My Favorite Muppets, Part 2: Frank Oz

Today, I'm looking at Jim Henson's partner-in-crime, Frank Oz.  He retired in 2000 to further focus on his directorial career (which includes one of my favorite films of all-time, Little Shop of Horrors), but many of his classic Muppet characters are still with us today.

Remember, just because I placed Animal at number 6 doesn't mean he can't be your favorite Muppet.  It just means that you need to get your priorities straight.

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10) SkekSil, the Skeksis Chamberlain - The Dark Crystal

SkekSil is the best character in The Dark Crystal, by far.  Unlike the rest of one-dimensional "good guys" and "bad guys," the permanently-smirking Chamberlain actually keeps the audience guessing with his actions after he is shunned by his own kind.  While Barry Dennen supplied his voice (and his amusing grunts), it was Oz who managed to instill sympathy into this grotesque creature, making us care for his well-being and delight in his villainy.

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9) The Snowths - The Muppet Show

"Mahna Mahna" only works because of these two creatures, and it helps that they only appear for reprises of "Mahna Mahna."  But unlike other one-hit-wonders, we don't want to see them do anything else.  It would be very strange to have them act in a scene or try to hold a conversation that wasn't "doo doo doo doo doo."  Their pink, bovine-esque design makes them visually appealing, but I think their unique foam tube mouths are their best feature.  What other Muppet comes close to looking like these things?  They are one-of-a-...two-of-a-kind.

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8) Fozzie Bear - The Muppet Show

Before starting this blog, I was not a Fozzie Bear fan.  It's hard to write good comedy, but it may be even harder to write intentionally bad comedy.  Most of Fozzie's schtick was *sigh* unbearable to me.  But I discovered that Fozzie is more than just a bad comedian.  He is a hopeless artist who is redeemed by the fact that he is a genuinely nice person, and an even greater friend.  He wishes no ill-will towards anyone, yet he constantly is made to suffer.  His strongest moments come when he defends his companions or makes dramatic, inspirational speeches.  His jokes may fail, but he does not.

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7) Yoda - Star Wars

"But wait," you cry.  "Did this blog specifically address the issue that Yoda is not a Muppet?"  Yes, but that was before Disney acquired the rights to Lucasfilm.  So, now that they own both Star Wars and the Muppets, I don't see any reason why Yoda shouldn't be considered for this Top 10 list honor.  Yoda is a great character, he's played by Frank Oz, therefore, he deserves a spot on the list.  Besides, who else would I put here?  Marvin Suggs?

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6) Animal - The Muppet Show

Okay, Animal is a great character.  So, the fact that he's only number 6 shows just how wonderful Oz's creations are.  Like most Muppet monsters, Animal runs on pure id.  But he's technically supposed to be human as well.  If a person like Animal actually existed in real life, he'd be considered a threat to society.  As a puppet, he becomes cute and endearing.  I also appreciate that he's based on Celtic mythology.  So THAT'S why he is a Leprechaun Brother!

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5) Grover - Sesame Street

Like Fozzie, Grover only wants to do good in the world, but his literal approach to life ends up getting him in trouble with the more "mature" characters.  Grover seems to represent all of those struggles that kids encounter.  Those kids who get punished for doing exactly what they had been taught by their family, friends, and the media.  Despite all of these burdens, Grover remains optimistic and takes the extra step to give back to society, even though society does nothing but crush him.

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4) Miss Piggy - The Muppet Show

If there's one thing this blog has done, it's redeemed Miss Piggy for me.  She was legitimately my least favorite Muppet, due to her grating behavior.  Any Muppet production that featured her has a main component would be immediately written off as unworthy in my book.  And, when her negative qualities are the focus, she can drag down many a show.  Then this happened.  And now I love her.

