Sesame Workshop to develop new channel with Comcast, HIT

[Splurge]

I wasn't able to view it. I don't have an account.

You can create an account with NYTimes for free.

 

[The Storyteller]

I heard somewhere that there is a 5th partner in this deal, but didn't wanted to be named! I wonder who? "PLEASE! JHC! PLEASE!"

 

[ssetta]

Actually, I just read it, and it doesn't look that lengthy to me. And something tells me, I am not so sure if it will have Classic SS.

 

[Mark The Shark]

Comcast in talks over 24-hr toddlers' channel -WSJ

NEW YORK, June 9 (Reuters) - Comcast Corp. <CMCSA.O> is in advanced talks with the Public Broadcasting Service, Sesame Workshop and Britain's HIT Entertainment <HTE.L> to develop a 24-hour TV network for preschool children, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The network would carry no commercials and would have rights to shows such as "Sesame Street" and "Barney & Friends," the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Rights to those shows are now owned by the nonprofit Sesame Workshop and HIT, a UK-based producer of children's programming, the newspaper said.

A Sesame Workshop spokeswoman, Beatrice Chow, told Reuters that "Sesame Workshop is in discussions with a number of media outlets including Comcast and Noggin to find the best home for Sesame Workshop library material on digital cable."

Noggin, owned by Nickelodeon, is an educational channel dedicated to preschoolers that broadcasts 12 hours a day, according to information on Noggin's Web site.

Okay...having read this a couple of times, here is my interpretation of this:

Comcast is *working* on a deal with SW and HIT (which could fall through or could work out just fine; two words: Disney/Henson). Nothing is final yet.

If they get it together and work out a deal, then the plan is to partner with an *existing* channel or company, possibly:

Noggin.

Well, how do you like that.

This means (if I understand this correctly) that Comcast, SW and HIT would then partner up with *Noggin* to create some new channel which no one will be able to get for a while...let's say it will be called "Noodle" or something like that. (That's not the name. Don't quote me on that.)

In that scenario (which *is only hypothetical*) then *Noggin* would essentially be playing the same role *Nickelodeon* played in the creation of *Noggin* in the first place, back in 1998.

Sound confusing?

As far as classic SS or Electric Company being shown, that would be great, but my *guess* (and it is *only* a guess) would be that they would just trot out the same 67 "Unpaved" shows and the same 65 "Electric Company" shows. Until they get established and get into more homes, at which time they would most likely bury the shows in the middle of the night and then drop them altogether....gee, why does this sound familiar?

The reason I say this is because "Unpaved" and the Noggin "Electric Company" series (and "321 Contact" and "Square One" and all of that) were packaged and put together by Sesame Workshop to air on Noggin, but since they assembled them in nice, neat, cable-friendly sets of 65 edited shows (plus the 2 extra Unpaved that were added later), these can be made available and leased to any cable network, not just Noggin. They're all set to go, ready to air.

So yeah, that would be great. It would be great if they added more episodes too, that weren't shown last time. But I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

Anyway, good news overall. Though I could do without the Barney...

 

[ssetta]

Maybe they won't add anymore episodes, but it would be sort of nice to see all the "Unpaved" episodes again. And what about Season 25? Do you think it would have that as well?

And also, I'm not sure if it would have "The Electric Company", "321 Contact", or any of those. From what I understand, this channel is STRICTLY for preschoolers 24 hours a day. And Noggin was never like that, so I don't know.

 

[mikebennidict]

i still wonder if the classic CTW shows even got a chance in the 1st place considering what Mark said about when Noggin began to be shown on more stations and them move them to a later time and them eliminate them? the audience might for these shows might of been a minority but then again the ammount of people seeing these shows might have been in the minoity and the rest of the country deprived of them.

 

[furryfella]

I can see what mark is saying But Maybe They will show MORE Seasons Then Noggin did whne they first came On the air In 98. They could Do More shows then the 67 Noggin did with unpaved. I would Love Like too see more the 75 season Then anything.

 

[JaniceFerSure]

I think any save(whether be past or present),of anything that is Muppety,is a fantastic idea.A whole Muppet/Sesame Street channel would be great.Wish it would happen on regular broadcast though.Cable became to expensive for me to own.

 

[furryfella]

Looks like Classic Sesame Street may be returning as soon as next year.

http://www.muppetcentral.com/news/2004/060904.shtml

The deal would include all of Sesame Workshop's and HIT's library. Keep in mind that HIT also owns the distribution rights to all of Henson's Muppet World properties not sold to Disney (like Fraggle Rock). So it's possible both Sesame and Fraggle could end up on the same channel.

Pretty good news, eh?

