After the jump, I've placed a YouTube clip of the first appearance of Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street. Ernie is in his bathtub, but there's no rubber ducky to be found. Oh, and he calls his bathtub "Rosie" but I'll let you watch the clip to find out why that is. The voices are a little different than what they eventually evolved into, but even with this first appearance you can see how well Jim Henson and Frank Oz bounced quips and one-liners off one another. I love watching really early Sesame Street episodes, because the puppeteering, while excellent, hadn't quite reached the perfection it would in the show's later years. If you look closely, you can actually see part of Frank Oz's arm and head in the lower right corner. Part of me kind of prefers that raw, unedited look. Enjoy:

OK, I've got my New Year's Eve plans pretty much set: a dinner with a friend (I think), the crucial Giants-Raiders game at 8 (if the Giants win that, they win the division), and a peek into New Year's Rockin' Eve. I don't usually turn into the ABC spectacular until right before midnight, but this year my curiosity has been piqued. America has not seen Dick Clark since he suffered a stroke in 2004, and he has not even shown up for publicity photos for this year's edition, which will be co-hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Hillary Duff. As you can see by the photo, Clark's head has been fairly obviously Photoshopped onto someone else's tuxedoed body. But he will be there, live, according to ABC.

So, what will Dick look and sound like this New Year's Eve? Is anyone else going to tune in because of this? Or am I the only morbidly curious a-hole here? Let me know in the comments.