Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Spoofs DVD Set

[minor muppetz]

You could double up each set Like "The Best of Sesame Street's Ernie and Bert" "The Best of Sesame Street's Big Bird and Snuffy" "The Best of Sesame Street's Cookie Monster and Grover" "The Best of Sesame Street's Telly, Zoe, and Rosita"

That sounds like a good idea. Or maybe a two-disc "Best of Bert & Ernie & Other Sesame Street Duos" collection. Disc 1 could focus on Bert and Ernie, with a bonus selection of Ernie and Cookie Monster team-ups, and disc two could focus on other duos, including Big Bird and Snuffy, Oscar and Telly, Kermit and Grover, Elmo and Zoe, Biff and Sully, and early comedy duos Buddy and Jim, Larry and Phyllis, and Wally and Ralph.

 

[Oscarfan]

I got the set today and I really like it. Some stray observations:

• Wow, I didn't expect the box to be so thin for this.
• There seems to be this odd jump from around season 25/26 to season 35. Hopefully if there's a second one of these coming next year, the stuff from then will get some screen time. I wanted to see "Telly's Aquarium" make an appearance.
• I do like that they threw in some non-Muppet spoof segments, seeing as though they weren't as common, but the ones they chose weren't so great. How could they leave out "Hip to be a Square"?!
• I noticed there's over 30 puppeteers credited for these sketches. Holy cow!
• Although the film transitions looked nice (and add variety tot he way the segments flow to each other), they seem to cut off the endings a lot. They virtually cut off the punchline to Pre-School Musical.
• "Dirtiest Jobs" has some added slime and music at the end.
• While it's nice that all the Beat the Time sketches are one disc, I would rather they used one of them and replaced the other two with some other parodies (*cough*Hip to be a Square or Honk Around the Clock or Letter B*cough*)
• Two of the bits involve the Count watching the parody on TV. I would've replaced one of them with something else for diversity (probably "Six Feet Under", since it's already on two DVDs).
• Jon & Kate Plus 8 was rather odd, but a really nice inclusion and a pleasant surprise.
• For some reason, I really like purple as a boxset color. However, the designs of the back of the box and DVD cases look pretty bland.
• Out of curiosity, why did they chose Mr. John to be part of the box art? He's only in one skit.

 

[minor muppetz]

• There seems to be this odd jump from around season 25/26 to season 35.

I pointed that out in the other thread when the contents were announced. Of course with a set like this every season doesn't need to be represented, and the chapter menus don't list seasons, but they could have put a few season 27-34 stuff, like Super Morphin' Mega Monsters and one or two of the later Monsterpiece Theater segments (or even Furry Happy Monsters, though that's already on DVD).

• I noticed there's over 30 puppeteers credited for these sketches. Holy cow!

One thing I noticed is that Steve Whitmire isn't credited, and the video releases tend to credit all performers (even ones who otherwise go uncredited). I thought he performed Dr. Feel, though I don't recognize any other Whitmire voices in that character. But the 40th anniversary book does include a photo of the character on the Steve Whitmire page (it's not a photo of Whitmire performing the character, and he's not listed among Whitmire's characters in the book).

• Although the film transitions looked nice (and add variety tot he way the segments flow to each other), they seem to cut off the endings a lot. They virtually cut off the punchline to Pre-School Musical

That is annoying, especially since we hear part of another clip, drowning it out further. It's especially distracting when I just click on one clip, since when you click on an individual clip it goes right back to the chapters menu when the clip ends.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was just watching the credits again, and noticed that despite how very little Elmo this has, the credits still say "And Kevin Clash as Elmo".

I was thinking that all of the Monsterpiece Theater segments were shown with whatever openings the segments originally had, but I read in the 40th anniversary book that Twin Beaks premiered in season 22 and on Muppet Wiki that the MT opening premiered in 1992 (season 23), and Twin Beaks is shown with the second opening. I guess it's not too big a deal (it's good that this set includes both Monsterpiece Theater openings that were parodies of actual Masterpiece Theater openings).

After watching all the segments, I'm convinced that the image at the bottom left corner is from 30 Rocks, even though there are images elsewhere on the cover.

I'm thinking that another good, similar two-disc set idea would be a "Best of Sesame Street Game Shows". That would obviously include a lot of Guy Smiley, and should include all the game shows with other hosts (even if it means double-dipping on Family Food), maybe even include some of the street stories invovling game shows (though most of them, at least the ones after the format change, have been released on DVD). Disc 1's bonus features could include both parts of The Mr. and Mrs. Game (makes most sense for a two-part sketch to be included as bonus features), and disc 2 could include The Alphabet Game as a bonus feature (though it'd be more appropriate as a disc 1 bonus).

Except for Jon & Kate Plus 8, pretty much everything on here could have been viewed on YouTube. Before this came out I didn't think there were many rare parodies (unless they were so rare I hadn't heard of them), the rarest one I could think of being The Count's "Miami Mice" appearance (reminds me of how "Beat the Time: Grover" used to be so rare). But then I remembered that Sesame Street Unpaved has a listing of parodies, which includes a number of titles I know nothing about, aside from being on the list.

 

[Oscarfan]

I don't know when it started, but "Kevin Clash as Elmo" was part of the C is for Cookie Monster DVD credits, so they've been doing it for almost a year.

 

[Chris Gawley]

How can they make a Sesame Street Spoofs dvd with out the "Alphabet Chats"? I've been waiting for years for them to be resurrected from oblivion, & they're not even mentioned?

 

[minor muppetz]

How can they make a Sesame Street Spoofs dvd with out the "Alphabet Chats"? I've been waiting for years for them to be resurrected from oblivion, & they're not even mentioned?

I don't think Alphabet Chat is a spoof of anything.

Besides, a number of recurring spoof segments (Mysterious Theater, Miami Mice, Trash Gordon, the original Spacehip Surprise) were left out as well.

A number of Alphabet Chat segments (for the letters B, H, and O) can be viewed at sesamestreet.org.

 

[minor muppetz]

I noticed that both discs have 19 segments each (not counting bonus clips). I would have expected the disc running time to be more important than the number of clips. And maybe it is a coincidence that the main program has the same amount of clips per disc, but it's still a little odd (as the length of many segments vary).

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Pretty much agree with everyone on here with what's on this set. Though, I will say though that the Family Food bit is absolutely dreadful. Excruciating long for an insert with very little humor. Almost put me to sleep. Proof that not every Sesame spoof is gold.

 

[DramaQueenMokey]

I picked up the DVD today and decided to watch it right when I got home from Target, my dad even sat down and watched it with me. He remembered the 'Beat The Time' segments more than I did, he said they were on before I was old enough to watch Sesame Street myself. With that said, I liked how there were older and more recent spoofs on the set.

I thought that The Cobblestones 'I Can't Get No Cooperation' should have been included, I mean that Mick Jagger look a like Muppet is just priceless.

Watching 'Cereal Girl' made me feel like a little kid again, after I saw that as a kid I ate nothing but cereal for a while!

All in all, I really did enjoy the set, but I wanted a little more, maybe some more News Flash segments with Kermit and maybe some more song spoofs like 'How I Miss My Ex' (with the letter X of course) and I wished 'Hip To Be a Square' had made it as well.