I’m a little late with a Christmas post, but it was only recently that I ran into what I’m posting today.
I think many people are familiar with the holiday special Christmas Eve on Sesame Street which was created in 1978 and still aired annually to this day. However, there was another Sesame Street Christmas special that was created the very same year called A Special Sesame Street Christmas, which sounded like a trainwreck! First of all, it wasn’t produced by the Children’s Television Workshop for PBS like Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (as well as the regular series). Bob Banner, The guy who did The Carol Burnett Show put it together for CBS. Basically, it was really low budget and stripped down… very un-”Sesame-Street” like. He used only three of the muppets (Big Bird, Oscar, and Barkley) and four of the regular human cast! The rest of the budget was spent on special guest stars. The only GOOD thing to come from this special was that Michael Jackson was one of them.. if only briefly!
To view humorous write-up of the special which goes into greater detail, click here.
Below is a write-up of Michael Jackson’s roll in Sesame Street. I edited out the beginning part because it was a little too negative for my liking and this is my blog and I can do as I please 
. However, you can view the original here.
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How Michael Jackson Saved Sesame Street
by Joe Hennes
Long before MJ [gained a bad rep], he crossed paths with the Muppets a few times. The most notable example is his appearance in A Special Sesame Street Christmas, the goofy special nobody saw because Christmas Eve on Sesame Street completely overshadowed it. Michael’s afro (and Michael) passed by Oscar’s can to donate the book, “Everything You Wanted to Know About Ghosts”, to the Scrooge-ified grouch. He doesn’t count to (Jackson) 5, he doesn’t Moonwalk in the shape of the letter R, he doesn’t organize a cadre of celebrities to sing about how we are the world. He just hands Oscar a book and exits, stage right. Check out the video below for Michael’s cameo, which is sandwiched in between Ethel Merman singing the Christmas classic, “Tomorrow,” and the moustacioed Smothers Brother dressed as an astronaut.
Michael was parodied and referenced a few times here and there: a Muppet Babies comic book cover, “Beat It” in the Muppet Show on Tour show, “Billie Jean” light-up sidewalks in the “I’m Gonna Always Love You” music video. But Jackson only had one other significant connection to Sesame Street, which Chris Cerf related at a book signing last winter.
For all of the musical parodies that Sesame Street produced, very few of them resembled the original song enough to warrant legal action. “Letter B”, a parody of The Beatles’ “Let It Be”, had the unfortunate distinction of being too similar to the original. Northern Songs, which owned the Beatles’ library, threatened to sue the Children’s Television Workshop for $5.5 million. Thankfully, before the case went to trial, Michael Jackson swooped in on wings of angels and purchased the Beatles catalog. He decided not to pursue legal action, and CTW was only fined $50, which Cerf paid out of his own pocket.
Did Michael decide to drop the suit because of his appearance in A Special Sesame Street Christmas? If so, maybe the special wasn’t so bad after all. It might’ve saved Sesame Street $5.5 million (minus $50, of course). And we’ll just tack that on as one of the many, many ways Michael Jackson left his mark on the world.
More MJ Muppet trivia pulled from wikia:
-[In Muppet Babies,] Baby Kermit portrayed Michael Jackson in issue #18 of the Muppet Babies comic book.
-Jackson’s song “Beat It” was included in the 1985 stage show The Muppet Show on Tour: 2nd Edition.
-Sequences parodying the video for “Billie Jean” featured in the video clip for “I’m Gonna Always Love You.”
-A clip of Jackson’s “Beat It” video appears in the fourth season Muppet Babies episode, “Twinkle Toe Muppets.”
The Muppet Babies as Michael Jackson on the cover of Muppet Babies issue #18.
Kermit, dressed as Michael Jackson for the live show The Muppet Show on Tour: 2nd Edition.
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