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3) Cookie Monster - Sesame Street

Cookie originated as a generic monster performed by Jim Henson for his IBM commercial, and not much changed in the character when he passed hands to Oz.  His enormous appetite was now more innocent and less malicious, but he was still just a thing that ate.  The reason he works so well is because of the relationship he has with his performer.  Despite many of the characters he plays, Oz was always the more reserved part of the Henson-Oz duo.  By allowing him to just bounce of the wall for an item as trivial as a cookie, Cookie Monster allowed Oz to have pure, unrestrained fun.

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2) Bert - Sesame Street

And on the other side, Bert was where Oz was the most comfortable.  Playing a more extreme version of himself, Bert could play of Henson's Ernie while maintaining a sense of maturity and dignity.  It's just as fun to see Bert get upset as it is to see him win.  While most kids might not identify with the rigid Bert, I always appreciated his respect for the rules, because it allowed him to appreciate that in life which often would go unnoticed.  He may not have gone out for flashy, noisy entertainment like his partner, but if he can find beauty in a pigeon or a paper clip, who's to say his outlook on life is wrong?

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1) Sam the Eagle - The Muppet Show

As a young, young child, I loved the Muppets.  But I don't know exactly how this came to be.  I did not get any channel which showed The Muppet Show regularly.  I guess through pop-cultural osmosis, I became aware of the main characters and eventually I ended up with two items that sealed my fate.  One was The Muppet Movie on VHS and the other was this old Muppets lunchbox.

This was exactly what I needed.  Something that featured all of the characters for me to study.  Each side featured different pictures of the gang, and I was most intrigued by the Muppets I didn't know, because, unlike those featured on the front of the box, they didn't have prominent roles in the movie.  It's strange, but thinking about it now, my favorite Muppets are each of the characters that I had to seek out and learn about.  I'd ask my parents who these characters were, but it wouldn't be until years later that I'd learn the names:  Link Hogthrob, Uncle Deadly, and Sam the Eagle (there's actually a fourth character featured on this box, but we'll get to him much later).

Visually, Sam was the most interesting to me.  His stern glare told me he was not a character to be messed with.  Was he an evil villain?  Or was he just upset a lot?  As I eventually learned, he was a dash of both.  Sam was the anti-Muppet of the gang.  A square who prevented everyone from having any fun.  Even Bert could let loose once and a while.  As I grew and saw Sam in more and more productions, my appreciation grew.  With all of the crazy Muppets out there, the funniest one had to be the guy who tried to stop it.  I've said it many times, but the Muppets are at their best when they fail.  And Sam never once achieved a victory.

Except for getting the number one spot on this list.

He's earned it.

What Is Love?

We tend to overcomplicate things.  The curse of our complex brains has resulted in years of analysis, creation, destruction, and boomboxes held over heads all for this tricky concept known as love.

We've said all there is to be said about it.  Yet we can't stop talking about it.  Perhaps it's because, whether we're happy, sad, in it or out of it, we love to talk about love.

Again?

Of all the philosophies out there on love, Ernie and Bert seem to have gotten it correct.  If you ask Ernie what love is, he'll tell you that it's being able to tolerate the negative qualities in another individual.

Love and all its aspects can be the most frustrating concept in the world.  Maybe you're in love and you don't know how to say it or you don't know how to find a balance or you can't meet the needs of your significant other.  Or maybe you're not in love and you want to be or you want to avoid it entirely.  It's strange that the frustration that develops out of this biological concept doesn't surface among our other biological needs.

"I've never been hungry.  I just haven't found the right sandwich yet."

"I could spend an eternity drinking this glass of water!"

"Sleep is just a scam concocted to sell greeting cards."

When it comes time to teach children about love, Bert opts for a different route.  Unlike Ernie, who revels in the bond between him and his friend, Bert bluntly states the obvious, with his song, "That's Love."

Does love deserve all the attention that it receives?  Who's to say?  It is what it is.  Stop worrying about it and enjoy it.  Love what and who you want to love.  If someone loves you, let them love you.  If two people are in love, let them be in love.  Love is nice.  When did it become so complicated?

As we get older, we want to believe that there is a deeper meaning behind everything.  Simplicity is for children.  Complexity for adults.  Just compare Sesame Street's approach to love with that of The Muppet Show.

