A Special Sesame Street Christmas was a low-budget 1978 CBS Christmas special, made the same year as the legendary and still popular Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. The special was first broadcast on Friday, December 8, 1978 at 8 PM ET on CBS, pre-empting Wonder Woman that week.
The special features only three of the Sesame Street Muppets: Oscar, Big Bird, and Barkley. Barkley is played by gymnast Toby Towson. The Barkley used for the special was a different puppet than the one used for the series, making Barkley a gigantic and rather intimidating five feet tall, or higher, at times in the special. Mr. Hooper, David, Bob, and Maria are the only humans from the regular cast to make appearances. Instead, the regulars are replaced by a large, somewhat all-star cast.
The special features many plot elements that are very loosely tied together, the most important being Oscar as the "Scrooge" on Sesame Street, as a minor takeoff on A Christmas Carol. They include Leslie Uggams thinking lemonade was hot cocoa, singer Anne Murray and a magic eggnog container, Oscar adopting a kitten with a broken leg who was never seen again on the television series (which is out of character for Oscar, even on Christmas), and Ethel Merman calling Imogene Coca an idiot. Also appearing is Dick Smothers (only one half of The Smothers Brothers was hired for the special), Henry Fonda and Michael Jackson.
Due to the utter lack of purpose to this special, none of these stars ever appeared on Sesame Street as guests, possibly fearing a repeat of this fiasco. Merman had already appeared on The Muppet Show two years before the making of this special.
It is more than likely that the special was mainly produced for CBS not by the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop), but by Bob Banner Associates, notable for Perry Como's Christmas specials. The producers paid CTW for the use of the set, some of the adult characters, Big Bird and Oscar, with everything else, including the script and the Barkley costume, provided by staffers hired by Bob Banner.
However, some credit has been given to this special. It was nominated in the 31st Annual Emmy Awards (1979) under the category of Outstanding Children's Program, ironically losing to Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.
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