ITA janice Cable is sometimes too expsenive!! What gets me is why didn't thye do these sort of thing from the start? Now I lvoe Noggin&all But with them Only showing 67 shows out of I don't know How many!! It's Nice that comcast is doing these , so hopefully they will show More of the classic SS from the 70's Instead of stoping mid way through each season like Noggin did.

 

[Mark The Shark]

ITA janice Cable is sometimes too expsenive!! What gets me is why didn't thye do these sort of thing from the start? Now I lvoe Noggin&all But with them Only showing 67 shows out of I don't know How many!! It's Nice that comcast is doing these , so hopefully they will show More of the classic SS from the 70's Instead of stoping mid way through each season like Noggin did.

It was *a lot less* than midway.

Season 1 (1969-1970): 5 episodes (1-8-43-54-83)
Season 2 (1970-1971): 4 episodes (131-158-162-198)
Season 3 (1971-1972): 2 episodes (276-355)
Season 4 (1972-1973): 2 episodes (406-514)
Season 5 (1973-1974): 1 episode (536)
Season 6 (1974-1975): 1 episode (666)
Season 7 (1975-1976): 2 episodes (796-871)
Season 8 (1976-1977): 3 episodes (926-1037-1041)
Season 9 (1977-1978): 7 episodes (6 from the "Hawaii" storyline): 1056-1090-1091-1092-1093-1094-1095
Season 10 (1978-1979): 1 episode (1186)
Season 11 (1979-1980): 3 episodes (1316-1364-1396)
Season 12 (1980-1981): 3 episodes (1446-1563-1575)
Season 13 (1981-1982): 1 episode (1576)
Season 14 (1982-1983): 8 episodes (5 from the "Big Bird Goes To Camp" storyline): (1706-1707-1708-1709-1710-1736-1740-1800)
Season 15 (1983-1984): 3 episodes (1836-1839-1933)
Season 16 (1984-1985): 3 episodes (2040-2059-2073) (Trivia: Season 16 is the only season whose "Season Premiere" episode, #1966, is not included in the "Unpaved" series)
Season 17 (1985-1986): 6 episodes (4 from the "Adoption Of Miles" storyline): (2096-2122-2123-2124-2125-2208)
Season 18 (1986-1987): 4 episodes (2226-2257-2269-2293)
Season 19 (1987-1988): 4 episodes (2356-2358-2404-2485)
Season 20 (1988-1989): 4 episodes (2486-2558-2574-2615) (Trivia: the entire "Maria and Luis fall in love, start dating, get married and have a baby" scenario is compressed into the final six "Unpaved" episodes; it seemed really weird to watch all of that occur within one week!)

I have to say thanks again to Noggin and SW for making these shows available. Although I personally was *very slightly* disappointed, being on the older end of SS fandom, that so few episodes from the years I would have been watching the show were included, with such an emphasis on later episodes from the 1980s. But again, they didn't do this just for me, they did it for everyone, and it is a wealth of classic stuff. And when I finally saw the 1980s material, I did enjoy those episodes for the most part; I feel (in my own subjective opinion) they were still doing good stuff in the 1980s (not like the bulk of the new material in the "123 Sesame Street" episodes, but it's not my intention to pick any "apples vs. oranges" debates with people who might have grown up with that stuff and remember it fondly).

One other thing: Even if SW does have an archive of every episode they've ever done (which seems quite likely from what I've read, though I wonder where they've been keeping it all these years before current technology, when they were all on huge bulky 2-inch videotape which cost about $200 a reel), it is not feasible from any standpoint (economical, logistical or otherwise) to put them *all* out there at one time. As much as you and I might like to have them *all* (although where would we put them; even I don't have 4000 DVDs), remember that a large portion of these episodes consist of segments which repeat over and over and over and over and over, so it's not as much material as it sounds like when someone says "They've done over 4000 shows!" Still, here is a short list (off the top of my head) of significant things I remember which never showed up in any of the "Unpaved" episodes:

Original version of "I Love Trash"

Original version of "Bein' Green"

Original version of "ABC-DEF-GHI-JKL-MNOP-QR-STU-WXYZ"

No "original" Roosevelt Franklin segments (with Matt Robinson doing Roosevelt's voice) (All the Roosevelt Franklin segments included in "Unpaved" were later ones where Jerry Nelson did Roosevelt's voice, except for that one "Clapping" segment where he didn't speak at all)

"Mr. Hooper jumping for joy"

Rest of the "Spies/Racecars," "Falling Baker" and "Pinball" films

"Rubber Duckie" (though it was shown on "123 Sesame Street")

Also, I only recall *one* appearance each in the whole series of Sam The Machine (he was a funnier character than that one skit would indicate; I'm not counting one other appearance where he just walks by briefly at the beginning of the show), The Salesman (sometimes unofficially called "Lefty The Salesman") and Sherlock Hemlock (though the latter two probably showed up more in "123 Sesame Street").

Well, I'm just rambling.