Warner Home Video now distributing Sesame Workshop DVDs

[sesamemuppetfan]

If there's one thing that's disappointing about SW sitting out the 45th anniversary it's that we totally could have had a "45 of 45" collection... 45 skits, one skit from every year. They totally could cheap out with shorter skits to save room.

But no... just more Elmo and TV episode releases.

Amen, brother!

1. If they sit out the 50th anniversary, I will be quite furious...but then again, who won't?

2. I've said this a good number of times already, but this is why Shout Factory would have been a better choice for having the rights to releasing SS DVDs- they really know how to deal with old school TV shows!

 

[Drtooth]

1. If they sit out the 50th anniversary, I will be quite furious...but then again, who won't?

If they fall asleep at the switch on the 50th, that would be stupid. But I have a feeling they've passed this one up specifically for that. And while 5 years can fly by like that, it's still 5 years...4 and a half years really, off. Then again, will they even bother making DVD's 4 and a half years from now?

But their sitting out was a disappointment. I was kinda hoping for Hasbro to release some classic characters in the 2 figure assortments, but they've barely added many other figures to the assortment completely. I'm glad Funko's stepping up and releasing Pop figures, but it's a shame they couldn't get the entire retail series on the shelves to coincide with the 45th season opener.

Then again, what is the best we could have expected from this anniversary, DVD set wise? Maybe another Old School that gets us to the 90's? Perhaps a reissue of the 40th set with an extra disk for the 5 years that passed since its release? Or just a bunch of stuff rereleased that we've already seen... your Rubber Duckies and I Love Trashes?

Then again, while I understand the kiddy releases are what makes money, I'm very glad they've stepped up and put older DVD/VHS titles on these DVD's as bonuses. I always thought the 30 minutes of footage for 10 dollars from Sony Wonder were a ripoff. And remember, that was the only way to get rare, old skits before Youtube and their own site's video clips. So I can't say WB is doing the best of jobs, they certainly aren't doing the worst.

 

[D'Snowth]

But I have a feeling they've passed this one up specifically for that..

Same here. Season 40 saw a huge media frenzy, can you imagine what an extravaganza Season 50 would be?

 

[Drtooth]

Hopefully a big one. But then again 35 was a big one. Weird that other than a couple small events, they didn't bother with any 45th merchandising. And since they put their share of the merchandising back into SW projects, it's almost baffling why they didn't take advantage of it.

 

[minor muppetz]

Perhaps a reissue of the 40th set with an extra disk for the 5 years that passed since its release?

Or worse, doing a reissue with additional segments from the past five years, and removing a few segments to make room. Or just removing some/all of the bonus features. Then again, I wouldn't expect the first disc to be affected, unless they moved the first few seasons on disc 2 to disc 1. And then again, since most of us already have the set, it wouldn't really matter much if they removed any clips from it.

But they probably wouldn't go that far. But if they did rerelease it as a 45th anniversary set and added stuff from seasons 41-45, and had to remove bonus features anyway, it would be great if they added some classic clips to disc 1 as a bonus feature (to make it more of a special edition). Maybe clips with characters not included on the set (like Guy Smiley, Biff and Sully, Sherlock Hemlock, Placido Flamingo...), or some fan favorites and well-known stuff that wasn't included on the set.

I hope that we at least get something for the collectors this year, whether it's Old School Vol. 4 or something more like Best of Sesame Street Spoofs. Last year, the only release we got with material from the 1970s and 1980s was Alphabet Songs, and those were all stuff that had already been released on video (and as I said in my review of that video on The Muppet Mindset, most of the best stuff - not just the best classic clips - had already been released elsewhere). As I've said a few times, there have been quite a few video releases this past year that would have been great opportunities for classic stuff, but didn't. Learning Rocks would have been a great opportunity to release more Little Chrissy and Little Jerry material (or they could have put Count It Higher or Rock & Roll on there as a bonus video), and M is for Mystery would have been a great opportunity to include more Sherlock Hemlock material on DVD (not to mention the animated detective series, and Billy Jo Jive, and Detective Grover), but instead they chose to have those to be releases of full recent episodes, eliminating those chances (but they still could have been included as bonus clips). And Elmo's Super Numbers would have been a good opportunity to release more classic number segments, but it didn't have anything earlier than the 1990s and barely any Muppet inserts (though the main plot is a really good one, most of the inserts are forgettable... But recently I watched it again and found myself enjoying more of the inserts better).

With hardly any classic clips released on video this past year and no classic episodes available on iTunes this past year, I am glad that some fans have recently gotten rare episodes/clips to put on YouTube this past year.

 

[Luke kun]

That's a good thought there! As great of a bonus feature Don't Eat the Pictures would make, I can't help but thinking that a lot of kids will be confused at a lot of aspects of the special mostly in regards to how it's from 1983. They might be confused at how different the Muppet characters (with the possible exception of Big Bird, Oscar, and Snuffy) may sound. They obviously won't recognize David, Olivia, and Linda, but will they at least be able to recognize Bob, Gordon, Susan, and Maria? How are they gonna respond to the comments about Snuffy being 'imaginary'? Most of all, they'll more than likely be asking their parents (or whatever relation they have with the adult) "Where's Elmo? Where's Abby? Where's Chris? Where's Leela?" They might not be old enough to understand that this is an old special, and any character they see frequently today wasn't on back in the day.

I know there are lot of parents/relatives that introduce their kids to the Classic Sesame Street more than they do to the Current Sesame Street, so this special might work out better for those kids as opposed to the kids who are more exposed to the modern version of the show. Just my personal input.

I introduced myself to Classic Amy but still liked Modern Amy for a time, now I'm a big Classic Amy fan. That's another example of classic-modern stuff like that.

Please have Unpaved released in a big box set, complete with the book! I'm counting on you, Warner Bros.! PLEASE!

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Same here. Season 40 saw a huge media frenzy, can you imagine what an extravaganza Season 50 would be?

Don't forget about the 35th! Remember how many products were made that had the anniversary logo on it? Little 10 year old sesamemuppetfan was one who really took that occasion a little too seriously.

 

[D'Snowth]

I know what you mean, I still have my 35th anniversary edition of Uno cards... I doubt they'd have any collector value, those cards are pretty much worn out. I also have copies of the Songs from the Street CD collection (a friend of mine had the actual set, and made copies for me). I have about 4-5 different boxes of assorted SST Christmas ornaments, and I believe one of them is a 35th anniversary set.

Aside from all that, I also have the 30th anniversary talking Kermit plush with Jim's signature embroidered on the bottom of his flipper.

 

[minor muppetz]

Little 10 year old sesamemuppetfan was one who really took that occasion a little too seriously.

At first I misunderstood that to say that you were one when that anniversary happened and were 10-years-old now (which would be possible), as opposed to you being ten back then and being one person who liked the occasion.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

At first I misunderstood that to say that you were one when that anniversary happened and were 10-years-old now (which would be possible), as opposed to you being ten back then and being one person who liked the occasion.

Ha, well I DID turn one 2 months before Season 26 started, coincidentally enough!