My Sesame Street Home Video



Random House Home Video began releasing Sesame Street videos in 1986, under the label My Sesame Street Home Video. The packaging originally had a picture of some muppets in a border, where the picture was held by an illustration of Big Bird, and the logo was the Sesame Street sign, with "My" written where the "CTW" logo would be, and "Home Video" written underneath the Sesame Street part, with an illustrated Cookie Monster behind the sign and a bite mark on the sign. The sides of the packaging would have a small proof of purchase box which was numbered, and the back included a list of other videos in this collection (which updated after more were made). These videos originally came with a small activity book, but those seemed to be discontinued in the early 1990s. The video covers later removed the illustration of Big Bird as well (though this image was still in the activity books). Some of the videos even had their boarder colors changed for later releases. While the original releases and activity books had plain-colored boarders, later releases had several small dots inside the boarders.

The title sequence had an animated opening with Cookie Monster biting the street sign, then the title would appear in either chalk board or printed lettering, with Big Bird announcing the video title. The closing sequence had an illustration of Cookie Monster holding a chalk board with the credits listed.

Videos in this collection from 1986 include: Learning About Letters, Learning About Numbers, Getting Ready To Read, I'm Glad I'm Me, Play-Along Games and Songs, and Bedtime Stories and Songs.

Videos released in 1987 include Learning to Add and Subtract, Getting Ready for School, Sing-Along, Big Bird's Storytime, and The Alphabet Game.

Three more were released in 1988: Count it Higher: Great Music Videos from Sesame Street, The Best of Ernie and Bert, and Big Bird's Favorite Party Games.

For awhile, Random House stopped releasing new videos under the My Sesame Street Home Video label, instead releasing television specials, new-to-video specials without the label, and a new collection called Sesame Songs Home Video. Then in 1993-1994, Random House released two more of these videos, A New Baby in My House and The Best of Elmo. For both of these videos, Elmo read the videos title, and the closing featured stills from the videos.

In 1995, Sony Wonder started releasing Sesame Street videos. Although at least two videos that were originally released by Sony Wonder, Cookie Monster's Best Bites and Do the Alphabet, had the My Sesame Street Home Video opening, the packaging did not promote My Sesame Street Home Video, and most (if not all) re-releases of previous videos edited the opening sequence.

Most of these videos were also released by Sony in Japan, with the same logo but different cover art. In Japan, the covers featured an illustration of a character as opposed to a live action photo.

Video Numbers
Each video was numbered via proof-of-purchase barcode:


 * 1) Learning About Letters
 * 2) Learning About Numbers
 * 3) Unknown
 * 4) Unknown
 * 5) Play-Along Games and Songs
 * 6) Bedtime Stories and Songs
 * 7) Unknown
 * 8) Learning To Add and Subtract
 * 9) Sing-Along
 * 10) Unknown
 * 11) The Alphabet Game
 * 12) Count it Higher: Great Music Videos from Sesame Street
 * 13) The Best of Ernie and Bert
 * 14) Big Bird's Favorite Party Games
 * 15) A New Baby in My House
 * 16) The Best of Elmo