merlin:

This Way to Sesame Street (Excerpt; November, 1969)

Lot to love in the first few minutes of the first Sesame Street. Not least Gordon₁’s outstanding facial hair. Also, just can’t believe Bob’s been on this show for 40 years. (He was my favorite of the grownups from the beginning)

As an intro from (the oddly placid) Bert and Ernie suggests, this particular clip is from a preview/teaser of the show:

Sesame Street (Beginnings)

Two days before the premiere of Sesame Street, a thirty-minute preview entitled This Way to Sesame Street was shown on NBC. The show was financed by a $50,000 grant from Xerox. Written by Stone and produced by CTW publicist Bob Hatch, it was taped the day before it aired. Newsday called the preview “a unique display of cooperation between commercial and noncommercial broadcasters”. Sesame Street premiered on PBS on November 10, 1969.

I was about two weeks shy of turning 3, and I was immediately a fan. Big Bird’s initial microcephaly notwithstanding.

Full sequence and screengrabs from This Way to Sesame Street on Muppet Wiki.

God, Big Bird is a stupid fuck.