Your Thoughts: Sesame Street 40 Years DVD Box Set

[Amy]

You have mentioned that you're more of a Jim Henson fan than a Muppet fan, so I must ask... Did you like both of Jim Henson's film inserts that were included (Henson #1 Song and Henson Queen of Six)?

Absolutely! Both very familiar, near and dear to my heart. King of Eight is already on the Old School set. With the number ones, it's fun playing 'Spot the Brian'. ;p

The Disc one also includes the Phillip Glass-scored 'geometry' animation, but not the whole thing, just the first part. Shame they couldn't have played the sequence in its entirety.

 

[minor muppetz]

There was a review posted here: http://www.alamosanews.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=14856&page=74

One thing is weird... The writer thinks that Elmo started out as green, and that the green Elmo became Elmo's mother when he became red. Huh? This DVD doesn't have any such evidence of this... Maybe she mistook Elmo for Grover, who was originally green (though I think he looked more black than green), and whom the original green puppet was reused as his mother in one appearance, but this DVD doesn't have any green Grover sketches, nor does it have the one where the original puppet was reused as Grover's mommy (it also doesn't have any clips with his mommy).

 

[minor muppetz]

The Disc one also includes the Phillip Glass-scored 'geometry' animation, but not the whole thing, just the first part. Shame they couldn't have played the sequence in its entirety.

There were at least six different "Geometry of Circles" segments. This set only has one of them.

 

[Son of Enik]

I know I am late posting here, but I just wanted to say that I LOVE this set! Granted there were some overdone bits and songs, but there were some true gems on here too. I don't remember Henson 1, and it was great to see "If I knew You were coming..." with Ernie and Cookie again. I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing C-3PO and R2-D2 again as well as Fonzie and Diana Ross, so many memories I only wish there could have been more.
All in all, fantastic set and I hope we can see more old school stuff come to DVD.

 

[jeffkjoe]

In my 38 years of watching and learning everything about SS, I never knew that Baker #1 ever existed prior to this DVD set.

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing that I find sort of odd: Both here, and in the season one classic cuts on Old School: Volume 1, Rubber Duckie is the second clip included (well, thrid if you count "Sesame Street Open" on this set). Based on it's popularity, I would have expected Rubber Duckie to be first.

And I just noticed that the ending of "talking loud/ talking soft" is cut.

 

[scarletjul]

I finally opened my DVD set yesterday. I was trying to be good and save them for a day when I needed cheering up and yesterday was the day.

Anyhow, I've only watched some of the clips from the first disc but so far I'm very happy. The set is put together very well and I think they included a good selection of clips. I used to have Maria and Luis's wedding on VHS when it was aired in the 80's, so it was great to have some of it preserved on DVD. And though Mr. Hooper is a little before my time, (I only really remember him from the Christmas special) I still teared up during "Just Because." Seeing Telly's first appearance was awesome, btw.

As for "If I Knew Your Were Coming," I don't think it clicked for me before how old Cookie Monster is.

I have the dvd of "Put Down the Duckie," so I would've preferred a different clip than "Sing Your Synonyms" but I know it is a classic. Same goes for "Put Down the Duckie" (though, since it's a favorite, I wanted it on this disc, too.)

Honestly, though, I'm not complaining - I think the DVDs are really great and I hope Sesame Workshop continues to release these classic DVDs in the future.

 

[AndyWan Kenobi]

I'm one disc into the set now, and loving it! I really loved seeing "If I Knew You Were Coming..." I don't know if I'd ever actually seen this. I had the song on an old 8-Track when I was a kid, but it was Cookie Monster and the Count. I tracked that down on CD years ago and we used it at our wedding as our "cake cutting" song. So it was very neat to see it on screen!

I'm also really loving the behind-the-scenes stuff. Very surreal to see Jim Henson and Frank Oz doing the Ernie and Bert Snowman bit just with scripts. Kinda blew my mind a little!

 

[minor muppetz]

Not as much as i was expecting either, but technically they were "clips" since there were two - Snuffy's entrance and Hooper goes surfing.

Honestly, I've never seen any of those episodes, and I haven't watched any youtube clips from those episodes, so this DVD was the first time I saw any of the hawaii storyline scenes. I often look at the episode pages at Muppet Wiki, and when this was released it had been a long time since I last looked at those pages, couldn't really remember the sequencing order, and thought that Snuffy landing was actually followed by the "Mr. Hooper surfs" scene, epecially since there was a fade between scenes (not fade to black). But looking at those pages again, I see that not only were those scenes not originally shown back-to-back, but they weren't even in the same episode.

Usually when we get releases like this and I think of what sould have been included, I normally think "it should have had this instead of that", instead of "it should have had more" (though I think my personal wishlist for the set, prior to the announcement of what was included, had more clips). But this is a rare case where I wanted more... I'm glad that the scene where Snuffy landed was included, but I was hoping for a scene with Buffy (though Buffy does appear on the set, with Cody, in the "Bring Your Own Can Night" clip), and maybe some scenes involving Mount Snuffleupagus.

 

[scarletjul]

I finally got around to watching some of Disc 2 yesterday. I was still watching SS regularly in the early 90's, into the beginning of the "Around the Corner" phase, so I was happy to see things like "Monster in the Mirror" and "What's the Name of that Song?" Though, since it's been forever since I've seen the celebrity version of "Monster in the Mirror," I kinda wanted that version, instead.

Usually when we get releases like this and I think of what sould have been included, I normally think "it should have had this instead of that", instead of "it should have had more" (though I think my personal wishlist for the set, prior to the announcement of what was included, had more clips). But this is a rare case where I wanted more... I'm glad that the scene where Snuffy landed was included, but I was hoping for a scene with Buffy (though Buffy does appear on the set, with Cody, in the "Bring Your Own Can Night" clip), and maybe some scenes involving Mount Snuffleupagus.

I really would've liked more as well, especially in the street stories. As I think someone posted earlier, you just get little tastes of what the general story line was like. I would have loved to see more of the Hawaii story, as well as the birth of Gabi. I would especially have liked to have seen them rebuild the nest in the hurricane episode - I've never actually seen the hurricane episode and I always wanted to.

That said, I am happy with a lot of it and maybe they'll release a part two someday.