Neglecting first season segments

[minor muppetz]

Does anybody else feel like Sesame Workshop often neglected showing first season segments after the first season? It seems like after the first season, while season one segmen ts were often shown, they weren't shown as much as segments from other seasons.

When I first got Old School: Volume 1, I expected many of the epsidoes to include season one segments. At the very least I expected the second season premiere to have a decent amount of first season segments. The only segment in that episode that I knew for sure was from the first season was the one where Ernie counted to ten. I guessed that many other segments were from the first season, but didn't know for sure. But on both Old School sets, pretty much everything included that I know were from the first season originated in either the first broadcast episode or the first test pilot.

Soon after the sets were released, the CTW Archives documents were stored at the University of Maryland, for the public to look at. All of the pages in a document caled "First Season Show Content" were scanned on Mupet Wiki. This seems to list every segment from the first season (I wonder if any segmnets were included... I didn't see ABC-DEF-GHI listed anywhere). And many of the segments that I thought might have been from the first season were not lsited at all. In fact, the only other segment from epsidoe 131 that I saw listed there was J-Jump Film. And even then, it's hard to tell if it's the same "J-Jump" film that appears in episode 131 or a different one (or possibly a remake). And even then, there are no epsidoe numbers attributed for that sketch, which either means it was produced for the first season and not shown until the second season, or somebody just forgot to fill in the episode numbers (some of the latter Jazz Numbers cartoons didn't have any epsidoe numbers attributed, either, but many first season episode pages mention them).

I know that first season segmnets weren't neglected altogetehr. I have seen quite a few episode pages at Muppet Wiki that mention a lot of first season segments. Episode 158 from the second season has plenty of season one segments. And although I don't remember seeing them as a kid (I was born before both were droped from the show), I know that the baker films and Jazz Number segments were shown frequently for nearly 20 years (give or take some years).

It seems like eventually, first season segments were shown scarcley. There are quite a few segments from the first season that I remember seeing as a child, though many of them I only remember seeing once. I don't remember seeing any Kermit sketches from the first season(and although Kermit continued to give lectures up until 1990, I don't remember seeing very many of Kermit's lecture segments when I was a child). I know that one epsidoe from season 30 featured the first season sketch where Ernie cleans the apartment in less than 15 seconds, and I recall another season 30 episode featuring a sketch with the cheerleaders, though I can't remember if it was for the letter F or K.

 

[mikebennidict]

Inspite reading all you said I still don't see how you get the idea that they neglected airing 1st season stuff after the 1st season and seeing you're profile, how would you know what was reused after the 1969-70 season?

 

[minor muppetz]

Inspite reading all you said I still don't see how you get the idea that they neglected airing 1st season stuff after the 1st season and seeing you're profile, how would you know what was reused after the 1969-70 season?

That comment made me cry for nine straight hours. Eh, just kidding.

I had written down most of my reasons for suspecting this. Sure, I could be wrong. It's possible that many of the early season premieres focused more on newer segments. And I guess with as long as the show has run, and the number of episodes per season, eventually it would be hard to show every segment every season, even before the 2002 format change and the shortening of episodes per season.

But it seems like many segments from later seasons have been shown more frequently (though in many cases it's hard to determine when certain segments first aired), in later seasons and on video releases. It seems like the second and third seasons get represented a lot more in these cases. It seems like before the Old School sets were released that only a handful of first season segments had been released on video. Clips from the first season seem to be scarce in clip shows. I don't think the 20th anniversary special had any clips from the first season (though Sesame Workshop seems to think that the second version of Rubber Duckie is the original). I am not sure if Stars and Street's Forever (the 25th anniversary special) had any first season clips aside from the original Bein' Green. Bein' Green is also the only first season clip shown in the 25th anniversary video. I don't know if A Walkign Tour of Sesame Street or Sesame Street Unpaved officially count as anniversary specials, and of course The Street We Live On features one of the baker films and a clip from the first episode. What's the Name of That Song? didn't include any segmnets from the first season.

A great number of first season clips appear on the web video player, though I wish that more were included. Most of what is included is great, but it seems to me like the other seasosn have more clips included. It would be interesting to know if any additional seasons have segments shown as much as, if not less than, the number of fkirst season segments that have gotten shown often.

And of course many of the first seasons egments that I do remember seeing as a child, I only remember seeing once. Some of the segments that I remember seeing more often I can't remember if I saw in multiple airings of the same episodes or not. Of course, it seems like many of the Muppet segments aren't repeated as much as the various animation and film segments. Looking at various Muppet Wiki pages that were compiled using video copies of epsidoes as opposed to CTW Archives papers, it seems like many segments are only listed once, or a handful of times. The CTW Archives first season show content lists several non-Muppet segments as being in more first season episodes than the average Muppet segment. Even if certain Muppet segments focused on letters or numbers, and most weeks had the same sponsors throughout the week I have yet to know of any episodes that repeat the same Muppet segments in the same episodes, unlike the animated bits.

 

[NantoSeiken]

The Old School box sets actually don't provide a very good representation of what you might see in an average episode, because the season premieres tend to showcase a lot of new material.

I think that generally in any given season, sketches from the more recent seasons tend to be repeated more often. For that reason it may seem like season one sketches get repeated less often in general, but that's offset to a certain degree by the fact that a lot of season one material was a mainstay of the show for years, such as the Jazz Numbers and Song of... segments, Ernie and Bert, many of the animal films, etc.