Is this version better or worse?  Do they even need to be compared at all?

Pictured:  Love.

No one is going to answer this question in a satisfactory matter.  Love is the one element of life that everyone perceives as being unique to themselves and we like it that way.  We can look up jealousy, anger, fear and any other emotion in the dictionary and come to a general consensus on the definition.

But not love.  Never love.  And that's why, year after year, we celebrate it and let it take over our lives.  It's all we can do.

Accept that this is never going away.

Follow That Bird, Part 3: Down on the Farm

The kindly hitchhiker takes Big Bird as far as he can before dropping him off in the middle of nowhere, because that's what you do with a 6-year-old runaway.  Big Bird heads down a dirt road and before long, he comes across a farm filled with chickens.  Not Muppet chickens, just regular chickens, which usually wouldn't be an issue, except with this whole set up of "birds as a race of people," it's kind of weird to encounter the actual creatures.

Oh, and the farm is apparently run by children.

"Get offa my property, pwease!"

Okay, I know that these kids have parents, but we never see them.  The children, Ruthie and Floyd, recognize Big Bird from the TV and they decide to hide him in the barn.  The barn is off-limits to parents, I guess.

That night, Big Bird stares out at "One Little Star" from his hayloft and wonders how his friends are doing at that moment.  And, of course, they are looking at that same star, singing the same song.  It's sweet, but it's kind of weird that Big Bird only thinks about the two people who happen to be singing about him.

I miss Olivia and Snuffy and...the rest.

While everyone else is singing, the cool car decides to stop for dinner at the Grouch-run restaurant "Don't Drop Inn," because Oscar put up with Friendly's for lunch.  That's a good joke.

This was eventually renamed "Denny's."

This is basically a comic relief sketch thrown into the middle of the film where Maria has to suffer from the terrible service, horrible food, and obnoxious atmosphere one comes to expect from a Grouch dining establishment.  This is one of the few times we see human Grouches in the series.

Would you like some attitude with that?

Maria's theoretically safe order of a tossed salad ends with the inevitable food fight.  But at least the lettuce looks edible.

Back on the farm, Big Bird begins helping the children with their chores and becomes used to the country life of apple-pickin', cow-milkin', apple-milkin', cow-tippin', milk-pickin', apple-cowin', and goin' through barn doors.

Where are your parents, you children of the corn?!

And let's not forget the ADR'd song, even though we just had a song one scene ago.

But all good things must come to an end.  While Big Bird feels content in this new home, Miss Finch picks up his scent and soon, Big Bird must hightail it out of there.  As he's hiding, he narrowly avoids being caught by the Sleaze brothers, so that plot point will have to come later.

Instead, we find Big Bird stranded in a cornfield.  After having an imaginary talk with Snuffy, he gets spotted by Bert and Ernie flying their plane.  And that can only mean one thing: a North by Northwest parody!

"We're supposed to take him dead or alive, right?"

Ernie only succeeds in scaring Big Bird because he gets mistaken for Miss Finch (and also he flew straight at Big Bird with a plane!) and decides now is the time for some plane stunts and another song called "Upside Down World."

But we just had two songs!

Ernie sings of the joys of flying upside down as Bert loses his bottle cap collection.  The two then switch positions and Bert begins singing and flying while Ernie becomes the clearheaded one, telling them that they've misplaced Big Bird during all their tomfoolery.  Oh, Ernie, you scamp!  The duo flies on with out Big Bird, because we've still got two-fifths of the movie to go.

Tomorrow, Big Bird finds himself trapped and feeling blue.  Get out your tissues now!

Follow That Bird, Part 2: On the Run

After reading Big Bird's depressing letter, Snuffy decides now is the time to visit his friend and lift hist spirits.  He sends a massive postcard detailing his plans and Big Bird is overjoyed.  He shares the news with his family, but hits a roadblock when they inquire about the type of bird Snuffy is.  When Big Bird tells them the truth, they forbid Snuffy from visiting, because birds are only supposed to be friends with birds.

