Sesame Street - Traffic Lights (1970)

[headphoneharmonics]

Could anyone have a guess as to what this was originally filmed on? It looks like a high end Super 8 to me...

[madamewoselle]

I remember this!!!

[70Kenny]

Traffic lights, yes. Individual freedom Hooray. Any car you want to drive,GO GET IT! Car crazy society is the best thing to ever happen to humanity and there needs to be MORE freeways, auto dealerships and innovation with regard to individual transportation! Buy a new Camaro, Challenger or Mustang and aim it at anyone who would attempt to tell you you you can't have it!!

[Landaux]

They dont tell what yellow is for. lol

[geor67]

I remember seeing this from many years ago. A very educational film.

[ErwinNegentigNo2]

In soviet russia, red means screw it! GO

[samsticka]

From 1:00 to 1:31 - That's pretty wild. And now they to bring all that commotion and chaos back with roundabouts?

Some traffic lights are being taken out and replaced with roundabouts. How are kids going to explain that on "Sesame Street"?

[uofmrules1]

1:00; too bad we still have morons who don't know how to drive.

[Pocockable]

@uofmrules1

And it's too bad that we live in such a car-crazy society. I think public transportation all over North America should be comparable to New York. I wish I could go back in time and prevent Henry Ford from being born.

[Rustyshackleford08]

Wow, 41 years ago, most of the people in this film are either really old or dead and all those cars are in the scrap heap. Sad things were better then.

[001chatlos001]

When cars were actually cars!!!

[DisneyBlackJet]

@001chatlos001 Yeah, now they just look like huge robot bricks. I do see a lot of "vintage" cars on the road today, but some of the drivers of those cars play rap music. You can't win. T_T

[samsticka]

Now there are horizontal traffic lights. In Nebraska, they're used all over the state, except for Omaha and a few other places.

[uofmrules1]

@samsticka Texas uses them. Accordingly, they're like that in order to reduce wind resistence in storms.

[samsticka]

@uofmrules1 So does Florida. Perhaps they should do a new skit on "Sesame Street" talking about horizontal lights. Can you imagine how that would go?

Kid #1:Why is that light hung differently?

Kid #2:It's mounted horizontally. Some places do that in order to reduce wind resistance.

Or how about the lights mounted on wires?

Kid #1:Those lights are being held by wires.

Kid #2:Yup. Some older light posts will hang the traffic lights on wires instead of poles.

[zangazoo2007]

@uofmrules1 and also to make it safer for taller vehicles to go under.

[Klinkster68]

Apparently people talking about the yellow light is on the next show.

[jeopardy60611]

@Klinkster68 How 'bout the light in the middle?

The light in the middle means hurry up and go before the light turns red! That's the yellow light.

[001chatlos001]

@jeopardy60611

haha

[mrmoore1970]

1970 wow, I was just born then :D

[TheMohanroache]

wow!!! 1970 my mother was only just turning 1 year old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BoogsterSU2]

lol they forgot yellow!

[CarHunter]

oh wow... '70 dodge coronet (with it's extremely cool grille) as taxi... how cool is that?!

[microbusss]

well good thing we don't have those red & green traffic lights All traffic lights have a yellow in them now & that B&W segment looked like it was from them Keystone Kops movies lol

[queensplazasouth]

@microbusss I believe there are still some yellowless lights in the far reaches of the city, eg Far Rockaway. There is really no difference since instead of yellow both red and green light simultaneously. The reason the city largely did away with the yellowless lights was to comply with federal rules in order to receive transportation funding. Same reason they went to green street signs, pictograph pedestrian signals and NOW changing the font on the streetsigns.

[TnseWlms]

I know what red and green lights mean. When the light turns red, you pick your guitar. When the light turns green, you strum it. When there is no traffic light you switch to the player piano.

[jeopardy60611]

@TnseWlms I did notice the different musical backgrounds for the red and green lights when I was a kid. I got the impression that the green tune was a happier tune because people and cars could go.

Now that I am older and wiser, I realize that the clip at the end is an old silent movie with Charlie Chaplain. Typically, these movies were shown with piano music in the background.

