Why haven't some older videos been re-released?

[Schfifty]

So after DVDs started to become popular in the late 1990s/early 2000s, many Sesame Street videos that were distributed by Random House and Sony Wonder were re-released on the new format, and eventually through digital media. However, for some reason, a bunch of videos originally released between 1985 and 1998 still haven't been reissued, most of them being Random House videos. The question is...why haven't they?

Maybe is it because they weren't that popular enough to warrant a re-release? Is it because the content in some of the videos would appear outdated in a newer format? I don't see why videos like William Wegman's Mother Goose and The Best of Ernie and Bert shouldn't get put on DVD, or even released digitally like through iTunes. I feel some of the videos, if not all, should be released in a newer format again someday, because so far you can only watch them on their original format, VHS.

Here's a list of the titles that haven't gone past VHS:

The Alphabet Game (RH)
The Best of Ernie and Bert (RH)
The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street (SW)
Big Bird's Favorite Party Games (RH)
Getting Ready for School (RH)
Getting Ready to Read (RH)
I'm Glad I'm Me (RH)
Learning to Add and Subtract (RH)
A New Baby in My House (RH)
Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Firehouse (RH)
Sesame Street Home Video Visits the Hospital (RH)
Sing-Along Earth Songs (RH)
Slimey's World Games (SW)
William Wegman's Mother Goose (SW)

Plus, there's the videos released by Golden Book (Three/Five/Eight Sesame Street Stories) and the Start-to-Read Videos (Don't Cry, Big Bird/Ernie's Big Mess/Ernie's Little Lie/I Want to Go Home!).

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

That's a good question. I too have been wondering about this factor.

Learning to Add and Subtract was supposed to get a DVD release in October of 2004 or 2005, but for some unknown reason that plan fell through.

I've also been wondering why Sing-Along Earth Songs is the only video in the "Sesame Songs Home Video" series that hasn't had a Sony Wonder release, be it VHS or DVD.

 

[MuppetSpot]

That's a good question. I too have been wondering about this factor.

Learning to Add and Subtract was supposed to get a DVD release in October of 2004 or 2005, but for some unknown reason that plan fell through.

I've also been wondering why Sing-Along Earth Songs is the only video in the "Sesame Songs Home Video" series that hasn't had a Sony Wonder release, be it VHS or DVD.

Also a new baby in my house and the best of Bert and Ernie and probably getting ready to read we're supposed to get DVD releases around the 2004 to 2005 era.

 

[Schfifty]

I've also been wondering why Sing-Along Earth Songs is the only video in the "Sesame Songs Home Video" series that hasn't had a Sony Wonder release, be it VHS or DVD.

Yeah, that's quite a mystery, indeed. I think maybe the execs didn't believe it had enough potential to make it to DVD or be re-released by Sony Wonder. There were some good songs in that video ("Keep the Park Clean for the Pigeons, "Every Bit a' Litter Hurts", etc.), but it's still kind of weird how Sesame's never done anything about it over 20 years after it came out.

I'm thinking the reason The Alphabet Game never got re-released because there weren't enough familiar characters in the framing story (Big Bird was the only major character in the story). Sonny Friendly is kind of a notable character, but obviously not as notable as Guy Smiley, and he didn't host as many sketches as Guy did, so Friendly didn't seem familiar to many kids. Plus, Gary and Dimples the Dogs' appearances were essentially a one-time appearance. They never really appeared anywhere on the show afterwards (although Gary's made a few background appearances in some sketches).

 

[D'Snowth]

Probably because some of them may be too dated to sell to kids today? I'm going to be honest, I was surprised by some of the clips that were included in the Best of Friends DVD: some were obvious remakes of older inserts, others weren't. But take "Bedtime Stories and Song," it was re-released as "Sleepytime Stories and Songs," and had some of the older/dated inserts replaced, such as "The King's Problem," which featured a very young Maria reading the story - that would probably be very disorienting/confusing to kids watching.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

@D'Snowth So, then how come the skit of Grover pretending he's on the moon got replaced by the "Moonshine" song? (Not that it's a bad thing.)

@Schfifty For a while I thought Getting Ready for School and The Best of Ernie and Bert haven't gotten DVD releases, because at one point there's a mention of them being VHS tapes or the fact that the viewer is using a VCR. But then again, that also happens in Monster Hits, yet it made its way to DVD regardless.

 

[minor muppetz]

Would dated content really be a reason for an old video release to not get a DVD release? From time to time we get new DVD releases with classic clips (though we haven't really gotten any this year, unless you count what's in the Count von Count montage in Count on Elmo). I'm surprised that Bedtime Stories and Songs is the only old release to have segments replaced. There's quite a few old releases where the cast looks younger that are still available without them being cut (a young Gina is in Rock & Roll and Dance Along, which are still in print, I think, and she looked quite different then).

For a while I thought Getting Ready for School and The Best of Ernie and Bert haven't gotten DVD releases, because at one point there's a mention of them being VHS tapes or the fact that the viewer is using a VCR. But then again, that also happens in Monster Hits, yet it made its way to DVD regardless.

I saw the Monster Hits thing pointed out a while back, and I wonder if it's the same thing. The announcer says "Live, on tape..." but I thought that was more to mean that it's not live, as in the performance was recorded live but broadcast later. But would the average kid figure that, or would they think it was an acknowledgement of being on video (back then, to me "tape" was a video tape, not a broadcast).

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

"Live, on tape..."

Don't forget the end when Herry blurts out "Until the next time you watch this cassette..."! That's the part I was mainly referring to.

 

[minor muppetz]

Don't forget the end when Herry blurts out "Until the next time you watch this cassette..."! That's the part I was mainly referring to.

Wow, I don't remember that line at all.

 

[D'Snowth]

"The Best of Ernie and Bert" has a very similar line where Gina concludes with, "Anytime I want to visit Ernie and Bert, all I have to do is look at the scrapbook. Anytime you want to, all you have to do is look at this tape."