Is the Release of SST DVD's with New Material being hurt by the Writer's Strike?

[minor muppetz]

So far there hasn't been any news of any new Sesame Street DVDs with new footage. Could the writers strike be part of this? Of course, ever since Genius Products got the license to distribute Sesame Street DVDs, there has only been one DVD with new footage, Kids' Favorite Country Songs (I am not going to count the introductions in Old School Volume 2). So far, with what's been released and announced so far, there are "double featuyres", though I am not surprised that Genius has chosen to rerelease past releases on DVD under it's own label (though it would be great if in the future Genius releases videos that haven't had DVD releases on DVD, either in a double feature or on it's own). There will be an Elmo's World DVD, but those always have stuff from the show, nothing new. And there will be two Play with me Sesame releases, but they have already been released outside of america, and I doubt that they contain any new footage anyway.

I wonder if this strike will cause more old Sesame productions to get DVD releases. Maybe there will be DVD releases of sketches without linking material. There will probably be DVDs of street stories, and perhaps DVDs of full episodes. Hopefully Old School Volume 3 will come out this year, and hopefully a disclaimer isn't too important to postpone the release over (and if Sesame Workshop needs a disclaimer/ introduction, couldn't there just be a text disclaimer before the episodes? Or maybe an improvised introduction, by Joan Ganz Coony, Sonia Manzano, Big Bird, Grover, or somebody) The possibilities are endless.

 

[dwmckim]

Yeah, with Sesame seasons scaled back to 26 episodes, these days it seems like they actually do more work a year on spinoff projects (specials, dvd releases) than they do the actual show so the strike has got to hurt the Sesame dvds quite a bit. With the strike impending, i'd bet the writers would have been very focused on getting the actual show scripts finished before the deadline and any other scripts for outside projects would have been an afterthought.

That does put Genius in an odd place since the Sesame liscence is still relatively new to them and they had been doing such a gangbusters job with it, getting the boxed set and really honoring the notion of extra features on dvds...there was a lot of momentum building so i give them props for doing what they can in the meantime...rereleasing older titles (though i agree, they should especially be taking advantage of this time to release some of the titles only avaialbale on VHS) and continuing to roll out new product (even if they're ones with no technically new material...the Elmo's World and Play With Me lines for example) so it makes it seem like they're getting dvd's out regularly pretty seamlessly, still there must be some scrambling and unease there. Don't know if it will push up the Volume Three Old School boxed set (aside from maybe a month, two months top), but i wouldn't be surprised if more "TV Fun Packs" made up of complete releases of the more recent episodes are soon on the way.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm confused. i heard that SS didn't deal specifically with the WGA. I'm not sure if that was true, but clearly if it is, SW is going to wind up suffering from it. I don't want to get into a long post, but I feel the writers should get their due, but any way to end the strike and have everybody get a deal as close to what they want would just be great for every single company big and small. Not to mention the non-striking employees that don't belong to those guilds.

Even still, they have enough old footage to put some things together in the mean time.

 

[minor muppetz]

Yeah, even if there can't be any new footage on DVD for awhile, Genius can release more double features, release the DVD debuts of such videos as The best of Ernie and Bert and I'm Glad I'm Me, the commercially-available debuts of such programs as Big Bird's Birthday, and more TV FUn Packs and Old School releases. Maybe even release collections of episodes from the 1980s and 1990s (and if Old School Volume 3 includes 1979-1984 episodes, then find a way to release more episodes from the first ten seasons).

 

[Drtooth]

I bet GelflingWaldo would know the specifics. A thread was posted asking about next season, and I think it was revealed that the SS writers aren't really in a union. I forget the specifics.

Actually, I just realized something. Genius is based off the Weinstine company, right? I think they already made a deal with the WGA, so if the newly formed footage is for them to make DVD's, then there could be a good chance that new projects won't be affected. It all depends on Sesame Workshop's deal.

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, it's been announced that there will be a new Sesame Street DVD, with new footage, coming out this september. It's called Dinosaurs, and will feature both new and old content. So I guess the writers strike hasn't affected these types of productions (of course, I've also read that the strike might end soon, not sure if it has or not).