[sizzlehalt]

I remember this when I was 6, before I started the 1st grade!! I'm 46 now. DANG I'M OLD!!!

[shyguy76]

Before blackberries, texting, people walking with cell phones. the good old days! :) thanks asaweryold

[ashland1977]

Thank you for posting this. Awesome classic sesame street, I would give nearly anything to travel back to NYC of the 70s as well.

[noreaga12326]

ahhh the good old days in new york city. i definetly miss those days

[Oaklandgirlpitlover1]

@noreaga12326 I miss those days here in Oakland.

[Smartboy8877]

@coyote374

I heard about that reality too.

[TnseWlms]

Most traffic lights in the East are painted yellow; most traffic lights in the West are painted black or dark brown or green. Anybody know why this is?

[Steven197981]

At 0:27, that particular four-way two-headed traffic signal was made by Crouse-Hinds. Beautiful signal.

[Shteve67]

I love the old red/green traffic lights with no yellow.

[Smartboy8877]

@Shteve67

Why do you like them without the yellow light?

[TnseWlms]

I like traffic lights, I like traffic lights,

I like traffic lights, no matter where they've been.

I like traffic lights, I like traffic lights,

I like traffic lights, but only when they're green.

-Monty Python

[CanadaFamilyMan]

How cool! Especially the old-time scenes. Once I had a dream in which I was driving after dark & came across a traffic lite with yellow on top (flashing). Middle lite was green, bottom red. Wouldn't it shock the heck out of you to see that?

[Smartboy8877]

@CanadaFamilyMan

It certainly would!

[SourApplez1211]

1:00 - 1:31 they didn't have traffic lights in the 1910's or the 1920's and that was pretty scary.

[Steven197981]

"The light and the bottom means go, that's the green light". Hmm, I don't see that happening at 0:38. The pedestrian signal is still red and the people are crossing the street.

[tpirman1982]

Wow! New York City looks as exciting as Boston, MA! i travel to Boston a lot.

[jenzeppelin]

i miss old cars

[lukeschillpad]

mmeee tooo :(

[TheTigerer]

@jenzeppelin Me too, they are soo beautiful. See new cars some Hyundais or whatever they are, anyway new cars are ugly, only sports cars are beautiful. But Fiat's new cars look great to my eye.

[Go90go]

They run cooler, are much more efficient, and offer pure light. What more could you want? Zero-point energy extraction? That'd be the day.

[Steven197981]

you live in new york city if so where, just wonderning?

[Steven197981]

Well the LEDs are suppose to last more longer rather than the incandescent bulbs.

[Steven197981]

Thats quite strange...it should be just red for all 4 sides that flash constantly. Are you refering to single headed traffic lights? Because if you are than that it is quite strange...because where I live in New York..you would find those that usually have a yellow flasher on one side and on the other side red flashing or could be both red or yellow.

[Steven197981]

Those double headed signals are long gone. I use to remember them when I was a little, when I used to go to Queens to visit my grandfather. Im pretty sure that every single one of them have been removed especially in the far rockaways, like in the video. There used to be alot of those double headed signals there at almost every intersection.

[Steven197981]

They started that change in early 2003 I believe and finished roughly a year later in all 5 boroughs.

[wiley207]

The ones in NYC have the quick "fade" effect like incandescent ones do, but others I see just switch to the next one by just cutting right there like LEDs typically do. Many new vehicular traffic lights in my city are LED but the lens have that "incandescent" look to them. They're also replacing the crosswalk signals in my city as well, but for some weird reason, they recently installed the old-style crosswalk signals with the words at an intersection I know that didn't have walk signals

[4thtroika]

Every now and then, that silent movie piano music plays in my head. Thanks.

[DybboB89]

too bad ppl in new york dont understand this simple concept...

[microbusss]

of course theres no sound idiot its a SILENT film duh! =P

[puppyshoes]

It does look like Montreal. Did you that these cars were older modles?

[mel4pat2000]

Does anyone have any info on the old 1920's piano piece that was played in the last half of this film peace. And speaking of which is there anybody out there that can remember the "I love your sunny face" skit which has a '20's flavor to it? Sounds like that piece was sung by good ol' Joe Raposo himself.

