Unearthing previously "lost" Sesame Street episodes

[minor muppetz]

The "Italian Street Song" was the one I remember the most from when I was little because at one point we had it on video. But it did seem that he was on in various other sketches every time I turned on the TV to watch the show live. I'd've totally been without Sesame Street in my formative years if we hadn't had a VCR, and if I hadn't had a mother patient enough to "screen" each episode for me ahead of time (sure wish we'd saved those tapes!).

I was afraid of lots of weird stuff as a kid, but around the time I was in kindergarten I started facing them and got past that phase, but that didn't happen with Placido Flamingo because I felt I was "too old" to watch Sesame Street and thus didn't bother to look him up. Then when I was eight, I went through what I call my "renaissance" phase, when I started getting into shows and movies I loved as a little kid again, and I started watching Sesame Street everyday, but by then he was mostly gone from the show. I didn't see him again until I bought the "Put Down the Duckie" VHS tape, and was surprised to find him and the "Italian Street Song" at the end of it. My first thought when I saw him on the screen at that age was "...gee, maybe I wasn't too far off thinking he was scary", but it didn't help that that particular segment was a bit scary in general. But as I discovered more and more segments he was in, I've gradually come to love him, though I agree he wasn't easy on the eyes.

Yeah, I don't know why, but I thought some of the animal orchestra actions were a bit scary, but I can't really remember which ones were scary or unnerving (and I've been thinking people don't forget what scared them).

Sesame Street Special had a number of things that either scared me or I just didn't like when I was a kid, I thought the very end of Monsterpiece Theater: The 39 Stairs was scary, and my copy had a glitch that I did not like the sound of at one point during Kermit's interview with Oscar (after watching it later, on a new TV and VCR, I no longer heard that sound, so maybe it was the type of VCR).

 

[Oscarfan]

Oscar blows up some buildings:

Episode 0442

muppet.fandom.com

 

[LittleJerry92]

Oscar make things go boom.

 

[CoolGuy1013]

No way this is ever going on HBO Max.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Disclaimer: “this episode was made in the 70s when it was acceptable to make things go boom. Now it is not acceptable to make things go boom. Do not make things go boom at home”

 

[LittleJerry92]

Curious but is there a big likelihood the full master for this episode could possibly turn up in the future? I find it a little strange that (like the season 14 episode that was once assumed to be missing) an episode like this would be missing since this one aired pretty much around the time VHS tapes and VCRs were more common (the 70s shows from seasons 1, 2 3 and 5 are more understandable).

Episode 1444

muppet.fandom.com

 

[minor muppetz]

Who knows? It doesn't seem like many people recorded season 11 episodes in 1979-1980, but that doesn't mean nobody did (maybe they just haven't come forward yet). After all, there is somebody who recorded and uploaded a number of season 10 episodes back in 1978-1979 (and the fans were not aware somebody recorded those episodes until they were uploaded, I think in 2013), though it seems fans didn't really start to record until about season 13 or 14 (and THEN they didn't seem to REALLY start recording until around season 15 or 16).

And it's possible that's another database error, like episode 1814 was.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Yeah, I was really thinking the season 11 show was a database error because I’d find it strange to see a show from 1980 when recordings and tapes were becoming more common is missing.

 

[minor muppetz]

Yeah, I was really thinking the season 11 show was a database error because I’d find it strange to see a show from 1980 when recordings and tapes were becoming more common is missing.

Even then, somebody could have recorded it off television while Sesame Workshop lost a useable copy.

 

[TimzUneeverse]

Season 18 is now fully-guided!

Episode 2351

muppet.fandom.com

Congrats!