Monsterpiece Theater

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Monsterpiece Theater is a recurring segment on the American version of the internationally acclaimed children's educational program Sesame Street. While using Muppet characters to act out educational principles, Monsterpiece Theater is also a parody of the similarly acclaimed PBS show Masterpiece Theatre.

Monsterpiece Theater is hosted by Alistair Cookie, who is Cookie Monster trying his best to look like Alistair Cooke. Similar segments, titled Mysterious Theater and parodying fellow PBS anthology Mystery!, are hosted by "Vincent Twice Vincent Twice", a parody of Vincent Price.

[edit] Sketch Listings

  • "ABCD Blue"
Grover and Herry Monster portray police officers who sing the alphabet song together.
Inspired by: the television series NYPD Blue
  • "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"
Anything muppets are counted to total 40.
Inspired by: the book of One Thousand and One Nights
  • "Anyone's Nose"
A monster sings a song about various noses and what they do
Inspired by: the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes
  • "Chariots of Fur" (version with the Union Jack opening)
Grover and Herry Monster have a race.
Inspired by: the film Chariots of Fire
  • "Conservations with My Father"
Cookie Monster's loving dad, an environmentalist, teaches his son about conserving electricity and water.
Inspired by: the Herb Gardner play Conversations with My Father
  • "Cyranose DeBergerac"
A poet with a two-foot long nose tries to help the queen of France finish her poem. Unfortunately, the word used to finish it is the word he's the most sensitive to: "nose." One mention of that word infuriates DeBergerac.
Inspired by: Cyrano de Bergerac
  • "Dances with Wolves"
A pig dances with a wolf.
Inspired by: the Kevin Costner film Dances with Wolves
  • "Dr. No"
Super-spy James Bond has trouble seeing and visits his optometrist, Doctor No, who recommends that James take off his dark glasses. Afterwards, Bond is able to see again.
Inspired by: Ian Fleming's Dr. No
  • "Fiddler on the Roof"
A farmer and his daughters sing about "Addition", which involves putting one fiddler on the roof after another.
Inspired by: the Stein/Bock/Harnick musical
  • "Guys and Dolls"
Herry Monster sings about how he likes to play with dolls, and Ruby sings about how she likes to play with trucks.
Inspired by: the Frank Loesser musical
  • "Hamlet"
Mel Gibson plays Hamlet, who keeps repeating "words, words, words" -- but Elmo can't read, so he only looks at "pictures, pictures, pictures".
Inspired by: the William Shakespeare tragedy
  • "Howard's End"
A yellow and pink rattlesnake named Howard slithers on a stone wall while he shows his beginning, middle, and end
Inspired by: the E.M. Forster novel
  • "Inside/Outside Story"
Maria is inside; Tony is outside. Will they ever meet face-to-face?
Inspired by: West Side Story
  • "The King and I"
Grover plays a king, who dances with the lower-case letter "i".
Inspired by: the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical
  • "Little House on Prairie"
Alistar Cookie displays an embarrassed Prairie Dawn with a little house on her head. Then, he shows "Little House Under Prairie", and then "Little House in Prairie". She runs into the studio, saying she can't do that. He proves her wrong by eating the little house.
Inspired by Little House on the Prairie
  • "Lethal Weapon 3"
Mel Gibson and Danny Glover meet near a "Danger" sign, and take cover from a number "3", which falls from the sky.
Inspired by: the Movie of the Richard Donner film.
  • "Me, Claudius"
Several monsters fight over which one of them is Claudius.
Inspired by: I, Claudius (with a title originating in the catchphrase I'm Spartacus.
(Includes an appearance by the monster who would later become Elmo)
A small monster is supposed to be in a box, but instead he is on a box, and then under a box.
Inspired by: the Spalding Gray monologue
  • "Much Ado About Nothing"
Waiter Grover laments to Fat Blue that the restaurant doesn't have anything he orders.
Inspired by: the Shakespeare comedy
  • "Monsters of Venice"
Grover convinces people that they should invite him and his monster friends to a party.
Inspired by: the William Shakespeare comedy, The Merchant of Venice.
  • "Monsters with Dirty Faces"
Police Grover first task of the day is to get a group of monsters to wash their faces, but they only do what their tough leader, Rocky, does.
Inspired by: the Movie, Angels with Dirty Faces.
  • "The Old Man and the C"
Grover plays an old man in a rowboat, which is on a giant letter "C".
Inspired by: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
  • "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
The wrong numbers keep flying over the wrong things.
Inspired by: the Ken Kesey novel
  • "Room at the Top"
Inspired by the 1959 film
  • "The Horse Whisperer"
Various animals whisper their own noise before a horse comes to whisper "neigh".
Inspried by the 1998 film
  • "The Postman Always Rings Twice"
Grover is waiting for the postman to deliver his important letter. As he waits, however, many other people come to his house with their own unique "rings".
Inspired by: the film noir thriller
  • "The Sound of Music"
Grover is sitting on a hill, which moves to the sound of music. Look for an audio cameo by Julie Andrews.
Inspired by: the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical
  • "The 400 Blows"
Grover has to blow out the candles on his birthday cake 400 times, causing him to gasp severely. This was the only Monsterpiece Theater sketch that is in two parts. Part 1 shows 1-40. Part 2 is 41-400.
Inspired by: Francois Truffaut film, Les Quatre Cents Coups.
  • "The Sun Also Rises"
The only one who can make the sun rise is Merry Monster - who won't stop crowing.
Inspired by: the Ernest Hemingway book
  • "The Taming of The Shoe"
Grover is accompanied by a talking shoe.
Inspired by: The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
  • "12 Angry Men"
After going through a situation similar to "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", Alistair Cookie announces he's out of time and is confronted by 12 Angry Men.
Inspired by: the film
  • "39 Stairs"
Grover climbs 39 stairs to see what is at the top, but ends up being disappointed with the results.
Inspired by: the Alfred Hitchcock film, The 39 Steps
  • "Twin Beaks"
Cookie Monster gets to star in this tale, in which he is a detective in a town where everybody has two beaks.
Inspired by: the 1990s television series Twin Peaks
  • "Upstairs, Downstairs"
Grover runs up and down a flight of stairs (look for a picture of Dr. Teeth on the wall).
Inspired by: the British television series
  • "Waiting For Elmo"
Inspired by: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Kermit the frog and his "wife" in their home are caught in hurricane-force winds. While they hold on to the banister for support, Kermit tries to think of ideas to get out of the wind. His wife suggests subtracting; Kermit follows and is blown away, then his wife says "one of us, take away one of us is (wife gets blown away) ZEROOO!!!!!!", and finally Alistair Cookie experiences the wind.
Inspired by: the novel by Margaret Mitchell

[edit] CD Rom Games

  • The Sesame Street CD-ROM games "The Three Grouchkateers" and "Elmo Through the Looking Glass" featured a Monsterpiece Theater intro

[edit] External links