Sesame Street - Selling Ernie a 'STOP' sign

[ProjectFlashlight612]

"This is a very special STOP sign, bub. Peel off the O and eat it, know what I mean?"

[chrisflx]

mstarz,

Frank is known for doing the character but  ACTUALLY, Caroll did perform as Lefty at least once . . . Search "Sesame Street - Ernie & Lefty U&V (1969)"

[MoDeRnEpiCs]

@thestalker3 lol i thought the same thing

[Pikachu4352]

Black and white makes this Video Very Nostalgic!

[HartnellTroughton108]

why would these film prints be made?

[thestalker3]

nice...a molesting drug dealer

[darthvatrayen]

This video makes me high.

[MrHmongRooster]

soooooo old

[stegatops]

Hey!!!! Im ticklish!! Ahhhhhhh!!!

What do you say??

Please dont do that!!!

LOL!!!!! This first team was piss funny!!! In recent years SS has been a victim of its own political correctness.............a tragedy.

[KaiserVadin]

@stegatops i stop watching this show but I bet they where told to stop doing it .

[stegatops]

Im sure they were............time has not been kind. I see their point though- you cant have "Cookie Monster" in a country where 40% of the population is obese.........they had to do something. Its still a shame though..........."Vegie Monster" dosent have quite the same ring as the former! I believe theyre releasing an "adults only" collection of outtakes from the series that were made in the sixties and were deemed to dark for kids..........its rated NC-17...........might be worth a look.

[wildboy789789]

basically stupiding up our kids

[taiyo06]

@wildboy789789 yeah i guess on you didnt it

[dormira]

they should get lefty to sell slap chops

[gskaloyan]

"Don't do that!" "No good!"

[wyecee]

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGHHT!

[TelephoneRock4ever]

**giggling** Lefty's face at 0:16, and at the end.

[beck943]

"If you don't want me to tickle you anymore, what do you say?" LOL!!!

[bloofan06]

It's kind of cool in black and white!

[dj2bklyn]

great sales pitch lol

[dj2bklyn]

why is this in B&W

[ZNKChannel]

That if in a new episode, it will be all Ernie & Lefty just like the old days. & Lefty could be exposed or something. But if they do an episode like that... who would perform Lefty?

[Carthsting]

Sesame street is unique because it is not created with thinking tha all children retarded and dumb(Unlike teletubbies).

[GroverKent]

I remember this one, lol!

[NurText]

#Zensursula :D

[GodSpHinX]

#Zensursula ;D

[kungfujiapple]

From 1970.

[pantherbuff89]

No wonder he can't sell the Stop sign to anybody :)

[finnishminnow]

Where's the Color Version as well?

[mastermalone]

I remember seeing this in color. I'm not sure if the skit was re-done of if it was just colorized at some point. But I think the sales guy was green.

[schoschie]

Colors were probably lost in copying/transfering/digitizing­

[kubikdoctor]

right, riiiiiigggght,....do you want to buy some green for a nickel?

[TheStapleGunKid]

Gotta watch out for those black market Stop sign salesemen pushing their goods on the street.

[galaxyhigh73]

The funniest thing about Lefty for me has to be all the dealers, pimps, hustlers & hock artists w/ fake Rolexes, etc. in my city in the 70's- they came off just like him...

[ecclesi]

@galaxyhigh73 RIGHT!! Lefty is just like one o dem shady characters lol...

[Quietschquatsch]

"I dont even have the time to READ the sign." - "Stop!" - "Waht? Did you ask me to stop?" - "The SIGN says stop." - "Aaahh... the SIIIIIGN says stop." lol

[orjudestie]

WHY? He is SO cute!

[blockheadman]

He is a bad influence on kids. telling them to steal stop signs.

[aerorox1263]

LMFAO

[FranklyMisterShankly]

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight!

[blockheadman]

the first episodes were in colour why the hell is this in black & white

[victoriaphibes]

Two possible reasons: (1)Depends on when the station this was taped from began regular color broadcasting. Sesame Street began broadcasting in 1969, and I vividly remember that Sesame Street used to be broadcast on WDCN (public TV), Channel 2, in black and white. Although I don't remember *exactly* the year that WDCN began broadcasting in color, I do seem to remember that most stations in Nashville began broadcasting in color around 1973 or so. (2) Maybe it was taped from a black & white TV.

[blockheadman]

i see. thanks for clearing that up. America got colour tv in the 60 & we southern hemisphere people got colour around 1971

[SenhorBundy]

Does anyone have Episode 162, aka "Oscar's Stop Signs?"

[myronto]

Some one please post the scale one and the number 8!

[coolbluelights]

Black and white? wow this must be really old, or did you dd that effect?

[Dulcimerist]

Isn't it illegal to steal street signs? Such a bad influence on kids... LOL

[halifaxsoundguy]

I bet the makers of the lefty character smoked alot of dope back in the day. I've seen that same shifty character down behind the mall.

