| abstract | - The Mad Painter was the title character in a series of live-action films on Sesame Street. Produced for the program's third season, the film inserts used comedic slapstick to teach recognition, emphasizing the symbolic representation of the numeral, and how it is drawn, in contrast to the Baker Films, which stressed counting and quantity. The painter character is an eccentric whose hobby is painting numbers between 2 and 11 in various public and private places. Armed with a set of numbers, he would begin each skit by announcing the number he intended to paint. Streets, umbrellas, purses, cakes, windows, stools, rubber balls, slices of bread, sailboats, and bald heads were all grist for the painter's mill. The painter's thoughts were heard in voice-over. Sometimes after he painted his number, something would either smudge it or wash it away, and sometimes he painted his number without anything bad happening to it and/or he wouldn't get in trouble. Occasionally, the numerical graffiti artist would suffer the consequences of his peculiar obsession, and elude irate citizenry in a comic chase. Still, he continued his campaign, gaining notoriety in newspapers (the film for 8 includes the blaring headline "PAINTER STRIKES AGAIN!") Two recurring targets were a young woman, portrayed by Stockard Channing, and a bald, mustachioed man (Jerome Raphel). The action in the segments was punctuated by a jaunty piano accompaniment, reminiscent of silent film scores, as composed by Robert Dennis. Eliot Noyes Jr. directed the series.
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