Sesame Street: Old School, Vol. 1 (1969-1974) (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)After many years of fans begging the Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop) to do a major release of "classic" material from the archives, it appears that they finally relented! I think the success of the Electric Company Set from several months back paved the way...
Let me start out by saying that I'm 29 years old and have been collecting this material for years. The bulk of what I've obtained came from the Noggin channel which was playing old episodes of Street from 1969 to 1989 until they stopped airing them a few years back.
I imagine most of the people interested in this set are familiar with the early years of Sesame Street. It was a chaotic, brilliantly conceived show from day one... very much a product of its time (the late 60s), and although the show was devised to teach kids, it was in its own way as revolutionary in format as Monty Python's Flying Circus was... extremely fast paced and chock full of highly imaginative, trippy animated segments (such as, for example the Racecars Spies number series, best described as a psychedelic freak out with dreamlike, surreal animation regarding numbers one through ten and sung by Grace Slick, then of Jefferson Airplane, in her own inimitable way)... And that's just the tip of the iceberg. For those of you who grew up being hypnotized, and yes, often frightened by the many strange, often subversive animated segments of the show (many of which are permanently etched in your brain; you'd be amazed how vividly some of these clips come back to you even after not seeing them for 25 years or more), still recall with affection the brilliant jazzy orchestrations of show composer Joe Raposo (who wrote the most sophisticated music ever devised for children's TV), remember hanging out with Mr. Hooper and a Gordon who actually had hair (there were actually two other actors who played Gordon before the current bald one we know and love), and loved the rougher, edgier quality of those early muppet segments, this is the release for you. After many years of Schoolhouse Rock being available for purchase (which I love too, but the early Street material is even better in my opinion), we can now look forward to this:
7 hours of classic content
5 complete hour-long episodes (slightly edited due to music rights issues)
Over 54 bonus segments, including:
The original pitch for the show - first time available anywhere!
Celebrity appearances from James Earl Jones, Jesse Jackson, Johnny Cash, Jackie Robinson
Classic segments every parent will remember: "I Love Trash," "Rubber Duckie," "C is for Cookie"
Original animations including Ladybug Picnic, Alligator King, King of Eight
Hopefully this will be the first of many releases of classic Sesame Street! The second volume of the Electric Company will be released in November.

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Studio: Genius Products IncRelease Date: 10/24/2006Run time: 300 minutes

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Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)This DVD set was nostalgic and at times almost brought tears to my eyes. For those parts (The ladybug picnic, The pinball counting to 12, the cartoon typewriter, the cast iron "I", etc) I would give it ten stars. Sesame Street literally shaped my life as a young child. I watched it religously until age seven (I'm thirty-five now). The reason for my three star rating is because of the lengthy songs and dull skits, which unfortunately took most of the time. Leena Horne singing didn't do it for me at five and she especially doesn't do it for me now at thrity-five. Sorry, but same to you Diana Ross. I wanted to see more of the aliens ("yep, yep, yep...nope, nope, nope"), Bert and Ernie, Super Grover, and the Tiddly-winks (who were suspiciously absent).
Watching this DVD made me realize how they should now call Sesame Street, just plain Elmo's World. That's who it's really all about now anyway. I loved the good old days when ALL the characters received equal billing. Now it seems like the first forty minutes of Sesame Street is just filler until Elmo, the big star, shows up. Don't get me wrong, I like Elmo, and so do my three little ones, but all the other characters have their own personalities and ability to teach as well. This DVD is a reminder of that.
So CTW if you're reading this, I would buy every single episode of Sesame Street from 1974-79 if you put it out on DVD. Stop teasing us with these short DVD releases showing only clips. To those of you who are thinking of purchasing this DVD set, I would get it, it is worth it. You're sure to see something that will bring back a memory.


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Relive your favorite Sesame Street moments with this one of a kind Sesame Street Collection! Everyone remembers the familiar words to the Sesame Street theme song, and the even more familiar tune, but how much do you really know about the world's most famous street? When did Elmo first begin speaking in that world-famous falsetto? Can you name the musician that sang Slimey into space? Which Muppet was most distraught by Mr. Hooper's passing? Who is the voice behind Abby Cadabby? Can you guess which clip was voted the fan favorite in an online poll? Find the answers and much, much more packed into this special anniversary DVD set, which includes clips from all 40 seasons, interviews with cast and crew, including Jim Henson, as well as amazing behind-the-scenes peeks at how Muppet magic is created.

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