PBS Retro

[ssetta]

I don't know how many of you notice, but there is a new channel on Roku called PBS Retro. As you may have guessed, it has some old shows on PBS. As for right now, Sesame Street is not one of them, nor is any Sesame Workshop programming. It has Mister Rogers, Reading Rainbow, Zoboomafoo, Kratt's Creatures, and Thomas and Friends. I think they only have 10 shows of each and they keep repeating them. So it's not that exciting so far, but the channel is still fairly new. So do you think there's a chance that it COULD have Sesame Street in the future?

 

[Muppet Master]

Wow! That is incredible news. I have thought of this concept in my head for a long time. Just wish it were a real channel on broadcast TV.

 

[datman24]

No Puzzle Place, no Lamb Chop, no Carmen Sandiego, no any other show I can't legally access elsewhere, no thanks.

 

[Gordon Matt]

Any pre-1979 Mr. Rogers?

 

[LittleJerry92]

Something tells me this service is going to be pretty selective with the shows that will pop up on there.

But if in the near future we get more retro stuff like “Shining Time Station,” “Puzzle Place” and “Carmen Sandiego,” I’m down for that. Otherwise I’ll just enjoy the fan recordings I can find of the latter two shows.

 

[ISNorden]

Darn shame I can't afford Roku. A legitimate streaming channel that carried vintage Sesame Street and other CTW-produced shows would be well worth the $10 I already pay for online subscriptions...IF the channel aired the old content without new edits. (HBO Max's forced Friday endings on every episode, yuck!)

But judging from the “meh” reactions from Roku viewers, PBS Retro isn’t really offering a deep archive anyway—just a sampler of about ten episodes per program. If that’s the same approach they’ll take with Sesame Street or other CTW classics, then it won’t be much of an improvement.

Honestly, what’s needed is for Sesame Workshop to license (or launch) its own streaming service with full home-video rights, so the entire library can be re-aired as originally broadcast. Anything less feels like a teaser instead of the real deal.

 

[sootyfan]

Darn shame I can't afford Roku. A legitimate streaming channel that carried vintage Sesame Street and other CTW-produced shows would be well worth the $10 I already pay for online subscriptions...IF the channel aired.the old content without new edits. (HBO Max's forced Friday endings on every episode, yuck!)

yeah nvm it turned out to be a hoax lol I knew something was fishy

 

[sootyfan]

But judging from the “meh” reactions from Roku viewers, PBS Retro isn’t really offering a deep archive anyway—just a sampler of about ten episodes per program.

I mean they aired the entire HiT era of Thomas (besides Season 12 if you wanna count that), and I think they aired a decent amount of Mister Rogers episodes. I haven't gone out of my way to watch it in a while so idk that may be the case now.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I mean they aired the entire HiT era of Thomas (besides Season 12 if you wanna count that)

Not that it matters to me anyway cause there are numerous fan uploads online and my own personal VHS collection, but only airing the HiT era as far as the model stuff goes?

What a rip-off.

 

[sootyfan]

They are showing the original half hour blocks that used to air on PBS so there are some Season 6 and 7 episodes that are being shown as well, my guess is that they couldn't get Shining Time Station for whatever reason so they just resorted to those instead.