Tony Geiss (November 16, 1924 - January 21, 2011) was a staff writer and songwriter for Sesame Street and related productions, often teamed with Judy Freudberg. Geiss conceptualized the Honkers (based on his own childhood habit of honking his nose)[1] and Abby Cadabby.[2]
Geiss' early TV career was spent in London scripting The David Frost Show and worked on one entry in the Experiment in Television series for NBC. He first joined Children's Television Workshop as a writer on the health series Feelin' Good. He also scripted television specials and revues for the likes of Dick Cavett and Bill Cosby. In the 1980s, after scripting Follow That Bird as his cinematic debut, Geiss and Freudberg co-wrote the Don Bluth animated features An American Tail and The Land Before Time. He was also credited as head writer for several Sesame Street home videos.
Geiss' father Alexander Geiss was a painter and an animator/story man (working stints for Max Fleischer, at Terrytoons, and for Walt Disney, notably Ferdinand the Bull).[3] His mother Marjorie Thirer was a press agent.[4] Geiss grew up in Greenwich Village, spending two years as a radar technician for the US Navy during World War II. Geiss attended Cornell University and graduated in 1946. He began acting in theatre productions in his freshman year, and met his wife Phyllis Eisen on campus.
Composer Credits[]
- Unfinished songs
- "Hello-Quack-Quack"
- "How Do You Do?"
- "How Porridge Was Born"
- "I Draw a Line"
- "I Love You, Love You, Love You"
- "If There Was No Water"
- "It's a Mistake to Throw Trash in a Lake"
- "The Pigeons of Paris"
- "Rowing Down the Nile"
- "Rubbadubba"
- "Sleeping Gypsy Lullaby"
- "Stringbeans"
- "Sweet Little Fifteen"
- "That's What's Important To Me"
- "We're Going to the Museum and We're Late"
Writing Credits[]
- Sesame Street
- Don't Eat the Pictures
- Follow That Bird
- Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting
- Dance Along!
- Sing-Along Earth Songs
- Elmo Saves Christmas
- The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street
- CinderElmo
- A Celebration of Me, Grover
- Elmo's World segments: Dinosaurs, Doctors, Ears, Fish, Jumping, Penguins, Skin, Weather, Wild Animals
Episodes[]
Sesame Street episodes written by Geiss include:
Books[]
- The Count Counts a Party
- Elmo Saves Christmas
- The Four Seasons
- Honk If You Like Honkers
- The Sesame Street Bedtime Storybook
- The Sesame Street Treasury Volume 4
- The Songs of Sesame Street in Poems and Pictures
- Susan and Gordon Adopt a Baby
- Vegetable Soup
Interviews[]
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Foundation interviewed Geiss in 2004 for the Archive of American Television. The hour and a half interview was posted on YouTube in 2008.
See also[]
Sources[]
- ↑ Children's Television Workshop. Biographical Sketches. 1983
- ↑ Susan Dominus, "A Girly-Girl Joins the 'Sesame' Boys", The New York Times, 6 August 2006.
- ↑ Television Academy interview, part 1. 01:45.
- ↑ ibid. 03:25.
External links[]
- Joseph Berger, "Tony Geiss, 86, Writer for ‘Sesame Street,’ Dies", The New York Times, January 30, 2011.