Home      Biography      News      Cameos      Tributes      Muppets      Sesame Street      Fraggle Rock      Contact Jerry      Caption of the Month      Help

"And only one guest could properly help us celebrate a full year of a show called Countdown... from Sesame Street, The Count."    -Keith    Olberman   Caption of the Month

.jpg Here is a transcript of The Count's interview from his March 31st appearance on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olberman. OLBERMAN:   Oliver North, Paul Begala, Al Roker, Diane Diamond, Laurie Dhue, John McLaughlin, Ann Curry. What do these people and many many more have in common? They have all hosted shows on this network in the 8:00 pm Eastern time slot, and by God, I've outlasted them all. Our number one story on the Countdown: Countdown. Please indulge us for a little while. Tonight is our first anniversary, and we wanted to celebrate, for a couple of minutes anyway, because survival is a good thing. In a moment, the moments of the year-of year one- that made us happy. First, our special guest. And only one guest could properly help us celebrate a full year of a show called Countdown, a newscast predicated on the first five digits. He has been introducing America's children to those digits, and several others, since 1969. His program, produced by the non-profit Sesame Workshop, is coming up on it's own anniversary next week, and we'll talk about that in a moment. First, let me introduce, from Sesame Street, The Count. Count von Count, welcome. COUNT: Oh, thank you so much, Keith. It's my pleasure to be here. OLBERMAN:      It makes it a special anniversary for us. You don't do a lot of appearances on newscasts, do you? COUNT: Only fast-breaking news stories on Sesame Street. You know, the type thing- Big Bad Wolf and the one, two, three little pigs, that sort of thing. OLBERMAN: So we thought, while you were here, on the anniversary, you might want to count a few things, since that's what you do. I don't know, we could give you the list of all the shows that have been on in this time slot, but then we'd have to preempt part of Deborah's show at 9:00, so we don't want to do that. Do you feel like counting cameras, or counting the guys who are standing around here doing nothing, or what? COUNT: Keith, it's true, I love counting, but tonight I only count one thing. I want to count one wonderful primetime news anchor- you. (LAUGHTER) OLBERMAN: Well, thank you so much, Count. It's an honor. Should we do anything special for that? There's a bag underneath here that has an item in it. Is that what we should be looking-- COUNT: Yes, that's true. OLBERMAN: What have we got here? COUNT: Since we're celebrating our 35th anniversary, and you're celebrating your first anniversary, we thought it would be nice to bring you one, one wonderful present. (LAUGHTER, LIGHTNING) OLBERMAN: OK. That's the first time that's ever happened here deliberately. Let's see-oh, look at this. This is wonderful, Count. Thank you. Look, we have the number one. How about that? Perhaps for the rest of the show I can wear it. COUNT: Oh, beautiful. OLBERMAN: Is that what it's designed for? COUNT: You can put it up anywhere you like. OLBERMAN: I didn't know where you were going with that remark. The street on which you have lived, Sesame Street. Thirty-five years of teaching kids. That's a lot of counting, isn't it? COUNT: Thirty-five years. How the time flies when you're having fun counting. Yes, it has been-there have been many children that have passed by 35-some of them are 35 years old now. OLBERMAN: I used to baby-sit my sister as we watched back in the very early days when people were just discovering your street, so it's a personal thing for us, and we hope it's another 35 years. You good for another 35 years? COUNT: Me, personally? OLBERMAN: Yes. COUNT: (LAUGHS) I don't know, Keith, I don't know. Who knows what time will bring? I'm down for it, though. OLBERMAN: And you can count it all the way. COUNT: Oh, certainly, yes. That would be, yes, 70 years. Oh, I love that. Seventy years, yes. OLBERMAN: Seventy, 70. The Count from Sesame Street, celebrating 35 years with the PBS primetime special, "Sesame Street Presents: The Street We Live On" on April 4th. So thanks for coming in and helping us celebrate the birthday, and happy birthday to all you guys on Sesame Street. COUNT: Thank you, and happy birthday to you Keith. OLBERMAN: Thanks for the number one. Our number of viewers.