Where are all these classic Sesame Street episodes coming from?

minor muppetz

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2005
Messages
16,072
Reaction score
2,660
I find it interesting that all of these rare song clips are songs written by Tony Geiss. Makes me wonder if he actually supplied the copies. I've read that he recently auctioned the copyright on all of his Sesame Street songs, not sure if anybody bought them (it was a pretty steep price, I think the starting bid was 40,000 dollars).

Looking at these clips, the quality isn't as good as the quality on all those rare episodes that mysteriously surfaced among fans a few years ago. Doesn't mean that they didn't come from the vault/same place. I know that, before making digital copies of all episodes, Sesame Workshop would convert all their old episodes to new video formats every year to preserve them, if they kept the old copies in the vaults then these could have come from the older copies while the better-quality ones came from later copies.

I also wonder if maybe these come from an incomplete episode (though would it contain so many songs from the same songwriter?). It looks like the beginning of I'm Square is cut.
 

sesamemuppetfan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,479
Reaction score
1,157
I just found some more rare material. In this set, we've got the full version of "Everything in the Wrong Place Ball" (18:43)...those I guess it's not entirely rare, as the Wiki has a full description. At 25:20, we're treated to a longer version of Herry's Family Song...OK, technically it's Herry introducing David to his family, and an added music vamp. But the ultimate rarity is at 53:52 which is David leading the kids into "A Very Simple Dance". It's probably from the mid 70's. http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/4179773
 

LittleJerry92

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2007
Messages
15,707
Reaction score
7,715
I'll probably just wait till the clips are individually uploaded on YouTube..... Because it'a only a matter of time.

It is nice to be getting more "new" classic clips and ones we've seen before with pre-roll and post-roll.
 

sesamemuppetfan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,479
Reaction score
1,157
The only thing that's causing me to go through the compilation is the constant pestering that Veston Bruno nuisance is doing towards PumpkinJFriend about these clips...OK to make it simple, Veston is requesting...or rather DEMANDING that PJF uploads all those clips...
 

LittleJerry92

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2007
Messages
15,707
Reaction score
7,715
The only thing that's causing me to go through the compilation is the constant pestering that Veston Bruno nuisance is doing towards PumpkinJFriend about these clips...OK to make it simple, Veston is requesting...or rather DEMANDING that PJF uploads all those clips...
I mean, it's Veston. Are we even surprised at this point?

If any rate, I just told him to chill out and be patient, but I doubt he even listened to my comment.
 

sesamemuppetfan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,479
Reaction score
1,157
I mean, it's Veston. Are we even surprised at this point?

If any rate, I just told him to chill out and be patient, but I doubt he even listened to my comment.
Not surprised at all. He usually doesn't listen to me either, but it's just this time in particular he actually said something along the lines of "just upload the clips and I'll leave you alone." I mean...seriously? But like you just pointed out, what else can we expect?
 

LittleJerry92

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2007
Messages
15,707
Reaction score
7,715
Not surprised at all. He usually doesn't listen to me either, but it's just this time in particular he actually said something along the lines of "just upload the clips and I'll leave you alone." I mean...seriously? But like you just pointed out, what else can we expect?
Yeah, "I'll leave you alone until they're uploaded" and then the same cycle repeats once more clips are discovered. :rolleyes:

But you know, granted, I am guilty of once being in Veston's shoes way back in 2007 when I was 14 years old and we all had to rely on fan recordings to see classic clips (not that we still don't have to to this day for an essential part, but of course, this was a year away until the Workshop began uploading their material online), and when I was "bigjeffy" on this site, I constantly whined about how "NTV"/"The Letter N" by Nick Normal and the Nickmatics wasn't online (and I think I did the same on YouTube), until sawing14s (or @Boobergorg in this case) posted it in April of 2007 and I just wanted to faint out of my computer chair. :stick_out_tongue: Of course, since then, and as I got older, I just learned to be patient and thankful for the clips we currently can watch. That's just one thing some fans unfortunately will never learn.
 

sesamemuppetfan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
1,479
Reaction score
1,157
@LittleJerry92 I know exactly where you're coming from, because I too was in that same boat when I joined in 2008 at 14 years old. (Oh, in case you haven't caught on, I happen to be classicssmfan!)

Anyway, I'm not sure where would be the proper thread to announce this, but Sesame's Facebook and Instagram pages announced that "Something totally awesome is coming this Thursday..." known as "Sesame Street presents the 80's". I'm not sure what it's gonna be about, but something tells me we'll have to keep our eyes peeled on the web...
 

Bliffenstimmers

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2012
Messages
638
Reaction score
381
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/about/news/beinecke-library-digitizing-2000-‘largely-undiscovered’-videocassettes

For those of you who haven't read up on it, here's the announcement regarding the Tony Geiss video tape collection at the Beinecke Library going through the digitization process. Lots of great material to see there. Compilations of sketches from Sesame Street and its international coproductions, an early Sesame Street sales film, even something as obscure as a demo recording of "The Working Song" from "A Celebration Of Me, Grover".
 
Top