Considering the trouble it took to get Kermit on the Silly Storytime DVD (they wanted him on the cover because it has so many Newsflash segments, and they didn't have a good enough Kermit photo of the quality being used on current DVDs), I wonder what would happen if a simialr case came up for a character whose puppet no longer exists. I know that the majority of retired old school characters are anything muppets and their anything muppet patterns can just be used to make new ones. But what if Sesame Workshop were to make yet another environmentally-themed release, only this time including a lot of Bruno clips, and they wanted to put Bruno on the cover in the same way as Kermit is in Silly Storytime? I don't know what other old school non-AM characters no longer exists, but I also can't help but wonder what'd happen if they were to make a science fiction-themed release and include some bonus Sam the Robot segments, or an opera-themed release and include a lot of Placido Flamingo. Not sure if those two need to be rebuilt (I assume Sam would).
I've also been thinking about what I think would make a good release schedule for next years DVDs, based on what Warner Home Video did this year (one release per month).
We already know that Iron Monster will get a wide release in January, Silly Storytime comes out in febuary, and the new Elmo's World DVD comes out in march. Considering that, if I was in charge of the releases but had to balance the releases for us and for the show's target audience I think I'd have the release schedule look like this:
April - either another "Preschool is Cool!" DVD (though I wonder how many more preschool subjects there are that would translate well to a Sesame Street DVD), an "Abby's Flyign Fairy School" release (I'll be surprised if we don't get such a release within a few years, unless the segments are dropped from the show soon), or a second volume of Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures.
May - A character spotlight video (my choice would be The Count or Oscar... or someone as obscure as Roosevelt Franklin).
June - something aimed directly at the Old School-ers. Either Old School Vol. 3, a 1970s inserts collection, a complete "Monsterpiece Theater" set, or an animation/film release.
July - see what I'd put in April, though a different choice from whatever were picked.
August - either a Super Grover 2.0 release (with bonus classic Super Grover clips) or a Murray Has a Little Lamb release.
September - either a music-themed release, a DVD compiling recent street scenes, or another "Play with me Sesame" release.
October - A DVD themed around monster inserts, past and present, featuring all of the major monsters, and maybe also more obscure monsters like Deena and Pearl.
November or December: A Kermit-themed release, to coincide with the release of the new Muppets movie. Not sure if Warner Home Video would want to release a Sesame Street DVD that more-or-less promotes a Disney movie, and it seems rare for there to be Sesame Street DVDs made for the sake of cashing in on the success of a movie (otherwise I think we'd have gotten a "Best of The Count" DVD when one of the Twilight movies came out). But still, I think a Kermit-themed release should happen around then, whether it be a DVD release of The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street, a new character spotlight DVD, or a "Best of Sesame Street News"/"Chronological Sesame Street News"-type release.
A release schedule like that sounds a bit fair. No, I do not know anything you don't about upcoming DVD releases, and if anything like that happens it's a coincidence that I predicted anything (unless somebody at WHV or SW were to secretely read this thread and come out with such releases, which I would not be against).