what if there was a multi-part Sesame Street documentary?

[minor muppetz]

I have thought about this for awhile. What if PBS aired a five-part Sesame Street documentary, with each part lasting an hour, and then the entire miniseries was released on DVD, uncut, in a three-disc set?

Here is what each part could focus on:
Part 1: Focusing on the beginning history, including the pitch reel, test shows, This Way to Sesame Street, first season, and changes between the first and second season.
Part 2: Focusing on the many new characters from the 1970s, early television specials, cast tours, international versions, and more.
Part 3: Focusing on the new characters from the 1980s, the loss of Will Lee, the adoption of Miles, Mr. Snuffleupagus no longer being called "imaginary", Maria and Luis' wedding, Gabbi's birth, Follow That Bird, Sesame Place, and Sesame Street Live.
Part 4: Focusing on "Around the Corner", the newer characters, the losses of Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Joe Raposo, Jon Stone, and Jeff Moss, the popularity of Elmo, Slimey's trip to the moon, and Elmo's World.
art 5: Focusing on the new format, the shows various recent curriculums (healthy eating, starting school, reading), the hurricane episodes, and Sesame Beginnings.

Wouldn't that be sweet?

 

[SSLFan]

Yes, indeed. I like your ideas!

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, they've kind of already tackled most of that in that two hour (now split into two half-hour parts) A&E Biography special, so, yeah.

 

[D'Snowth]

Dang, whatever happened to those good old days of Toonheads?

 

[CensoredAlso]

Certainly an ambitious project, but I would pay to see it! Lol

 

[SSLFan]

It would also be cool if there was a Sesame Street series similar to Toonheads, with half-hour episodes focusing on certain themes, and having a narrarator talking about the subjects. I would prefer that this series air on PBS. I don't think Sprout would be a good channel to air it, because I don't have Sprout, and also because Sprout apparantly doesn't air any pre-1998 Sesame Street episodes or The Electric Company.

This would make a good first season of 26 episodes:
1. Ernie and Bert
2. Numbers
3. The Alphabet
4. Jon Stone
5. Elmo
6. Music
7. Caroll Spinney
8. Jim Henson
9. Animation
10. Grover
11. Kermit the Frog
12. Roosevelt Franklin
13. Susan and Gordon
14. Frank Oz
15. Mr. Hooper
16. Jeff Moss
17. Joe Raposo
18. Richard Hunt
19. Parodies
20. Cookie Monster
21. Jerry Nelson
22. Christopher Cerf
23. The Adoption of Miles
24. Slimey goes to the moon
25. The Hawiai Episodes
26. The Count

Nice ideas.

 

[minor muppetz]

Dang, my post concerning the possibility of a Toonheads-style Sesame Street series was put at the bottom of the thread, after peoples responses. I saw a thread about this problem happening. I hope this post doesn't get moved before earlier posts, and that no responses to this post get moved before it.



Edit: And it did. Sigh....

 

[minor muppetz]

It would also be cool if there was a Sesame Street series similar to Toonheads, with half-hour episodes focusing on certain themes, and having a narrarator talking about the subjects. I would prefer that this series air on PBS. I don't think Sprout would be a good channel to air it, because I don't have Sprout, and also because Sprout apparantly doesn't air any pre-1998 Sesame Street episodes or The Electric Company.

This would make a good first season of 26 episodes:
1. Ernie and Bert
2. Numbers
3. The Alphabet
4. Jon Stone
5. Elmo
6. Music
7. Caroll Spinney
8. Jim Henson
9. Animation
10. Grover
11. Kermit the Frog
12. Roosevelt Franklin
13. Susan and Gordon
14. Frank Oz
15. Mr. Hooper
16. Jeff Moss
17. Joe Raposo
18. Richard Hunt
19. Parodies
20. Cookie Monster
21. Jerry Nelson
22. Christopher Cerf
23. The Adoption of Miles
24. Slimey goes to the moon
25. The Hawiai Episodes
26. The Count

 

[minor muppetz]

I have been thinking about the toonheads-style series idea, and have thought about some segments that could be included on certain shows. It would be hard for me to come up with what the Jon Stone show would include, since I don't know exactly what clips he directed. He probably directed most of the early street scenes, and most early Muppet sketches, but I don't know for sure, and there are probably other directors who have directed such segments.

One of my favorite things aout Toonheads is the trivia questions that appear before the commercial breaks, but if such a show aired on PBS, there obviously wouldn't be any questions before commercial breaks. But maybe there can be a question at the beginning of the show, perhaps in a cold opening, and the answer can be revealed at the end of the show.

