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Submitted by Jennifer B
Sesame Workshops’ How Crayons Are Made was an Epic Win for all of the curious kids that always wanted to know how something worked or how it was made or why it did what it did. We wonder how many kids tried to melt the crayons and make their own colors after watching this though.
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Good vid. I actually liked the one from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood better, though. Still a big thumbs up from me!
Totally, Mr. Rogers’ was first!
Oh good. For a second, I thought that I was remembering wrong and it actually was from Sesame Street. I loved the Mr. Rogers’ one.
OH MY GOSH!!! This was my FAVORITE Sesame Street feature. I would watch Sesame Street just for this and was always disappointed when they didn’t show it. I think that little segment was a major reason why I loved coloring as a kid and when I grew up to be a big kid, I went into a creative field.
SUPERUBER EPIC WIN!
I still can’t look at or use crayons without thinking about this segment. I loved it! I loved any of the segments that they showed on Sesame Street or Mr Rogers about how things were made. I was an inquisitive youngster.
I wonder how long it was until thous jobs were moved to china
looks like a pretty lame job to me. let em have em
We really shouldn’t. We’ve already lost so much of our industry which used to be the backbone of our economy, and the last administration made outsourcing so easy to do, hence the economic slump we are in. PA lost it’s steel industry, at least let us keep the crayons.
you’re doing it wrong. the previous administration had nothing to do with outsourcing, *in that* we as the consumer dictate what we want and how much we’re willing to spend. most people rely on cheap foreign goods because if we didn’t have them, most simply couldn’t afford to live. american made tennis shoes cost $100+ (new balance). chinese/vietnamese/etc tennis shoes can be had for $20 if you’re going discount. why does ikea thrive? because people will spend $50-$300 on furniture made in cambodia out of particle board or some random softwood but won’t/cant buy american made, crafted furniture. costs would quadruple if electronics, appliances, etc were made domestically. just try to find an lcd/plasma television made in the usa…or a cd drive for your computer at that. it’s simply not here. why? because we as the consumer have dictated so. why did pa lose the steel industry? because even if we mine the ore here, ship it to shuguang, have them manufacture the steel and then ship it all the way back, it’s still cheaper than to buy steel domestically. if we want domestic products then we have to be willing to pay for them, but most can’t be arsed to do so because they live on credit cards and beyond their means because they feel entitled to some sort of “american dream” rather than reality. stop blaming the previous administration for things that your fellow man decides.
Well, at least you didn’t go and blame Obama or Clinton, like I expected someone to.
Wow. That’s probably the best summation I’ve ever seen on line. About all you left out was that in US manufacturing, the unions largely determine pay and benefits. In China they hang “motivational” posters in the factories that say “If you don’t do your job today, someone else will do it tomorrow.”
Should have replied here. ALL Crayola products are made in Forks Township still.
There is still a Crayola factory in Kansas– our school district always took a field trip to it and a small-scale candy factory in fifth grade. Man, that was a long time ago.
Oops, they closed that plant in 1997 without telling me. Where has my childhood gone?
Anyone notice how hard they’re trying to hide that these were Crayola crayons?
I didn’t see that they were trying to hide it, anyone would recognize the box and the labels on the crayons.
Of course we’d recognize it because we’re familiar with the boxes and logos, but I noticed that they were quick to move the camera away or blur it if the word crayola could show up, like on the crayons themselves or even the sides of the boxes.
Actually, Crayola still makes all their Crayons in Forks Township.
Also, watching the process live > any video of it.
I live in Bethlehem, nearby Forks, and the “Crayola Factory” is in Easton, where they have a small scale production line to show kids how their products are made.
I agree! My dad workes for Crayola so I lucked out and got to watch a few times. Also that won me major cool points, having a dad tha made crayons. ^^
And that is how you tell a story without words.
Every shot had a purpose. Absolutely brilliant. It’d hold our attention, but get a 4 year old to look at that without some goofy voice over or some moron in a costume and they wouldn’t last past “Where do you put the lithium battery?”
um…I think I was about 4 when that first aired, and it held my attention. It was one of my favorite clips ever. epic win
I agree. I almost remembered every part of it!
Oh man, this clip is definitely in the top ten Sesame Street segments that stick out for me. Ooh, someone should post Ernie singing “I’d Like to Live on the Moon.”
Oh my god, one of the best Sesame Street sketches EVAR. It never got old. Wow, I haven’t heard that doofy music tune in some 23 years at least, but it’s totally familiar somehow – still stuck in some little corner of my brain. Love the old-school sh*tty crayon colors, too.
It is still fascinating to watch! Truly a delight!
Man, the 70s sure were obsessed with orange, olive green, and mustard yellow.
Yeesss. Aw, I can’t believe I ever forgot about this one! I remember wanting to work there just to be able to watch the machines all day long.
Am I alone in loving the smell of crayons also?
Nope
I still love the smell of crayons. I occasionally use them in my artwork and always have some around.
I was one of those kids that tried melting different crayons to make new colors.
My parents hated those segments on Sesame Street. They always set me off on some sort of experimental adventure.
FANTASTIC clip! This one and the one on Mr. Rogers were excellent – isn’t it fascinating to see things being put together, step at a time?
I wonder if the crayons are still made in the same way in Forks? With the same machines?
I love this video and remember searching for it on Youtube. Now that I have an iPod Touch I need to load it on there permanently.
They are not made like that anymore. If you goto their factory/museum or whatever you want to call it, they’ll make them the same way right in front of you as a demonstration. However on I believe “Made in America” with John Ratzenburger (Cliff Claven from Cheers), he toured the real factory and machines have replaced alot of what those ladies did.
