Your Thoughts: Sesame Street 50 Years and Counting DVD Set

[Any Del]

In short, the 50th anniversary DVD isn't worth buying is it?

 

[minor muppetz]

I decided to tally up how many segments each character (well, most of them) appear in disc 1:

• Big Bird - 6
• Elmo - 10
• Ernie - 14
• Bert - 10
• Cookie Monster - 13
• Grover - 13
• Herry Monster - 5
• Telly Monster - 6
• Abby Cadabbby - 6
• Zoe - 4
• Rosita - 5
• The Count - 4
• Kermit - 6
• Oscar - 6
• Guy Smiley - 2
• Hoots - 2
• Prairie Dawn - 3
• Betty Lou - 2 (though should these count?)
• Two-Headed Monster - 4 (not counting their animated cameo in "I Remember")
• Bob - 7
• Luis - 5
• David - 4
• Susan - 3
• Maria - 3
• Gordon - 2
• Olivia - 1
• Mr. Hooper - 1 (not counting his animated appearance in "I Remember")
• Forgetful Jones, Clementine, Buster the Horse, Sherlock Hemlock, Don Music, Mr. Johnson, Frazzle, Honker, Biff, Gladys the Cow, Little Jerry and the Monotones, Lefty the Salesman, Gonger, Julia, Rudy, Snuffy, Baby Bear, and Murray - 1 each (though quite a few of these characters appear in episodes on disc 2)

Some additional statistics:

• Number of parody segments - 5 (three of them have Cookie Monster)
• Number of animated/film segments (not counting the animation in "I Remember") - 8 (this includes three from Jim Henson and three from Budd Luckey)
• Number of group scenes (might be debatable in some cases what counts as a "group scene") - 12
• Number of "Anything Muppet" segments (meaning one-shot) (and I count Everyone Likes Ice Cream and The Subway even though those have some familiar characters) - 7
• Number of segments with cast members and no Muppets - 3

 

[LittleJerry92]

To be perfectly honest, from looking at the list of what we have, I think it’s a bit of a let down for me. While I am happy to have some skits that haven’t been seen in DVD quality yet, along with some skits we haven’t even seen period, I’m moreso a bit disappointed in the quantity of what we have.

With that being said, I’ll still buy it. It’s just a bit more of a let down compared to the 40th DVD.

 

[LittleJerry92]

*waits patiently for someone to throw a temper tantrum because they did not get the DVD set that they hoped for*

DIS IZ SO UNQUATEFELL!!!! I WANTED DIS SKIT AND DAT ONE!!!!! DIS SONG AND SKIT IZ TOO OVERUSED!!!! WAAAHHH!!!!

You’re welcome.

 

[LittleJerry92]

By the way, this may shock you guys, but as much as I love the song, Telephone Rock has been given enough DVD releases. Please. Give the song a rest.

 

[MuppetSpot]

By the way, this make shock you guys, but as much as I love the song, Telephone Rock has been given enough DVD releases. Please. Give the song a rest.

That has always been the Little Jerry and the Monotones go to song. I would like to see one of their other performances onto a DVD release

 

[Any Del]

That has always been the Little Jerry and the Monotones go to song. I would like to see one of their other performances onto a DVD release

Like this?

 

[LittleJerry92]

I would LOVE to see Sad in DVD quality!

 

[MuppetSpot]

I think everyone should be glad they did not include Marilyn Horne cover of C is for Cookie. That’s one segment I have gotten tired of

 

[minor muppetz]

I wonder if there should have been some "character captions" for the "What's the Name of That Muppet?" section, since it seems to be asking a question. Many of the characters are referred to by name in their segments, but a handful (Lefty, Little Jerry and the Monotones) are not. Or maybe during the title transition, maybe show clips of those characters and have a caption next to them.

I noticed in this copy of Kermit News: Rupunzel, the audio just mutes right before Prince Charming shouts "shut up" and then cuts to the next sketch. I had always thought edited copies cut before that part as opposed to muting.

With the Everyone Likes Ice Cream edit, it sounds like "you sissy" is replaced with "birdies" in a mocking tone... Though it also sounds like they just took Caroll Spinney's dialogue and placed it there (the voice does lend itself well to a mocking tone). I can't tell but I feel like maybe a microsecond of video was also cut (I've watched previous uploads on YouTube and am still having trouble determining). One thing I don't think I'd really noticed before is Betty Lou letting out a "hmmp!" and then a music sound, I want to say a bang, right after.... At first I thought it was awkward editing before listening to how it sounded in audio releases (and should I say it's odd that album releases use the uncut televised audio when it had already been cut for rebroadcasts?).

It seems like a lot of collectors compilations don't have credits at the end. It's been the case with the 40th anniversary set and Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures (though that's not really a collectors release), which only have copyright credits (and the 40th anniversary set, as well as Old School Vol. 3, have downloadable credits). Neither disc has credits (Best of Sesame Street Spoofs at least has credits for the whole release on disc 2) or downloadable credits or even a set of appropriate copyright credits, the discs just end (and it seems like there's not a special booklet to list credits, either).

-Man, the stuff from the 70s looks way too bright and over saturated - does not look good. "Born to Add" just has the brightness turned up, no contrast or anything. I get this was kinda a rushed product, but still. Eech.

I had noticed (and commented on) clips looking different quality than on past DVDs. I wondered if the pre-2008 clips were remastered into HD (I have not noticed any interlacing on this set... then again, it had took me years to notice interlacing on HD-uploaded classic clips online though I'd seen fans complain about that), or if they restored different copies of clips than the copies restored for past releases (like, perhaps restoring clips from their copies of episodes for past releases, and then restoring separate copies for this), or if they restored every clip anew even if they'd been restored for DVD before. Didn't think about them changing the brightness/contrast, not sure if that's something I think about for a professional company (and would that count as a form of restoration?).

That has always been the Little Jerry and the Monotones go to song. I would like to see one of their other performances onto a DVD release

Knowing Joe was picking a lot of his personal favorites, I've been trying my best to avoid thoughts of "I can't believe he chose this over that" (and he has said that some choices were beyond his control), but when it comes to releasing content with characters or recurring sketches that haven't been on many releases, I often do get disappointed when they choose something that had already been released (maybe a little less if it was edited/altered on the past release but uncut on the new one). When I saw articles mention rarely-released characters like Mumford, Don Music, and Sherlock Hemlock, I was hoping they wouldn't be stuff that had already been released - and for the most part, the section on obscure characters does include new-to-video segments (the "What's the Name of That Muppet?" part has the highest number of segments not available on previous releases). I don't mind too much that the set has the fourth release of News: Rupunzel, since so many Sesame Street News segments have been released on video by now (though I did mind a little the second time it was released, even though it was an uncut copy, as at the time it was one of only five News segments that had been released - but now about 18 News segments have been released on video) and because they included another News segment as well.