Warner Home Video now distributing Sesame Workshop DVDs

[minor muppetz]

Just saw on Muppet Wiki that Fairytale Fun will have a Sesame Street News segment as a bonus feature, "Cinderella's Fairy Godmother". That's a good one, my second favorite Cinderella-themed Newsflash segment, and it's one that Sesame Workshop hasn't put online. And there aren't many other News segments from the 1980s that have been on video.

It will also have "The Cinderella Challenge" episode of Abby's Flying Fairy School and Cinder Elmo. So the bonus features will be themed around Cinderella, as opposed to a wide variety of fairy tales. Though it sort of makes me wish this had all three News segments with Cinderella.

For some reason I wasn't expecting Cinder Elmo. It is a good special that I haven't watched in a long time. I figured it'd have either Big Bird's Story Time, Silly Storytime, or Abby in Wonderland, so this is a surprise. I can't believe I didn't think of the possibility of that special being included.

"The Cinderella "Challenge" has already been a bonus feature on 40 Years of Sunny Days and P is for Princess, and very few other Abby's Flying Fairy School segments have been released on video.

 

[Oscarfan]

Now, why is it a Fairy Tale DVD has two street stories based around Nursery Rhymes, not fairy tales?

 

[Drtooth]

Some weird misconception or something commonly mixes Fairy Tales with Nursery Rhymes. The fact that Fairy Tale characters attend Mother Goose's Nursery School in the show goes to prove that. Not to mention Shrek and Puss in Boots. Heck, nearly everyone in Puss in Boots (besides Puss himself) is a Nursery Rhyme.

But I tell you. I want this DVD for Cinder-Elmo. I missed seeing the special way back when it was shown, and was never able to track down a DVD of it.

And... eh... Hansel and Grettle's Playdate was a pretty funny episode, I can't lie.

 

[minor muppetz]

The cover was posted today. When I saw Cookie and Grover on the cover, I wondered what segments they would be in (they both appear in CinderElmo, but being in a bonus feature wouldn't be enough to justify putting them on the cover, would it?). Then I looked at the Muppet Wiki guides for the included street stories and saw that they both appear in the Mother Goose one.

It's interesting. When Warner Home Video first got the Sesame Street license, if a video had a bonus clip it was usually just one clip. Then last year they started including bonus videos/specials on many of the DVDs, while bonus clips were much more scarce.

And now we're getting two DVDs in a row (Being Brave and Fairytale Fun) with two bonus clips and a bonus video. And at least one of the two bonus clips per video will be a classic clip. It makes me wonder if this will be a new trend for Sesame Street releases.

It's also interesting how most of the Warner releases that have bonus clips actually list what clips they are, even in cases where more than one bonus clip is included. I think Old School Volume 3 is the only exception so far (well, the packaging for Counting with Elmo doesn't mention any bonus clips at all though there is one). Back in the Sony and Genius days they rarely listed what bonus clips were included. Happy Healthy Monsters is the only exception I can think of (well, Ready for School had a bonus street story which was mentioned on the packaging). But back in the SOny and Genius days they had more than just one bonus clip.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was just thinking about an idea that I think would make a great two-disc collectors set: "Best of Cookie Monster's Spoofs". Disc 1 would be themed around the best of Monsterpiece Theater, with maybe a few bonus Cookie Monster spoofs from the show (like Monster Movie Classics), and disc 2 could focus on Cookie's Crumby Pictures, with bonus spoofs including the viral videos "Cookie Monster SNL Audition", "Share It Maybe", and "Me Want It (But Me Wait)". That would make a great release.

 

[Drtooth]

Being Brave preview

Heheheheh! It has the episode with Cousin Bear freaking out about the Boogie Bear. I have to get this now.

D'yah suppose he's called the Boogie Bear because he likes to "boog boog boogie ooogie boogie boogie boogie boogie...."

 

[minor muppetz]

So it looks like this is going to have the street story where Baby Bear and Chris turn into bees. That one was already included in the Elmo's Rainbow DVD. I guess this will be the first time a street story was released on multiple DVD compilations (the letter of the month club street story with Seth Green was also released twice, the full episode on one of the TV Fun Packs, the street story on ABCs with Elmo).

Looking at Muppet Wiki, the street story where Cousin Bear is afraid of monsters is a bonus feature. Interesting that clips from that are heavily featured in the preview (unless that's a different street story and Cousin Monster appeared in multiple episodes). It doesn't show scenes from the other bonus features and doesn't refer to this as a bonus feature (unless the Muppet Wiki source was misinformed about it being a bonus feature).

And we still don't know what Ernie and Bert clip is included (unless they are just on the cover and not actually in the main program of the video).

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, I got Being Brave. Haven't watched all of it yet. I checked to see what "Going to the Doctor" is, and it's an existing Sesame Street resource video, "Sesame Street Goes to the Doctor", which was re-edited for the video release Elmo Goes to the Doctor. So it really only has one bonus clip ("Grover Talks About the Dark") in addition to a resource video, an extra street story, and A Celebration of Me, Grover!

Though part of me feels it should have had Elmo Visits the Doctor instead of A Celebration of Me, Grover! I haven't seen Elmo Visits the Doctor so I don't know if anything from Sesame Street Visits the Doctor was edited out of the later video release. Actually, now I feel that this should have had the out-of-print Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Hospital (or Visits the Fire House) instead.

This video doesn't have that international Sesame Street promo with Whoopi Goldberg's voice-over that's been on every video release since 2004 or earlier. Weird that it's now gone. Has it been missing from other videos this year?

And at the beginning, when the title is announced, it sounds like Matt Vogel has taken over Jerry Nelson's role as the announcer. At first I thought it was his Count reading the title, but then the announcer mentions that a monster is at the end.

 

[Oscarfan]

I got "C is for Cooking" from an online giveaway. The Supersanos stuff is quiet good, and I hope it makes its way to the American show soon. Dr. Ruster makes a perfect foil for Cookie Monster, even if the punchlines to most of their sketches didn't make much sense or work well.

 

[Drtooth]

I really don't get the cover of C is for Cooking.

You will notice that Elmo and Cookie Monster are making a salad. That's not cooking, as cooking implies food prepared through heat. And indeed some of the sketches are about food preparation, not technically cooking. I guess they just wanted that C is for Cookie tie in.