And Frank Oz was a big part of that first piece as well. Jim Henson actually puppeteered my little character. He had a Muppet character that had kind of an Afro of blond hair.Ĭhris: I had a lot of hair then. Norm: And then the first song we wrote together was called “Exit,” which was sung by a Muppet called Little Chrissy-which was based on Chris. It was a minor catastrophe.īeck: What happened to all the pineapples?Ĭhris: Well, that’s the big question in the book. From the personal collection of Jim Henson.Ĭhris: But nobody figured out that if they were gonna print 100,000 copies, there would be something like two and a half million little pineapples on the ground when they punched them all out of the book. Jim Henson with the Muppet Little Chrissy. All the other parts took, like, three weeks to write. For example, one of our most popular songs, I think, was called “Monster in the Mirror.” And Norm wrote “wubba wubba wubba wubba woo woo woo,” which is the only part that everyone remembers. Norm came up with lyric hooks incredibly quickly. It was wonderful!Ĭhris: Norm is being very modest. We would sit down together and try to come up with rhymes and a basic structure, and then Chris would go off and refine it, and write the music. Norm: Chris is an amazing poet and lyric writer, as well as being the person who wrote all the music. Norm: He puts in all his notes, all his receipts, every meeting he had.Ĭhris: As long as I don’t lose it, I can work on anything, and the notes are right in front. Norm: Chris probably has a million of those.Ĭhris: I have one for every month back to 1972. What do you call those books?Ĭhris Cerf on the set of a Sesame Street live performance. Elaine was particularly fond of writers, but it ended up being a pretty big celebrity hangout. Let’s go out to dinner.” We would go to Elaine’s, which was a show-business hangout. And I’d say to Chris, “I have this idea for a song. Norm: If we were writing songs, I would have an idea or some lyrics written down. And I got to write songs pretty early, so I got to work with Norm and others on that very soon after getting here.īeck: What was your day-to-day like at Sesame Street? Did you two collaborate often? The writers of Sesame Street actually got to write the books, so I knew everybody on the writing staff. I was working on books, records, toys, and products. Norm Stiles: When I started at Sesame Street-I think it was the end of the second season, which was 1971.Ĭhris Cerf: I started in 1970. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Norm Stiles, 76, a former head writer of Sesame Street and co-founder of Sirius Thinking Ltd. Chris Cerf, 77, a writer-composer, formerly for Sesame Street, and co-founder of the children’s-entertainment company Sirius Thinking Ltd.
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