how do inserts get stored?

[minor muppetz]

Have you ever wondered how inserts that get repeated on Sesame Street are stored? Are each idnividual segment stored on a film strip, master tape, or disc and then put into whatever episode they are included in? Are all skits only included in the master tapes of the episodes they are from and then there's some way for the producers to know what epsiodes featured whatever skits are being used again in newer episodes or video releases? Or could there be some master tapes that group skits together, perhaps based on animation company, filmmakers invovled, characters, recurring segments, and so on?

 

[JLG]

Somewhere in my deep, dark, too-long list of Favorites, is an article about this very subject. I don't remember it very clearly---its main focus is the re-cataloging and preservation of the entire 4,000+ library of episodes, and how they've been stored over the years. It touches on a crude cataloguing system they used to rely upon to identify sketches and inserts, and how it basically came down to brief notes on pieces of paper in a sort of card catalog setup. I can't imagine trying to keep track of things that way...

"Letter J cartoon with little man". WHICH letter J cartoon with little man?!? LOL

If you'd like, I can try to unearth that link.

 

[minor muppetz]

So are you saying that they are all stored on the master tapes of the episodes and not on individual tapes, like how a commercial might be stored? I wonder if the various sketches actually have titles. I can think up titles for many skits, but some sketches seem too hard for me to think of a title for (like the Dragnet parody about the letter W).

And I guess Sesame Street would be harder to keep track of what episodes feature what sketches than for other variety shows, like Rocky and Bullwinkle, SCTV, The Muppet Show, and possibly Saturday Night Live.