Starting in season 3 of Sesame Street, a series of sketches starred Ernie and other Muppets as cavemen making historic discoveries and inventions. These sketches featured Ernie as a caveman king, aided by Sherlock Hemlock as "The Royal Smart Person."
Starting in season 15, Ernie starred in a new series of caveman sketches, this time co-starring Bert and alternating with new titles - Caveman Days and Caveperson Days. These sketches contained a narrator who would help translate their utterings of "ooga-mooga-mooga" and such.
Some of the later sketches include an original music theme composed by Dave Conner,[1] whereas the "Caveman Days" segment begins with a timpani version of the "Sesame Street Theme." Jerry Nelson served as the narrator for all but two segments, which were narrated by Martin P. Robinson.
King Ernie has a problem -- the cavemen write everything on rocks, which are too heavy to carry around. He calls upon the Royal Smart Person to invent something lighter to write on. (This sketch was adapted into a book, The Invention of Paper.)
King Ernie wants something to drink, so he calls on the Royal Smart Person for help. The royal cow has quit, so there's no milk available. Ernie also shows that there is no liquid inside a rock or a stick. Then the Royal Smart Person suggests that Ernie should try squeezing a round orange thing (an orange), which turns out to have juice inside.
King Ernie needs to clean his yucky teeth. The Royal Smart Person brings a big brush (used for sweeping), then a middle-sized brush (used for brushing hair), then a smaller brush (used for painting), and finally a really small brush (a toothbrush). Just as Ernie proclaims that he'll "brush every tooth in the entire kingdom," a saber-toothed tiger comes in, seizes the toothbrush, and begins to use it himself! (The sabertooth in this sketch was the first puppet created by Ed Christie for a Henson-related production.)[2]
Ernie (the kid) realizes that a drum (his favorite instrument) can also be used as a wastebasket, which he can use to take several pieces of garbage to the dump at once, instead of one at a time.
