Sesame Street Cred / Live-Action TV

Example subpages:

• Sesame Street (Trope Namer)

Individual examples:

• The Muppet Show was another of Jim Henson's shows that lent itself well to "Sesame Street" Cred. It had a guest star every episode as a part of its Variety Show format, and had an astonishing number of big name celebrities during its run, to the point that many celebrities such as Gene Simmons considered in a badge of honor - people were more impressed when they heard he'd been on the Muppets than by some of his work.
  • Inverted with the second season appearance of ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. Before he appeared on the show, the producers often had to call in favours to get a celebrity guest star for that week's episode; after his apperance, they had so many offers that they had to pick and choose.
  • Weezer's video for "Keep Fishing" is set in an episode of The Muppet Show, complete with Miss Piggy going Yandere on drummer Patrick Wilson.
• Gordon Ramsay has Muppet cred, appearing in one of the Muppets' YouTube skits, a seriously funny mashup of Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen. See it here.
  Sweetums: You sure do say "bleep" a lot.
  Gordon: Because this is the bleeping 'Muppets!' There's families bleeping watching!
• The various artists and musicians who appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
  • In an interesting crossover, Big Bird himself appeared in one episode of Neighborhood, but only after considerable negotiation. Word of God is that Carroll Spinney turned down an initial script that had him taking off the Bird head and demonstrating how he performed the character. As the line between 'make-believe' and reality was likewise important to Fred Rogers (who saw any overlap as deceiving his young audience), Big Bird appeared in character, but only in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. In a later episode of Sesame Street, Rogers would appear to act as referee for a race between Big Bird and Snuffy in Central Park.
  • In another crossover, Captain Kangaroo appeared on Mister Rogers' show, followed by Rogers appearing on the Captain's show. A young Tony Hawk also made his TV debut on the latter.
  • When the Arthur episode "Arthur Meets Mister Rogers" was slated to premiere, an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was made to promote it that starred Arthur creator Marc Brown and Michael Yarmush, the then-current voice of the eponymous character. However, it wound up airing two years after said Arthur episode was broadcast due to Schedule Slip.
• Once The Sunny Side Up Show made the move to New York City's 30 Rockefeller Center from Philadelphia's Comcast Center in 2014, it started using celebrity guests in segments. Previously, the guests were all either Sprout characters, children's bands, or children's singers.
• Yo Gabba Gabba!:
  • The Shins
  • Low
  • Hot Hot Heat
  • Shiny Toy Guns, made even better because of the fact that they were shown as "The Shinys".
    • Similarly, The Killers were introduced as "Brandon, Dave, Ronnie, and Mark."^note Fun fact: both Brandon Flowers and Yo Gabba Gabba co-creator Christian Jacobs are Mormon. Flowers is much less observant, though.
  • Erykah Badu
  • Cornelius
  • Elijah Wood
  • Tony Hawk (Also featured in the main page image)
  • Questlove
  • Jack Black. Gets special mention for having most of an episode dedicated to his appearance, as well as the chance to wear orange spandex despite having a slight beer gut.
  • Andy Samberg
  • Bill Hader (who wanted to do it for his daughter, who ended up being embarrassed that her father appeared on her favorite show)
  • Glay
  • MGMT
  • Dave Grohl (of the Foo Fighters) appeared at one of the live shows (he was attending it with his daughter) and did the Peanut Butter Stomp.
  • My Chemical Romance appeared on the 2011 Christmas Episode, billed as "MCR".
  • Taking Back Sunday
  • Of Montreal
  • Mos Def
  • Anthony Bourdain
  • The Aquabats! (not surprising since the lead singer is the show's creator)
  • Jimmy Eat World
  • Weezer
  • Basement Jaxx
  • The Flaming Lips
  • Devo — which is really no surprise, since Mark Mothersbaugh hosts the Mark's Magic Picture segment of the show.
  • Jason Falkner.
  • Paul Williams, singing "The Rainbow Connection".
  • Biz Markie appears during the "Biz's Beat Of The Day" segments.
