| Runtime: | 60 minutes |
| Starring: | Rita Moreno Luis Avalos Hattie Winston Morgan Freeman Skip Hinnant Judy Graubart Jim Boyd Elliott Gould Barbara Eden Carol Burnett Bill Beutel |
| Director: | Bill Davis |
| Composer: | Joe Raposo |
| Company: | Sesame Workshop Henson Associates |
| Channel: | ABC |
| Producer: | Norton W. Wright |
| Executive Producer: | David Connell |
Out to Lunch is a prime-time television special that was broadcast on December 10, 1974, on ABC, from 9 to 10pm ET. It mixed the Sesame Street Muppets and the cast of The Electric Company along with guest stars Elliott Gould, Barbara Eden and Carol Burnett. This is the first and one of the few Sesame Street-related productions directly produced by The Jim Henson Company, then-named Henson Associates (the others being the 1989 television special Sesame Street… 20 Years & Still Counting and the 1999 feature film The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland).
A member of the Electric Company cast, Rita Moreno, received an Emmy nomination in 1975 for her participation in the show in the category of Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music.[1]
In the program, ABC News anchor Bill Beutel and his stage manager wrapped up a newscast and left the studio to take a lunch break. After they leave, the Muppets and the cast of The Electric Company take over the studio to fill an hour of programming on ABC while the studio staff is on break.