"Classic Sesame Street Boxset" Out in October (1 Viewer)

[Radioman970]

By that time I wasn't watching Mr. Rogers anymore. I figure I watched from the late 60s until mid 1970s.

A few weeks ago I had an episode going while cooking Saturday morning breakfast. I couldn't believe how calming it was. I'd buy season sets of it myself. The kids better keep their sticky hands off of it too!

 

[David*P]

So....any early reviews of this set?? I can't wait for Tuesday!

 

[Kevin Martinez]

I got word from one of the reviewers (whose review of the set hasn't been posted just yet, but will be posted soon) that the DVD set has some songs cut out. Just wanted to let you guys know.

 

[Tory]

Oh dear. I wonder what has been removed.

Does anyone remember C3PO and R2D2 on Sesame Street? I know that would not be on this set, but are the moments pretty much out for future releases?

 

[Kevin Martinez]

A renedition of "Consider Yourself", a Bach song performed by The Swinign Sisters, and Stevie Wonder's renedition of "123 Sesame Street" have been cut"

 

[Jeff Jacobson]

Yes I remember that. See this link.

 

[Mark Y]

I managed to get this set a couple days early and so far, I have scanned through it and I have watched and made notes on the first two discs.

The first disc includes an original sales pitch reel, which looks like it originates from 16mm and possibly may even be a kinescope. It is introduced by Joan Ganz Cooney. After a short title card reading simply "Joan Ganz Cooney," it then cuts to Cooney's introduction in mid-sentence. I wonder how much is missing. It runs 0:25:51. The main body of the reel is hosted by Kermit and Rowlf, and they talk about what has gone into putting the show together, research, finances, etc. The early "pre-Grover" Grover also makes an appearance at a meeting with a bunch of other Muppets. Some clips from the show are presented, mostly animated segments, some of which were in some of the "Unpaved" episodes.

The first show (#1) is almost but not quite complete. This and all the shows have a new intro and outro with a little white animated guy, who seems to be familiar from seeing him in some animated segments on the show all those years ago. They call him "Bob." He starts to give some background and trivia on each episode, but ends up talking about himself and an off-camera voice tells him to get on with it and "throw the switch." There is a switch on the wall, he throws the switch and then something happens, he falls down or something (it's different each time), and the last thing you see is always his eyes glowing in the dark. (At the beginning, he starts to make a "disclaimer" of sorts, saying that these shows may not meet the current educational needs of contemporary children.) Show #1 begins right from the top, with the circa 1969 NET color logo and the clay animation with the episode number. Compared to the version aired on Noggin, the Noggin cuts are restored. Essentially, the Noggin version had the "over under around through" film ended early, and there were a couple of repeated animated segments where the Noggin version cut the repeats (of at least one of them as I recall). However, on the DVD the "Anything People" segment is cut way short, eliminating the performance of the song "Consider Yourself." They get as far as Gordon introducing them, dressing them up and just as the song is about to start, it's on to something else. (A pox on music licensing!) Conversely, there is one "new" segment inserted from a different show, a song ("A Little Bit At The Beginning") with some filmed footage of a chicken laying an egg. This and the other shows include the "grant acknowledgements" at the end, but there is a new screen inserted in there with current Muppet ownership info, saying that Kermit belongs to the Disney company and a 2006 copyright date. One big disappointment for me was that this show now has a 1971-era PBS logo (the one which continued to be used well into the 1980s) instead of the original NET logo at the end.

The first disc also includes a whole bunch of additional segments from various shows, including the original performances of "Bein' Green," "Rubber Duckie," "ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QR-STUVWYXYZ," "I Love Trash" (performed by Orange Oscar!), Big Bird's first meeting with Little Bird, and a Batman animated segment about crossing the street (I personally remember this), animated by Filmation and featuring the original voices of the 1960s Batman cartoons. Each clip segment (one for each of the first five seasons) ends with a "credit crawl" from that season. In some cases (Seasons 1 and 3), it's just the credits from a particular episode, superimposed over the final scene of that show. This was kind of confusing for me...the Season 2 closing has some abstract art in it. The one for Season 4 has the camera panning down a drawing of the front steps of 123 Sesame Street with various characters...oddly enough, this same closing was used on show #355 (from Season 3), which was aired on Noggin. These must not have necessarily changed exactly at the break from one season to another. (Hal Miller--the second Gordon, listed in the credits as Harold Miller--is named in that closing, while Matt Robinson was listed in the same credit crawl at the end of show #355 on Noggin, even though neither Gordon actually appeared in that episode.) Similarly, only one Noggin show had an episode number at the beginning (#162). All five of the shows on the DVD set have the episode numbers intact, but the one on show #276 matches the one on Noggin's version of #162 (again, these are from two different seasons). I don't personally remember if these seemed to change for each season, or if different ones alternated; I'm inclined to guess the latter. (#131 uses the same audio but has completely different visuals.)