So, Big Bird does what anyone would do in this situation and runs away in the middle of the night.

I'm sure he'll be just fine.

Soon, the news of Big Bird's disappearance hits the airwaves and that means it's time for our first celebrity cameo! Chevy Chase appears as the anchorman and, like Steve Martin and John Cleese before him, he makes the most of his one scene.

  

Never before has saying the name "Sesame Street" been so funny.

As the Sesame Street inhabitants watch, the report is turned over to our favorite reporter Kermit the Frog who explains that Big Bird has run away and intends to head back home.

 

I'm not sure if this counts as a cameo or not.

He interviews the Dodo family who are completely distraught over the loss of their new child. Wait, I meant they are completely excited to be on television and they leave the interview in order to watch themselves on TV. Yeah, we aren't supposed to care for these characters one bit.

 

The hatred of birds among children ages 3-7 increased 500% after this movie premiered.

Kermit then interviews Miss Finch who swears to hunt down Big Bird and kill him, I mean, return him to his "proper" family if it's the last thing she does. Big Bird watches her threat on a store's television set and psychs himself up for his "three-hour" journey (because it took two hours to fly there, and he knows walking will take longer, obviously).

I miss the days when all store windows had multiple TV sets showing plot-relevant news stories.

The gang on Sesame Street decide that the best course of action will be to split up and drive across the country in order to intercept Big Bird's path. Akin to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, we get five wacky modes of transportation to follow:

1) Gordon, Olivia, Linda, and Cookie Monster are taking Gordon's VW, because it's smart to bring a monster that devours everything in sight on a rescue mission.

2) The Count heads off in his Countmobile alone, probably because no one wants to be stuck on a 24-hour car ride with the Count.

  

That's one! One person counting out loud the entire time! Ah-ah-ah!

3) Super Grover is going to fly by himself. Um, we don't want to end up with two missing Muppets, Mr. Movie!

4) Bert and Ernie take their biplane that they always have that Ernie knows how to fly like always.

5) And Maria and Telly Monster join Oscar in his Sloppy Jalopy, which comes with Homer the Honker, since the car's horn doesn't work. Oscar's only agreeing to help because he's sure they will end up coming home empty handed. Does that mean he thinks Big Bird is going to get killed? Probably.

 This is the cool car, by the way.  Shotgun!

As the gang fans out, Big Bird continues teaching all sorts of great lessons to the viewing audience, like it's a good idea to hitchhike with random turkey farmers because they'll probably turn out to be kindly country music sensation Waylon Jennings. And he'll sing you a nice tune encouraging you to stick to your decision to run away from your home.

"Ain't No Road Too Long" is this film's "Movin' Right Along."

But lurking on the sidelines is a pair of ne'er-do-well brothers named Sam and Sid Sleaze who run a shoddy carnival that swindles kids out of their well earned nickels.  Played by Joe Flaherty and Dave Thomas of SCTV, the Sleazes get an idea as to how to increase revenue at their crappy park.  They need to get their hands on that missing bird and make him their main attraction!

Now these guys are just what Sesame Street villains would be like: pure evil without any sense of realism.

Uh-oh!  Hopefully Big Bird will manage to stay far away from these two.  Tune in tomorrow to see if he does!  (Spoiler alert: he doesn't.)

Strange Bedfellows

Have you ever noticed how much your mind wanders when you start to fall asleep?  And when you stay up past your usual bedtime, the wanderings of your mind become more pronounced and vivid?  Sleep deprivation shares a lot of the same characteristics as intoxication.  Judgment is impaired and the stream of consciousness passing through your mind starts to manifest itself in the physical world.  You start saying things you meant to keep to yourself had you been thinking clearly.

For someone like Ernie, who already lacks a filter between his brain and his mouth, nighttime is the best time for surreal and unwarranted deep conversations.  While the regular skits involving Ernie and Bert vary, each nighttime sketch is virtually the same.  Just as Bert's head hits the pillow, some internal or external disturbance rouses Ernie and he insists that Bert converse with him.  Bert tries his best to avoid the situation and usually ends up with a bad case of insomnia.

