Sesame Street Season 38, Episode 20: The Amazing Alphabet Race

1

The Bookaneers

Elmo and Alan are reading in Hooper's Store, when they both hear a boat, then see it (includes a rare appearance of Sesame Street) and the storefront is boarded by a group of Bookaneers. An Anything Muppet and a salty dog are led by their pirate captain, played by guest star Tina Fey. They demand that Elmo hand over his book, but Elmo explains that he loves to read. The pirates invite Elmo to become a Bookaneer, but he must first pass a series of tests.

2

Chris Arrives on Sesame Street

Gordon and Susan's nephew, Chris, just moved to Sesame Street. He is looking for a job in the Help Wanted section of the newspaper because he needs money to buy books for school. Chris thinks the first ad might be for a job as a gym teacher because it reads, "Must love to exercise." He sings a new verse of "The People in Your Neighborhood."

3

Word 'Dog' Escapes Abby's Book

Baby Bear and Telly Monster welcome the viewer to Sesame Street, and look forward to reading a book with Abby Cadabby. Abby arrives and introduces her magical book: The Wild Adventures of Action Dog. The others hear a barking sound, which turns out to come from none other than the book itself.

4

Lucy the Lazy Lizard

Maria welcomes the viewers after a piece of toast flies in her face. Elmo stops by, and asks Maria to read him a story. Maria points out that she's already read that book to him ten times. Elmo replies, "Let's make it eleven!" Maria finally agrees to read Elmo his book, Lucy the Lazy Lizard - a book with a lot of L words in it.

5

Abby Plays the Letter 'P' Game

Elmo wants to play tag, but Zoe wants to play checkers. Alan notices them arguing, and suggests they play the "letter P game." In order to play, they need to look around the store for things that start with the letter P, such as pickles. While Elmo and Zoe have difficulty looking for P words, a penguin (who pronounces his p's hard) comes in and orders a peanut butter sandwich on pumpernickel bread, with a slice of pineapple, and a potato.

6

The Tutu Spell

Abby and Zoe are playing in the courtyard. They love dancing so much, so Zoe lets Abby try on her tutu. To return the favor, Abby lets Zoe try out her wand. As she's figuring it out, she inadvertently wishes that everyone would wear a tutu and wear ballet.

7

Big Bird Breaks Elmo's Tricycle

Elmo greets the viewer, and says he plans to ride his tricycle all day. Big Bird encounters him, and expresses interest in riding Elmo's tricycle. Elmo agrees to let Big Bird do so, but as soon as Big Bird sits down on the tricycle, it breaks!

8

Big Bird Helps Zero

On a beautiful day, Big Bird encounters a sad number Zero, who is upset because he is nothing. He sings a song about it. Big Bird sets out to show Zero that being nothing is really something. When they go to Hooper's Store, Zero asks for a banana split, but Alan realizes he's out of bananas, which is the perfect cue for a musical number parodying "Yes, We Have No Bananas." In song, Alan explains how the number zero helps him keep track of what he needs to order whenever he runs out of something in the store. This makes Zero feel a little better, but he is still not convinced of his worthiness.

9

Sleeping Grouchy

Oscar and Grundgetta are reading The Tale of Sleeping Grouchy" and Slimey, Telly and Elmo join them. The story begins, "Once upon a time, there was a very, very, very grouchy princess . . ." and it tells the tale of a princess that was so grouchy, she said things like, "Phooey!" "Ewwww!" and "Sounds horrible!" One day the grouchy princess was on a grouchy walk. She said, "Phooey!" so many times that it disturbed a wizard who was walking nearby and he cast a spell on the her, putting her to sleep for a hundred years! Princess Grouchy's parents were very upset. They loved their grouchy daughter dearly and wanted to find a way to break the sleeping spell. They offered a reward to any prince who could wake the princess up. Prince Elmo came and tried to tickle Princess Grouchy awake with a feather, but it didn't work. Prince Telly played his loud tuba with his back-up band, The Cat's Meow, but Princess Grouchy still did not wake up. Finally, Prince Slimey arrived.

10

Triangle Lover of the Day

Telly stares in awe at the Triangle Triple Crown, which will be worn for three weeks by the "Triangle Lover of the Day" at today's Triangle Lovers' Club meeting. He loves triangles more than anyone else, so he is sure that he will get crowned, and he invites Baby Bear to the special occasion. Baby Bear is not sure he will fit in with the other Triangle Lovers, since he doesn't call himself one, but Telly reassures him that he'll do fine.

11

Fairy Tale Emergencies

Prairie Dawn hosts a Fairy Tale News special report, "Fairy Tale Emergencies - Are You Prepared?" She explains that an emergency is something that you have to prepare for, because you don't know when it will happen - and fairy tales are full of them.

12

Rosita, Telly, and Zoe Play House

Telly, Zoe and Rosita are all excited as they welcome the viewer to Sesame Street, because today they're playing "house." They can't wait to pretend to be a big happy family. Rosita will be the mommy, Zoe will be the baby, and Telly will be the dog and the daddy (even though he'd rather be the dog). They sing their happy family song.

