Segments acceptable in 70s/80s, but now no longer the case

[YellowYahooey]

Does anybody know of any segments that were acceptable in the 1970s and 1980s, but will no longer see the light of day on any releases or rebroadcasts?

Here are a few I can think of:

• "D-Dart" - because of the male character throwing something perceived to be a weapon carrying him with it, and hitting the bull's eye on the dart board, causing splattering that could have been perceived as blood when really it wasn't.
• "Goldilocks demonstrates hot and cold when attempting to take a bath" - due to showing a briefly nude Goldilocks!
• "B for Bosco the Bear and bubbles" - possibly due to the reference to a certain type of boy, and also the boy being briefly seen nude.
• "Word Showcase: The Letter D" - when a voiceover lists occupations, he mentions druggist. I'm very surprised that segment was shown as late as 1995.
• "Scanimate H" - possibly due to at least one drug innuendo such as a horse - a white H walking like a horse, a white horse, which can an innuendo for cocaine. Though the segment was kept intact on the Old School DVD release, which explains the parental advisory label.
• "Numerosity #10" - which illustrated ten Indians, among groups of items. That could explain the segment's absence after Season 19, and when it reappeared in 2004 on "The Street We Live On" special, that portion was replaced by "ten bells". My question is, was "ten bells" a newer recording as opposed to back in 1969?
• Any segment with Bert taking out his temper on Ernie.
• The News Flash segment featuring Rapunzel, and the ending having the prince uttering "Shut up!" - which was edited out by the 1990s.
• "The Ballad of Casey McPhee" - Back in the day, the segment had an avalanche seen in action, but that portion was edited out by the mid-1980s or something.
• The original three "Alphabet Chat" segments - due to the host, Mr. Chatterly, seen holding a pipe. Two new "Chat" segments (letters B and H) debuted in the 1990s but without the pipe. Sounds lije CTW cleaned up their act.

 

[Flaky Pudding]

The giant mutant bunny chasing kids around. I personally enjoy that segment for it's unique and pleasant to look at art style but it really does seem out of place on SS, almost as though it should be a sketch from an older kids show like Mad or something.

 

[LittleJerry92]

To answer your question, this only applies to skits that were actually taken out of airing syndication (“I Want a Monster to Be My Friend,” 847, etc). Any skit minus the ones mentioned have a chance to see the light of day. Some just..... have the unfortunate status of being forgotten or sitting around.

 

[wiley207]

"Numerosity #10" - which illustrated ten Indians, among groups of items. That could explain the segment's absence after Season 19, and when it reappeared in 2004 on "The Street We Live On" special, that portion was replaced by "ten bells". My question is, was "ten bells" a newer recording as opposed to back in 1969?

"Ten bells" was actually filmed in 1972, and replaced "ten little Indians" by Season 4. Though on a similar note, there's that 1975 animated insert about how Native Americans don't "tonto talk" ("all those 'Ughs' and 'Me wantems'"). Though they still used the rather un-PC term "Indian," it's still pretty good at breaking that usual "tonto talk" stereotype. Because of that, the segment continued to be rerun as late as Season 29! (1998)

 

[YellowYahooey]

Two more candidates for the "no longer acceptable skits":

- "Brand X" - because of burning an X on a cow, which I don't think PETA would approve.
- Some early "Monsterpiece Theater" sketches with Cookie Monster smoking a pipe, and in at least one of the sketches ("Chariots of Fur" being one of them), Cookie ate the pipe as he was closing out the segment. I saw "Chariots of Fur" on Episode 1836, the Season 15 premiere.

I could have sworn there was a "Monsterpiece Theater" sketch on the Seasson 10 premiere, (I could have sworn I saw it listed on Muppet Wiki) titled "Upstairs, Downstairs", but I could not find it anywhere on the episode I downloaded a few months ago (which supposedly came from the Old School DVD series). Was that segment edited out of the episode when offered as part of "Sesame Street Classics" on iTunes?

 

[LittleJerry92]

I don't think PETA would approve.

who even cares about them, honestly? They’re such a joke.

 

[minor muppetz]

The Ballad if Casey McPhee had a portion edited as far back as the 1980s? This is the first I heard of that. I’ve heard an album release of the song which seems to be as long as all video footage I’ve seen. And an avalanche is in what I’ve seen (and I’ve seen it in season 30 episodes).

Some early "Monsterpiece Theater" sketches with Cookie Monster smoking a pipe, and in at least one of the sketches ("Chariots of Fur" being one of them), Cookie ate the pipe as he was closing out the segment. I saw "Chariots of Fur" on Episode 1836, the Season 15 premiere.

I could have sworn there was a "Monsterpiece Theater" sketch on the Seasson 10 premiere, (I could have sworn I saw it listed on Muppet Wiki) titled "Upstairs, Downstairs", but I could not find it anywhere on the episode I downloaded a few months ago (which supposedly came from the Old School DVD series). Was that segment edited out of the episode when offered as part of "Sesame Street Classics" on iTunes?

Cookie Monster has his pipe in Upstairs, Downstairs, Me, Claudias, Sound of Music, Chariots of Fur, 39 Stairs, Gone with the Wind, and Ali Baba. He only ate the pipe in the first four.

They reshot the beginning and end to at least The Sound of Music, Chariots of Fur, The 39 Stairs, and Gone with the Wind to remove the pipe. Of course the reshot Chariots of Fur never aired on the show (unless it’s just not in the scripts the wiki has gotten - and as the wiki keeps getting more rare episodes, it looks like it’s been more common to find sketch differences from the scripts), who knows if the same was done with the others?

And even though they were reshot, Sesame Workshop has released the original versions of all of them except for The Sound of Music somewhere, whether on DVD, digital download, or its online video venues (not sure whether the original cut of The Sound of Music was in any Unpaved episodes). Some were part of episodes they were originally in (thank goodness they didn’t cut/replace them), while others were stand-alone clips or parts of compilations (where they could have put in the altered versions).

and no, no Monsterpiece Theater segments aired in the season 10 premier. Sesame Workshop has released Upstairs, Downstairs online so they likely wouldn’t have pulled it from DVD, the uncut version of the premier has been at the Paley Center for Media long before it was released on DVD.

 

[Flaky Pudding]

I don't think hardly enough of them would be unusable today for content reasons. The main things that make moral guardians tick nowadays are things along the line of racial stereotypes, portraying women as weak and helpless, using certain outdated terms to describe minority groups (r*t*rd for example), and cultural appropriation to offensive extremes. Sesame Street has always fought against racism, sexism, and all those other hot button topics. With the exception of a few little things like Roosevelt Franklin here and there, I feel as though most of classic Sesame Street would be viewed as the opposite of problematic in 2019. That show was progressive before it was cool!

 

[Flaky Pudding]

The only things I feel they could possibly have to tone down are some of the creepy skits. But then again, it's not like there aren't creepy kids shows in this current world. That episode of Amazing World of Gumball where Anais and her doll switched roles scared me as an adult. The weirdness of old SS is nothing compared to THAT monstrosity.

 

[cjd874]

How about these:

• Kermit gives a lecture using happy and sad face cutouts. Cookie Monster eats the happy face, and then Kermit starts screaming at Cookie to the point that the monster starts crying. That definitely wouldn't fly today.
• "Dialing for Prizes Movie Game"...because of the secret "F word."
• Anything with Lefty the Salesman in it