The Sesame Street News Flash is a recurring Sesame Street segment that features Kermit the Frog as a roving reporter for "Sesame Street News." Reporter Kermit, wearing a trench coat and hat and holding a microphone, interviews characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other popular stories, even appearing at key moments in history. As with most such parodies, the stories often diverge from tradition.
The first News Flash sketch, where Kermit covers the unfolding story of Rapunzel, premiered in Episode 0409, during Season 4 of Sesame Street. A variation of the segment, entitled "Sesame Street Sports," had Kermit in a flashy sports coat reporting on the race between the Tortoise and the Hare. The skits were no longer produced after 1989, but continued to re-air on the show until 2001.
Some sketches are included here that may not have used the opening Sesame Street News Flash theme music and logo, but can be considered to be a part of the same series as evidenced by the presence of Kermit in his reporter garb, and the manner in which he goes about his duties. Other material with Kermit reporting for Sesame Street News is covered at: Reporter Kermit.
Sketches[]
Other variations[]
Buster acting as correspondent for Sesame Street News.
Elmo as a junior monster reporter for Sesame Street News; note the "News Flash" logo on the microphone flag.
Episode 5111
Episode 5404
- For instances in which Kermit played a reporter outside of the Sesame Street News Flash segments, see Reporter Kermit.
Fourteen, approximately twenty-second audio reports with Kermit were produced for the computer games Letters and Numbers. These are heard on the radios found in each section of the games. Although Kermit appears in all the pieces, one piece from Numbers features an interview with Professor Alphonse.
One segment featured a substitute reporter, a brown wolf named Warren Wolf. Nonetheless, it was featured as part of the series and included the Sesame Street News theme music at the beginning. A variation of the series, as Sesame Street News, was used in Episodes 2668 and 2669, as anchored by Buster the Horse.
New tune-in segments under the "News Flash" banner appeared during season 45 featuring Murray Monster (clad in a necktie) conducting interviews with kids, with Ovejita presenting a word in Spanish.
The Monster Fixers video series (which also involves nursery rhyme parodies) features Elmo as a "junior monster reporter" for Sesame Street News, holding a microphone with a small version of the classic "News Flash" logo on its flag.
Guy Smiley reported on the Tough Monster Race using a microphone with the Sesame Street News logo in Episode 5111.
"Your cute and curious reporter Grover" served as a correspondent for Sesame Street News (holding a microphone branded with the recognizable logo) in Sesame Street Episode 5404. Reporting on the street about bedtime routines, he interviews Count von Count who includes counting bats, the way one might count sheep, as a means of going to sleep. The practice has a drowsy effect on reporter Grover who slips into a snore on the job.
Logo[]
Most of the sketches began with a logo of the words "NEWS FLASH" on a cloud with stars and a lightning bolt. A news theme written by Joe Raposo (registered with BMI as "Kermit News Theme") consisting of Morse code-like sounds and an urgent-sounding version of the Sesame Street theme. An announcer (voiced by Jerry Nelson in most cases) would say "We take you now to Kermit the Frog with another fast-breaking news story!" or some variation.
A few of the sketches originally did not begin with a logo or announcer, including all of the Don Music sketches.
The sketches involving Kermit the Frog interviewing Dr. Nobel Price had a variation of the opening where it started with the standard News Flash logo and music, but the announcer would say "Sesame Street News takes you once more to the far-off island laboratory of Dr. Nobel Price, the great inventor, for news of his latest amazing discovery." Halfway through the intro it would fade to an establishing shot of Dr. Nobel Price's island laboratory (except for in the segment with Sherman the Hoppity Hop). The segment with Warren Wolf did not feature the News Flash logo, just the island establishing shot; the theme music however remained intact, and Michael Earl provided the announcer voice instead of Jerry Nelson. Similarly, the "This is How I'm Made" segment featured Martin P. Robinson announcing over the standard logo.
Starting in the late 1980s, certain reruns and releases of older sketches would replace the original News Flash logo on them with the 1986 version, sometimes also replacing Jerry Nelson's original announcer spiel with a newer recording.
On Elmo Saves Christmas, a new News Flash logo was used.
International[]
When aired on the international co-productions, many different edits occur. Some cut the title card all together, some leave the original English one in (with the announcer dubbed in the program's native language), and some created their own "NEWS FLASH" intro.
External links[]
- Tough Pigs Anthology -- Sesame Street News Flash transcripts
