Custom DVDs from Sesame Workshop: can anyone confirm?

[ISNorden]

A month or two ago, I dimly recall reading that Sesame Workshop is willing to do customized DVDs with up to ten video clips (at $5 per clip). They don't advertise this offer on their website, but someone on the inside mentioned that it's been done. Could the qualified folks out there confirm or debunk this for me, please? A friend of mine is desperately searching for some rare clips and willing to go straight to the source.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't know. But it sounds like a great way to get fired from SW.

(Sorry if my barb wasn't helpful. I'd love to see this as well.)

 

[minor muppetz]

If that is true, then somebody should try to get a copy of One Song (Song of One).

 

[ISNorden]

That's exactly the sketch my friend is looking for, so I wrote to Sesame Workshop hoping that they could set me straight about that claim. If it's true, then there just might be a way to get hold of the Song of One sketch legitimately without waiting for a commercial re-release.

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder how easy it is for the people at Sesame Workshop to know what specific sketches we are talking about, if ther eis no title available. Do we just describe the sketch, or state what we know (like the characters, plot, and years). For example, what if soembody wanted the Sesame Street News sketch where The Big Bad Wolf puts Kermit and the Three Little Pigs in a game of "Three of These Things", but the person wanting it doens't know that there were other news sketches with The Three Little Pigs, and just asks for "Sesame Street News: Three Little Pigs"?

And some songs seem to have alternate titles. For years, fans have thought that the Jazz Numbers series was called Jazzy Spies. What if someone who doesn't know the real title asks for "Jazzy Spies #4"? Or if somebody asks for "Baker #1"? The baker films, which may or may not be an official title, are registered as "One Song (Song of One)", among similar titles, but the CTW Archives lists them as "Henson #1" (and so on).

Hopefully, whoever asks for these will get what they ask for, without being asked any questions on what theya re asking about.

 

[mjb1124]

What you could do is just give every title that's been given for the segment, and maybe a short description. That should be more than enough info for them to figure out that you want Baker #1.

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if every segment has an official title or not. The talk page for The University of Maryland (at Muppet Wiki) has scans from every page of the First Season Show Content, with listings of almost every first season insert, along with a listing of the episodes they appear in Many of the titles sound a bit vague, or more like descriptions. There are some that don't match the titles given in the chapter stops or bonus feature listings for Old School Volume 1 (for example, the page on alphabet skits has a segment listed a s"fishing boy", while Old School Volume 1 just calls it "Alphabet Soup"). Also, the pitch reel has a segment which somebody on-screen referred to as "The J commercial", but the first season show content refers to it as "Sory of J" (unless I'm thinking of the wrong segment, but I didn't see any segments listed as "J Commercial", and these papers also list "Story of D", and there was a very similar segment about the letter D).

It might be good to look at those scans, as a lot of titles listed are a bit vague, and would be great to know more details on. There are a lot of skits that have the word "dump" written by them, which I think means they were no longer shown after the first season. And a lot of season 1 segments are rare (even before the format change of season 33 most of them were rarely shown).

I've seen a still from a first season segment which features Bert, Oscar, and the anything muppets and monsters. The website where I found that picture has a note from the webmaster, saying "I own ten seconds of this skit and I don't know what happens". It would be great if details were found. The First Season Show Content lists something called "Block Party", which sounds like a good match for that picture.

The listing mentions a lot of material I hadn't heard of, such as "Ernie makes a friend", "N-Nincompoop", and "G is for Grover" (could this be the Grover we all know about?). Thanks to Mupet Wiki, if there is a sketch we want Sesame Workshop to send us (if they can), we can check Muppet Wiki for earliest known appearances and mention an episode or two that they appear in. The First Season Shwo Content could be checked for all first season episodes featuring particular sketches, and people can list all of the episode numbers, to be sure that they get what they specifically want.

There are also a lot of sketches that I beleive are rare to us in english, but I think are more commonly available in other languages (or at least some fans have non-english copies). Segments like Windy, and now I forget what else.

It was rumored that Sesame Workshop would sell custom DVDs with up to 10 clips, for 5 dollars each. Would Sesame Workshop sell more custom DVDs to the same people, or just one per person, period, with no exceptions? I guess Sesame Workshop wouldn't send entire episodes.

Of course, I never order things, or participate in tape trades. I don't know if this wil make me change my mind or not. Though I don't do trades, I do occassionally look at tape trading sites, and I've noticed one that included a wish list section, including some speciffic Sesame Street sketches, likie Beat the Time: Grover (though that's just recently been released), Miami Mice: The Count, and Grover the waiter: The Count counts hot dogs. I think that these are rare to collectors. Muppet Wiki doesn't have any images from those segments.