Sesame Workshop Library to be Digitally Preserved

[dvakman]

Oh, here's:

Part 2 of "Streetwise" Article

 

[Beebers]

Can I digitally preserve my head?

Yes, and it beats cryogenics anyday.

 

[Mark The Shark]

First, thanks to dvakman for the above links. I had read the Ampex article before; that story was going around a couple of years ago. It's all very interesting.

A couple of things I noticed on a couple of "Sesame Street Unpaved" episodes which aired on Noggin which may or may not pertain to this:

#406
Early in the show, the "Dee Dee Dee" song clip with Ernie and Cookie Monster is played (aside from Sam The Machine, #406 is worth having just for this song segment alone; it's one of Cookie Monster's finest moments). Ernie is singing about the letter "D" and when Ernie mentions an object which starts with the letter "D," Cookie Monster races to produce the object, or a sign with its name on it, or draw it on a sketch pad. Aside from teaching about the letter "D," it's funny just for the sake of being funny. But anyway...if you have that episode on tape, look closely at Cookie Monster during this segment. His chest area is quite dark and I swear (or affirm) that I am seeing digital artifacts flashing on his chest during this song...like a low-bit-rate MPEG or slow-speed DVD-R. And that was how it looked on air (when Noggin aired it). Apart from that though, #406 seemed to stand out among "Unpaved" episodes for generally having crisp and clean image and sound throughout, and that can be variable from one show to the next. It's an excellent-*sounding* episode.

#1839
Yes, this has to do with the famous "Death Of Mr. Hooper" scene. At the very tail end of the scene, when the whole cast forms a circle around Big Bird, is it my imagination or as the camera slowly pulls back and the scene slowly fades, does the "slowness" make it more noticable that these shows seem to have been duped on some "economic" (low bit rate) digital format? And I do need to acknowledge that I know very little about digital archiving...but there just seems to be something funny about these two segments in particular which I couldn't help noticing.

Anyway, I'm just rambling, for what it's worth...

 

[Fighbird]

My more general question (after reading the articles) is that if the street segments are not meant to be used again (unlike the insert segments), why are they being preserved? Why are all the old episodes being preserved intactly, rather than just the individual segments? Maybe there is a small possibility (however remote) that these eps might still be made available in some way.

I think it's for archival reasons only - I mean, what's the point of having an archive containing 30+ years of shows, but "we kinda sorta cut away the old street segments because of space limitation, non-PC content, or whatever". Who knows? Something like Unpaved might return again (or those classic SS DVD compilations we fanboys are all craving for).

Also, I remember when Germany started to air Sesame, that in the days before they started making their own street segments, they just aired the complete (german dubbed) american episodes - street segments and all. I am also guessing, that they'd like to have complete episodes available, in case a new channel wants to start airing SS. But then again, this was back in the early 70's, so it seems highly dubious by now. But you never know...

 

[gymkatarules]

When they say that the sketches will be available online, they mean that the producers and editors of the show will be able to access the video clips remotely. They don't have to be in the same room as the server housing the episodes to pull from them. Online doesn't necessarily mean "connected to the world wide web." It just means that they can access those files, like a big network.

Hope that clears it up.

This does, I think, mean good things for us old Sesame Street fans, as it will be easier for Sesame Workshop to create new DVDs of older material. The video will already be digitzied and producers won't have to spend hours running through tape after tape of archives. It'll all be at the click of a button.

The Complete Bert & Ernie, anyone???

-Chris

 

[Mark The Shark]

When they say that the sketches will be available online, they mean that the producers and editors of the show will be able to access the video clips remotely. They don't have to be in the same room as the server housing the episodes to pull from them. Online doesn't necessarily mean "connected to the world wide web." It just means that they can access those files, like a big network.

Hope that clears it up.

This does, I think, mean good things for us old Sesame Street fans, as it will be easier for Sesame Workshop to create new DVDs of older material. The video will already be digitzied and producers won't have to spend hours running through tape after tape of archives. It'll all be at the click of a button.

The Complete Bert & Ernie, anyone???

-Chris

That brings up an interesting point. Let's say that somewhere down the line, someone at Sesame Workshop did decide to release "season sets" (or some equivalent thereof) of "Sesame Street" and maybe even "The Electric Company." Would there even really be any point in trying to do comprehensive sets? Apart from the fact that they've done over 4,000 shows, so much of that material is redundant, with some segments often being repeated more than once even within the same episode. One figure that always gets tossed out there is how there are 780 "Electric Company" episodes. But it was very much the same thing: just like "Sesame Street," "The Electric Company" produced 130 shows each year, and then started over again, reusing and recycling segments over and over...and I've even heard a rumor (don't know whether there's any truth in it or not) that there actually was no *new* material produced for the final season of "The Electric Company;" that the 1976-1977 season consisted *entirely* of recycled old segments. I don't know if that's true or not, but even if it isn't, a very large part of the shows consisted of repeats, and that was true right from the beginning (though probably more so towards the end). I wonder if someone were to make an effort to compile every piece of film or tape ever used on the shows into a comprehensive, complete collection, but just not repeating anything, how many hours they'd come up with. I'm guessing a lot less than it would appear.

 

[dalexandre]

I would pay alot of money for acess to that archive...

 

[AndyWan Kenobi]

The Complete Bert & Ernie, anyone???

I would totally totally fork over the dough for that!

 

[dvakman]

I wonder if someone were to make an effort to compile every piece of film or tape ever used on the shows into a comprehensive, complete collection, but just not repeating anything, how many hours they'd come up with. I'm guessing a lot less than it would appear.

I was thinking about this earlier today. Suppose a DVD set could be done for each season (pipe dreams, I know...). Each season set would be comprised of :
1. The "best of" street scenes for that year
2. Animations and live action introduced for the first time on that particular year

This would still be pretty big, but much more feasible than releasing all the episodes. I know it would make me a very happy camper!!!

 

[zanimum]

...and I've even heard a rumor (don't know whether there's any truth in it or not) that there actually was no *new* material produced for the final season of "The Electric Company;" that the 1976-1977 season consisted *entirely* of recycled old segments.

That's likely the case... The Jetson's first run of three season, was simply the first season's 24 episodes over and over. Still, most sources credit it for running three seasons before syndication.