Where are all these classic Sesame Street episodes coming from?

[hooperfan]

I am quite amazed that some screenshots from clips not available on YouTube or any video sharing site are being released. They include still images from the segment where Buffy and Mr. MacIntosh have a song and dance about the letter K (and doesn't the lowercase k look reminiscent of the screen text font used on The Electric Company?), as well as "The Bee Bee and Barker families" and maybe other segments that I do not know about.

There is even still images from street scenes used in some episodes from Seasons 10 through 13 that are released. I was even amazed when I discovered still images from an early street scene in a late-January 1982 show (the episode titled "Pretend Penguins"), and it was when Mercedes was stranded in New York City due to a flight being cancelled on the previous Friday's episode.

If any videos of skits get uploaded, it will likely be by other users, but may end up lasting a short time, unless it is uploaded by the show's official YouTube channel.

Actually the Buffy, Mr. MacIntosh picture came from the "40 Years of Sunny Days" book

 

[RubberChicArt]

As some of you know, a lot of rare old episodes have been turning up lately. A bunch of episodes from Seasons 1, 10, 12, 20, and now Season 22. I have to say this is one of the greatest things that's ever happened. As a lot of our questions about the old days have been answered, and one of the episodes that recently turned up is one I've actually been searching for years. But there's one big question I have about all of this:

Where are all these episodes coming from????

Just wondering, because I know that the normal Sesame Workshop policy is that they do NOT send out tapes. So I'm wondering if maybe there's someone who works for the company or something. I do know of someone who claimed that he got all of episodes 1 - 3005, but promised that he would not distribute them. So I wonder if this is him, but I'm not sure.

The thing is, Why do you think that some episodes have seeped through and not others? For instance, we got about the first 15 episodes of Season 1, and then a bunch of scattered episodes throughout the season. We also have scattered episodes from season 10 and season 20, but the episodes we have from season 12 and season 22 are all right in order. And some of them have the Time Code reading on them and some don't. I noticed that it's the scattered ones that have the TCR. So I wonder if maybe they could even be from different sources, but I'm not sure.

So anyway, I really would like to know the source of these episodes, and who got access to the library. If anyone here knows anything about it, please let me know.

Usually, the episodes and clips are from the Official Sesame Street account on YouTube. Hope that’s useful

 

[Blue Frackle]

Whoa, you gotta edit those triple posts lol.

It might be a joint effort between Sesame Workshop and Scott to get these episodes documented for historical/archival purposes, and for whatever reason they're not allowed to be posted online.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

Whoa, you gotta edit those triple posts lol.

It might be a joint effort between Sesame Workshop and Scott to get these episodes documented for historical/archival purposes, and for whatever reason they're not allowed to be posted online.

Are you talking to me?

 

[Blue Frackle]

I think the reason why everyone's so curious about the origin of the episodes is because there's seemingly no good reason why it's such a secret.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Because I've traded with him several times, I'm on somewhat good terms with Guille (Sawing14s/MuppetVJ/Boober_Gorg). A couple years ago, I asked him how he received these episodes. His response? "I got my copies from Scott, though I don't know where he got them. It may have been a puppeteer, writer or other employee of Sesame Workshop."

And I guess that's as good an answer as any.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

No, I'm sure he's talking to @Fozzieboba

Okay. Sorry I got confused.

 

[Blue Frackle]

Because I've traded with him several times, I'm on somewhat good terms with Guille (Sawing14s/MuppetVJ/Boober_Gorg). A couple years ago, I asked him how he received these episodes. His response? "I got my copies from Scott, though I don't know where he got them. It may have been a puppeteer, writer or other employee of Sesame Workshop."

And I'd say that's as good an answer as any.

That's a safe bet.

I do agree with the "Who cares? Just enjoy it" sentiment, but I'd hazard a guess he has an inside connection and his inside connection doesn't want to risk their job (?), or whatever their reason for having access to the "vaults" is -- I would like to know if Sesame Workshop would even care if all the episodes got out and why; it's not like they're doing much with them anyway.

 

[Cookie3001]

Why ask just enjoy the rare content.

You're absolutely right

 

[minor muppetz]

Considering it seems like they've got scripts for all or close enough to all episodes (or at least close enough to all scripts of remaining episodes the wiki has yet to fill out), I'd be surprised if the hook-up came from an actual writer. I don't think any of the writers would just happen to have copies of every single episode script (but wouldn't that be a perk of writing for the show?).

There are some who wonder if these episodes that Scott is currently making screenshots for is the same supplier as whoever supplied all those rare episodes back in 2014. I can't remember who the first member was who announced that they got rare episodes from a supplier they weren't allowed to confirm, I feel like it wasn't Scott or Shane, but considering the secrecy of who supplied these rare episodes to fans, I wouldn't be surprised if Scott didn't know whether it was the same person.