Unearthing previously "lost" Sesame Street episodes

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,071
Reaction score
2,656
Here's one that looks awesome, and there's a clip that appeared in a montage in Sesame Street: 20 and Still Counting that I had always been curious about (and mistakenly assumed it was from when Big Bird first got Radar).

 

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,071
Reaction score
2,656
In season 16, Don Music wrote a song titled "Imagine That", one year before the more famous Sesame Street song of the same title.


For a long time I thought the Ernie version came from season 16 as opposed to 17. Not sure if I saw some fans incorrectly list that year, or if Hulu listed season 16 instead of 17, or if the copyright date listed had been 1985 and I thought that meant the end of the sixteenth season (I used to think that the majority of Sesame Street song copyrights came the year that the seasons ended, but in the age of "trusted sources", it seems a lot of those copyright dates actually reflect when the season began, I guess season 1 is the main season where songs were copyrighted the year the season ended), or if maybe the wiki had listed 1984 as the copyright date and mistook it for the other (though if it's from a songwriting site, I think the wiki always did have the right songwriter).

This episode looks awesome. https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_2145

And yet another awesome-looking episode. https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_2063
 

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,071
Reaction score
2,656
This looks like a crazy one: https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_2069

At one point, Big Bird decides against telling Luis and David that Snuffy was behind using the large rock because he knew they wouldn't believe him. Makes me wonder if there's any other instances where Big Bird just chooses not to tell them Snuffy was involved with something just because he knew they would not believe him.
 

YellowYahooey

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2019
Messages
799
Reaction score
157
I doscvered today, on Muppet Wiki, that it appears Season 16 is completed in terms of summaries. Many or all of Season 16 have images from street scenes and the episode number stills.

Season 17 has plenty of summaries but still quite a bit of work to do, and Seasons 18 and 19 have a lot of guides now. Season 14 has a fair bit of work remaining too.

But of the ten 1980s seasons, half of them are now completed.
 

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,071
Reaction score
2,656
I doscvered today, on Muppet Wiki, that it appears Season 16 is completed in terms of summaries. Many or all of Season 16 have images from street scenes and the episode number stills.
I've seen some talk on talk pages that suggested they were finished, I wasn't sure if they were really close or if they were complete but still needed some images.

I thought I saw somebody on this forum remember an episode where Big Bird tries to get Uncle Wally to meet Snuffy, only for Wally to fall asleep when he shows up and Snuffy to not want to wake him up, and then Wally assures Big Bird he does believe Snuffy is real. That would have to be a season 16 episode - is such an episode there? I know there's another where Wally makes up a similar friend as a gag, with his joking around crossing over with Snuffy being just missed. Reading the guide, I'm guessing he believed Big Bird, but is hard to tell (and I guess the other couldn't exist).

Just recently I've been skimming through the season 16 descriptions, wanting to see if I could determine when Wally seemed to live on or near Sesame Street, with the characters page saying he was an itinerant visitor at first (is he listed in the season 16 credits?). I figured he'd move closer to Sesame Street that season, but then found that the episode where Telly waits for Wally to arrive by bus is from season 17 (I was thinking that was 16), so I guess he moved later. I'm interested in seeing if there was a proper episode where he moved on or closer to the street, or if he just started hanging around regularly as if he was a resident with no proper acknowledgement of the change (I've also been interested in tracking Buffy's timeline as a regular/resident on the show, which I did start a timeline for a while back).

If all the season 16 guides are completed, I should look and see if there are any other season 16 episodes, besides episode 2042 and the one where Snuffy joins the Grouchkateers, where Oscar and Snuffy interact (I wouldn't be surprised if there are some where Oscar acknowledges Snuffy without it being noted in the guide).

Of course, if such plots aren't noted in guides yet, it's possible that some scripts changed from final air version to the actual aired version. But it looks like there aren't many left that don't have images, so there'd be very few that could have changed.
 

mariolover

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 6, 2016
Messages
712
Reaction score
393
I wonder if we will ever find episode 12 and the episode where big bird launches a rocket to the moon, complete with the 1970 PBS logo with MacDonald Carey (AKA the DOOL announcer).

So far only inserts on Sesamstrasse.

Maybe we can find additional clips on Sesamstrasse or Plaza Sesamo.
 
Last edited:

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,071
Reaction score
2,656
I didn't expect this, but it turns out that The King Banishes the Letter P appeared in at least one episode presented the way it was in Learning About Letters, including that videos wrap-arounds replacing the original Luis scenes.

https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_2299

The segment, in its original cut, only recently surfaced online. But to think, if Sesame Workshop officially uploaded the segment online or if it appeared on a later home video release, it might have been the Learning About Letters edit as opposed to the original cut (well, if it was a bonus clip in Old School Vol. 2, I think it would have been the original, if it was included in 50 Years and Counting, even with a Toughpigs member selecting the clips, I have a feeling it would have been the later edit).
 

TimzUneeverse

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2018
Messages
175
Reaction score
114
The only two episodes in season 15 that are missing images of the CTW overlay (aside from 1864) are shows 1909 and 1914 (both of which had a screenshot with the 1983 Sesame Street logo overlay). I don't know what to do about this, but somebody might be able to help.

BINGO! In fact, check out my first sandbox article, which is full of season 15 ending tags.
 
Last edited:
Top