HBO is editing modern Sesame Street episodes

[antsamthompson9]

Since I'm the kinda guy who likes to keep track of things, here's all the modern Sesame episodes that were edited when aired on HBO: 4213, 4214, 4215, 4217, 4219, 4222, 4223, 4224, 4225, 4226, 4229, 4234, 4237, 4257, 4266, 4267, 4268, 4269, 4272, 4278, 4279, 4280, 4282, 4305, 4309, 4313, 4314, 4317, 4319, 4322, 4325, 4403, 4407, 4409, 4410, 4411, 4417, 4419, 4505, 4506, 4514, 4516 and 4520.

 

[Oscarfan]

It seems most of the edits are replacing or removing Joe Raposo-composed pieces. Must be some sort of rights issue or something with his estate. They can still use the theme, oddly.

 

[Drtooth]

That's very painful to hear. No wonder the theme wasn't on the last Old School DVD.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

So i'm guessing the segments that were cut were part of Elmo's World right? Because other than that I can't think of very many instances where Joe Raposo songs were used in recent episodes.

 

[MuppetSpot]

It seems most of the edits are replacing or removing Joe Raposo-composed pieces. Must be some sort of rights issue or something with his estate. They can still use the theme, oddly.

Well that explains the cut theme on Old School volume 3 but, now I'm worried if other songs from Joe Raposo will be not be heard.

 

[minor muppetz]

It seems most of the edits are replacing or removing Joe Raposo-composed pieces. Must be some sort of rights issue or something with his estate. They can still use the theme, oddly.

I've looked at the guides on Muppet Wiki, the ones that note what's been cut, and it seems like they've also been cutting a lot of segments that teach Spanish. The Spanish Word of the Day tends to be cut from episodes that had it, I also recall seeing that one episode that focused on teaching Spanish in the main plot otherwise replaced pretty much every segment that taught the language. And I've noticed three or four instances where segments with Harvey Kneeslapper got replaced (it doesn't seem like other old school characters have been cut).

 

[MuppetSpot]

It's weird that they're removing Harvey Kneeslapper? I can't up with any ideas unless HBO doesn't want any controversial characters like Harvey or Don Music?

 

[Drtooth]

I'm just waiting for the day all the older episodes are replaced by a blurry still of a generic Anything Muppet over the sound of nothing for 50 minutes because they can't even get the rights to their own characters and actors.

I understand that rights issues were written by madmen who had no foresight of footage being recorded for posterity and then sold, and I understand they're now controlled by greedy rights holders and estates... but the fact SW can't even buy the rights to their own music written for them even with Warner Bros and HBO's help is extremely disgusting. You'd think if Raposo has an estate, they'd know how full well his songs were important to Sesame Street.

 

[MelissaY1]

Ugh, this is disappointing to hear!

 

[minor muppetz]

That's very painful to hear. No wonder the theme wasn't on the last Old School DVD.

I think some Joe Raposo tunes were still on the set. I'm pretty sure he did "Everybody Run" and "What's It Like to Be in School" (it's clearly his voice on the songs, at least), and I think he wrote "Disco Frog".