• The Chica Show: Mario Lopez voices Stitches in the show’s cartoon segments.
• The cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Reading Rainbow. Which is fitting, because LeVar Burton hosts Reading Rainbow. Along with the various story narrators — Bill Cosby, Michael Ansara, Hulk Hogan, et al.
• This also happened in The Sarah Jane Adventures with the Blue Peter presenters in "Invasion of the Bane".
• MI High featured an appearance by Konnie Huq, one of the Blue Peter presenters, in one episode.
• Billy Corgan appeared on the last episode filmed of WGN's Bozo, the 40th anniversary show.
• Jon Stewart made an appearance on Jack's Big Music Show as a reporter doing a story on Groundhog Day; Jack's Big Music Show is one of his son's favorite shows.
  • Cheryl Hines appeared on this show as well.
• Square One TV featured, among other things, a bunch of music videos by well-known artists about math. Featured bands include the Jets, the Judds, the Fat Boys, Kid 'n' Play, Bobby McFerrin, Gregory Hines and "Weird Al" Yankovic.
  • Even the One-Hit Wonder singer Regina Richards ("Baby Love") made an appearance, singing "Combo Jombo".
  • Conversely, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego once had a crossover with Square One's Mathnet detectives.
    • Back when he was a senator, Joe Biden called host Gregg Lee in a 1993 game.
• Inversion: Dustin the Turkey often appears unexpectedly on various Irish TV shows to insult the presenters (this is entirely in character for him). The most bizarre example would probably be the time he entered the Eurovision Song Contest.
• The Electric Company (1971):
  • Tom Lehrer returned to songwriting to pen a few tunes.
  • Radio comics Bob & Ray voiced a couple animated versions of their 'interview' schtick.
  • Bill Cosby, Rita Moreno, and Morgan Freeman were part of the cast (although Freeman wasn't legendary at the time, unlike the others).
  • Joan Rivers narrated "The Adventures of Letterman", while Gene Wilder voiced the character and Zero Mostel voiced his arch-enemy The Spellbinder.
• Vicki Lawrence, Dolly Parton, The Rock, Christine Taylor, Jesse Mc Cartney, Iyaz, Rob Reiner, Edie McClurg, John Cena, Jon Cryer, Heather Locklear, Brooke Shields, Robin Roberts, Dr. Phil, Sheryl Crow, Gilbert Gottfried, Ray Liotta and Larry David are among the guest stars who performed on Hannah Montana.
• Wizards of Waverly Place also featured guest appearances by Dwayne Johnson and Rob Reiner, along with Shakira, Wilmer Valderama, Taylor Negron, Curtis "Booger" Armstrong, Jeff Garlin, Julia Duffy, Julie Brown, Lee Meriweather, Adam Carolla, Fred Willard, Cindy Crawford, Misty-May Trainor, Rachel Dratch, Jo Anne Worley, Ted McGinley, and John O'Hurley.
• 3-2-1 Contact had a few, including Robert Guillaume, Linus Pauling, Suzanne Ciani, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gene Wilder, and even Big Bird (Caroll Spinney) himself.
• Kylie Minogue is an honorary Wiggle.
• Barney & Friends has had its share of guests over the years in videos and episodes, usually local Texan celebrities (where the show is filmed), but it has had a number of nationally known celebrities including astronaut Ken Reightler, Ella Jenkins, Joe Scruggs and author Tomie DePaola. In Barney's First Adventures, Teri Garr and Melissa Gilbert both make appearances.
• The Noddy Shop utilized this technique for many of their one-shot characters:
  • Carol Kane plays Pearlie White, the titular character of "The Tooth Fairy".
  • Harry Anderson plays Jack Fable, the magician who teaches Daniel Johnson tricks in the episode "The Magic Show".
  • Gilbert Gottfried plays the epynomous character of "Jack Frost Is Coming To Town".
  • Betty White played Santa Claus' wife Annabelle in the Christmas Special "Anything Can Happen At Christmas".
  • Canadian actor Colin Fox played the epynomous character in "The Sandman Cometh".
  • Gregory Cross, well-known for playing Monsieur Firmin in the Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera, played Ed Caruso.
  • The singing voices of the puppets also count, as they were talent from Nashville, Tennesee. Two notable ones were Joseph Wooten (Bass Penguin of The Doo-Wop Penguins), who is part of the Steve Miller Band, and Percy Travis III (Johnny Crawfish), who has worked with Faith Hill.
