Old School DVD set ideas

minor muppetz

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The CTW Archives stored at The University of Marland has files called First Season Show Content. It's not currently known if any of the other seasons had such files made, but the word "dump" is written besides quite a few of the sketches listed (some also have "re-do" written beside the sketches).I don't know if there are any copies of these files in Sesame Workshop's offices, but if so, maybe there could be a rarities set and the people compiling such a set could look at these papers to see what sketches have been dumped over the years.

And it would be great to have some unaired Sesame Street sketches, like all of The Man From Alphabet segments (though we'll likely get one on Old School Volume 2) and the original, unaired version of Imagination.

Another great idea would be a three or four disc boxed set of every Monsterpiece Theater segment, in production order. Since the segments where Cookie Monster eats a pipe were reshot and replaced years later, maybe the original versions can be part of the main program, and the altered versions can be bonus features.
 

minor muppetz

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I wonder how well sets focusing on certain animators would sell. I'm sure that the general public doesn't know the names of any Sesame Street animators (except for Jim Henson, but the general public most likely just thinks of him as a pupeteer and Muppet creator).

A set with all of Bud Luckey's cartoons could sell, I think. I don't think a disc devoted to the best of Bud Luckey is neccessary, as most of his best-known cartoons have been released on DVD (and many of those best have been included in Old School Volume 1). Maybe the cover could include The Alligator King and the ladybugs from The Ladybug Picnic. People who don't recognize the name Bud Luckey would probably recognize The Alligator King or The Ladybug Picnic.

But I wonder about the other animators. I think most of the shows animators only worke don the show for one season each (I think there are exceptions, like Mo Willems, Sally Cruikshank, and maybe Cliff Robertson). I wonder if an all-Suzie Kabloozie disc would sell. A DVD with every Teeny Little Superguy segment would be neat, but I think there were only three or four segments. Would that even add up to 30 minutes?

I wonder if a Pinball Number Count or Jazz Numbers set would sell. I'm sure that many casual fans know of Pinball Number Count, but most of the segments are very similar. Would somebody get bored after sitting through all of the Pinball Number Count segments in one sitting? Maybe those two segments can be included in one DVD set, with all editions of those segments.

I also wonder how well a Typewriter DVD would sell. I think casual fans would recognize The Typewriter, and there were 26 segments, one for each letter. That could possibly fill a half hour. I don't know if a DVD featuring every Speech Balloon segment would sell. I don't know how many people are aware of that being a series of skits (I recently noticed a simialrity in some of those skits, asked about them at Muppet Wiki, and learned that they were called Speech Balloon in an early Sesame Street book). And while they are simialr in format, they don't feature any recurrimng character. It's all different characters and designs.

And I wonder if a set featuring all of the Bellhop cartoons would sell. I know that there were segments for numbers up to 20, but were there Bellhop segments for every number up to 20? Were there segments for any number higher than 20? Was there a 0 segment?

But maybe there can be a collection of Sesame Street animation DVDs, focusaing on the complete works of various aniamtors, maybe 3 or 4 animators per volume, with biographical information on the animators, and interviews with those animators who are still living.

Maybe volume 1 could, include the complete Sesame Street animations of Bud Luckey, Sally Cruikshank, and Tee Collins, volume 2 could feature the complete animations of Cliff Robertson, Jeff Hale, and Bruce Caynard, volume 3 coudl include complete aniamtions of Mo Willems, Craig Bartlett, John and Faith Hubley, and whoever animated the Teeny Little Superguy segments, and so on.

I wonder if it would be too much to make a collection of segments focusing on a certain number or letter.
 

minor muppetz

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On April 1, 2006, as an April Fools joke, I posted a thread saying that I contacted Sesame Workshop and was told that Sesame Workshop was plannign a colection of two-disc "Sesame Street Treasures" releases. I wrote that the first two releases would be "The Complete Ernie and Bert Collection Volume 1" and "Sesame Street Film Festival Volume 1". The Complete Ernie and Bert Colection Volume 1 would feature every Ernie and Bert segment from 1969-1974 (though after reading Muppet Wiki information that comes from the CTW Archives, I'd be surprised if every Ernie and Bert insert from the first four seasons would fit on two discs... It seems like the first season had a lot of Ernie and Bert sketches). The Sesame Street Film Festival would focus on various animators and filmmakers (including Bud Luckey and Jim Henson), with all of their Sesame Street animations and films, and a handful of Mupet segments would also be included.

