No Sesame classic clips at all before 2008

[minor muppetz]

I sort of feel like it's a little disrespectful that they stopped showing material that Jim Henson performed in a few years ago. More than anyone else from the show who has passed away. Of course it would have probably been more disrespectful if they stopped showing Jim Henson material right after he died.

I know, I never felt that way about them not showing Mr. Hooper segments (outside of flashbacks in a few episodes where the characters remembered Mr. Hooper) after Will Lee died. But his characters death was mentioned on-screen, it would be confusing to continue showing his clips. Then again, I don't think kids who didn't grow up with the character would be that confused if they suddenly showed a Mr. Hooper clip or a David clip or an Olivia clip. Though there would likely be other things that would confuse kids.

And there's not really any complaints about them not showing clips with Snuffy and Telly's original performers, and Martin Robinson originally had them sound closer to how they originally sounded. Though I've heard that some of Brian Meehl's Telly clips were shown a few times after Robinson took over, and Snuffy reciting the alphabet with Judy Collins was shown at least once after Robinson took over. Though in the case of Snuffy, the majority of clips with his first two performers include mention of the fact that the adults believed he was imaginary, which would be confusing after 1985.

 

[JonnyBMuppetMan]

I love classic Sesame Street as much as the next person, but honestly, I couldn't care less if they televised the vintage sketches or not, because most of the ones we love and remember are online for viewing anytime (plus Sesame does continue to include old segments on new DVD releases). Just because they don't air certain segments anymore doesn't mean they're intentionally ignoring past talents like Jim Henson and others. If anything, they're keeping their legacies alive, not just by continuing favorite characters like Guy Smiley, but upholding as much of the same principles and fun that made Sesame and the Muppets great in the first place.

With that said, I'm in agreement with Drtooth; more new stuff would be nice. I haven't been paying as much attention to Super Grover 2.0 as others on here, but I can see the dissatisfaction with ad nauseam repeats of this and Abby's Flying Fairy School. It'd be one thing if Cookie's Crumby Pictures would alternate every other episode with SG 2.0 (and watching the first several episodes, I thought it was heading in that direction), but it hasn't been consistent. Hopefully, they have new segments at the ready, and if not, they should probably ditch the segment come next season.

 

[Drtooth]

I sort of feel like it's a little disrespectful that they stopped showing material that Jim Henson performed in a few years ago. More than anyone else from the show who has passed away. Of course it would have probably been more disrespectful if they stopped showing Jim Henson material right after he died.

I don't think it's on purpose, so much as a blanket lack of full frame clips being used on the show. There were some up until last season... seems they're only doing stuff from the past couple wideframe years to make the show look consistent. Meanwhile, other kid's shows that used full frame footage (like BTL, right up until it was canceled) managed to hide the frames with CGI curtains or some other colorful boarders.

But other than that, it makes sense. 70's footage was showed through the 80's, 80's footage showed up through the 90's...90's stuff in 00, 00 stuff in 10.... seems to be a semi-consistent rotation. Unfortunately, the Jim stuff was show up through the JTE period. I guess once JTE left the airwaves, they wanted to work with newer E&B segments.

I love classic Sesame Street as much as the next person, but honestly, I couldn't care less if they televised the vintage sketches or not, because most of the ones we love and remember are online for viewing anytime (plus Sesame does continue to include old segments on new DVD releases). Just because they don't air certain segments anymore doesn't mean they're intentionally ignoring past talents like Jim Henson and others. If anything, they're keeping their legacies alive, not just by continuing favorite characters like Guy Smiley, but upholding as much of the same principles and fun that made Sesame and the Muppets great in the first place.

The one thing no one wants to talk about is how the show is shifting the focus more to classic and core characters. Big Bird, unfortunately, isn't on the show as much as he should be... but we're REALLY getting a lot of Cookie Monster this season. Grover came back with a vengeance, and Count VonCount's just as big as ever. Also, on the bright side, they're not showing the terrible older skits anymore. No Alphaboy, no "N N NNNN Da Letter N," I swear we're never going to see "kids paint a Mural" ever again (I truly hope)...we're getting less and less long form films about kids that ware out their welcome after the 2 minute mark. And best of all, Elmo's World is long gone, save the reruns. The oldest footage on the show's last few seasons was 10+ year old Elmo's World segments. So as much as we don't have the good ones any more, let's celebrate the loss of poorly executed crap that we never liked in the first place.

 

[Oscarfan]

They still use classic clips on videos (heck, "Goin' for a Ride" from season 1 was included on a 2011 DVD, and not as a bonus feature) and even the weekly Podcast (the last few have had classic E&B sketches with Jim)

 

[D'Snowth]

What DVD included "Goin' for a Ride"?

 

[Oscarfan]

"Elmo's Travel Games and Songs"

 

[Drtooth]

No... seriously... if I see "Kids painting a Mural" one more time on the show, I'll go all Dr. Rainbrain and run around screaming.

 

[D'Snowth]

Like I said before, I'm doing that right now, now that NPH is back in the spotlight AGAIN.

But even PWMS had problems like that as well... I was about ready to blow my brains out over how many times they kept showing "Shake Your Rattle and Roll".

 

[Drtooth]

That's what you get for not doing drugs and finding a niche in another medium when you're a child actor... success. Seriously, it's nice to have one not horror story on the level of "Different Strokes" cast. I agree though... he's everywhere. Not that I'm complaining. There's worse people who are everywhere (cough cough every reality TV show negative Hick stereotype they keep shoving in our faces...cough).

Anyway... I just remember those days of tape trading and having to buy $10+ VHS for 30 minutes of footage... and maybe if you're lucky, you'll find something on a weird fan site and in Real Video or some other piece of crap video player that may or may not work. As much as I hate the Youtube stop and go play, it's a freaking Frogsend compared to having to hunt for some .mov of a common skit.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

For quite a while, I've realized that Season 33 seemed to be the last season to show classic clips on a near regular basis. If you look at the episode guides from that season on Muppet Wiki, you'd be surprised (especially if you didn't watch a whole lot or any of Season 33) to see that most, if not all of the episodes aired classic clips that we would never see on the show again after the season ended. I'm not going to list them, unless someone requests me to do that; until then, you'll just have to go to Muppet Wiki and see for yourself. But, if you see a guide that's not complete, let me know, and I'll try to remember if there were any classic clips on that particular episode, if you'd like me to.

At the same time, a few of the clips shown, would air at least once or however many other times, throughout the next 4-5 years or so, including some new classic clips that aired at least once or so. (We all know how "Do De Rubber Duck" was shown annually for Seasons 34, 35, 36, and 37.) Again, I won't get into too much detail about those, unless someone asks me to. Same deal with the last episode in the above paragraph.

Does anyone else notice the same thing?