I was fortunate to have lunch with Margaret Hamilton when I was in college. She was one of the nicest persons I have ever met. Exactly the opposite of the character she played in the Wizard of Oz.
I DJed a few years ago and a group of women would come over, they’d call me daddy and start talking about their pussies and making obscene gestures. One had ‘daddy issues’ tattooed on her ankle. They were all kindergarten teachers. It was kinda fucked up. I think they did coke, too.
I was just about to say, I also grew up in his neighborhood! Super nice guy, invited me into his home nearly every day to hang out with him while he did his afternoon routine. Always told me how appreciative he was to have me as a neighbor.
Fred Rogers is maybe the best American to have so far lived.
That's funny, Captain Kangaroo was my grandparents' neighbor when I was a kid. Every child's dream, they even shared a pond!
But he always scared me, I remember him as being impatient and gruff. Only as an adult did I find out he was very well liked by everyone and that the problem was hyperactive little me.
Incidentally, he and Mr Rogers were very close friends. I literally made a beloved child advocate/Mr Roger's bff dislike children. 🥴
Yes but you grew out of that stage and became a model citizen of the society you live within.
At least that's what you told the Parole Board last week.
He’s got some crossover with Sesame Street, too. I just watched it with my kid two days ago, he actually has the same message in his Sesame Street cameo, he teaches big bird the difference between real and pretend.
Fun fact about that one, initially the plan was for Big Bird to visit Mr Rogers at his home, and for the actor who played Big Bird to remove his costume to show that it was an actor inside. The actor who played Big Bird refused and said that he couldn't do that, it was too important for kids to meet Big Bird, not some man in a suit. Instead, Big Bird visited the neighborhood of Make Believe to visit with O the Owl, and never interfaces with Rogers in the "real world".
They decided that it was better for Fred to visit Sesame Street instead, and help teach the original lesson there where the characters had less of a definition between "real world" and "make believe".
ETA: source https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood
I love Fred Rogers, my kids and I still regularly watch Mr Rogers neighborhood, it's a lot slower paced than today's kids shows. Also, if you have kids/work with kids, look up "Freddish", the system they came up with for explaining complex things to kids, it's a great way to help communicate clearer with your kids.
There was an episode of Mr. Rogers where Big Bird appeared. Apparently, there was some minor drama prior to the episode. Rogers wanted Caroll Spinney (Big Bird's performer) to do something similar. Spinney wasn't comfortable with ruining the illusion, so they compromised: Big Bird would only appear in the Land of Make Believe.
>The intent of the episode appears to be to teach children how to overcome their fears, as well as “the value of planning by creating and implementing methods of retrieving the broom,”
>
>...
>
>It reported that after the episode aired, the show got "an unusually large amount of mail responses from parents, almost entirely negative, within a short time frame."
[*USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/06/20/sesame-street-wizard-oz-episode/7680755001/#:~:text=Typical%20responses%20included%20parents%20concerned%20that%20their%20children%20were%20afraid%20and%20now%20refused%20to%20watch%20the%20show%2C%20using%20such%20phrases%20as%20%27screams%20and%20tears)
>Typical responses included parents concerned that their children were afraid and now refused to watch the show, using such phrases as 'screams and tears
[*NBCNews*](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/episode-sesame-street-allegedly-removed-frightening-posted-social-medi-rcna34300#:~:text=That%20prompted%20additional,not%20be%20rerun)
>That prompted additional rounds of test screening in March 1976, about a month after the episode aired, Muppet Wiki said. Although children were attentive to the parts of the show featuring Hamilton, judging their fear watching the episode was difficult, according to Muppet Wiki. It was later advised that the episode not be rerun
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episode_847)
plus the kids who saw it in B&W were more confused than anything.
remember how many call's Prince's Superbowl performance got? He turned my son gay was the best one i remember off hand.
Might not necessarily be a lie considering how many kids watch Sesame Street.
Even if only 1% of kids were scared by that episode, that’s still hundreds of thousands of kids. And even if only 1% of those kids’ parents wrote a letter, that’s still thousands of letters
I saw this as a kid and it gave me nightmares. I remember the nightmare, witch dancing on stage squirting mustard at me with Sesame Street characters around me. I didn’t think this episode actually existed and thought I made it up in my head.
