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in: Sesame Street Video

Old School: Volume 1

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for other uses, see Old School
Oldschool1
Release Date October 24, 2006
Produced by Sony Wonder
Catalogue no. 89126-40010-2
Format DVD
Discs 3
Region 1
ASIN
B000H6SY8C

Sesame Street: Old School, Volume 1 is a 2006 three-disc DVD set collecting episodes and skits from the first five seasons of Sesame Street (1969-1974). Old School is marketed as a nostalgia set, aimed at teenagers and adults who remember the series from their childhood.

The three discs contain the season premieres of each of the first five seasons of the show (episodes 0001, 0131, 0276, 0406 and 0536), plus an additional 54 bonus sketches grouped by season. The total running time is over seven hours. A 16-page booklet is also included. The set contains four slight alterations to the episodes because of rights issues. In three of the cases, Sesame Workshop added replacement material in place of the cut material in order to compensate for them.

Each of the complete episodes is preceded by a newly produced animated segment in which a character named Bob begins to introduce the episode and is interrupted by an off-screen, elderly-sounding character telling him to stop talking and show the episode. Prior to the start of Episode 0001, the animated character reads a disclaimer for parents that received criticism upon release.

The set was followed by volumes two and three, consisting of material from the subsequent ten years of the program.

Disc Features[]

Rubberduckie1970

"Rubber Duckie"

Bigbirdabcdefghi

"ABC-DEF-GHI"

Cisforcookie

"C is for Cookie"

Ernie and Bert welcome you

A Special Day for Ernie & Bert

Disc 1[]

To find the egg, go to the bonus features menu. Highlight "Main Menu," press either Left or Right on your remote, to highlight Little Bird sitting on the logo at the top of the screen. Press Enter on your remote to the 8-image gallery.

Disc 2[]

Disc 3[]

Edits[]

  • Episode 0001 -- A film using Johann Sebastian Bach's "Gavotte" performed by the Swingle Singers has been removed and Joe Raposo's "A Little Bit" has been inserted before the S clay animation.
  • Episode 0001 -- "Consider Yourself" has been removed from the segment with Gordon and the Anything Muppets, leaving the scene otherwise intact.
  • Episodes 0001 and 0131 -- The original NET and PBS logos are not seen at the end of these episodes; the 1971 PBS logo is shown instead.
  • Episode 0536 -- A scene where Big Bird and Krystal play "store" has been replaced with Grover and Big Bird demonstrating the number 2.
  • Episode 0536 -- Stevie Wonder's "123 Sesame Street" has been cut and replaced with Grover and Big Bird signing off.
  • All episodes -- The original copyright screens have been replaced with a 2006 Sesame Workshop copyright notice and a note that Kermit and the word “Muppet” belong to Muppets Holding Company LLC.
  • The beginning of the "I Love Trash" clip is shortened to the lead in to the actual song.
  • The ending of "Lost Paperclips" is missing.
  • The pre-title sequence to the Super Grover segment is cut.
  • Season 1 Credit Crawl -- The mention of the book read during the episode, said by Jennie, is omitted.

Errata[]

Old School DVD has WRONG date for Episode 0276

Errata: DVD menus display incorrect date

Old School DVD has WRONG date for Episode 0406

Errata: DVD menus display incorrect date

  • Despite being listed on the packaging, in several pre-release press statements, and appearing in the trailer "Pinball Number Count" is not included on the set. The pinball cartoon was made for Season 8, and appears in two episodes on the second Old School set.
  • The clips for "Rubber Duckie" and "I've Got Two," though both Season 1 songs, are from the second season, as evidenced by the red-nosed Ernie puppet and the green staircase belonging to the garage behind Susan and Bob. (The first season did not have this set piece, as seen in "ABC-DEF-GHI.")
  • Some of the "Classic Cuts" segments are grouped based on the seasons they were created during, rather than the seasons they first aired in.
    • "Pig's Love Song" is listed as a season 2 segment, but while the live action footage came from that season, this specific version, featuring an abridged version of the song, is from season 5.
    • The Beetle Bailey segment appears in the fourth season set, though it didn't actually air for the first time until two seasons later.
  • The (now defunct) online site for the DVD featured extended versions of "Super Grover: Telephone Booth" and "Lost Paper Clips with Bert and John-John" not shown on the DVD.
  • "Mah Na Mah Na" originally appeared in the online trailer, but was soon removed; the segment does not appear on the DVD.
  • The DVD menus and booklet descriptions for episodes 0276 and 0406 feature incorrect air dates for the shows.

Controversy[]

The new introductions featuring animated character Bob received criticism from the press, particularly the one attached to Episode 0001 which states that "these early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grown-ups and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child."

Writing for The New York Times Magazine in 2007, Virginia Heffernan detailed some of the dated material in the episodes in response to the disclaimer. She also spoke with then-executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente who commented specifically on Cookie Monster eating a pipe in the Monsterpiece Theater segments and the unlikelihood that a character like Oscar the Grouch might be created in a modern environment.[1]

In response to the criticism, ToughPigs.com published a piece called "The Voice of Reason."[2]

Three years later, at the 2010 Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Free-Range Kids movement founder Lenore Skenazy used the disclaimer as evidence of the changing times and criticized Sesame Workshop's refusal to endorse their archival product from 37 years prior. Skenazy cited a Sesame Workshop lawyer who admitted that there had been a lot of internal discussion about the disclaimer before the DVD's release, and the reluctance to suggest that present-day children should go outside without adult supervision. (YouTube)

International releases[]

See also[]

Sources[]

  1. ↑ NY Times Times Magazine "Sweeping the Clouds Away" by Virginia Heffernan, Nov. 18, 2007
  2. ↑ ToughPigs.com. "The Voice of Reason." November 29, 2007

External links[]

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