"A Special Sesame Street Christmas" coming to DVD and CD November 6

Another word often used in early episodes, "ding-a-ling". Not to mention Scoop's suggestion of a title for what eventually became Sesame Street ("Hey, Stupid").

The racist episode that you're referring to was about somebody calling Hooper's store and making a comment about Gina and Savion hanging out together. Gina and Savion told the caller off. More details can be found here:
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_3140

wow! i may get this...ive seen some of it, just Big bird and Oscar.....GOD thank GOD theres NO elmo on this or the cover YOOO HOOO!!!

What's sad is that I'm still likely to buy this anyway as much as I hate this special.

Not to post it again, but I might just have to stick with my review from December:
http://blip.tv/rewind/rewind-reviews-a-special-sesame-street-christmas-5795420

Didn't that puffy-looking guy with the glasses and wool cap do some of the graphics for this review?

Really? I thought that was the graphic designs fairy!

I have to temporarily interrupt the discussion once more just to say... sometimes I miss having that goatee...

I've always seen this as similar to the Star Wars holiday special. Very typically '70s, to have a meandering plot, a bunch of random celebrity cameos and several "what the heck were they thinking" moments, lol.

But I'll probably buy it if it is available, or at least ask a relative if they'd be so kind. I just have a weakness for anything retro and like others have said, at least Elmo doesn't dominate, hehe.

i don't like it! RIP Michael Jackson!

Which is, by the way, the only reason this thing's getting released over far superior specials like Stars and Streets Forever and Let Him Eat Cake (the one where Cookie eats ALL of Sesame Street rather than eat Big Bird's cake). Even that one Oscarfan mentioned, Out To Lunch. Please tell me someone besides SW who is willing to release it on DVD owns it. Same with the Julie Andrews special.

I'd rather a release of every guessing game episode in the past few seasons and watch it on marathon than this.

Trust me.

Those who haven't seen it, you DON'T want to see it. You're better off. it's just not good at all, Big Bird and Oscar are barely in character... Oscar seems pretty Flanderized, actually. This was done by people who have no knowledge of Sesame Street at all, and the fact that the "celebrities" go almost out of their way to not sing Christmas Music is ridiculous in and of itself. And the one dude you WANT to hear sing (Michael Jackson) doesn't. It's such a shame that's the only brush he had with The Muppets. The waste of that alone is maddening.

It's not even good in a so bad it's good way. it's just bad. Stick to the superior, and more heart felt Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. There's a reason why that's a beloved classic, and this isn't.

That one is WORSE! The guy who created Jar Jar Binks thinks it's an embarassment. What does that tell you?

That that guy shouldn't talk, lol.

But about the Sesame Street special, I agree most of the dialogue is laughably painful and Oscar's little redemption story is a bit too forced. As others have said, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street did more with just a couple of cute moments.

HOWEVER, I will say the one scene I like in A Special Sesame Street Christmas is where they're complaining about the snow plow ruining all their hard work because that's pretty much every Winter for me, lol.

I also have a soft spot for Elmo Saves Christmas. Mainly because it's one of the last (if not the last) appearances of a certain reporting amphibian. And I give EW: Happy Holidays nothing but credit for doing the Nativity scene (though it still was very murky about the explanation of Kwanzaa). Even with the eye sore that is Elmo's Christmas Countdown, at least you have as many Muppets as there are celebrities.

Though, I did like the thing about the plow too. Can't tell you how many times that happened to me.

Yeah I do admire them for proving that you can be inclusive and respectful without getting all uptight. Christmas is, at its heart, a story about a baby and that's all you need for starters. Though yeah I think a lot of specials in general are a little confused about Kwanzaa actually, heh.

Yeah it put Sesame Street in a real inner city world like you would have seen in one of the live action segments and that's always nice to see.

Inner city, outer city, suburb... those plow guys can go [disrupted by the sound of a rushing subway train] and be grateful for the opportunity

In get "snow rage" pretty bad.

The soundtrack is up with samples on Amazon...
http://www.amazon.com/A-Special-Ses...B009SZ9EWS/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_title_0

Wouldn't you know it? They just lifted the audio right from the special and put it on a CD and the bonus tracks are very obnoxious. Why am I not surprised?

Yeahhh, after listening to those MP3 samples, I'm definitely not buying the DVD of this special, I forgot how appallingly bad this special is until I listened to them. And I own The Muppets' Wizard of Oz DVD for Pete's sake! I'd much rather put my money toward a DVD of a better Sesame special.

Plucky Duck's Yakkity Yak is still better...

But yeah, half those songs aren't even ON the special, are they? And who the flark are the Merry Mistletoes?

See? This thing is for Sesame Street completists only. And even they don't want it.

Ah, thanks for finding that, buddy.

Yeah, there's no way I'm buying that CD now - Especially seeing how it's selling for $15 at Chapters, and the actual special is only $3 more. I guess I'll have to buy an Ann Murray album for "You Needed Me"... but then again, Ann Murray albums don't have the awesomeness of YAKETY-YAK, DON'T TALK BACK!!!

(You know, I'm still really surprised that they were able to put "You Needed Me" on this thing, seeing that they just used the regular studio version for the special)

I'm still buying the DVD, though - Call me crazy, guys, but since seeing it for the first time (I hated it the first time around) last year, this thing's grown on me... I honestly don't know what I should do with myself now...

Eh, given the choice I'll still buy the lousy '70s Christmas special, lol.

You know what's really, really sad? I don't even have Christmas Eve on Sesame Street on DVD yet, and I'll likely own THIS THING before getting that classic!

Seriously, I've been meaning to buy that box-set that comes with Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Elmo Saves Christmas and Happy Holidays (For the former two specials), but every year when I see it on the shelf at that special Christmas sale price... there's always something else that ends up getting my festive dollar...