WASA Launch Day arrives on Sesame Street, but getting things off the ground (both literally and figuratively) is not as easy as it seems to be.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Cerebus Syndrome: Starting with this episode, things start to get serious (in Sesame Street standards). Almost everything, from the boarding of the rocket, to the actual launch is treated with dignity, with a few comedic mishaps, and racuous, but revered celebration when the launch actually *does* happen.
- Foreshadowing: The chicken who has been following the worms throughout the entire arc up to this point somehow disappears in the final minutes of the episode. The rocket fails to lift off normally even after its fixed. Guess the reason why it doesn't lift off?note
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Again, given the theme of the story arc, the use of two suites from Gustav Holst's "The Planets": Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity (For the WASA Commander's pre-launch address to the citizens of Sesame Street), and Mars, the Bringer of War (for the actual countdown to launch, and the final narration of the episode.)
- Shown Their Work: The fact that NASA was brought in to make this as realistic for Sesame Street as possible.
- Shout-Out: To Star Trek, as the final narration of the episode:Launch Commander: Space: The Final Frontier. This is the voyage of the Wormship "Wiggleprise" and its crew of five very brave, very smart, very cute little worms, whose mission is to explore space and the moon, and... to wiggle where no worm has wiggled before!
- Sneeze of Doom: Subverted. The smoke from the grounded, but running, rocket causes Snuffy to begin an enormous sneeze, but it is actually just what the rocket needs to liftoff.
- Wham Shot: The rocket actually launches, and is shown traveling through space!Launch Commander: [over loudspeaker] We have LIFTOFF!
[The crowd explodes into elated cheering]
Oscar the Grouch: My worm is in space?!
