina1964]

I think someone has already answered, but let me chime in: it's for the same reason they dropped Lefty -- the producers feared that these segments would reinforce bad behaviour among the kids./ I dunno: I'm from one of these bad places (apparently my public school had the worst reputation in town) and I'm doing a doctorate./Go figure./Cheers

[ShadowRaver]

@Mascherina1964 actually they removed Roosevelt's appearance because parents were writing letters saying that it gave children a negative stereotype about African American Children

[Smartboy8877]

@ShadowRaver

I remember reading about this in "Sesame Street Unpaved". I believe that it happened either in the late seventies or early eighties.

[cstoczyn]

@Smartboy8877 Actually, The Series Was From 1969-1989

[Smartboy8877]

@Mascherina1964

I guess that you just spelled out the fact that there are exceptions to almost every rule! Just for fun, I will tell you guys about another exception to the rules. I was heard of a Jewish cattle rancher in Idaho!

[cstoczyn]

@Smartboy8877 Really?

[cstoczyn]

@Mascherina1964 Same To You

[Smartboy8877]

@Mascherina1964

I remember the character of lefty.  I thought he was pretty funny!

[bonushaw]

Thanks so much!! I have the Roosevelt Franklin Puppet from 1975 and I finally get to show my kids WHO Roosevelt WAS!!

Love it!

[Crisgo3d]

Got to have the skull and crossbones in there too

[1manwalkingfreakshow]

Didn't creep me out at all, let alone as much as, say, the "Closet Killer" Paramount tag after The Brady Bunch's credits. And The Electric Company had already clued me in on POISON. But this was a welcome, appreciated, unforgotten and pretty cool reminder.

[DBNHellspawn]

Those are wise words from Roosevelt Franklin.

[ProfessorIgor]

dass right !! you dig ?

[iguanaboy]

there was a black and white video of Roosevelt franklin singing the days of the week. Does anyone have that? And could anyone post it?

[Mirra8]

Roosevelt Franklin (BAH!) Elementary School! This remains stuck in my head to this day...

[SUPREMEdonuan]

hoo schnap! MF DOOM sampled this skit on his "MM..Food?" CD? im glad I saw this!

[needles1987]

Roosevelt was awesome.

[kevin07979]

Yeah this really creeped me out also. Had forgotten

about it until now.

[BipBippadotta]

Tell me did they ban this sketch too?

[swarlock]

They thought he was a bad influence. Racially motivated or not.

[lakehouse1988]

They din't think he was a bad influence

[lakehouse1988]

They didn't ban them

[gbear4]

@BipBippadotta They banned the character because he was a bit obnoxious and they thought it was a bad stereotype for black children. Go figure. It was awesome. They also banned the guy who was the composer that banged his head on the piano because it taught "violence" as a solution to frustration.

[cstoczyn]

@BipBippadotta Nope

[Larynxa]

This one seriously creeped me out when I was little!

[ISNorden]

A lot of safety sketches for kids (not just on Sesame Street, either) were designed to scare: remember the "Mr. Yuk" ads from the mid-70s?

[OofusTwillip]

I wonder how many of us those "Mr. Yuk" PSAs (which, BTW, are up on YouTube) terrorized...