 

[ISNorden]

The Old School box sets actually don't provide a very good representation of what you might see in an average episode, because the season premieres tend to showcase a lot of new material.

I think that generally in any given season, sketches from the more recent seasons tend to be repeated more often. For that reason it may seem like season one sketches get repeated less often in general, but that's offset to a certain degree by the fact that a lot of season one material was a mainstay of the show for years, such as the Jazz Numbers and Song of... segments, Ernie and Bert, many of the animal films, etc.

Good point about the Season One stuff getting repeated for years. The other reason the Old School material tends to repeat, though, is that sponsors on Sesame Street used to follow a cyclical pattern: letters appeared in a specific (rearranged) order, and numbers (though they followed the usual order) appeared for 2-3 consecutive episodes each. By the 1980s, CTW apparently got rid of that rule (as you'll see if Old School Volume 3, assuming it gets produced). Still, that's why every season premiere seems to have Jazz/Pinball/Number Song 2 in it so far, and why most of them also have the same letter clips...

 

[JLG]

From the 33 episodes I have spanning year 1 to year 22, it seems like there are a notable amount of 1st season films, but indeed not as much as later seasons' stuff.

I would imagine part of the reason is the sheer amount of material that would build up year by year. When your back catalog of active material is always growing, naturally any given film will end up being seen less and less over time.

However, though it's just guessing on my part, I wonder if the main reason 1969 stuff was relatively rare is that the show simply developed away from much of it. Sesame Street was wild, unexplored terrain when it started---all kinds of approaches must have been proposed, developed, tried out, and then dropped. From the few first-seasoners I've seen, they have a very different pace, tone, and overall feel, and you can see where they were figuring out what was working and what wasn't. Perhaps a lot of the oldest stuff was deemed unsuitable for the program as it evolved.

(Incidentally, it seems to me that it took until about the 4th season for the show to find its voice and become its most familiar self. Does anyone agree with that?)

 

[mikebennidict]

(Incidentally, it seems to me that it took until about the 4th season for the show to find its voice and become its most familiar self. Does anyone agree with that?)[/QUOTE]

what do you mean by that?

 

[minor muppetz]

Yeah, a lot of first season Muppet bits look a bit low-budget compared to stuff from the second and third seasons. And there were less characters in the first season. Sketches witht he original Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster (whose design didn't change until the third season, making him one of the few first season Muppets who wasnt rebuilt right after season 1 ended) and Kermit were shown for years (though I don't ever remember seeing any first season Kermit sketches on TV). I'm not sure if first season Big Bird sketches were dropped immediately after season one ended, and I would expect first season Oscar and Grover sketches to have been dropped. However, the first season show content documents don't have "DUMP" written by any season one segments with Big Bird, Grover, or Oscar, and I know of some post-season one episodes that featured first season Grover sketches. And I believe that some of the international Sesame Street co-productions do include first season Grover segments.

I was thinking yesterday that it seems like sketches with the original Guy Smiley puppet weren't shown very often after the third season. I notice that the first Guy Smiley had some sort of different look that I can't describe. The puppet was rebuilt in the fourth season, and it seems like his segments from these seasons didn't appear in later episodes. Maybe someday I'll find info on a 1980s or 1970s episode that featured one of those sketches and be proven wrong, but I don't remember seeing any of Guy's earliest segments as a kid, and I haven't seen any episode descriptions at Muppet Wiki that mention them. Yet many of them have been uploaded at You Tube (but not the Sesame Street Video Player).

As for the years including more stuff from the most recent seasons, I don't think that is true until season 33. Obvously, sketches with Jim Henson as Ernie, Kermit, and Guy Smiley were shown throughout the 1990s. A lot of 1990s episodes feature a lot of 1970s segments. Segments with Harvey Kneeslapper, who was dropped in the 1970s, were still shown until season 32. But lookinbg at pages for episodes from the late 1990s, it seems like the majority of Kermit segments that were shown by then were from the 1980s, though many 1970s newsflash segments were shown frequently as well.

 

[JLG]

(Incidentally, it seems to me that it took until about the 4th season for the show to find its voice and become its most familiar self. Does anyone agree with that?)

what do you mean by that?[/quote]



I mean that to me, it doesn't quite feel like it's familiar self until the 4th season. Watch any early episodes of a long-running series, and the tone will almost always be different at first. Maybe a lot, maybe only subtley, but still. And then there's things like pacing, character development, etc. If any show is given a chance to develop--i.e., allowed to survive past its first season or two--it's going to go through a development phase before settling down into a comfortable identity. With Sesame Street, the episodes from seasons 1, 2, and 3 feel like they're still finding themselves. Seasons 2 and 3 are much closer than 1, of course, but they're still a bit slower, quieter, and figuring out their overall approach. But with the 1972 shows I've seen, I no longer feel like I'm watching something that's searching for itself. It feels much more like the show that would still be on when I was a kid in the late 80s.

Just coincidentally, the 4th season is also when I think The Simpsons settled into its familiar self (that is, until recent years when it's devolved into trash.) With Seinfeld, it was probably the 3rd season.
And then there are occasional shows that seem to bypass a "teenage" phase and hit on a consistent personality right from the start.

 

[Quesal]

With Ocsar being Orange in season 1 and green in every other season along with other features of other characters, I can sort of understand why old stuff from season 1 didn't really continue on to the other seasons.