On April 1, 2006, as an April Fools joke, I posted a thread saying that I contacted Sesame Workshop and was told that Sesame Workshop was plannign a colection of two-disc "Sesame Street Treasures" releases. I wrote that the first two releases would be "The Complete Ernie and Bert Collection Volume 1" and "Sesame Street Film Festival Volume 1". The Complete Ernie and Bert Colection Volume 1 would feature every Ernie and Bert segment from 1969-1974 (though after reading Muppet Wiki information that comes from the CTW Archives, I'd be surprised if every Ernie and Bert insert from the first four seasons would fit on two discs... It seems like the first season had a lot of Ernie and Bert sketches). The Sesame Street Film Festival would focus on various animators and filmmakers (including Bud Luckey and Jim Henson), with all of their Sesame Street animations and films, and a handful of Mupet segments would also be included.
Of course, that was just an april fools joke, but I wonder if Sesame Workshop would be willing to make character colections similar to the various collections in the Walt Disney Treasures series. Of course, there are some major characters, like Big Bird and Oscar, who were mostly in street scenes and stories, and not many inserts, but sinc emany of the early episodes don't have much plot focus, maybe certain one-shot street scenes with them could be included as well as all repeated inserts.
A complete Ernie and Bert colection would be good, but there could be problems. If all of the skits are in chronological order, then I wonder if more than two discs would be needed to include every first season sketch with them. Heck, I challenge somebody who has a lot of season one Ernie and Bert sketches on video and has a way of editing videos to take all of their Ernie and Bert sktis from the first season and copy them onto a video and disc, and see if it lasts longer than an average episode (I'll say an average episode would be 56 minutes). But in the first season, there were a lot of multi-part Ernie and Bert sketches, as well as sketches that either had them commenting on the previous skit or/ and introducing the next skit. If such an approach were done, would it be better to include the skits that either followed or preceded the Ernie and Bert sketches, or would it be best to just stick to Ernie and Bert sketches, and have them uncut even if their mentions of other skits don't make sense without them, or would it be better to cut all refferences to skits that follow or lead to the skits?
I'm sure that some could be easily edited. The ending of the skit where Ernie cals his bath Rosie could easily be edited. It could fade to black after Ernie laughs at his reason for calling his bathtub Rosie, leaving out Bert's introduction to Solomon Grundy. I haven't seen teh sandbox game sketch, but I think the beginning, with Ernie watching the end of Jazz #8, could be edited as well. But then there's one skit where Ernie coments on an Alice Braitwaite Goodyshoes cartoon, and this skit probably wouldn't make sense if the cartoon wasn't shown before it. And there's the multi-part skit where Cookie Monster eats Ernie's Xs and Bert's eggs. Part four has Ernie and Cookie Monster commenting on the previous cartoon, followed by them asking to see the cartoon again, and then part five has Ernie erashing Cookie Monster, getting the idea from the cartoon.
Another thing to think about: should a collection of Ernie and Bert skits only include segments staring both characters, or also include their solo segments? And should segments where one of the two only makes a short cameo appearance be included or excluded? I wouldn't include segments where they are just part of the background. One way aroudn this would be to make three such collections: one for Ernie and Bert segments, one for just Ernie segments, and one for just Bert segments (this one would probably have less volumes than the Ernie set). If individual sets were made for both characters and had segments with both characters, that would probably get a bit redundant. But it would make sense for some segments with both characters to be included on respective sets. Maybe Ernie and Bert can have seperate sets, with certain skits featuring both characters on one set and others on the other, and solo skits stil being included.
I also wonder about what should be done with getting all segments with supporting characters, especialy ones who kids probably wouldn't recognize, like Sherlock Hemlock and Guy Smiley. Sure, these could be marketed for adults, but that doesn't mean that the releases wouldn't be hard sells. But I was thinking that there could be two-disc sets compiling all segments for major characters, in chronological order, and maybe the discs could contain bonus segments with other characters.
For example, an Ernie and Bert collection could include bonus Guy Smiley segments on disc one, and bonus Professor Hastings segments on disc 2. Or a Grover colection could include bonus Harvey Kneeslapper segments on disc one, and bonus Two-Headed Martian segments on disc two. Or a Count collection could include bonus Mumford segments on disc one, and bonus Sherlock Hemlock segments on disc two.
And then there is the case of what to do about Kermit the Frog. Kermit is a major enough character to sell such a set, but while Sesame Workshop does have permission to release Kermit segments on DVD, would Sesame Workshop need more permission to release a set focusing on Kermit's Sesame Street appearances, which would have to include an image of Kermit on the cover, his name in the title, and also use Kermit as a selling point? Of course, if such collections include bonus segments focusing on certain supporting characters, maybe Kermit could be treated this way.
Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum!
Jim Henson Idea Man
Back to the Rock Season 2
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