[miguel712]

Classic Man

[dogdoo4brains]

I remember seeing such skits as a young child, and I used to think that Lefty was really Bert in disguise trying to get even with Ernie. I am guessing that's because I was (And still am) visually impaired, and I obviously used to think that puppets were real before finding out that people acted them out.

[angischy]

I can see how one would think that. Even now watching that, I sort of get that impression, like maybe it's even the same Bert puppet with a disguise on...except maybe it is too small to see Bert. But I totally see where you're coming from!

[tpirman1982]

Lefty stepped on Ernie's foot on purpose!

[DiAnno13]

Lefty hits another dead end, as once again Ernie manages not to yield to the pressure. That's one way to kill a sale.

[StaceSesame]

how come this is in black and white?

[DiAnno13]

Because it's not in color.

[StaceSesame]

lol! i mean it was from the 70's so it should be in color. :D

[DiAnno13]

And it's a stop sign, so it should be red... in balck and white, he should be selling a One Way sign!

[ytbywie]

video camera in front of b&w tv

[Marbles471]

Because this is a kinescope copy of the original (a black-and-white film camera pointed at a video monitor). Kinescope is the only reason any television broadcasts from the early 1950s survive, since everything was live back then and videotape hadn't been perfected yet. I didn't know any TV stations were still making these as late as 1970, but there you go.

[pvx]

Yes, kinescopes were still being made in the early 70s, mainly because it was still cheaper than videotape at the time for making copies (IIRC), and also they were still being made then for export to tv stations in other countries (no costly video standard conversion needed back then, as 16 or 35 mm film was/still is a worldwide standard). The BBC still made kinescopes for export and for their own archives even into the early 80s...!

[Marbles471]

Thanks!

[uofmrules1]

"Also, if you can't remember a specific song by, uh, Luther Vandross, ya look at the sign." "Oh! STOP TO LOVE!" "SHHHHHHHH!" "Stop to Love." Riiiight."

[tpirman1982]

Anybody got this in color?

[wattamack4]

Pretty sure Chigu2112 does.

[GLUEGUNNAT]

I knew that Frank Oz performed him but I didn't know he sound like Bert. I'm wondering if when Caroll Spinney sound simular to Frank Oz's. I never seen Caroll Spinney segments where he performs Lefty.

[mstatz]

Frank Oz also does Bert! That is why his voice is so close to Lefty. Caroll Spinney does Big Bird and Oscar. He never performed Lefty.

[See918]

Not true mstatz, he did Lefty in the P and R sketch and in the U and V sketch.

[mstatz]

I guess I never saw those skits. This voice is the only one I remember from Lefty.

[MakenWaves]

STOP! Don't say anything, shhh but Bert is Lefty.. shhh

[See918]

I think Lefty was a real asshole in this one.

[Jamiepeavler]

This has got to be the most amusing skit with Lefty and Ernie I have ever seen,and this is the first time I've ever seen it.

[GLUEGUNNAT]

Lefty sounds a lot like Bert in this skit.

[mstatz]

It is Bert in a way.  The voice is Frank Oz, who also does Bert (as well as Grover, Cookie Monster, Miss Piggy and Yoda from Star Wars).

[moatguy]

Don,t forget Fungas in Monsters inc.

[moatguy]

Frank Oz voices Fungas in Monsters Inc too.

[DiAnno13]

And a prison guard in "The Blues Brothers."

[DiAnno13]

And a policeman in "Trading Places".

[moatguy]

And Fozzie and Gonzo.

[moatguy]

Also if you hear Frank Oz voice as Fungas in Monsters Inc there is a touch of Grover and Yoda voice when Fungas is telling Randall about Boo being on the front page of the newspaper.

[Marbles471]

I love Lefty's theme music.

[Jamiepeavler]

I often wonder what Lefty is looking out for whenever he tells Ernie to "SSHHHH!" Is he looking out for the cops, or something?

[Marbles471]

Probably. I imagine the products he sells are black-market bootleg goods. (Yep, a black-market stop sign. I'm standing by that. :)

In fact, I like to imagine that the reason he hasn't been on the show in years is because he was finally busted. ;D

[DiAnno13]

Yes, he did a nickel at Attica.

"A nickel?"

SHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

[Ziffel67]

"With a sign like this you can save yourself a lot of tickling." Funny stuff!

Haven't seen this since the 70's so it was an extra treat. Still hoping to see the one again where Lefty tries to sell Ernie an empty box.

Hey btw, Lefty should have tried to sell that sign to Bert. He'd certainly have a 1001 uses to hold up that sign with pesky Ernie around the apartment!

[mstatz]

Very good point! LOL

[4thtroika]

Depends on who's doing the tickling! ;-)

[wattamack4]

In the colorized version the backround is blue.

[SenhorBundy]

and what colour's Lefty then?

[wattamack4]

Green like always.

[DiAnno13]

If someone steps on your foot, what do you do? Hit him with the sign.

[moatguy]

The salesmen,s name is Lefty.

[mstatz]

I had forgotten that.