I wonder if Toughpigs will have a review of this. Since Joe helped put it together, it'd be unfair for him to review the set, but Ryan still could (not to mention Toughpigs has a number of other contributors). In fact, The Muppet Mindset hasn't reviewed the set, either. I've checked and have barely seen any reviews (if the comments count as reviews) outside the appropriate threads here and at Toughpigs.
One thing I like is that it seems Prairie Dawn gets featured a little more than on similar collectors sets. Maybe also Herry. Snuffy is similar to most sets - barely on disc 1 but featured quite a bit on disc 2, with three episodes heavily involving him.
Has that Amy Poehler clip been broadcast on the show? It seems really short and odd - Elmo asks her about exercise and she just leaves (is leaving supposed to be her representation of exercise) and Elmo is weirded out. Seems more like something that might have just been put online. Looking at the Amy Pohler page, it only lists her doing one Word of the Day for "challenge", though a few viral videos were linked on the page (I actually didn't see "exercise" there).
Oh, How I Miss My X is one that I hadn't really watched in a long time, and as I watch it, while I do remember the flashbacks in the middle, I really forgot the lyrics there.... They sure are amazing. Also, I had always noticed Gordon and Susan in the audience, but until looking at the Muppet Wiki page for the song after the set was released, I never noticed before that Luis and Maria are at another table or that Bob plays the piano.
I Can't Help It is a great choice. That was uploaded on the Sesame Street video player in the early days of the site but was for some reason removed not too long after, so it's great to have this on an actual release. It's one that I did want on this, though every time I thought up a wishlist (in chronological order) I generally left it out, as there were other season six segments I either wanted more or felt needed to be included more. I don't think I ever really paid attention to Luis and David's reactions in this - they are hysterical.
It seems like the "Fuzzy and Blue" section is supposed to be monster sketches, though most of them feature either Cookie Monster or Grover. Given the title, it was more likely going for segments starring blue monsters, as we get one Herry segment without either - but then it also has an Elmo segment. I almost feel a few of the Cookie and Grover segments could have been moved to a different spot and replaced with some Telly, Zoe, and Rosita (a fuzzy and blue monster not featured in this section).
There are a lot more segments that have previously been released on video than I was expecting, but I've kind of been thinking about this similar to the 25th anniversary video. That one has many of the best-known segments, but most of them had been released on video before. This one does have a lot more segments that haven't been on video already, and most of the new-to-video content is a lot better than the new-to-video content of the 25th anniversary video. You could say this is the best of what's been on video - and with more repeats from the Old School sets than I would have expected/chosen, you could say it's The Best of the Old School Sets. At least the majority of double-dips (and higher-dips) are great segments worthy of repetition (occasionally I'll learn of certain repeats and think "really??? again???"
Since Joe from Toughpigs was involved with selecting material, I'm not thinking too much in terms of "I would have included this instead of that" or "why this instead of that....?" (with many being his personal favorites, then I pretty much know why). He said on the Toughpigs forum that he tried his best to leave out some of the most-released songs or have unreleased versions included whenever possible. We sure are lucky that the show has had so many different versions of Sing, I Love Trash, What's the Name of That Song? (I didn't realize until this week that each version has only been on video once), Somebody Come and Play (and I don't think there are many video releases of that song in any form), and The People in Your Neighborhood.
I also wonder if the decision to put out an anniversary set was last minute. Joe said on the Tough Pigs forum that he pitched a number of street stories that require clearances that they couldn't clear in time for this. And when considering this, combined with how few DVD releases this year have included the theme song (with lyrics) and the fact that many of the classic episodes rerun on HBO have had a lot of segments replaced (when Noggin didn't replace anything), I wonder if a lot of residual deals have expired by now. There is only a small amount of films and animation segments included, all of which have been on past releases, and unlike similar collectors sets, this one doesn't include outside characters (like C-3PO and R2D2, Batman, or Fonzie), though I'd like to think that if they cleared appearances by some that they could easily include other appearances by them (or at least repeat the released ones... though I guess I'd rather they not include them if they could only repeat the segments released before), and there's no celebrity montages (given it's released by Shout!, I would have thought it would have some clearance-surprises). Given the lack of scenes from episodes where the cast travels, ignoring the fact that they took up multiple episodes (but there are plenty of stand-alone scenes in those), I wonder if there's a lot to clear for those. Sesame Workshop has never officially uploaded scenes from any of those (except part 1 of the Camp Echo Rock storyarc, which only shows the camp at the end of the street story), 40 Years of Sunny Days has a couple of Hawaii clips but otherwise none have been released on video or officially available online (this one also seems to get ignored in anniversary specials), and I don't think any of these were featured in any of the 50th anniversary mash-up videos. Old School Vol. 3 included the trip episodes that started their respective seasons, and "What a Gift" from the Montana episodes has been on three different videos, but otherwise, those have been scarce in terms of video releases and official uploads.
I figured, whether it was chronological or not, that the set would end with either This is My Street or I Remember, and both are great segments. After suspecting the clips would not be in chronological order, I thought a good way to end the set would have been with a Forgetful Jones clip, Things That I Remember (which isn't on this set), and then I Remember. Maybe there should be a memory-themed compilation in the future.
Looking over each clip section, I have noticed that each section includes at least one segment each with Cookie Monster, Ernie, Bert, and Elmo.
This is a great set, I hope Joe can put together more in the future (maybe an annual collectors set).