• Odd Squad has had a few members of The Kids in the Hall play characters in Crime at Shapely Manor. In addition, Jack McBrayer appeared in Odd Squad: the Movie as the primary antagonist Weird Tom. Interestingly enough they also snagged Hannah Simone for the role of Weird Emily. Dalila Bela, who played Agent Olive in Season One, would go on to voice Sydney in Ready Jet Go!, while Millie Davis played a part in Orphan Black.
• Sam & Cat had guest appearances from Penny Marshall and Brad Williams.
• A quickfire challenge on an episode of Top Chef: All Stars has the contestants baking cookies for Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Telly. Elmo requests a cookie with zucchini or carrots in it, and a few of the chefs actually oblige him. The whole sequence is a riot, and it's on the official Top Chef YouTube channel, too.
• Ryan's Mystery Playdate, a Nick Jr. show based off Ryan ToysReview, relies on this trope. Once an Episode, a celebrity, athlete, artist, or some other respected adult (or sometimes a child) will be revealed as the eponymous Mystery Playdate and teach Ryan a thing or two. Examples include Tony Hawk, Murray SawChuck, Laurie Hernandez, Tony Gemignani, EvanTubeHD, Maria Menounos, Butch Hartman, and Dave Grohl.
• Pee-wee's Playhouse featured guests like Little Richard, Oprah Winfrey, Phil Hartman, John Singleton and Cher.
• The Weird Al Show had appearances from many celebrity guest stars, among them Jonathan the Magician, Patton Oswalt, Drew Carrey, Gilbert Gottfried, Dick Clark, Alex Trebek, Hanson, and the Barenaked Ladies.
• Canadian television productions for children, no matter if they're animated or live-action, are a notable case, as they usually avert this trope because hiring celebrity guests tend to be more expensive than just using the same pool of actors from the country. Although there have been some exceptions, these instances are few and far between.
• Jason Mraz played the titular character in The Fresh Beat Band special The Wizard Of Song.
• Charlie Horse Music Pizza starred comedian Dom DeLuise as the chef character Cookie.
• Giggle And Hoot: Early seasons had a segment in which a celebrity reads Hoot a story.
• PBS Kids Preschool Block: Early seasons had music videos from children's singers and bands.
• Jackanory is a BBC children's show which had mostly British actors, comedians or celebrities (including Liam Neeson, Judi Dench, Rik Mayall, Joanna Lumley and Patrick Stewart) reading a story. It was originally broadcast between 1965-1996, with the final episode featuring the playwright Alan Bennett and has been revived under different names on several occasions since. In its most recent incarnation, as CBBC's Bedtime Stories, some of the more popular episodes have had Tom Hardy telling the stories but the show has also featured David Tennant, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Josh Homme, Suranne Jones and Chris Evans (Captain America, not the radio DJ).
• Jonathan Winters plays the titular character in Bloopy's Buddies.
• The Netflix puppet series Waffles And Mochi has Michelle Obama in a major role, along with guest spots from Jack Black, Rashida Jones, Common, Zach Galifianakis, Tan France, Gaten Matarazzo, Sia, Mandy Moore, José Andrés, and Massimo Bottura.
• Marlee Matlin appeared in a few Baby Einstein videos to perform sign language.
• Inversion: The Tweenies have appeared on several episodes of Top of the Pops to sing several of their songs.
• Orlando Magic player Dennis Scott appeared in an episode of Gullah Gullah Island.
• Eddie Mekka of Laverne & Shirley appeared in the Power Rangers Wild Force episode "The Tornado Spin".
• Bear in the Big Blue House:
  • Lynne Thigpen played Luna the moon.
  • The "Welcome to Woodland Valley" two-parter featured Gilbert Gottfried as a possum.
  • Whoopi Goldberg played Edwina Badger, also known as The Great Bandini, in the episode "The Great Bandini".
• Inai Inai Baa!:
  • In the WanWan The World special, Fuku Suzuki, who made his acting debut on Inai Inai Baa! in 2006, is the host of the special.
  • Haranishi of manzai duo Fujiwara and Morning Musume showed up in the 25th anniversary special.
• James Doohan had a cameo on Bill Nye the Science Guy in which Bill calls him to get him out of a traffic jam, but when he says he's "giving it all she's got," Bill fires him.
• Inversion: Donkey Hodie and Purple Panda presented several categories at the innagural Children's And Family Emmys.
• This was the main gimmick of the PBS show Storytime, which featured celebrities reading children's books.

---