my friend has early episodes!!!

[ISNorden]

I had another idea for that phony press release, which I forgot. I thought about "announcing" that Sesame Street was going to teach kids that smoking is wrong but people who smoke cigarrettes are not bad just because they smoke. I was going to write that there would be a new Muppet character who smoked cigarrettes, but was otherwise a good person. The character would have been an adult, he would have had a job as a teacher, and some of his obsessions/ interests would include sculpting and building things (smoking wouldn't have been an obsession). The character would have only smoked for the first ten to fifteen episodes of the season (well, for those episodes that he did appear in), and then there would be a big episode where he would quit smoking. Before he quit smoking, he would occassionally cough, which would get worse as the episodes go on.

Given the way Sesame Street emphasizes healthy living now, I'd believe that a lot more readily than their teaching about religious tolerance: the only time religion comes up at all on Sesame Street, is on a few holiday specials.

 

[JLG]

"....and told me that when the show premiered, his grandparents had a recording device, and recorded several episodes from the first two seasons for his mother."




I thought that part sounded fishy! I don't think such a device existed that early on.

 

[minor muppetz]

"....and told me that when the show premiered, his grandparents had a recording device, and recorded several episodes from the first two seasons for his mother."




I thought that part sounded fishy! I don't think such a device existed that early on.

I know that there was a fan who recorded episode 179, from the second season, using black and white film, and that recording was eventually converted to video and has been traded among fans. So something like that must have existed back then.

 

[JLG]

It's just a guess, but I would think that the B/W copy of #179 would have come from a TV station kinescope copy of that episode, although why it would have been created I don't know. Someone in another forum said that some TV stations used to make kinescope copies even that late for their own purposes, but I don't know for sure. (why couldn't they have just kept their own copy?) I do wonder how it "leaked" out. Probably the same way #573 did, which looks to have been some TV station employee smuggling a copy out. (If anyone knows the true origins of 573 or 179, I'd love to know.)

I'm not very familiar with the Muppet Show, but I remember a Fozzie scene where he has a ventriloquist dummy version of himself and he keeps trying to get it to talk on its own (?) In The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, that scene is in video. But one time in the TV museum I was walking among the consoles and noticed a guy watching that scene in a different program, and it was on film. So it looks like for whatever reason, a color kinescope was made of that Muppet Show episode, and this was the late 70s. So ah rully dunno....

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm not very familiar with the Muppet Show, but I remember a Fozzie scene where he has a ventriloquist dummy version of himself and he keeps trying to get it to talk on its own (?) In The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson, that scene is in video. But one time in the TV museum I was walking among the consoles and noticed a guy watching that scene in a different program, and it was on film. So it looks like for whatever reason, a color kinescope was made of that Muppet Show episode, and this was the late 70s. So ah rully dunno....

Are you sure it was a dummy version of Fozzie? Because your description of the scene otherwise sounds like Fozzie's act from the Edgar Bergan episode, where Fozzie did a ventreloquism act, but couldn't get his dummy to talk.

I remember seeign the CNN People Profiles special on Jim Henson back in 1999, and recall seeing some Muppet Show clips that looked like they had film quality instead of video quality.

 

[MuppetsRule]

I'm dissappointed to find this thread was just an April Fool's joke. Here I thought I had found somebody else with some early episodes and we could trade to help fill in each others collection.

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm sure that everybody that I fooled is disapointed. But regarding the "season 38 news" prank, I just realises that I forgot to mention guest stars for season 38. I was going to mention that the upcomming season would include appearances by such stars as Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Ashton Kutcher, Will Ferrell, Kelly Clarkson, Simon Cowell, Norah Jones, Hallie Berry, and Michael Jackson. I thought about mentioning Michael Jackson's "appearance", which might have probably gone a bit too far. I was going to say that he would join a human child in a performance of Somebody Come and Play, in which he sneaks up on a lonely child and surprises the kid by wanting to play with him.

 

[JLG]

That would definitely have given it away.

 

[minor muppetz]

Since some fans have black and white copies of episode 179, it would be great if that episode was included on the next Old School set, so that we can have a color copy of it.