But here is a sample listing for some episodes:

Episode 1: Ernie and Bert
*talk about how the characters came about, how they were the only Muppets from the test shows, and how they hosted This Way to Sesame Street.
*Ernie calls his bathtub "rosie" (ending before Bert tells Ernie that there are other people, including Solomon Grundy, waiting to take a bath)
*Ernie tells Bert that taking a bath would cheer him up, and sings "Everybody Wash"
*talk about how Ernie's song Rubber Duckie became Sesame Street's first big hit
*Rubber Duckie (the original version)
*talk about how Jim Henson and Frank Oz originally didn't know which one of them would perform who
*Fish in the Cowboy Hat
*talk of Ernie's shirt color change
*talk of Ernie and Bert's bedroom
*Dance Myself to Sleep
*talk of Ernie's team-ups with Cookie Monster
*Ernie and Cookie Monster's similarities and differences
*Doin' the Pigeon
*Bert shows Ernie his bottlecap collection
*Ernie and Bert go to the jungle
*talk about Ernie and Bert's Caveman Days sketches
*Caveman Days: Bert invents the window
*talk about Steve Whitmire taking over the role of Ernie, and Eric Jacobson taking over as Bert
*Sleep

Episode 2: Numbers
*Talk about how the show has taught kids how to count up to 40
*Monsterpiece Theater: The 400 Blows
*talk about how the numbers 2 and 3 sponsored the first show
*Jazz #2
*Three Song (Song of Three)
*Talk about how the number one didn't sponsor the show until 1986
*One Song (Song of One)
*Talk about how the show originally only taught kids how to count all the way up to 10
*Ten Tiny Turtles on the Telephone
*The Ten Commandments of Health
*talk about how in 1970 the show expanded it's counting up to 20
*Herry and John-John count to 20
*Number Creatures 20
*Talk about the Number of the Day
*Number of the Day: 8
*talk about how in 2005 some Number of the Day segments resembled the baker films
*The Number of the Day: 5 (season 36 version)
*The Number of the Day: 18 (season 36 version)
*Mad Painter #11
*Pinball Number Count #12
*Bellhop #10
*Squeal of Fortune
*Grover and John-John count backwards from 10

Episode 3: The Alphabet
*talk about how letters of the alphabet have always sponsored the show
*ABC-DEF-GHI
*Kermit and Joey recite the alphabet
*Grover has Elmo help him remember the last letter of the alphabet
*talk about how each individual letter has had their own segments, in addition to entire alphabet segments
*The Sound of the Letter A
*Soul O
*Kermit's Z lecture
*Nancy the Nanny Goat
*Ernie and Bert compete for the drawer
*Talk about the introduction of The Letter of the Day
*Letter of the Day: M
*talk about how Prairie Dawn was added to the letter of the Day
*Letter of the Day: E
*talk about the Letter of the Day games
*Letter of the Day Games
*Typewriter: I-ink
*Speech Balloon: J-jam
*Alphaquest: M
*James Earl Jones recites the alphabet

 

[minor muppetz]

Here are some more content ideas for the proposed episodes:

episode 7: Caroll Spinney
*Talk about Spinney's early life, possibly show clips from early telelvision performances, and talk about how he met Jim Henson
*Talk about Big Bird, including how Big Bird evolved form being a dopey adult to being a child
*The original ABC-DEF-GHI
*Big Bird and Krystal pretend to be big and little
*Big Bird's Song
*Talk about the evolution of Oscar
*orange Oscar recites the alphabet
*Granny Grouch visits Oscar
*talk about the creation of Bruno
*clip from Bruno's first appearance
*Put it in the Trash Can
*clips of some of the anything muppets and monsters that Spinney performed
*a Baby Monster sketch
*a clip with Shivers the Penguin

episode 8: Jim Henson
*info about Henson's early life, the creation of the Muppets, and how he got hired for Sesame Street
*talk about his characters
*Ernie counts to 10 very slowly
*Sesame Street News: Alice in Wonderland
*Here is Your Life: Oak Tree
*talk about some of Henson's non-Muppet contributions
*Three Song (Song of Three)
*King of 8
*Cheer Eleven
*Sam the Snake and other S words
*Do De Rubber Duck
*Fat Cat
*Kermit and Joey recite the alphabet
*Lulu's Back in Town
*Mahna Mahna
*Nine Song (song of Nine)
*Imagine That
*On My Pond