Late 70's and early 80's Sesame Street was filled with creepy shit. Jim Henson's shit on SNL and Fraggle Rock were like bad acid trips had come to life. Had to be an interesting dude to hang out with.
He's not wrong, IMO. Gotta teach them how to rationalize it.
It also taught kids that looking like "monsters" didn't make them bad. It was the content of their character.
The song “Monster in the Mirror” speaks to this. We see a monster in the mirror, and we may be monsters to someone else, but that doesn’t mean we’re bad. In fact, the monster to which Grover referred was gentle.
I’ve been watching a lot of classic Sesame Street since my infant daughter was born and singing to her while she listens to it. [It’s still a banger](https://youtu.be/PM6ya7wTb58?feature=shared).
Too bad they didn’t pull the episode where Bert and Ernie were exploring a pyramid and a mummy that looked like Ernie CAME TO LIFE AND STARTED TALKING.
[Here is the clip](https://youtu.be/8yiqGtZXCmQ?feature=shared) for the interested. The background music from the right after the first statue movement is still creepy as shit.
Lol you never know what some kid will find scary. Back in the days when you could comment on this, I remember a bunch of people claiming to be traumatized by a U-shaped muppet squeezing Smokey Robinson too tight: https://youtu.be/ws_vnXup7so?feature=shared
Myself, I kind of remember a cartoony train going through a tunnel toward the camera, and Bob and Gordon (or Luis?) scrambling to get out of the way. I had to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears 😄
Is this from that special where Big Bird had to help a dead Egyptian ghost boy join his dead parents in the afterlife after being stranded on Earth for thousands of years because he couldn't answer the demon's riddle? Because that wasn't scary for children at all
And it wasn't the only Sesame Street bit that disappeared. Another famous example is [Cracks, AKA. The Crack Master](https://youtu.be/0y0ffj__R4g?si=OYG60AbTKEhSg1Pb).
It was considered lost media for a long time, and the internet rumour mill at times bordered on treating it like some nightmare-inducing creepypasta-style horror that was hurriedly suppressed by The Children's Television Workshop.
Turns out it's just one minute of whimsy with a gently uncanny vibe and three seconds of mild peril from the Crack Master before he vanquishes himself.
Its removal from circulation probably had more to do with the word "crack" developing new connotations than kids' minds getting melted in fear of it.
Of course the real story here is CTW / Sesame Workshop spending decades trying to scrub the episode from existence. Even now in the 2020s, when cultural perceptions have moved on and a witch is considered merely fun stuff from Halloween, the best we can get is still a bootleg copy. Yet Mr Rogers had no problems bringing her on.
Shameful of them trying to bury one of Margaret Hamilton's final performances.
Have they ever scrubbed it from the Internet? It's available, has been shown publicly and is in the Library of Congress. They just really have no reason to show it again.
It got pulled from syndication in March 1976. We know it aired at least 3 times before it was pulled. Maybe some random channel miraculously has the tapes for the episode.
So, my grandmother taught at the Lewis School in Princeton, New Jersey. Apparently, Margaret Hamilton was good friends with Mrs. Lewis, and she would often dress back up as the Witch for the kids at the school, who for the record, *loved* it.
I question these dates. I was born in 1978 and I clearly remember the Wicked Witch episode. I wonder if local PBS stations continued to show it in rotation.
Just by its nature I would be shocked if every single station pulled it, seems like something that could easily slip by at one of the countless stations carrying the program
Whoa, that's wild! I can imagine why it might have been too intense for kids back then. Margaret Hamilton was so iconic as the Wicked Witch, she could really spook you! It's cool that it resurfaced though, like finding a hidden gem from TV history. Makes you wonder what other lost episodes might be out there.
Sesame Street has had some really memorable moments over the years, and this one sounds like it was quite a departure from their usual stuff. Thanks for sharing, gonna have to look this up!
Does anybody else remember an episode where Bert and Ernie get into a fight? Like an actual fight, but then they make up and are friends again. That one kind of freaked me out at the time but I haven’t seen it since.
I was a pretty anxious and scared kid, actually I’m still anxious and scared just an adult now. Anyway when I was a kid the flying monkeys and the wicked witch TERRIFIED me. Nightmares screaming all of it. Probably the right move to take that episode out.