Of course, that was just an april fools joke, but I wonder if Sesame Workshop would be willing to make character colections similar to the various collections in the Walt Disney Treasures series. Of course, there are some major characters, like Big Bird and Oscar, who were mostly in street scenes and stories, and not many inserts, but sinc emany of the early episodes don't have much plot focus, maybe certain one-shot street scenes with them could be included as well as all repeated inserts.

A complete Ernie and Bert colection would be good, but there could be problems. If all of the skits are in chronological order, then I wonder if more than two discs would be needed to include every first season sketch with them. Heck, I challenge somebody who has a lot of season one Ernie and Bert sketches on video and has a way of editing videos to take all of their Ernie and Bert sktis from the first season and copy them onto a video and disc, and see if it lasts longer than an average episode (I'll say an average episode would be 56 minutes). But in the first season, there were a lot of multi-part Ernie and Bert sketches, as well as sketches that either had them commenting on the previous skit or/ and introducing the next skit. If such an approach were done, would it be better to include the skits that either followed or preceded the Ernie and Bert sketches, or would it be best to just stick to Ernie and Bert sketches, and have them uncut even if their mentions of other skits don't make sense without them, or would it be better to cut all refferences to skits that follow or lead to the skits?

I'm sure that some could be easily edited. The ending of the skit where Ernie cals his bath Rosie could easily be edited. It could fade to black after Ernie laughs at his reason for calling his bathtub Rosie, leaving out Bert's introduction to Solomon Grundy. I haven't seen teh sandbox game sketch, but I think the beginning, with Ernie watching the end of Jazz #8, could be edited as well. But then there's one skit where Ernie coments on an Alice Braitwaite Goodyshoes cartoon, and this skit probably wouldn't make sense if the cartoon wasn't shown before it. And there's the multi-part skit where Cookie Monster eats Ernie's Xs and Bert's eggs. Part four has Ernie and Cookie Monster commenting on the previous cartoon, followed by them asking to see the cartoon again, and then part five has Ernie erashing Cookie Monster, getting the idea from the cartoon.

Another thing to think about: should a collection of Ernie and Bert skits only include segments staring both characters, or also include their solo segments? And should segments where one of the two only makes a short cameo appearance be included or excluded? I wouldn't include segments where they are just part of the background. One way aroudn this would be to make three such collections: one for Ernie and Bert segments, one for just Ernie segments, and one for just Bert segments (this one would probably have less volumes than the Ernie set). If individual sets were made for both characters and had segments with both characters, that would probably get a bit redundant. But it would make sense for some segments with both characters to be included on respective sets. Maybe Ernie and Bert can have seperate sets, with certain skits featuring both characters on one set and others on the other, and solo skits stil being included.

I also wonder about what should be done with getting all segments with supporting characters, especialy ones who kids probably wouldn't recognize, like Sherlock Hemlock and Guy Smiley. Sure, these could be marketed for adults, but that doesn't mean that the releases wouldn't be hard sells. But I was thinking that there could be two-disc sets compiling all segments for major characters, in chronological order, and maybe the discs could contain bonus segments with other characters.

For example, an Ernie and Bert collection could include bonus Guy Smiley segments on disc one, and bonus Professor Hastings segments on disc 2. Or a Grover colection could include bonus Harvey Kneeslapper segments on disc one, and bonus Two-Headed Martian segments on disc two. Or a Count collection could include bonus Mumford segments on disc one, and bonus Sherlock Hemlock segments on disc two.

And then there is the case of what to do about Kermit the Frog. Kermit is a major enough character to sell such a set, but while Sesame Workshop does have permission to release Kermit segments on DVD, would Sesame Workshop need more permission to release a set focusing on Kermit's Sesame Street appearances, which would have to include an image of Kermit on the cover, his name in the title, and also use Kermit as a selling point? Of course, if such collections include bonus segments focusing on certain supporting characters, maybe Kermit could be treated this way.
 

