Sesame Workshop/Shout! Factory Deal

[hemlock]

Here's a Link: https://deadline.com/2018/08/sesame...each-multi-year-distribution-deal-1202436613/

 

[minor muppetz]

We had kinda known already, both the Amazon and Barnes and Noble pages for the next video, Elmo's World: Elmo Explores, list Shout! as the video distributor. It's odd that there wasn't an official article announcement until after.

I'm curious about the "150 Sesame Street-related titles". At first I thought it meant 150 productions made by Sesame Workshop (but then again I don't think SW has produced that many domestic shows), but it probably refers to all the international co-productions, though I thought it said that the rights were limited to North America (what would be the chances of international co-productions, particularly ones that dubbed the languages, getting released? Though I believe Plaza Sesamo DVDs have been released here).

I wonder if that would count Sesame Street specials and existing video releases. I wonder if they're counting short-form series that air as part of the show here (like Elmo's World, Abby's Flying Fairy School, and Cookie's Crumby Pictures) as separate "Sesame Street-related titles". I could see The Furchester Hotel being among those, and Play With Me Sesame, maybe Sesame English, maybe Shalom Sesame, maybe Sesame Park.

Each of the three Old School volumes were released when a different company handled the video rights. If Shout! put out volume four (or if Shout! never does but the next video company to get the rights does, or whatever), then we'd be getting one Old School volume per video distributor.

Shout! is better known for releasing stuff for collectors, which makes it odd that the first Sesame release is an Elmo's World one (though we didn't know of Shout!'s involvement until that was announced). But the last part of the article, saying that they'll be putting out stuff for both today's audience and the generations that grew up with the show, makes it sound like there are collector sets planned (it also mentioned video on demand and Blu-ray, which seem like something more for the collectors).

 

[minor muppetz]

It's been announced that The Magical Wand Chase will be released on November 4,with Elmo's Alphabet Challenge as a bonus video.

Contents for Elmo Explores is now listed on Muppet Wiki, including episodes of The Furchester Hotel and classic Elmo's World segments (I wonder if they will be their original length/edits or be the shortened edits from recent seasons).

 

[Oscarfan]

We had kinda known already, both the Amazon and Barnes and Noble pages for the next video, Elmo's World: Elmo Explores, list Shout! as the video distributor. It's odd that there wasn't an official article announcement until after.

I'm curious about the "150 Sesame Street-related titles". At first I thought it meant 150 productions made by Sesame Workshop (but then again I don't think SW has produced that many domestic shows), but it probably refers to all the international co-productions, though I thought it said that the rights were limited to North America (what would be the chances of international co-productions, particularly ones that dubbed the languages, getting released? Though I believe Plaza Sesamo DVDs have been released here).

I wonder if that would count Sesame Street specials and existing video releases. I wonder if they're counting short-form series that air as part of the show here (like Elmo's World, Abby's Flying Fairy School, and Cookie's Crumby Pictures) as separate "Sesame Street-related titles". I could see The Furchester Hotel being among those, and Play With Me Sesame, maybe Sesame English, maybe Shalom Sesame, maybe Sesame Park.

Each of the three Old School volumes were released when a different company handled the video rights. If Shout! put out volume four (or if Shout! never does but the next video company to get the rights does, or whatever), then we'd be getting one Old School volume per video distributor.

Shout! is better known for releasing stuff for collectors, which makes it odd that the first Sesame release is an Elmo's World one (though we didn't know of Shout!'s involvement until that was announced). But the last part of the article, saying that they'll be putting out stuff for both today's audience and the generations that grew up with the show, makes it sound like there are collector sets planned (it also mentioned video on demand and Blu-ray, which seem like something more for the collectors).

The 150 Sesame-related titles most likely refers to all the home videos they've already made.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

The 150 Sesame-related titles most likely refers to all the home videos they've already made.

Makes me wonder if the 20 home videos that haven't been released on DVD finally will be.

 

[minor muppetz]

The 150 Sesame-related titles most likely refers to all the home videos they've already made.

I did look at the Sesame Street Videography page and counted all the video releases (both direct-to-video, releases of full episodes, and releases of specials) that have been released on DVD (not counting things that wouldn't be included, like the two movies) and only counted 144 releases. And the main Sesame Street Videography page doesn't list Elmo's World or Play With Me Sesame releases (those have a separate videography page).

Though I wonder if I should have counted "Elmo and Friends" and "Cookie Monster and Friends". Or all the DVD releases of full episodes (ones that aren't specially-assembled compilations.... and on that note I wonder if Elmo's World and Play With Me Sesame should only count as one as opposed to each individual home video release). Or if I should have only counted video releases with significant new footage. And maybe some old home videos and specials not available on DVD would count.

Something I thought about: Wouldn't it be great if Shout! put out a special edition release of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street this year, to celebrate the specials 40th anniversary? So maybe the anniversary won't get any official acknowledgement or merchandise, but would make for a cool release. I wonder if Warner Home Video would have done such a release (WHV seems to be very fond of rereleasing Christmas productions it has the rights to on multiple releases in various ways).

I also thought about last years Thanksgiving episode, it would be great if that could get a DVD release this year. I've been thinking it could be themed around food and other things related to Thanksgiving (trying to determine if there's any episodes or segments about being thankful, maybe the cartoon where an Indian boy tells two boys that Indians don't talk the way they do on television would be a good segment to include). Could be a great way to release some waiter Grover segments as well as some Cookie Monster segments about food (C is for Cooking and Let's Eat! would be obvious choices for bonus videos).

Of course there's still plenty of time for either kind of release to be announced/come out in time for the appropriate holiday this year. Hmm, and speaking of a possible rerelease of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, whether it's a collectors-based release or just a repackaged release on a new label, I wonder how long it'll be before we start seeing Shout! releases of existing releases.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Something I thought about: Wouldn't it be great if Shout! put out a special edition release of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street this year, to celebrate the specials 40th anniversary? So maybe the anniversary won't get any official acknowledgement or merchandise, but would make for a cool release. I wonder if Warner Home Video would have done such a release (WHV seems to be very fond of rereleasing Christmas productions it has the rights to on multiple releases in various ways).

I've been thinking the same thing! Definitely more worthy of an anniversary release than that other 1978 SS Christmas special...

 

[Muzzarino]

Speaking of, will they feature the Shout Factory logo on their releases? Warner should have used the open matte WHV logo on their releases before the deal ended.

 

[LittleJerry92]

That's pretty much a "wait and see" at this point.

 

[MrMuppet93]

If we do celebrate the special's 40th anniversary, how about include Cookie Monster's food allergy joke and most importantly the 1971 PBS logo.