40 Years of Sunny Days

Release Date	2009
Produced by	Genius Entertainment
Catalogue no.	SS00161
Format	DVD
Discs	2
Region	1
ASIN	B002K0WBWI

Sesame Street: 40 Years of Sunny Days is a Sesame Street DVD set released on November 10, 2009, to celebrate the show's 40th Anniversary.

Guest stars featured in clips on the set include: Madeline Kahn, James Taylor, Patti Labelle, Batman, Lena Horne, Happy Days' Fonzie, the Star Wars droids, Mister Rogers, Diana Ross, Pee-wee Herman, Feist, Smokey Robinson, Destiny's Child, and Robert De Niro, in addition to the various celebrities who appear in "Put Down the Duckie" and "Sing".

Each disc begins with a TV Montage introduced by Count von Count and featuring one clip from each of the 40 seasons (all of which are presented within the main program). Each five-year period begins with a look through a scrapbook representing the time periods, and many clips begin with behind-the-scenes photos related to the clip (with the first few seconds of audio heard over the picture). The set also comes with a commemorative booklet, a shortened 24-page version of Sesame Street: A Celebration - 40 Years of Life on the Street. Early copies were hardcover, but when distribution switched from Genius Products to Warner Home Video the booklet was changed to paperback.

Disc 1: Seasons 1-20

A * denotes that part of that clip was also featured in the "TV Montages" in this set.

Season 1

• "Sesame Street Open" (including Gordon's opening line from Episode 0001)
• "Henson #1 Song" *
• "Rubber Duckie"
• "I Love Trash"
• Batman Around/Up/Through
• "If I Knew You Were Coming"
• "Bein' Green"

Season 2

• Bert & Ernie: Banana in Ear (part 1 only)*
• "Henson Queen of Six"
• "Mad Song"
• Sorting Song with Cookie Monster

Season 3

• Mad Painter #5
• "Bienvenido Song"
• "Lady Bug Picnic" *

Season 4

• Herry & John-John Count *
• Talking Loud / Talking Soft
• Remembering Bread, Milk, Butter
• Kermit News: Sleeping Beauty (Prince Charming falls asleep)
• Bert & Ernie: Bert's Bust

Season 5

• "Fat Cat"
• O-Orange Man
• Lena Horne: "How Do You Do?" *
• "Doin' the Pigeon"

Season 6

• Super Grover: Exit
• Typewriter: N-Nose *
• Invisible Ice Cream

Season 7

• "Pinball Animation #7" *

Season 8

• "The People in Your Neighborhood" -- Elevator Operator and Pharmacist *

Season 9

• Fonzie on/off/on
• Clips From Hawaii (Snuffy lands on the island, Mr. Hooper surfs)
• I-Beam *

Season 10

• Telly Plugs in (Telly's first appearance) *

Season 11

• Star Wars: "One You Go Beep" *
• Kermit News: Foot Snuggies (with Dr. Nobel Price)
• Geometry of Circles #1 "Circle with Flower" (with music by Philip Glass)
• Monsterpiece Theater: Me Claudius
• Martians: Radio
• "Me Lost Me Cookie at the Disco"

Season 12

• "Hello Hello Hello Song" (from Episode 1530)
• Dancing Dog Imagines
• Two-Headed Monster: Telephone *
• Bring Your Own Can Night (with Oscar the Grouch, Bruno the Trashman, and cast)
• Mister Rogers Returns

Season 13

• Making Crayons
• Diana Ross: "Believe in Yourself"
• Bert & Ernie: Fish Call Quiet/Loud *
• Madeline Kahn: "Friendship Song" (from Episode 1576)

Season 14

• "Honker Duckie Dinger Jamboree"
• James Taylor: "Jellyman Kelly" *
• Bert & Ernie: Snowman
• "We All Sing the Same Song"

Season 15

• Teeny Little Super Guy: School
• Just Because (Big Bird comes to terms with Mr. Hooper's death) *

Season 16

• "Peanut Butter Factory Song"
• Smokey Robinson: "U Really Got a Hold on Me" *

Season 17

• Elmo's Make Believe Trip (the performance that Kevin Clash notes is the moment when he "found his voice" as Elmo)
• "Batty Bat Song"
• Snuffy Is Seen *

Season 18

• "Put Down the Duckie" (celebrity version) *
• "Sing Your Synonyms"

Season 19

• Pee-wee Herman's Alphabet
• Maria and Luis Get Married
• "African Alphabet" *

Season 20

• OOOO-Klahoma!
• Meet the Baby (Gabriela is born) *

Disc 1 Bonus Features

• "Behind the Street" featurettes, which play when clicking the "enter" button when the Sesame Street logo appears on-screen, or can all be viewed all together by selecting "Play All".
  • An interview with Jon Stone on research and curriculum, and the barriers the show broke.
  • An interview with legendary puppeteer Caroll Spinney on Oscar the Grouch.
  • Behind-the-Scenes footage on Dr. Nobel Price.
  • Behind-the-Scenes rehearsal footage on "The Hello Hello Hello Song", "Two-Headed Monster: Telephone", "Bring Your Own Can Night", "The Honker-Duckie-Dinger Jamboree", "Friendship Song", and "Bert and Ernie: Snowman".
  • An interview with Kevin Clash on the creation of Elmo.
• Easter Egg: One minute panning shot of the Street set from Big Bird's nest to the Fix-It Shop.
• Fan Favorite Clip - Bert and Ernie: String Tied
• TV Montage
• On-screen pop-up facts
• DVD Rom Feature: 189 pages of 40 years of credits in PDF format.

