Sesame Street: Put Down the Duckie

There are unsourced claims that when 'Ralph Nader' was asked to perform the "Sesame Street" staple "The People in Your Neighborhood", he refused to sing the lyric "the people that you meet each day" because it is grammatically incorrect. He insisted on singing "the people whom you meet each day". The claims allege that the producers agreed to this change but convinced him to sing the original lyric on the set. However, listening to the clip Nader can clearly be heard to sing "whom" on his first duo performance - as in fact does the preceding singer Barbara Walters - but on the next two occasions, when he sings in quartet, all four singers appear to use the word 'that'. If not apocryphal, Mader's alleged insistence in changing the words of this known song out of concern for grammatical exactness, becomes ironical given the recording shows him seconds earlier stating "I'm making sure the wheels of this wagon were put on right". A more grammatically pedantic expression would not use the word 'right' as an adverb, but would rather have substituted the word 'correctly': "I'm making sure the wheels of this wagon were put on correctly".

During "The People In The Neighborhood" song, Bob accidentally calls Ralph Nader "Barbara" when he's ripping his sweater.

During the credits, everyone who starred in the special sings "Put Down the Duckie". And, at the very end of the credits, Hoots comes to Ernie with a problem of his own and Ernie gives him very simple advice, "You gotta put down the saxophone if you wanna squeak your duckie". (A homage to "Put Down the Duckie": "Put down the duckie if you wanna play the saxophone")

When released to video under the name "Put Down the Duckie", the following changes have been made: The beginning shows Big Bird coming out of his nest and seeing the title Put Down the Duckie, instead of Sesame Street Special. Also in the Monsterpiece Theatre part, the introduction has been changed into a slightly extended one, and it featured a re-shot greeting from Alistair Cookie without his pipe. Also at the end of it when Grover comes crashing through the window, his scream has been added instead of the previous version when he silently flew in. Also dialogue between him and Cookie Monster have changed to: Cookie: "Shh, we still on camera." Grover: "What a nice rug." In the original: Cookie: "Stay there, we still on camera." Grover: "Hurry". Also, this special was run during the pledge drives, and since the video did not apply to this, the skit of Kermit the Frog and Oscar discussing public television and pledge drives has been cut out.

References Donahue (1967)