HBO Max removes nearly 200 Sesame Street episodes, modern specials, and the Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo

[The Count]

While I can understand the removal of Elmo's Not-Too-Late Show since that airs on Cartoon Network, what worries me is the report by toughpigs.com that HBO Max removed almost 95% of their classic Sesame Street episodes spanning the first thirty-eight seasons. According to the same article, there are only a handful of episodes from Seasons 1, 5, and 7 before jumping to Season 39. Sure hope this isn't a bad news portent.

 

[wiley207]

Oh, drats and phooey! It's a good thing I was able to capture this hilarious Dr. Nobel Price News Flash from one of the episodes a couple years ago...

 

[YellowYahooey]

I think the removal of most classic episodes prior to Season 39 but not Seasons 1, 5 and 7 is probably something more of a phaseout. I bet the remainder of the older episodes will be removed at a later date.

If you are subscribed to HBO Max, enjoy the episodes while you can.

I guess it's safe to declare that I am never subscribing to HBO Max for the remainder of its life.

 

[antsamthompson9]

So the only place online I can find the superior of the Elmo's playdate specials is here: http://rarbg.to/torrent/3vah4kg. No matter how many times I waited it still won't download for me. For someone who's computer has a better download record, can you please download this and make it into an mp4 file?

 

[Muppet Master]

I get funny looks these days from certain people about continuing to collect physical media and/or going out of my way to obtain downloads of all the films/programs/music that I really love. This is why. The streaming model is easy and convenient, until it isn't. Unless you own a copy, the state of your media collection will be continually subject to the whims of faceless corporations.

This is exactly how I feel. I still use streaming quite a bit but I also collect physical media because you never know when episodes of a show, or a show as a whole, will be removed from a service for a wide number of different reasons. Of course, in the case of Sesame, most of these old episodes were not available on DVD or VHS to begin with, unless you taped it off your TV or had the master files.

 

[ssetta]

This really seems very similar to the cancellation of Sesame Street Unpaved on Noggin years ago. At least the feeling is. But that was mostly because it got mostly poor ratings. And back then, it seemed like Sesame Workshop didn’t want us to see the classic material. This time, it’s all about the money. How can they expect to make more money by doing this?

 

[DotBridgekeeper]

I began to lose interest in the whole thing when they resumed adding episodes after an almost year-long wait, and at that, they were from Season 19 at the earliest. It's nice to have the unlimited convenience of watching the handful of episodes (edited and cleansed) as many times as I like, but it's really pointless in the end without the anticipation of a regular update to the feed. Try doing that with your favorite current series du jour. For me, equal to the nostalgia factor of watching the familiar material is the allure of first-time encounters with stuff I've either forgotten about or never consciously saw, as in the case of the very early seasons.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I understand not everyone will be pleased with episode additions and that’s fine, we’re all human like that, but the workshop shouldn’t have to exclusively add whichever time periods of episodes you prefer to their library just because you personally want it to be that way. I for one am always grateful whenever any episode that hasn’t been available commercially previously gets added if it means having an opportunity to be watched again. To me, those seem like pretty unfair expectations for those who maybe saw episodes in the late 80s or early to late 90s and what have you.

 

[LittleJerry92]

This really seems very similar to the cancellation of Sesame Street Unpaved on Noggin years ago. At least the feeling is. But that was mostly because it got mostly poor ratings.

You do realize you could have easily just taped each episode airing if you were that worried about cancellation.

 

[DotBridgekeeper]

… but the workshop shouldn’t have to exclusively add whichever time periods of episodes you prefer to their library just because you personally want it to be that way.

It's about uploading episodes equally across the entirety of the series, not just a pick-and-choose situation. But this is all a moot point now, I think. Part of why I shared that mini-rant over here was for contextual clarity, since this portion of the thread was detached from the original discussion. And though I'm over it, it's still a valid POV worth sharing.