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Something else I've realized. Again using Muppet Wiki's "what links here" feature to determine last appearances (or last known) of segments, seems like if I remember a certain classic Muppet insert airing (or hearing about one airing) between seasons 30-32, chances are good that that was the last time it aired on the show (of course there's also a few Ernie segments that aired several times between seasons 33 and 38). In fact, I don't really know off-hand if many pre-1990 Muppet segments aired multiple times during those seasons (I know the season two Rubber Duckie aired least twice in season 30, and I want to say that The Ballad of Casey McPhee aired at least twice during these three years but I could be wrong).
The show has had so many inserts that, even with 130 episodes a year (and then decreasing the number of episodes AND devoting the last fifteen minutes to Elmo's World) that many are bound to not be seen for years even if they're not exactly banned (for lack of a less dramatic word) from showing again, there are some I view as classics that didn't air in the 1990s. I remember when I got the book Sesame Street Unpaved, it was the first time I'd heard of the sketch with The Count and Cookie Monster co-operating (though I had a Sesame Street Library book that contained pictures from this with dialogue, essentially making it a live-action comic based on the skit) and Grover's classic near and far routine (outside of the song Over, Under, Around, and Through), these two I hadn't remember seeing before but seeing them in Unpaved made me feel they are essential old segments (and maybe the fact that they were mentioned among the featured segments in the review at Muppet Central made me see them more as classics than they are). Looking at "what links here", I see that the latest episodes that Muppet Wiki lists them in are from seasons 20 and 21, respectively.
Of course there's many segments I think of as classics (this use of "classic" meaning really well-known as opposed to from the early years) that stopped airing in the early 1990s, some I am surprised to see stopped airing long before they phased out stuff from the 1970s and 1980s. I was surprised to recently see that the last appearance of the Sesame Street News segment with Cookie Monster as Little Red Riding Hood was a season 24 episode, I feel like that's a real classic that I saw a lot (well, I did watch Sesame Street a lot in the early 1990s, my watching habits went up and down throughout the late-1990s), would have thought that aired more. Of course there are a lot of segments I recall seeing often that I feel I didn't see much if at all on the show in season 25 and beyond (I might have had some on video or certain anniversary specials) but have seen aired somewhat frequently during that time and I just missed the airings.
Four segments that I'm not too surprised didn't air in the 1990s are the Monsterpiece Theater segments Upstairs, Downstairs, Me, Claudias, Chariots of Fur, and Ali Baba. Chariots of Fur is the only one that I really remember seeing as a child (though I feel I have a very slightly vague memory of seeing Alistair Cookie in the set from Upstairs, Downstairs). The first three didn't air after season 20 (I think the last noted appearance of Me, Claudias on the wiki is an episode from either season 18 or 19), while Ali Baba last aired in season 21. It makes sense for them to stop showing Me, Claudias (though they could have had Kevin Clash dub Elmo's dialogue) and Ali Baba (they'd have to reshoot the whole segment to remove the pipe, though I wonder if they could have still included the separate video footage of Ali Baba and the thieves), but aside from reshooting Alistair Cookie's scenes, I wonder if there's any further reason to stop showing the other two. They did reshoot some of Alistair Cookie's scenes, I wonder why not those two (actually, I wonder if they did redo those intros and just never aired the alternate versions).
In fact Muppet Wiki currently only lists three episodes with Chariots of Fur, and these all come from episodes that somebody on the wiki had a video copy of (two of which aired on Noggin, but somebody had also taped one of those two episodes off PBS).
I saw that pretty much all of the other 1980s Monsterpiece Theater segments aired frequently throughout the 1990s, but it seems like most of the early 1990s segments that Sesame Workshop hasn't officially put online have also only been in a few episodes altogether (it's a good thing somebody happened to record all of them).
As I've said earlier, the show has so many segments that many are bound to not be shown for several years even if there's no reason to not show them, but I feel every Monsterpiece Theater segment could have easily been shown each year (probably more realistic than airing every Sesame Street News segment each year, though that would have been possible during the "130-episodes-a-season years").
