I hope Sesame Workshop never sells the company

[Drtooth]

And even so, do you think Disney would be any less relentless in using Elmo than SW? I mean, given the way they totally sold out Winnie the Pooh and 101 Dalmations... even more than Donald Duck and Goofy?

Not to mention that a lot of Vintage Disney IS under lock and Key.... Song of the South, anyone? Or maybe Ducktales the Movie? Plus they refuse to release any of their cartoons, but will send out every d-grade movie they made in the 60's?

I mean, they're doing little with the Muppets as it is. At least when the company was uncertain, and Henson was being kicked around, the released vintage Muppet shows....

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Yeah, that was definately part of it, but after his death I think I read that Disney put pressure on the company to include the Sesame Street gang.

I believe the Sesame issue was not a deal breaker. The real problem was that Disney lowered it's original offer for JHC after Jim's death; rightly so since a big part of the deal for them was getting not just the company but also Jim Henson's "creative services" on an exclusive basis. The Henson children obviously wanted a figure closer to Disney's original offer since they were going to have to pay a lot of money in estate taxes after inheriting the company. Disney also got up to a lot of it's famous "bad behavior" selling unlicensed Muppet merchandise in the theme parks and slapping "Copyright Disney" on the Muppet when they didn't actually own them yet. The whole thing went to court; Disney settled just before the trial was going to start.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

On the other hand, just about everything that is "vintage Disney" is available to the public in some form or another and not held under lock and key like "vintage Sesame Street." I have to wonder if a Disney purchase would make the old Sesame shows available to the public. If it would, I'd be all for it.

Something worth remembering is that as much as many older (say 6 & up) people love Sesame Street, it's not really made for the fans. It has a very specific educational mandate and they are constantly reviewing and updating the show's circulum. Programming-wise Sesame Workshop is obligated to be primarily concerned with fufilling their mandate - especially since it's a non-profit agency that partially relies on grants. That's why a lot of classic stuff doesn't get seen - it the educational content is outdated. That's not to say a great DVD boxed set wouldn't be a bad idea, just that I understand why it may not be their #1 priority.

I don't agree with Lone Wolf about the unlikely hood of seeing classic Sesame in the future though...one of the great things about Video-on-demand is going to be that media companies are going to make more (not less!) of their libraries available to the public during the next 5 - 10 years.

In the meantime if you need a classic Sesame fix that badly go to the Museum of Television & Radio in NY or LA - they have lots of episodes in their collection and available for viewing.

 

[Drtooth]

Agreed. Though we'd ALL love to see DVD boxed sets, I don't think SW is going to do it anytime soon. Not even with the 35th Anniversary. Unless they rerelease every single video they made as DVD's, it's sadly highly unlikely.

Plus I still have to say, you guys give Disney waaay to much credit. If Disney wanted to unlock all the intage stuff, the Disney Channel would'nt be a sad mish mosh of Tweenage girl programming, and failed sitcoms from the 90's.

>>I have to wonder if a Disney purchase would make the old Sesame shows available to the public.<<

No, no no and no! Disney has the rights to a LOT of things they won't release on DVD, video, nor even reruns on local chanels. As I've said... would Disney, a company that pretty much exists for money's sake, use Elmo any less relentlessly than SW?

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Buck's right; I always heard that after Jim passed, Disney lowered the offer but the Henson 5 et al refused, went to court afterwards. I didn't know about the unlicensed nuclear accel...I mean, unlicnesed Muppet products with a (C) Disney.

 

[Lone Wolf]

I don't agree with Lone Wolf about the unlikely hood of seeing classic Sesame in the future though...one of the great things about Video-on-demand is going to be that media companies are going to make more (not less!) of their libraries available to the public during the next 5 - 10 years.

Well I didn't mean to imply that we'd never see classic SS again. What I meant was that I doubted that SW would release every episode of SS over the past 35 years in DVD box sets of every season, as some people in this thread suggested. I also thought any channel that might carry classic SS would maybe run, at most, a few hundred episodes as no TV network would have the money or to air 4,000 + episodes of SS that have aired since 1969.

But I never thought about video on demand, and I admit that's not something I know much about. How would that work in terms of Classic Sesame?

 

[Censored]

And even so, do you think Disney would be any less relentless in using Elmo than SW? I mean, given the way they totally sold out Winnie the Pooh and 101 Dalmations... even more than Donald Duck and Goofy?

I'm sure Disney would use Elmo just as much as SW, if not more for the current shows, but that wasn't my point. I raised the possibility that Disney might make more vintage Sesame Street episodes available. There are many things about current Disney I might not like, just like current Sesame Street, but unlike Sesame Street, Disney has not seen a need to bury its past.

 

[Censored]

Something worth remembering is that as much as many older (say 6 & up) people love Sesame Street, it's not really made for the fans. It has a very specific educational mandate and they are constantly reviewing and updating the show's circulum. Programming-wise Sesame Workshop is obligated to be primarily concerned with fufilling their mandate - especially since it's a non-profit agency that partially relies on grants. That's why a lot of classic stuff doesn't get seen - it the educational content is outdated. That's not to say a great DVD boxed set wouldn't be a bad idea, just that I understand why it may not be their #1 priority.

Well, this topic has come up before. I believe that what is good for "the fans" is also good for the children because "the fans" are just remembering what made them happy and educated them in their own childhood. I agree with Mr. Roger's philosophy that children are not that different today than they were in the past. Besides, most of the educational content of Sesame Street had to do with letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and getting along with one another, things that never get outdated. JMO

 

[Censored]

But I never thought about video on demand, and I admit that's not something I know much about. How would that work in terms of Classic Sesame?

Or how about a video set of Sesame Street episodes that are edited to show skits only once? I think that could get them down to size.

 

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