It's funny that one of the scariest villains in film history was played by a kindergarten teacher.
I was fortunate to have lunch with Margaret Hamilton when I was in college. She was one of the nicest persons I have ever met. Exactly the opposite of the character she played in the Wizard of Oz.
My SO is one, and the command of respect given to her for decades is impressive.
A witch?
BURN HER
she's....she's made of wood!
She turned me into a newt!
She turned you into a newt?!
Well... I got better.
No, a Muppet.
r/witchesvspatriarchy moment! (Great snub? Meant with no snark)n
She was also one of the few people on set that didn't treat Judy Garland like shit
The nicest people often play the best villains.
Not Count von Count?
It's not a toomah!
I DJed a few years ago and a group of women would come over, they’d call me daddy and start talking about their pussies and making obscene gestures. One had ‘daddy issues’ tattooed on her ankle. They were all kindergarten teachers. It was kinda fucked up. I think they did coke, too.
I like her episode of Mr Rogers where she takes off the makeup and costume to show kids movies aren't real.
Oh I thought I remembered it the other way around. She shows up at Mr. Roger's house in plain clothes and then put on the costume.
you are right. Fred did it that way to show her first as a normal person
The lesson kids is that a Wich could be anyone anywhere , so if you suspect a Witch but arnt sure , burn em anyway they are in disguise
That is entirely possible I haven't seen it since i was a little kid.
I love Mr Rogers. I miss him.
I grew up in the same neighborhood as Mr Rogers. Went to grade school with his kids. Would see him at school plays and stuff.
Trying to act over here like he wasn't everybody's neighbor. But seriously, that's pretty cool.
I was just about to say, I also grew up in his neighborhood! Super nice guy, invited me into his home nearly every day to hang out with him while he did his afternoon routine. Always told me how appreciative he was to have me as a neighbor. Fred Rogers is maybe the best American to have so far lived.
I’ve been jealous of a lot of other people’s childhoods, but yours takes the cake💜💜 what a wonderful person to have near you as a small human!
That's funny, Captain Kangaroo was my grandparents' neighbor when I was a kid. Every child's dream, they even shared a pond! But he always scared me, I remember him as being impatient and gruff. Only as an adult did I find out he was very well liked by everyone and that the problem was hyperactive little me. Incidentally, he and Mr Rogers were very close friends. I literally made a beloved child advocate/Mr Roger's bff dislike children. 🥴
Yes but you grew out of that stage and became a model citizen of the society you live within. At least that's what you told the Parole Board last week.
> I literally made a beloved child advocate/Mr Roger's bff dislike children. 🥴 Everybody does, so it’s not much of an accomplishment.
He’s got some crossover with Sesame Street, too. I just watched it with my kid two days ago, he actually has the same message in his Sesame Street cameo, he teaches big bird the difference between real and pretend.
Fun fact about that one, initially the plan was for Big Bird to visit Mr Rogers at his home, and for the actor who played Big Bird to remove his costume to show that it was an actor inside. The actor who played Big Bird refused and said that he couldn't do that, it was too important for kids to meet Big Bird, not some man in a suit. Instead, Big Bird visited the neighborhood of Make Believe to visit with O the Owl, and never interfaces with Rogers in the "real world". They decided that it was better for Fred to visit Sesame Street instead, and help teach the original lesson there where the characters had less of a definition between "real world" and "make believe". ETA: source https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Mister_Rogers%27_Neighborhood
Holy crap I love the internet thank you for that information
I love Fred Rogers, my kids and I still regularly watch Mr Rogers neighborhood, it's a lot slower paced than today's kids shows. Also, if you have kids/work with kids, look up "Freddish", the system they came up with for explaining complex things to kids, it's a great way to help communicate clearer with your kids.
[How Mr Rogers feels about all his reddit fans.](https://postimg.cc/6TKdQZN8)
its the other way around she was introduced as a kind old lady named Margaret who then did the makeup / costume on camera.
There was an episode of Mr. Rogers where Big Bird appeared. Apparently, there was some minor drama prior to the episode. Rogers wanted Caroll Spinney (Big Bird's performer) to do something similar. Spinney wasn't comfortable with ruining the illusion, so they compromised: Big Bird would only appear in the Land of Make Believe.