13

Gabi, Telly, and Zoe Have a Picnic

Gabi, Zoe and Telly are gathered around at a picnic table outside of Hooper's Store for a picnic. Maria brings them a melon and sets it on the table. They briefly turn their attention away from the melon while Telly shows them the triangular napkins he brought. But when Telly goes to get the melon, he finds it's missing! Everyone is confused - where did the melon go? It's not under the table.

14

Chris Helps Elmo Write a Letter

At the Fix-it Shop, Abby Cadabby and Elmo watch Maria fix a toaster. ("I love having an audience," Maria says.) An excited Rosita rushes over to show them the letter she received from her abuelita, and asks Maria to read it. In the letter, her grandma says she was looking at a picture of Rosita, and it made her happy. It makes Rosita happy, too, as she imagines a hug from her abuelita. Right then and there, Rosita decides to write a letter back, and runs off.

15

Big Bird, Elmo & Abby, Song for 3

Big Bird and Elmo are excited, because they've got a special song for two friends, which they are. They count each other, and sing "One and One Make Two." They almost sing it again, when Abby Cadabby appears in a poof, and asks to join them. Suddenly, Big Bird realizes the song won't work this time, because it's a song for two, and if Abby joins them, they won't be two anymore, but three. What to do? Abby suggests making herself disappear, but that turns out to be not such a good idea. The three friends decide they should ask Gabi what they should do. They explain their predicament, and Gabi suggests they sing a song for three instead of two. What a great idea!

16

Telly Helps Gordon Play Golf

Gordon welcomes the viewer to Sesame Street. He has set up a miniature golf course, to prepare for the golf game he'll have with Alan later on. Telly stops by, and is impressed with the setup. Gordon shows Telly how the game is played, and explains that the game isn't always easy, because the grass often has hills, which make it harder for the ball to make it into the hole. Telly gets a sudden burst of inspiration, and rushes off.

17

The Worm Cup Games

Alan invites Big Bird into Hooper's Store to watch the Worm Cup games on his TV set. The audience consists of a few kids, and even some worms with their own miniature tables and vans. The worm audience is split into two groups: one from France, and one from the USA. Alan explains to Big Bird that the objective of the Worm Cup games is to kick a ball into a cup the most times. Worms from all over the world are competing for the cup, including Slimey.

18

Elmo Wishes for a Pet Dinosaur

Elmo imagines himself with a pet dinosaur and sings a song about all the fun things they would do.

19

Zoe and Rosita Find Abby's Magic Wand

While pretending to be leaping elephants, Zoe and Rosita encounter a mysterious object lying on a crate. Rosita thinks it looks like a popsicle stick, but Zoe remembers where she's seen it: it's Abby Cadabby's magic wand! Rosita wonders what it would be like to be a fairy god-monster and do wonderful magical things for everyone every day - but Zoe advises her against waving the wand, because she's not a fairy god-monster.

20

The Amazing Alphabet Race

Australian TV personality Amazing Al spots Elmo singing his ABCs, and chooses him to be a contestant on "The Amazing Alphabet Race." The objective of the game is to find all the letters of the alphabet before a clucking chicken tap dances her way to a gong!

21

Ralphie the Parrot Flies Away

On another sunny day, Big Bird gets some bananas from Alan, who almost welcomes the viewer to Sesame Street - when Baby Bear interrupts him so that his parrot, Ralphie, can do it instead.

22

Chris Teaches Elmo How to Bowl

Gabi encounters Chris and some kids playing with his toy bowling set, which he's had since he was a kid. She asks him if she can try it out, since she's a good bowler herself. Gordon then asks for a turn after Gabi. She gets a strike, and Gordon knocks down two pins.

23

Elmo Shows Abby How to Pretend

Abby Cadabby looks for Elmo, and introduces the viewer to her toy frog, Prince. When Elmo sees it, he doesn't understand how a frog could be a Prince, until Abby explains he was a prince that got turned into a frog. She kisses the frog doll, and POOF! it turns into a prince doll (and vice versa).

24

Elmo Is Jealous of Marco

Gina welcomes the viewer to Sesame Street. Elmo is looking forward to playing checkers with her today, but it becomes difficult because Marco needs his mommy's attention. Gina thinks he needs to eat, so she leaves with Marco to get his baby food, leaving Elmo all alone.

25

Rosita Gets Upset at Zoe & Abby

Rosita and Zoe are both excited about their play date together. As they start to play hide-and-seek, Abby Cadabby poofs up out of nowhere. Rosita is about to show Abby how they play hide-and-seek, but Abby mentions another game, "jumping rhymes," which piques Zoe's interests. Zoe and Abby are good at the game, but Rosita has trouble thinking of words that rhyme with "chair," and can only think of made-up words (which are acceptable).

26

Oscar hosts Grouch News Network

Oscar is the host of GNN, Grouch News Network: "All grouchy, all disgusting, all yucky news, all the time." Some trash falls from the sky, and Fluffy hands Oscar a bulletin about something grouchy happening in Maria's bathroom.