And I am a bit tired of bringing this up every time I talk about certain segments not airing after season 20 or whatever, but some of those segments could have been in the few season 20-23 episodes where the wiki does not have a complete rundown.
The show has had so many inserts that, even with 130 episodes a year (and then decreasing the number of episodes AND devoting the last fifteen minutes to Elmo's World) that many are bound to not be seen for years even if they're not exactly banned (for lack of a less dramatic word) from showing again, there are some I view as classics that didn't air in the 1990s. I remember when I got the book Sesame Street Unpaved, it was the first time I'd heard of the sketch with The Count and Cookie Monster co-operating (though I had a Sesame Street Library book that contained pictures from this with dialogue, essentially making it a live-action comic based on the skit) and Grover's classic near and far routine (outside of the song Over, Under, Around, and Through), these two I hadn't remember seeing before but seeing them in Unpaved made me feel they are essential old segments (and maybe the fact that they were mentioned among the featured segments in the review at Muppet Central made me see them more as classics than they are). Looking at "what links here", I see that the latest episodes that Muppet Wiki lists them in are from seasons 20 and 21, respectively.
Of course there's many segments I think of as classics (this use of "classic" meaning really well-known as opposed to from the early years) that stopped airing in the early 1990s, some I am surprised to see stopped airing long before they phased out stuff from the 1970s and 1980s. I was surprised to recently see that the last appearance of the Sesame Street News segment with Cookie Monster as Little Red Riding Hood was a season 24 episode, I feel like that's a real classic that I saw a lot (well, I did watch Sesame Street a lot in the early 1990s, my watching habits went up and down throughout the late-1990s), would have thought that aired more. Of course there are a lot of segments I recall seeing often that I feel I didn't see much if at all on the show in season 25 and beyond (I might have had some on video or certain anniversary specials) but have seen aired somewhat frequently during that time and I just missed the airings.
Four segments that I'm not too surprised didn't air in the 1990s are the Monsterpiece Theater segments Upstairs, Downstairs, Me, Claudias, Chariots of Fur, and Ali Baba. Chariots of Fur is the only one that I really remember seeing as a child (though I feel I have a very slightly vague memory of seeing Alistair Cookie in the set from Upstairs, Downstairs). The first three didn't air after season 20 (I think the last noted appearance of Me, Claudias on the wiki is an episode from either season 18 or 19), while Ali Baba last aired in season 21. It makes sense for them to stop showing Me, Claudias (though they could have had Kevin Clash dub Elmo's dialogue) and Ali Baba (they'd have to reshoot the whole segment to remove the pipe, though I wonder if they could have still included the separate video footage of Ali Baba and the thieves), but aside from reshooting Alistair Cookie's scenes, I wonder if there's any further reason to stop showing the other two. They did reshoot some of Alistair Cookie's scenes, I wonder why not those two (actually, I wonder if they did redo those intros and just never aired the alternate versions).
In fact Muppet Wiki currently only lists three episodes with Chariots of Fur, and these all come from episodes that somebody on the wiki had a video copy of (two of which aired on Noggin, but somebody had also taped one of those two episodes off PBS).
I saw that pretty much all of the other 1980s Monsterpiece Theater segments aired frequently throughout the 1990s, but it seems like most of the early 1990s segments that Sesame Workshop hasn't officially put online have also only been in a few episodes altogether (it's a good thing somebody happened to record all of them).
As I've said earlier, the show has so many segments that many are bound to not be shown for several years even if there's no reason to not show them, but I feel every Monsterpiece Theater segment could have easily been shown each year (probably more realistic than airing every Sesame Street News segment each year, though that would have been possible during the "130-episodes-a-season years").
And I am a bit tired of bringing this up every time I talk about certain segments not airing after season 20 or whatever, but some of those segments could have been in the few season 20-23 episodes where the wiki does not have a complete rundown.
