Your Thoughts: Sesame Street 20 and Still Counting DVD

Phillip

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"Sesame Street: 20 Years and Still Counting" will arrive on DVD next Tuesday July 13. Here's our review of this anticipated DVD. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Since most of us will be getting "Sesame Street: 20 Years and Still Counting", we'd like to mention that if you order the 20 and Still Counting from Amazon using this link, that a small portion of your entire order will go to Muppet Central to help keep the site, forum and radio running smoothly. It's a great way to help MC and get a great price on the DVD with a low-price guarantee. We greatly appreciate each person that helps support MC by placing orders through Amazon links on our site.

Once you receive your "Sesame Street: 20 Years and Still Counting" DVD, post here and let us know your thoughts on this anticipated release.
 

dwayne1115

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This is truly a gold nugget for any Sesame Muppet Henson fan! From the intro By Jim and Kermit to the end credits. I love this DVD so much, it really touched my heart!
 

minor muppetz

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It's understandable that this release doesn't include any extras (it's probably enough that Lionsgate cleared the rights for the clips that appear in the special, though some bonus segments from the first 20 years would have been welcome), but a photo gallery would have been nice. Muppet Wiki has two images that don't represent any scenes that appear in the special. I don't think they recorded scenes that didn't appear in the specials (if they did then shame on them for not including deleted scenes), but the wiki has images of Kermit interviewing Elmo on a live street and one of Bill Cosby and The Count. And I wouldn't be surprised if there were behind-the-scenes photos taken (Sesame Street Unpaved has a photo of several puppeteers from the Placido Domingo scene, though it's hard to see Domingo or Flamingo in that image).
 

Drtooth

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Considering Lionsgates stance on Youtube, I can't begrudge them for not trying to pull strings and get some SS clips or any bonus features like that on there. In fact, i'm almost glad they didn't. :wisdom:

But what exactly could they do? Any deleted scenes would have been permanently deleted. The only reasons that new DVD's are chock full of that stuff is because they make plans for the DVD's well in advance, and they manage to keep EVERYTHING they have and fit what they can on DVD. DVD's of older movies or shows with bloopers only have those bloopers because someone had them on VHS. UHF had a deleted scenes featurette with Weird Al saying something to the extent of "I'm really doing you a favor by not showing these... but I know you. If I didn't show any of this, you'd whine about it." I think that's totally true at points. That said, only reason he even had those were because he found stuff in his basement in a box.

The only other thing they COULD have done was to do a new interviews feature... but since the other Lionsgate Henson DVD's don't have that either, I doubt they'd do it here.

That said, I hope someone out there takes the hint and releases Stars and Streets Forever as well.
 

minor muppetz

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That said, I hope someone out there takes the hint and releases Stars and Streets Forever as well.
Me, too! My copy is missing the ending. Hardly any of it is on YouTube (just one clip montage and a few bloopers). Anybody know whether this is owned by Sesame Workshop or some other company (the best way tod etermien would be by watching the credits)?
 

CherryPizza

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I hear great things about this special, and my inner Sesame historian knows it will be important to see...

But the fact that it's hosted by one of the most obnoxious, self-indulgent performers in TV history makes it hard for me to rush to see it.
 

MelissaY1

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Very nice review Phillip! I'm glad that the special has been kept in tact. That's weird you can hear the faint sounds of the original broadcast's commercials in there. Funny because I remember the Clorox ad since I still have my copy on tape from when it first aired lol I got an email that Amazon shipped my copy, so I look forward to watching it again on a nice new clean copy....
 

dwayne1115

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I think that this was such a great gift to Jim's friends. It was in memory of Joe Reposo, It was a birthday gift for the show that help launch his carerer, and he gave his friend Richard Hunt who was getting sick, a gift by giving him the chance to sing with one of his heroes. I love this DVD, and I also love the interaction with Kermit and Grover. That was some real classic Jim and Frank stuff right there, and it is sad we can't get more of that kind of things.
 

minor muppetz

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I got the DVD and I'm watching it right now. It's strange that they apparently had to edit out commercial breaks (I would have thought the master tapes wouldn't have them... Then again, if all they had was broadcast copies, maybe that's why the credits were ommitted, to avoid the announcer who adverrtised other programming on NBC... But if it was taken from the original broadcast, then they sure did a good job restoring it).

One thing I find interesting is that the front and back of the DVD say "Originally broadcast in 1989". I never noticed it in the online pictures of the cover.
 

minor muppetz

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Considering Lionsgates stance on Youtube, I can't begrudge them for not trying to pull strings and get some SS clips or any bonus features like that on there. In fact, i'm almost glad they didn't. :wisdom:
It's intersting, this special was removed from YouTube, and I've read that the "Goodbye, Mr. Hooper" clip was removed, but it seems other clips that appear in this special are on YouTube. Thankfully none of the clips uploaded by Sesame Workshop have been removed (Rubber Duckie, King of 8, Spring is Here, The Word is No, Pinball Animation #7), but I have also recently seen some of the clips that appear in this special while browsing youtube, uploaded by fans instead of SW. Stuff like Air and Squeal of Fortune.

Still, if Lionsgate did try to get permission for bonus clips, I would want it to have been stuff that can be found at sesamestreet.org (so even if they were removed on YouTube, we could still watch them online elsewhere). And I'm thinking maybe characters and recurring segments left out of the special would have been best: A Baker film, a Jazz segment, a Mad Painter film, a Typewriter cartoon, a Teeny Little Super Guy film, and segments with Guy Smiley, Sam the Robot, Sherlock Hemlock, Super Grover, Twiddlebugs, and other "left out" characters.


Drtooth said:
But what exactly could they do? Any deleted scenes would have been permanently deleted. The only reasons that new DVD's are chock full of that stuff is because they make plans for the DVD's well in advance, and they manage to keep EVERYTHING they have and fit what they can on DVD. DVD's of older movies or shows with bloopers only have those bloopers because someone had them on VHS.
Well The Jim Henson Company did have all those Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas bloopers to include on DVD, plus scenes cut from the original broadcast that made it to later releases. And the funeral scene from The Dark Crystal. Of course this does make me wonder if Sesame Workshop saved all the unaired segments produced for the show (I've read SW has copies of every broadcast episode). I know some segments were held over for later seasons.
 
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