Drtooth

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Honestly, I'd rather have a disk or two (in a set) of an umbrella of all Animators. They'd show 2-4 pieces of their best works on the disk, and it would also have either an interview (or better yet) commantary with availabe animators.

I also think a box set of CD's, either similar to the Fraggle rock one (reprints of landmark albums) or a best of set similar to Songs from the street (featuring entirely regular cast recordings, and no celebrity stuff) with out of print songs/albums would be a great idea as well.
 

ISNorden

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Letter and number collections on DVD

If I ran the Old School project and wanted to release DVD sets that focused on letters or numbers, I would probably take the same approach as the old record sets from the early 70s: have each volume of that series cover a range of related segments. Old School Letters Vol. 1 might cover A-D, for instance; Old School Numbers Vol. 1 might cover 2-5**. That way, fans could cover many of their favorite series at once: they'd be able to get the Typewriter and Speech Balloon series, or the Pinball and Bellhop series, a few clips at a time.

Bonus clips on each disk might focus on the entire alphabet for letters, or general counting/arithmetic for numbers. Of course, the "letters vs. numbers" sketch (with Muppets choosing teams based on their sweaters) should appear on both sets as a bonus in Volume 1! :smile:

** So few clips exist for numbers below 2 or above 12, that I could see two possible solutions: (a) give them their own volume in the disk set, or (b) include those clips as bonuses in each volume. (Baker #1 would sell the Old School Numbers set pretty well; so would the sketches with Luis' secret identity as Señor Cero.)
 

ISNorden

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And I wonder if a set featuring all of the Bellhop cartoons would sell. I know that there were segments for numbers up to 20, but were there Bellhop segments for every number up to 20? Were there segments for any number higher than 20? Was there a 0 segment?.

There was no Bellhop #0, probably because it's hard to imagine the lady at the front desk ordering that bellhop to do something with nothing. ;-) Not all of the other numbers were covered, either: I recall Bellhop segments for 2, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, and 20. Not enough for half a DVD, let alone the whole thing...but they deserve to be included in a number-themed collection!
 

minor muppetz

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Letter and number box sets would be good. Maybe each disc could have one complete episode that focuses on the alphabet or counting, or individual letters or numbers (though in the years before the format change, I would imagine it being hard to focus on the whole alphabet and select one or two letters to be the sponsors).

There could also be a boxed set on learning concepts (disc 1 could be about shapes, disc 2 can focus on colors, disc 3 can revolve around opposites, and so on). A box set about daily activites would also be good, including a disc on meal time, school, sleeping, and bath time. And a set on the body would be great. Disc one could include parts of the arm, disc two can be parts of the leg, disc three could be parts of the head, and disc four can be miscellaneous body parts.
 

minor muppetz

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Well, I thought of the idea for a boxed set on segments concerning parts of the body, but then when I started of thinking about skits to include, I realised that there aren't very many skits involving parts of the arms and legs. I can't think of any skits about knees or toes. I don't know about any skits involving writsts or ankles.

But I can think of plenty of skits for parts of the head.
 

minor muppetz

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If there was an "Old School" sub brand, it could include books. Rereleases of several early 1970s books, and maybe new books done in the style of old books, with illustrations like the retro artwork done for season 35 anniversary products. Maybe there could be books simialr to the Sesame Street Library books.
 

PinballStewie

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There was no Bellhop #0, probably because it's hard to imagine the lady at the front desk ordering that bellhop to do something with nothing. ;-) Not all of the other numbers were covered, either: I recall Bellhop segments for 2, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, and 20. Not enough for half a DVD, let alone the whole thing...but they deserve to be included in a number-themed collection!
I don't remember there being a Bellhop 'toon for # 6, though I did have a dream that there was in which the bellhop had to deliver 6 presents to a little girl having a party for her 6th birthday. You also left out # 14, which is a real one in the series, where the bellhop has to carry some heavy weights to a man in Room # 14, but it turns out the man in Room # 14 could've carried the weights there himself.

BTW, you wouldn't happen to have "40 Dots", would you? I'd really like to see it again to see how freaky it was 'cuz I love SS skits like that (coincidentally, #'s 2 and 8 in the Bellhop series were freaky to me when I was a kid).
 
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