Counting sheep doesn't help when they make so much noise!

Unlike Bert, Ernie is not bothered by noise when he is trying to sleep.  The very first sketch makes this clear as Ernie's solution to the annoying water-dripping sound in the bathroom is to drown it out with a chaotic din.

Thus begun the evening battles for sleep.  Every idea that popped into Ernie's head was worthy of a lengthy discussion that could just not wait until morning.  It is not Ernie's fault, he just gets his best thinking done at night.  But finally, after years of torturing his roommate, Ernie places himself in Bert's shoes and realizes what a nuisance he's been.

The sole reason Ernie behaves in this manner is because he loves his friend and values his opinion.  At the expense of causing a minor annoyance, Ernie can sleep better knowing he and Bert are on the same page.  But, the realization that Bert is bothered by his actions hurts Ernie a little bit.  He doesn't want to be loathed by the person he cares the most about.

Ernie and Bert's relationship, while a hot topic for controversy and debate, is worth showing to children. Their main focus is friendship and the values that implies.  Friends tolerate each other, even when the other can be a giant pain.  They look out for each other and endure the troublesome periods.  It is better to go through life with an ally than facing the world alone.  So, one night, Ernie and Bert have a frank discussion about their relationship.  For two people who have been a part of each other's lives for so long, this conversation was a long time coming.  But it's one that everyone can recognize.

It doesn't matter how many differences two people have.  They can still like each other and be better people for it.

This is one of the few nights in which Bert is actually glad Ernie kept him up.  Since it was nighttime, the true feelings could shine through and help confirm how solid the foundation of their friendship was.  Both of them left this moment understanding each other better and learned to make the necessary adjustments to keep their relationship going.

All of this leads to one of the best nights the duo ever experienced.  Ernie, having been careful about staying quiet at bedtime finds himself in a dilemma and debates whether or not it is worth waking Bert up for a trivial matter.  Night after night, he has woken Bert up to fulfill his needs for a conversational partner, but now, Ernie's concern is solely for his partner's happiness.

This beautiful moment is why we have friends.  They open us up to new experiences, push us out of our comfort zones, and allows us to share life's treasures with them.  Where would we be if we never met our friends?  We would be completely different people.  The people we meet shape who we become.  We chose to keep these people in our lives because their mere presence makes the world exponentially better.  At the beginning of this week, the Muppets were trying to figure out what love is.  But everyone knows what it is.  It is impossible put into words, but when you look into the eyes of the people you love, you can see it.  When you listen to their voice, you can hear it.  When you embrace them, kiss them, caress them, or just hold their hand, you can feel it.  Why do we have to keep talking about it?

It is what it is.

Everything is Amazing! Nothing is Boring!

When people think of the "Ernie and Bert" dynamic, they imagine a duo that is completely opposite from one another.  One loves to have fun, and the other is just a stick in the mud.  While Bert may be more vocal about his complaints of Ernie's annoying habits, it isn't because he hates fun.  Like his spiritual predecessor Felix Unger from The Odd Couple, Bert just has more refined tastes.  He appreciates the smaller, quieter, and less noticeable aspects of life.  But he can get just as excited as Ernie when given the chance.

Bert shows off his bottle cap collection.

Everybody has a hobby that keeps them entertained.  Collectors enjoy gathering the items of their passion to feel the satisfaction of owning a complete set.  Bert's interest in bottle caps is shared by many people.  For him, the adventure is in collecting small bits of various cultures.  Each one provides the same function, but the variety is so large that much can be learned from a simple colored disc.

Since bottle cap collecting is a normal hobby, and since Muppets represent extremes, Bert couldn't just stop at that.  He needed a passion that would be considered even duller from an outsider's perspective.  So Bert became a paper clip enthusiast.

Hold on!  We're just getting started!