Disc 1 has an "easter egg," called "Muppet Gallery," showing a lot of sketches and drawings of the Sesame Street Muppets. It runs 0:00:47.

For show #131, just from memory, off the top of my head, I believe the "Two Little Girls And A Little Dollhouse" film was not in the Noggin version. There also is a segment with Gordon and Big Bird where Big Bird narrowly misses being hit by a car and Gordon explains to him the importance of crossing at the light. This leads to a film about traffic lights.

Show #271 also has a couple of segments that were missing on Noggin. (I have a dupe of the original NET version of show #1, so I know the "chicken film" was not in there...so I cannot state with certainty that this is how these shows originally aired.) One is an animation with two intersecting lines that crash and get into an argument as if they've been in a traffic accident. This leads into an animation about the letter M, with a cow...asked what a cow gives (possibly anticipating the answer "milk"), the cow answers "moo." There also is another short segment at Mr. Hooper's store, where his assistant Tom explains about brushes, leading into the "Up And Down" brushing teeth song with the hippo at the zoo.

I haven't watched the rest of the bonus segments all the way through, or the other two shows, but I can say that Harold Miller (as the second Gordon) has at least one additional scene in #406 that was cut from the Noggin version. It is in the Miller shows that we see the only appearances of Roosevelt Franklin on this set. By then, Jerry Nelson had taken over his voice, so I'm pretty sure there are no instances of Matt Robinson speaking for him (the "clapping" segment where Roosevelt appears with other Muppets seems to date from the first three seasons, but Roosevelt does not speak in that segment). I'll report back once I watch the rest of the set, if anyone's interested.

The information in the booklet is very interesting, but some of the stats are incorrect (I am guessing they cribbed some of the info from the 1998 "Sesame Street Unpaved" book), such as the dates of when the Gordons changed. In fact, Roscoe Orman is pictured in the book, which claims he joined the show in 1973 (Orman actually joined at the start of the 1974-1975 season; his first appearance was in show #666, so he does not appear at all in this set). This is a minor quibble.

This isn't perfect, but it is definitely a "must-have!"

 

[Lord Dalek]

Shame about no NET logo on episode 1, that would have been great to have in a dvd quality transfer.

 

[Keith I]

Does the set come in three slimcases or three regular keepcases in an outer slipcover?

 

[Carter of Mars]

I also remember a Superman segment that aired. It's nice to know that this could turn up in a future set.

 

[Mark Y]

Good news: The Superman segment is included in this set. It's on the second disc.

 

[David*P]

Man, this set sounds totally fantastic!! I was hedging on buying it tomorrow cause there are so many other things I want to buy but I can't see myself passing it up!

 

[Carter of Mars]

Fantastic!

 

[Mark Y]

Concerning the "1-2-3-Sesame Street" performance by Stevie Wonder which aired at the end of the Noggin version of show #536 (repeated from #514, which had a complete performance of the song):

The "Old School Vol. 1" DVD version of #536 has a different scene at the end, apparently from a different episode. However, that final scene (on the DVD) has a reference to another segment from earlier in the show, involving Big Bird and Grover, which also was not in the Noggin version. So I take it that both of those segments are from the same show.

I did not observe personally if the letters and numbers at the end of the show matched up with the other segments in that episode or not. Someone on line said they don't. Either way...it would seem either that skit with Grover and Big Bird AND the show closing are BOTH from that episode originally, or they are BOTH plugged in from another episode.

I remember reading an article quoting someone at Sesame Workshop talking about selecting the episodes for the "Unpaved" series in the late 1990s, clearing all the rights, etc. It certainly does not seem outside the realm of possibility that some segments could have been switched from one episode to another for the Noggin broadcasts. Especially given that they were only airing a few episodes from each year. (At any rate, we know the Noggin broadcasts were edited by a few minutes.)

 

[Bill_Nolan]

Anyone find this today? Nowhere I went had it. It was definitely a "two-head Tuesday"... one of those release dates where all the clerks at every store look at me like I have two heads when I ask about a specific new release... Wasn't even in any of their computer systems, either...

- Bill

 

[David*P]

That is a pretty good description of that condition LOL I certainly hope I don't experience that today in regards to any of my purchases.

 

[Bill_Nolan]

I gave up and just ordered it on Amazon. It's down to $27.99 now, anyway, with free shipping, so why not?

- Bill

 

[FranklinC]

Yesterday morning I wanted to order this for $27.99 from Amazon. I waited too late and it jumped up to $34.99 by yesterday afternoon.

:frowning:

But wait! Now DDD has it for $23.96!

 

[Radioman970]

I'm 40. My mother always asks me a for a short list of stuff I might want so she can buy Christmas. I put this on there to freak her out.

 

[Radioman970]

I saw that myself. Great deal! They'll have that big sale soon and it'll be even cheaper.