The 80's seasons?

[Redsonga]

As an 80's baby/early 90's girl (born in '83) nothing means more to me than the episodes made around that time . I was just wondering would they count as 'old school' in the SS DVDs? Or do you think they will ever be put out on DVD at all? I really miss them .

 

[CensoredAlso]

Well this is just my opinion, but I definitely see that era as part of the "Old School", hopefully the makers will agree.

 

[dwayne1115]

class of 1982 baby! i was born in 1982 wow that seems so long ago. i think im going to see if i have any gray hairs today.

 

[MuppetGirl85]

I would say these are considered "old-school" episodes. Of course, they aren't as old as the originals made by The Electric Company back in the 1960s-70s, but they did often contain animations that were, dare I say, trippy in the use of colors and music (Pinball Numbers, anyone?). The street scenes were usually current, though sometimes they did recycle such clips as well as various skits that were placed throughout the episodes.

As an '80s baby myself, I would have to agree that these would be "old-school", as opposed to the episodes that are almost literally half taken up by the "Elmo's World" segment. Not that I don't love the little monster (my sister did, after all, get to see Kevin Clash live once, and he's always been one of the very cute characters), but I don't like what the writers have done by taking up half an episode with Elmo in his coloring book-styled world.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I remember Elmo in the '80s and he was fine then, cute and funny even. The little kid monster trying to be like all the grown ups. The problem now is that instead of trying to be like the adults, the kid has taken over the party, so to speak.

 

[Redsonga]

I remember Elmo in the '80s and he was fine then, cute and funny even. The little kid monster trying to be like all the grown ups. The problem now is that instead of trying to be like the adults, the kid has taken over the party, so to speak.

It's like he really isn't himself anymore..sort of watered down
In place of learning things he seems like he is just talking about what he already knows and saying hi to babies

 

[JLG]

Another '82 baby over here!

To my mind, "old school" in the purest sense is the first 20 years of the run, not because 20's a cool number but because the time around the 20th year just happened to correspond with some shake-ups, like the deaths of Henson, Raposo and Northern Calloway, and other factors that sort of left the show a bit directionless for a little while until they decided to update their image a little and add the Around the Corner setting. (I think Henson's death had much more of a long-term impact than short. At first it didn't really change anything, but over the years as the material has gotten tamer and less saucy, I have the suspicion that if Henson and his immeidate influence were still around, he wouldn't have acquiesed to the new approach quite as much as has been done.)

But even though the Around the Corner era was a BIT different, it wasn't really a drastic change. The basic character of the show was still the same, and plenty of old material was still floating around, which of course gave it certain consistency of personality through the decades.

Then came 1998, and with it Elmo's World, mass retirement of older stuff, and a rather noticeable change in writing tone. (Besides the new research and the shift to a younger target age, I think the departure of Jon Stone had the most to do with that last part.) And then 2002 and the Really Big Shake-Up.

So even though the '90s to me are kind of a gray area when it comes to "old school" in the sense you guys mean, to me anything before 1998 is what I call "the old show." "The new show" is the amorphous and continuously changing creature that's been airing since.

1969 - 1997 = Sesame Street 1.0

((1998 - 2001 = Sesame Street 1.5 ))

2002 - present = Sesame Street 2.0

 

[CensoredAlso]

The '90s are kinda a gray area. The mid-90s were still OK, but I personally saw things changing by then that concerned me. Just a general feeling of dumbing things down.