Nowadays, paper clips come in many shapes, sizes, and colors.  Some people even making a "living" bending them into unique patterns and images.  But the world of paper clips is not very glamorous.  Whenever Bert reveals his paper clip collection, the chain of clips always seem to be made up of the exact same clip.  However, as a true connoisseur, Bert is able to identify the make and model of his clips.  He knows which are stronger, which are bendier, and which can hold the most sheets of paper.  His passion as led him to discover a world of beauty in the most mundane of objects.  While this may seem strange, have you ever really looked at a paper clip?

Each day, we become more used to the world we live in.  Surprises dwindle, familiarity takes over.  Everything magical becomes mundane when overexposed.  Fortunately, we have the capability to willingly forget, if only for a brief moment.  When we intensely focus on something, even if we have seen it every day of our lives, we find new and interesting attributes to marvel over.

When eating a piece of food, close your eyes, slow down your chewing, and really experience each subtle flavor that hits your tongue.  When walking outside, take a moment to look at every structure, plant, or cloud that you would normally pass right by.  When hanging out with an old friend, imagine you were meeting them for the first time.  You'll find all the positive things you used to love about the people and objects around you will come rushing back into your mind, in addition to the wonders that you have previously overlooked.

In the city, a common sight is the lowly pigeon.  Even folks who devote their lives to bird-watching don't appreciate these feathered pests.  They are "rats with wings," as if rats were also too be looked down upon.  While children may get a kick out of running through a flock of pigeons, the novelty soon wears off, and the just become the birds that are everywhere.

So of course, Bert's signature song (his "Rubber Duckie," if you will) is devoted to the oft-ignored fowl.

This is Bert at his silliest.  He replicates the sounds and movements of the birds all because he finds them to be extraordinary.  During his home footage of birds he saw on the street, he his unable to contain his glee over every little thing they do.  Bert may not appreciate obnoxious behaviors and large spectacles, but he honors that which is forgotten by the rest of society.

We live on a planet with so much to offer us, and we create things that just add even more astounding wonder back into the world.  The universe is filled with mysteries, and the sheer scale of it all serves as a reminder of how miraculous everything is.  The part of our brain that considers things to be "boring" is protecting us from living in a constant state of being completely overwhelmed.  But we don't always have to listen to that part of out brain.  We can choose to love anything, if we give it enough attention.  Let yourself enjoy.

And then creatively express your enjoyment, so that others may enjoy.

Yes, Big Bird, There is a Santa Claus

"Youth is wasted on the young," - George Bernard Shaw

When we become adults, we look back on our time spent as children, wishing that if we only knew then what we knew now, we would have made the most of our growing years.  This causes a paradox of sorts because the very reason we admired childhood was exactly because we did not know what we know now.  Before we learned the ways of the world, we just had to accept strange phenomena as they occurred.  Magic and reality went hand in hand.  And the reason we thought this was because our parents, who we turned to for education, fed us these stories.

Babies are brought by storks.  The tooth fairy takes our baby teeth while we are sleeping.  Santa Claus...well, is Santa Claus.

When we become new parents, many of us decide to perpetuate these "truths" to the younger generation.  Since we cannot become young again, we must prolong the childhoods of our children so that they may appreciate what we neglected to.  Children live in an interesting state.  Magic continues to be possible even when evidence to the contrary is brought before them.  As a child, I was fully aware that adults did not believe in Santa Claus, and there would come a day when I too would stop.  But even knowing that, I continued believing, like it was my duty to Santa.

Big Bird, the voice of children everywhere, was known for his curiosity.  When children across the world asked questions about life, Big Bird would as well.  On Christmas Eve, Oscar the Heretic Grouch puts a piece of doubt in the bird's stocking by asking a simple question: how does Santa Claus fit down a chimney?

A question that has plagued mankind for centuries.

This devastates the bird to no end.  Not because it convinced him that Santa is fictional, but because he is afraid that it is impossible for Santa to bring presents to Sesame Street, where the chimney's are just tiny pipes.  Big Bird recruits everyone he can find to help solve this puzzle so that his fears will be assuaged. To a person thinking logically, Big Bird's actions present another conundrum.  Whether or not Santa can fit down a chimney, Big Bird knowing the answer won't change what happens at midnight.

