History SesameStreet / TropesAToC

* BaffledByOwnBiology: In the book ''Grover's Bad Dream'', Grover has a nightmare about Big Bird losing his feathers and wakes up in tears. He fears that it'll happen in real life until his mother tells him that things don't occur just because of a dream.

** Episode 4180 features the song "Elmo's Ducks". The song starts with Elmo singing "Elmo has four ducks" and the four ducks quacking, but they each move away or get lost in different ways. Elmo sings each verse saying he has one fewer duck, until he has no ducks. [[spoiler: Then he hears a "quack" and all four ducks come back.]]

* CaptainErsatz: Sherlock Hemlock, obviously based on [[Literature/SherlockHolmes a certain other Sherlock]], was a green Muppet that sported a detective cape, a magnifying glass, and a (much smarter) puppy sidekick named Watson. He's only made minor appearances since TheEighties, though.

** From Season 30 (1998-1999) and into TheNewTens, Hooper's Store had gradually been updated to a more modern and contemporary convenience store, but for Season 46, the entire exterior has been retroactively redesigned to look as if it has sat and aged for 46 years.

** It had a special in TheNineties that starred Joe Pesci as a UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump {{expy}} who wants to tear down Sesame Street and build his new Grump Tower in its spot; the residents of the Street get together in protest.

----Another animated segment tackling this lesson centers on Suzie Kabloozie and her hatred of the letter F.

* CatchPhrase: Dozens; learning is all about repetition, after all.

* CatchphraseInsult: Bert's favourite insults for Ernie are "dodo" and "meatball", while Oscar insults Big Bird by calling him "Turkey".
* CatchYourDeathOfCold: This is occasionally discussed, but never played straight:
** In one skit, Ernie tells Bert not to stand around in the cold weather or he'll "catch cold".
** In the song "Achoo", the animals sing that one reason to sneeze is when they "catch cold in the rain".
* CatsAreMean: [[http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Chip_and_dip Chip and Dip]], twin cats who would often prank Oscar. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Emc1oRLXM this]] Muppet/kid moment subverts it and other cats avert it.
* ChangingChorus:
** The song "Be-Doodle-De-Dum" usually has "It's such a good thing to say" in the chorus, but the last one changes it to "An excellent thing to say."
** The song "Accidents Happen" mainly has a consistent chorus, but in some verses, the line "Night or day" is repeated and other times it's followed by "They happen night or day".
** "You've Got to Be Patient to Be a Patient" not only has a changing chorus, but several different versions. In the version sung to Big Bird, for instance, one chorus mentions "taking medicine and eating off a tray", while in the one with the little girl, this isn't mentioned. The only thing common amongst all choruses in all versions is the song title, plus all the rhymes are "-ay" words (say, play, day, way, etc).
* ChaosArchitecture:
** For the first season, the street was completely straight (as are actual [[BigApplesauce New York City]] streets) with only a plank fence separating Hooper's Store and 123 - the backdrop usually seen behind the fence in the arbor was behind the construction doors of Big Bird's nest (and there were more doors), and the end of the street is blocked off by an incredibly tall fence (as Big Bird's nest area ''was'' actually a construction site). By the second season, the street was curved and gained its familiar arbor area with the garage and tire swing; while no in-universe explanation is given, in RealLife, this was done to give the show a greater range of camera angles, since the straight street (along with being shot on videotape) made the show feel as if it were a televised stage play.
** Later, the Around the Corner era involved an entire elaborately-designed new section of street past Big Bird's nest. It was also later dismantled (as research showed the large amount of new characters and locations confused kid viewers), and turned into a dead-end alley.
** From Season 30 (1998-1999) and into TheNewTens, Hooper's Store had gradually been updated to a more modern and contemporary convenience store, but for Season 46, the entire exterior has been retroactively redesigned to look as if it has sat and aged for 46 years.
* CharacterBlog: The Muppet cast shares one [[http://twitter.com/sesamestreet Twitter account]].

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* TheCharacterDiedWithHim: Mr. Hooper famously died in a 1983 episode after his actor Will Lee died earlier that year. Bob Johnson and Luis Rodriguez are implied to have died after the passing of Bob McGrath and Emilio Delgado.

** Some of the classic clips had to replace the audio tracks because of the music copyright lawsuit (For example: A film insert had a little girl playing catch with her dog originally had Music/{{Bobby McFerrin}}'s "Simple Pleasures" song on it. The audio track was later removed and replaced with a jazz piece.

** One of the title sequences for ''Sesame Street''[='=]s Bangladeshi co-production, ''Sisimpur'', is similar in style to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHaoXuwKIyk the intro to seasons 33 to 37 of the flagship program]]; it features [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyAreha3-bM computer-generated bouncing blocks with Bengali script]] instead of letters of the Latin alphabet.