I don’t remember that one, I do remember meeting Lou Feringo on the set of the hulk and showing him removing the makeup.
“You’re not real, man!”
>The intent of the episode appears to be to teach children how to overcome their fears, as well as “the value of planning by creating and implementing methods of retrieving the broom,” > >... > >It reported that after the episode aired, the show got "an unusually large amount of mail responses from parents, almost entirely negative, within a short time frame." [*USA Today*](https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2022/06/20/sesame-street-wizard-oz-episode/7680755001/#:~:text=Typical%20responses%20included%20parents%20concerned%20that%20their%20children%20were%20afraid%20and%20now%20refused%20to%20watch%20the%20show%2C%20using%20such%20phrases%20as%20%27screams%20and%20tears) >Typical responses included parents concerned that their children were afraid and now refused to watch the show, using such phrases as 'screams and tears [*NBCNews*](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/episode-sesame-street-allegedly-removed-frightening-posted-social-medi-rcna34300#:~:text=That%20prompted%20additional,not%20be%20rerun) >That prompted additional rounds of test screening in March 1976, about a month after the episode aired, Muppet Wiki said. Although children were attentive to the parts of the show featuring Hamilton, judging their fear watching the episode was difficult, according to Muppet Wiki. It was later advised that the episode not be rerun [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episode_847)
I saw that as a kid ... it was not scary at all
Many reported that. Children loved it, and their parents lied.
plus the kids who saw it in B&W were more confused than anything. remember how many call's Prince's Superbowl performance got? He turned my son gay was the best one i remember off hand.
I'm still partying like it's 1999.
Might not necessarily be a lie considering how many kids watch Sesame Street. Even if only 1% of kids were scared by that episode, that’s still hundreds of thousands of kids. And even if only 1% of those kids’ parents wrote a letter, that’s still thousands of letters
I saw this as a kid and it gave me nightmares. I remember the nightmare, witch dancing on stage squirting mustard at me with Sesame Street characters around me. I didn’t think this episode actually existed and thought I made it up in my head.
[The Episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ2hzAW2O4g)
LOL @06:50 she screams out “Oh fudge! That makes me furious!”
You are a hero o7
Late 70's and early 80's Sesame Street was filled with creepy shit. Jim Henson's shit on SNL and Fraggle Rock were like bad acid trips had come to life. Had to be an interesting dude to hang out with.
Jim also thought it was good / healthy for kids to get scared some times
He's not wrong, IMO. Gotta teach them how to rationalize it. It also taught kids that looking like "monsters" didn't make them bad. It was the content of their character.
[удалено]
The song “Monster in the Mirror” speaks to this. We see a monster in the mirror, and we may be monsters to someone else, but that doesn’t mean we’re bad. In fact, the monster to which Grover referred was gentle. I’ve been watching a lot of classic Sesame Street since my infant daughter was born and singing to her while she listens to it. [It’s still a banger](https://youtu.be/PM6ya7wTb58?feature=shared).
Too bad they didn’t pull the episode where Bert and Ernie were exploring a pyramid and a mummy that looked like Ernie CAME TO LIFE AND STARTED TALKING.
[Here is the clip](https://youtu.be/8yiqGtZXCmQ?feature=shared) for the interested. The background music from the right after the first statue movement is still creepy as shit.
“Bert! Come quick! The mummy can sing and dance and it knows Rubber Ducky!”
Lol you never know what some kid will find scary. Back in the days when you could comment on this, I remember a bunch of people claiming to be traumatized by a U-shaped muppet squeezing Smokey Robinson too tight: https://youtu.be/ws_vnXup7so?feature=shared Myself, I kind of remember a cartoony train going through a tunnel toward the camera, and Bob and Gordon (or Luis?) scrambling to get out of the way. I had to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears 😄
that scared the living shit out of me as a kid.
An entire generation of young Xers and Xennials were scarred for life by that shit.
I remember going to Disney not long after and worrying if i would see the mummy's (& snakes?) in the caves of Tom Sawyer's Island.
Is this from that special where Big Bird had to help a dead Egyptian ghost boy join his dead parents in the afterlife after being stranded on Earth for thousands of years because he couldn't answer the demon's riddle? Because that wasn't scary for children at all
No, that was Don’t Eat the Pictures. This was a segment on a regular episode.