But Big Bird lets his emotions get the better of him and does not rest until the truth is revealed.  He turns to Kermit, who decides to launch an investigative report by interviewing kids, since they know the most about Santa.  "Knowing = Believing" and vice-versa for the young children, and what results is a cavalcade of roundabout explanations that only a child could dream up.

None of these answers convince Big Bird, so he takes it upon himself to find out by manning a late night stakeout on the roof of 123 Sesame Street.  Because he is behaving irrationally, he neglects to tell any adult of his plans, prompting everyone (even Oscar!) to start a frantic search for the lost child.  The cold snowy weather is worse up on the rooftops, and it causes the bird to drift in to a hypothermic sleep.  He could very well freeze to death while his guardians have no idea where to search for him, all because they decided to keep the truth about Santa a secret.

Our need to have children believe in magic comes at a cost.  Ignorance is bliss, but it it is also highly dangerous.  Eventually, adults have to teach children the truth.  But wisdom means that childhood is over.  It's not a fair trade.

We can't stay here forever.

Fortunately, Big Bird never has to grow up!  As he is finally found, he is brought inside to discover that all of the presents have been delivered successfully.  Big Bird laments that he failed to witness Santa, but as Gordon explains to him, it doesn't matter because the gifts were delivered anyway.  Whether Big Bird saw it or not, Christmas still came.  So, he had might as well enjoy the mystery for at least another year.  Unlike yesterday's episode of Fraggle Rock where Gobo's lack of faith resulted in a new appreciation for the holiday, Big Bird is allowed to keep living in bliss, while it is the adults around him who have learned to pay close attention to the loved ones in their life.

*      *      *

Christmas Eve on Sesame Street is exactly the kind of Christmas special that Sesame Street deserves.  Unlike the terrible special that would premiere a few days later, this special focuses solely on the Muppet characters instead of phoned-in celebrity cameos.  It presents a natural look at how the inhabitants of this street perceive the holiday.  While Big Bird and Oscar's squabble over the existence of Santa provides the crux of this episode, there are other moments that make it worth checking out.

The special begins with the cast ice skating.  Most of the footage is from the Sesame Street portions of "Ice Follies," a touring ice-skating show.  While the full-sized Muppets' antics are played for humor, there is a tender moment where a little girl teaches the clumsy Big Bird how to skate.

All set to a solemn instrumental performance of Feliz Navidad.

Ernie and Bert completely recreate The Gift of the Magi, selling their prized possessions (Rubber Duckie and a paper clip collection respectively) to Mr. Hooper in order to afford gifts for their best friend.  Ernie saying goodbye to his duck is touching, but they way Bert's voice cracks as he tries to get one last look at his paper clips is downright heartbreaking.

Never have office supplies been so meaningful.

It eventually comes time to exchange the gifts.  After some brilliant slight of hand disguising the fact that the Bert puppet cannot physically open a wrapped present, the realization that terrible mistakes have been made in selling their favorite items sets in.  Fortunately, Mr. Hooper returns with the sold items, presenting them as his own gifts!

Otherwise, Mr. Hooper wouldn't have gotten them anything this year!

Other highlights include:

- Bob wishing Mr. Hooper a Happy Hanukkah with a sly wink, as if Judaism is a secret this year.

We mustn't let the kids learn that there is a holiday that has eight days of presents!

- Oscar singing about how he hates Christmas (which eliminates the need of that other special entirely).

- Cookie Monster's inability to write a letter to Santa without eating his materials.

- Kermit's winter outfit:

- And of course, this girl, who has the best explanation of how Santa works.

She has pushed the button to my heart.

All of these elements come together to create a special that blends the best of Sesame Street with the best of Christmas.  Everyone can become a child again on Christmas Eve.  It is the right place and the right time for true magic to occur.

Although, too much Christmas magic can leave you feeling bloated.