Disc 2: Seasons 21-40

Season 21

• Monsterpiece Theater: King and I *
• AlphaQuest: Letter R
• "Monster in the Mirror"
• "Elmo's Song"
• Grover's Restaurant: Most Important Meal

Season 22

• Cecille the Ball: "I'm Gonna Get to You" *

Season 23

• Does Air Move Things?
• "What's the Name of That Song?" *

Season 24

• Ooh What a Fabulous Party *

Season 25

• Marilyn Horne: "C Is for Cookie" *

Season 26

• Arrested Development: "Pride"
• Dance Theater of Harlem: Five Birds
• Luxo Jr.: Front/Back *
• "My Name Is Zoe"
• "B Is for Bubble"

Season 27

• The Spin Doctors: "Two Princes" *

Season 28

• Fay Family: To Market *

Season 29

• Tony Bennett: "Slimey to the Moon" *
• "Count Me In"

Season 30

• Patti LaBelle: "Gospel Alphabet" *

Season 31

• The Goo Goo Dolls: "Pride" *
• Celebrity "Sing"

Season 32

• Robert De Niro: The Actor Prepares
• My Nest, My Home *
• Elmo's World Games: Mr. Noodle (includes "Elmo's World" opening)

Season 33

• "Bird on Me"
• Destiny's Child: "A New Way to Walk" *
• Fire on the Street

Season 34

• "ABC Hip Hop" *

Season 35

• TJ: "Me and My Chair" Song *
• Elmo's World: Lord of the Feet
• Six Feet Under

Season 36

• Alicia Keys: "Dancin'" *
• "A Cookie is a Sometime Food"

Season 37

• Abby's Arrival *
• Matt Lauer Interviews Cookie Monster
• Law & Order Special Letters Unit

Season 38

• Can't Say the Alphabet Enough *
• I Love Every Part of You

Season 39

• Feist: "1234" *
• The Golden Triangle of Destiny (giant boulder and laundromat trap sequences)
• David Beckham: Persistent
• Plain White T's
• Neil Patrick Harris: The Shoe Fairy
• Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures: Penguin

Season 40

• "Guess the Seasons Song"
• D-Dance *

Disc 2 Bonus features

• Behind the Street featurette, including:
  • Leslie Carrara-Rudolph and Jason Weber talk about the creation of Abby Cadabby.
  • Behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage of "Guess The Seasons" and "D-Dance".
  • Green screen passes of Elmo and other characters, for "Lord of the Feet" and "D-Dance".
• Bonus Behind-the-Street featurette, including:
  • Production meeting discussion and rehearsal for Episode 1570, featuring Oscar and Othmar the Grouch.
  • Interviews with Roscoe Orman and Jim Henson.
• An on-screen pop-up feature with facts about Sesame Street.
• Sneak Peek: Abby's Flying Fairy School -- "Cinderella" episode
• TV Montage
• Easter Egg: Four and a half minute high speed montage of building the Sesame Street set.
• Link to sesamestreet.org/moresunnydays online DVD bonus.
• DVD-ROM: 189 pages of credits of 40 seasons of Sesame Street in PDF format.

Vote

Genius Entertainment partnered with Amazon.com to allow fans to vote for one moment from a list of 10 clips to appear on the release. Voting was open from April 1st to April 28, 2009. The winning clip, with 27% of the vote, was "Bert and Ernie String Tied."

The nominees and results were as follows:

• "Alligator King" (10%)
• "Bert and Ernie String Tied" (27%)
• "King of Eight" (5%)
• "Henson Ball" (3%)
• "Martian Beauty" (1%)
• "What's the Name of that Song" (9%)
• "I Just Adore Four" (1%)
• "Pinball Machine 12" (24%)
• "Caribbean Amphibian" (10%)
• "Elmo's Debut" (6%)

Edits

• "Kermit News: Sleeping Beauty" is presented with the late-1980s title card instead of the original.
• Herry's closing line, "Right!", in "Herry and John-John Count."
• Smart Tina's line "Do it, Roosevelt!", at the end of "Talking Loud/ Talking Soft."
• Lefty the Salesman's line "I didn't see nothing" at the end of "Invisible Ice Cream."
• The Martian sketch is edited at the end to omit them going extra crazy with their dancing and chanting "happy happy, boing boing!", etc.
• The last 10 seconds of "Me Lost Me Cookie."
• The opening wide shot in "Put Down the Duckie."

Notes

• Caroll Spinney wears a t-shirt with the Muppet Show logo on the back during behind-the-scenes footage of rehearsal of the "Hello Hello Hello Song" which is blurred out for the DVD release.
• Frank Oz is wearing a headband with his Muppet Show characters on it in behind-the-scenes footage of the snowman sketch. The images have been blurred out for this presentation.
• Caroll Spinney wears a Mickey Mouse t-shirt while rehearsing scenes from Episode 1576 which has been blurred out for the DVD release.
• A parody of the Birth of Venus from the Kermitage Collection can be seen on a wall in the bonus feature on the making of Abby Cadabby. The painting was blurred out for the DVD release.
• The celebrity version of "Put Down the Duckie" is listed as a season 18 segment. Although the song did debut in season 18, the celebrity version debuted later.
• In December 2010, Amazon.com released an online exclusive version of the set with a bonus disc containing episode 4228.
• The behind-the-scenes footage was later released in The iTunes Store as a full, half-hour segment with new pop-up facts. The behind-the scenes of "The Friendship Song" was also later included on Old School: Volume 3.
• The back cover of the DVD case for Disc 1 mentions Caroll Spinney performing Bruno the Trashman, who is incorrectly identified as "Biff."

Other releases

International releases

Promotions

See also

• Sesame Street: 40th Anniversary

External links

• Muppet Central review
• Valley Courrier review