I imagine those workers are retired or even dead now, but I still like to wonder about their lives. What it was like to really work there, etc. Of course some of this is romanticism left behind from my childhood. Somehow I grew up with a nice view of the factory worker and their everyday life. Having worked in a few for weeks at a time as a temp, I know its somewhere I don’t want to be.
When I was about seven some of the kids in my class would try to put crayons on the radiator without the teacher noticing so we could see how long it took for the crayons to melt. The teacher always gave out like mad when she saw the dried wax all over the radiators at the end of the day.
I like magenta, blue and black color
my favorite thing ever on seaseme street! my friend and i still talk about this one when ever we see an orange crayon. we look at it like the girl did and start that song up in our heads!.
Precursor to How It’s Made on Discovery Science?
We melted our crayons and messed around with the colors when we were kids. Our mo would walk through the kitchen and we would have saucepans on the stove with the broken bits and ends of crayons melting in them and she would say, “Don’t you mess of the kitchen. You clean that up when you are done!” Nowadays, we would get put in foster care if our mom let us do that, but man it was fun!
We would take the crayons that were too small to use along with the shavings from the crayon sharpener, make an origami box, and shove all that stuff in. Then, leave it out in the hot sun to melt and come back to a big ol’ block of multi-colored crayon.
My wife has a crayon machine stashed somewhere. It’s basically the same concept as above, but it has molds to make crayons.
It must suck for the factory workers at the end of the day: they walk into a bar and it’s not five minutes before some steel worker yells out “Who’s burning crayons!?”
I loved this segment. I live in Forks Township and in 3rd grade our class went to the original Crayola factory here in Easton for a field trip, and I remember watching them make the orange crayons just like in the clip. You never smelled so much wax before in your life. Then afterwards they let us into a special secret room just for kids where we got to pick out names for their new Crayon colors and play with cool stuff they made especially for us local kids. They really made you feel special, Crayola did. One of my favorite field trips ever. :3
This is rather cheap compared to the German counterpart “Die Sendung mit der Maus”.
haha! this is great, i remember being glued to the tv when they showed how crayons were made! i remember seeing it on mr. rodgers first too, and enjoyed it immensely there as well. i was stoked when how its made came out because it not only brought back memories of the pioneers of this program, but rekindled the curious kid inside, lol!
Oooh past blast. I couldn’t remember seeing this clip till the girl held the crayon up! Fantastic.
Man, I haven’t thought about this clip for ages, but it all came back. That clip made me bug my mom for weeks to get a box (we were pretty poor then). When she gave in, it was the BEST day ever! To this day, I always have a couple boxes of crayons around, and all because of this
I recall a kids show when my son was young (he’s now 35) that was about ‘How do they do that?’. This show had famous people describing how they thought something was done with people acting it out, and then there would be a clip showing how it was really done. I recall one where Woody Allen told us how they got toothpaste in the tube. He said that two large guys would hold the tube pointed outward (flash to a picture of two large guys in coveralls holding tightly to an empty tube, and then twelve other guys holding a long rope of toothpaste (clip of guys in track suits loosening up then taking their portion of the total length of toothpaste in both hands) would run toward the two tube holders and the toothpaste would be jammed into the tube. Very funny and educational.
2 questions:
1) Are they now made by Chinese grandmothers or Laotian children?
2) Shouldn’t they update the video to cover the 64 pack?
*Nnnno?
*If they do, they have to use that same music.
1.) Nope, Still made in Forks Township, PA
2.) unless they can find the same voiceover and use the same music, no.
why can’t i vote for this 200 times? This is awesome.
There’s a whole show now that’s made up of ths only it’s for grownups so it’s got boring narration and only a li’l bit of music and they make fun grownup things like razor blades, hersheys chocolate, panadol tablets and teapots
Yeah its called how its made
Its actually kinda interesting.
i saw this as a kid! the music is perfect, it needs Harpsichords and a more metallic synthesizer in the score.
One of the best Sesame Street segments ever… my husband totally doesn’t get my obsession with this segment LOL but it’s just awesome! Brings back so many memories
Love Love Love this!! It still gives me goosebumps and I did get to go to Easton, PA as an adult. I had to stop myself in the gift store, they had every color imaginable!! I still love when the Crayola crayons are ridiculously cheap around school time, but since I don’t need so many I try to donate them to schools.
Feel the urge to buy crayons? Do the same!
This segment was always one of my favorites! The music in and of itself is a win!
This is one of the few sesame street segments I remember. I’ve never really forgotten it. This one and the rainy day song one.
This operation looked remarkably low-tech even at the time. What are these people even *doing* at the factory?
I remember watching this when I was little.
Holy crap. I totally watched this in the first grade. Major chills.
I agree, Mr Rogers version was better. I’m 26 and still talking about this..and how I’d love to go to a factory and watch it. Just mesmerizing!
The Crayon making episode of Mr. Rogers made me SO HUNGRY. And I actually never ate crayons as a kid, ever, so I don’t know why I always get the munchies watching this.
BEST EVER.
Omg…I used to watch Sesame Street every day growing up and when I saw this segment I would be so happy. Love it! Still remember this after all these years.
I loved this segment! One of my favorites out of all the ones that were shown on Sesame Street. I think that my fascination with “Unwrapped” and “Modern Marvels” and all of that comes from watching all these segments!
i never saw this, but constantly did try to melt down crayons by leaving them in the car on a summer day or something of the sort. it took til i was 13 or so to figure that if i put them next to a lamp, that worked just as well.
I liked the one on Mr. Rodgers better