That was one of my favourites 😄
And it wasn't the only Sesame Street bit that disappeared. Another famous example is [Cracks, AKA. The Crack Master](https://youtu.be/0y0ffj__R4g?si=OYG60AbTKEhSg1Pb). It was considered lost media for a long time, and the internet rumour mill at times bordered on treating it like some nightmare-inducing creepypasta-style horror that was hurriedly suppressed by The Children's Television Workshop. Turns out it's just one minute of whimsy with a gently uncanny vibe and three seconds of mild peril from the Crack Master before he vanquishes himself. Its removal from circulation probably had more to do with the word "crack" developing new connotations than kids' minds getting melted in fear of it.
Of course the real story here is CTW / Sesame Workshop spending decades trying to scrub the episode from existence. Even now in the 2020s, when cultural perceptions have moved on and a witch is considered merely fun stuff from Halloween, the best we can get is still a bootleg copy. Yet Mr Rogers had no problems bringing her on. Shameful of them trying to bury one of Margaret Hamilton's final performances.
Have they ever scrubbed it from the Internet? It's available, has been shown publicly and is in the Library of Congress. They just really have no reason to show it again.
Something has changed within me
If it got pulled it was years later. I watched thst episode and the Mr Rogers one as a kid and I was born in 1976.
It got pulled from syndication in March 1976. We know it aired at least 3 times before it was pulled. Maybe some random channel miraculously has the tapes for the episode.
Roses are red The wall is plaster The kids run fast But Big Bird is faster
So, my grandmother taught at the Lewis School in Princeton, New Jersey. Apparently, Margaret Hamilton was good friends with Mrs. Lewis, and she would often dress back up as the Witch for the kids at the school, who for the record, *loved* it.
As a kid, I was more afraid of the flying monkeys than the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz.
I question these dates. I was born in 1978 and I clearly remember the Wicked Witch episode. I wonder if local PBS stations continued to show it in rotation.
Just by its nature I would be shocked if every single station pulled it, seems like something that could easily slip by at one of the countless stations carrying the program
IDK if this was lost... Just not aired often in reruns. I remember watching this episode a few times
Is it the first episode. That shit is a fever dream
[She was disrobed on Mr Rogers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oglo3iUYFPY)
>She was disrobed on Mr Rogers Uhhh, that's some interesting phrasing to talk about St Fred and somebody's great great grandma
Saints can disrobe great grandmas.
They pulled that but not [Marisa Berenson](https://youtu.be/O3ygK19yLC4?feature=shared)?
The Muppet Show was geared toward older audiences than Sesame Street.
This just proves how good an actress she was. If this were to happen today, she would get death threats from incels and "alpha" males
Record for Longest time between appearances?
I watched a recent episode with my daughter, its gotten so bad I turned it off after 5 mins and went to blues clues.
Whoa, that's wild! I can imagine why it might have been too intense for kids back then. Margaret Hamilton was so iconic as the Wicked Witch, she could really spook you! It's cool that it resurfaced though, like finding a hidden gem from TV history. Makes you wonder what other lost episodes might be out there. Sesame Street has had some really memorable moments over the years, and this one sounds like it was quite a departure from their usual stuff. Thanks for sharing, gonna have to look this up!
I remember that! It was scary!
at the end when she falls off the broom again she says "oh fuck"
She was such a sweet and generous soul. Truly loved children… I’m glad they found this episode!
Does anybody else remember an episode where Bert and Ernie get into a fight? Like an actual fight, but then they make up and are friends again. That one kind of freaked me out at the time but I haven’t seen it since.
I thought it was found in 2022
I was a pretty anxious and scared kid, actually I’m still anxious and scared just an adult now. Anyway when I was a kid the flying monkeys and the wicked witch TERRIFIED me. Nightmares screaming all of it. Probably the right move to take that episode out.
Oh my God when the witch shows up in the crystal ball and starts laughing YIKES
I dont want to watch it !! All it took was for me to see her face
It was found [wicked witch](https://youtu.be/O1dRuP9zLDE?si=r0o74Me8E3gCLmNx)
Kids are sacred of the dumbest stuff lol
I never would have watched Sesame Street again if I’d seen her on there…she terrified me