Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Old School Volume 3 1979-1984 DVD

[Oscarfan]

are the behind the scenes videos on the dvd available?

They're available...on the DVD, which you should buy.

 

[muppetlover123]

ok......

 

[liss1979]

I haven't gotten that far yet...but so far I really dig this DVD

 

[Son of Enik]

I was so pleasantly surprised with this set...a lot of memories as a 39 year old lifelong Sesame Street fan!! While I will admit, I was hoping for some more bonus features, this set was fantastic!! I thoroughly enjoyed Sonia's commentary (we need more of these) on the Puerto Rico episode, "Born to Add" has long been one of my favorites...my mom got mad at me when I was 8 because I would sing it constantly and wanted to do it for a church talent show!! (Needless to say I sang something a little more appropriate instead). I found myself smiling and saying "Oh wow" throughout the episodes...so many bits I hadn't thought about in years!! Loved seeing Aristotle again, lots of Olivia this time around too!! I still have a tough time watching "Goodbye Mr. Hooper", but it's still a classic and it has taught my daughter what it taught all of us (she's 5 ).
All in all, loved this set and hope we have more on the way!!

 

[minor muppetz]

I guess I should post my thoughts on each episode:

• 1316 - I wondered if I'd feel it would be a bit slow, since it's an episode focusing one of the adults and the "street scenes" (which I put in quotes since the street's hardly present) are long, many of which have long gaps between inserts. But this was a good episode. Osvaldo is good character, and the scene with Oscar talking a walk in the rain is great (though I wonder why he seems to randomly stop and place the whole can down at times). On the commentary Sonia Manzano refers to one Muppet segment (can't remember which one... the Mumford and Grover bit?) as "long by today's standards". Huh? Many of today's segments are five minutes or longer (and each episode has many of them now). And it seems the right length for the time it was made (I'd say The Magic Apple and Family Food are really long by old school standards). Also, I must agree with Sonia's comment that she had great arms back then.
• 1446 - I watched this one last and expected this to be one of my least favorites on this set, but it actually is one of my favorites. I like the set for the school and the hallway. For years I have wondered if Big Bird uses a restroom or if he goes potty like normal birds, and I guess this sort of explains it (though he wonders where "the birds room" is). I noticed when Big Bird takes a drink from the water fountain, his beak is at an angle that covers the water. That's a good way to avoid wasting water (or getting the beak wet). And does this school have two recesses? We get a recess segment, then another classroom scene, and then Big Bird and the kids are in the hallway again, the kids playing while Big Bird is practicing making friends. When I went to elementary school we only had one recess (and it was never in the hallway). Maybe it was lunch period, though when I was in elementary school we stayed at our tables when we were done eating.
• 1576 - One of the two best ones on this set. Madeline Kahn and Richard Hunt give hilarious performances. It's interesting that while Richard's character leaves for a good chunk of the episode, none of his Muppet characters show up (I feel Gladys or Forgetful could have been there when Madeline was calling to see if Big Bird was an endangered species). The only puppetry Richard does is perform the Canary brothers. And I must think, if they think a big yellow bird who can do all the stuff Big Bird can is "endangered" (since they've never heard of such a bird, but it seems normal to the street residents), I can only imagine what they'd do if they saw Mr. Snuffleupagus (even after the adults learned he was real).
• 1706 - I think I was looking the least forward to this one compared to the other episodes, in part because all of the street scenes are on sesamestreet.org (it's a shame the website still hasn't uploaded scenes from the remaining episodes). The opening song is great, and Rusty seems like a good character. But I get the feeling that the rest of the week's episodes are better. And I wonder how the average consumer feels that with an episode about Big Bird going to camp he only spends a little bit of time there in this particular episode.
• 1836 - This and episode 1576 are the two best ones on this set (coincidently they are also the only ones to contain Monsterpiece Theater segments). All of the running scenes are great to watch. Maria obviously started to believe Snuffy was real by this point and it's a shame the adults wouldn't let her go into Big Bird's nest area to see him, and that they talked her out of waiting with Big Bird to see him (why did Big Bird and Maria have to go to drop Gordon off, anyway?). I wonder what caused Snuffy to finish at night after the race had ended (did he run into more stop signs?). And I wonder what Susan and Gordon thought when they woke up and saw that they and their car were back on Sesame Street.

 

[minor muppetz]

It's interesting how in episode 1836, each performer except Caroll Spinney only gets one character each. Martin Robinson gets Snuffy, Brian Meehl gets Telly, and Richard Hunt gets Forgetful Jones, and none of their other characters make appearances. Given the current financial situation if this were made today they'd probably cut corners and just have a few Muppets from the same performers show up, so it's interesting to be reminded that there was a time when performers might have been in only one street scene as only one character in an episode.

Also interesting how in episode 1446, it's visitors day at school, but apparrently Big Bird is the only visitor who comes to class.

Watching the set on a regular TV (playing on my PS2) instead of my laptop for the first time, and the video quality looks better on my laptop. I have noticed more darkness when watching on a Playstation 2.

 

[minor muppetz]

Also, I noticed that one of my favorite SS cartoons "Swedish Number Cartoons" were all replaced from 1446, 1706, and 1836. But earlier this year, I noticed that those cartoons were originally from another kids show from Sweden called "Fem Myror". Maybe Owe Gustafson didn't sign any DVD release forms for his cartoons or whatever. And Phillip, you forgot to add on your review that on Episode 1446, the "8 octopus tentacles" cartoon was replaced with "Ringmaster #8".

According to Muppet Wiki the swedish animation skits originated on the swedish co-production of Sesame Street.

 

[minor muppetz]

I find it interesting how this set, in contrast to the previous two volumes, seems to focus more on the episode plots (well, these episodes have more plot focus and actual plot stories, while the previous volumes episodes barely had any plots) and less on the celebrity appearances. The packaging mentions some of the episode plots but not individual segments (well it does mention Monsterpiece Theater and Beetle Bailey) and celebrity guests aren't mentioned on the box nor do any of the bons clips feature celebrity guests (besides R2D2). In fact most of the chapter stops lead to different street scenes (of course this set has five chapter stops per episode, while the previous volumes had nine chapter stops per episode), and none of the celebrity segments (except for some with Madeline Kahn) are chapter stops.

If volume 4 comes out and continues past 1984 then we'll have a bit more surprise, as we don't know what's included in the 16th season premiere. I wonder if the press release will mention that plot (I have a feeling packaging and press releases would mention the episode where the adults met Snuffy).

 

[minor muppetz]

Something I didn't realize before until now: When I saw all the old behind-the-scenes footage I noticed all of the segments shown being filmed were from seasons 12-14. I figured that was the only classic years to have behind-the-scenes footage, and on this set most of the behind-the-scenes stuff is from those years as well. But then I realized the Exercise song is from season 15.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

To everyone who currently has a copy of the DVD set, did you buy it in store (whether they had it in stock, or you had to special order it), or did you buy it online? The reason I'm asking is because, I've looked at every possible store in my area that would sell it, but none of them had it in stock.