[jeopardy60611]

@mel4pat2000 I'm wondering if it's really an old piano piece or if it's original music by Joe Raposo. I think he wrote a lot of the background music that Sesame Street uses.

[spin9702]

thats a pretty short yellow light at the beginning....imagine if it were today, and it had red light cameras, the city would make lots of money.

[Steven197981]

Defintely would. I live in the suburbs of New York City and I have been noticing at major instersections where they are controlled by a traffic signal, there is a red light camera....they started to pop more and more at major intersections.

[joh2]

Looked like nearly EVERY car shown would likely have had a v8 under its hood!

[wiley207]

The car crash sound effect at 01:27 was also used in "Leader of the Pack."

[Lectronimo]

...And I think I heard the Wilhelm Scream at 00:34!

[uofmrules1]

I think you're hearing things. I didn't hear it at all.

[puppyshoes]

No I herd it too.

[uofmrules1]

I turned the volume way up at :34. I didn't hear ANYTHING but the music.

[mel4pat2000]

Wow! That's an interesting bit of info! Did also know that Grace Slick of "Jefferson Airplane was the voice behind the animated "Jazzy Spies Count?

[wiley207]

I know that

[jeopardy60611]

@wiley207 It looks like the cars don't really crash. They just come together and lots of smoke comes up.

[Kevmike68]

I always loved when Sesame Street would go to the zoos and film the animals, or go out into the New York streets for film footage of things....does anyone remember an alphabet segment with jazzy music? The camera would zoom in on an "A" on a street sign or something, and a kids voice would say "A", and there was a kind of swingy jazz music background

[Auscrawlrule]

I like the old "don't walk" pedestrian signals. They are also now disappearing.

[wiley207]

In the 70s they replaced those old neon ones with common incandescent ones. But now they're replaced with new LED crosswalk signals.

[chemicalcarlos]

I always got a kick out of the Olde Tyme silent movie at the end of that bit. Thought I'd never see it again.

[speeta]

The red/green signals with no yellow light seen in the film are governing traffic to Park Drive, a meandering one-way two-lane road through Central Park, NYC.

[hwyfan]

There is still a two head traffic light in the Rockaway Beach section of Queens in New York City.

[kevin07979]

They forgot about the yellow light, which as we all know means speed up so you can get thru before it

turns red. ha ha

[landyachtfan79]

No, yellow means speed up, then check the rear view mirror for cops, LOL!!!

[speeta]

Wow, Korvettes department store in Herald Square. It's been a long, long time.

[jbl1975]

Been a while, eh? I still remember the one in Southgate, MI, where a Super K-Sears is now.

[barringtonbelinda]

A driving great film --  happy motoring everyone (!)

[shupe1907]

No such thing as yellow lights in 1970??

Must have been interesting driving.

[ruleta74835]

New York City introduced the amber indication in 1952, but it was many years before all of the signals were converted. I can remember seeing may red-greens in the 70's. They would go from green to green/red overlap to red. Actually, there may still be a handfull around some of the boroughs.

[jbl1975]

I was wondering if those lights went from green straight to red or not. I guess not.

[samsticka]

I saw some yellow lights in this skit.

[uofmrules1]

I'm talking about the red/green lights with no yellow light.

[kingcjulia]

Funny, people where I live still drive like the folks in the BW film

[Larynxa]

Do you live in Montreal?

[kingcjulia]

No, Texas

[werewolfantipaladin]

I've never seen those lights with just the red and green lenses.

[qbeam]

Clears the old cobwebs, this one does!!

[jonnytbird4789]

SOme of that old footage can be found on my uploaded video, Dialing for Prizes Movie.

[tpirman1982]

That's right. I've seen Dialing For Prizes Movie here before. That's the same old film of those old-fashioned cars going berserk

[tpirman1982]

In fact, I've been toying around with the B&W film, and pasted the music from the skit where Bob and Luis put the Train Tunnel picture together and I've mixed in in with Fx New Sound. The B&W film with the said music will be up as a bonus soon.