Classic Sesame Clips on YouTube

[LittleJerry92]

I thought the same thing.

Looks like we've got something new to wonder about....

 

[minor muppetz]

The recent exposure of these clips is interesting, I won't ask how they were obtained, but it seems like they weren't taken from an individual episode (or maybe they were taken from an incomplete copy of an episode... Which could explain why I'm Square appears to be cut off at the beginning), otherwise I think Surprise would have an EKA at Muppet Wiki by now. If they came from the Sesame Workshop vaults, then the quality isn't as good as all those rare season one, ten, twelve, twenty, and twenty-two episodes that mysteriously surfaced among fans a few years ago. Then again, I've read that Sesame Workshop converted every episode to newer tape formats every year until digitizing them in the late-1990s, maybe these come from older copies while the ones that surfaced a few years ago come from newer, better copies.

It's also interesting that most of these rare clips that have just surfaced are songs written by Tony Geiss. I know that he recently auctioned off his copyright on the songs, but I wonder if he had video copies of the scenes that he sent out.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I'm not convinced they came from the vaults, the quality looks way too VCR/fan-recorded to me. Take my assumption with a grain of salt.

 

[Oscarfan]

When Tony Geiss passes away, his family (I assume) donated a bunch of his personal Sesame tapes to some university (maybe his alma matter). Their online library has video previews of each tape and that's where all these clips and such have come from.

 

[minor muppetz]

When Tony Geiss passes away, his family (I assume) donated a bunch of his personal Sesame tapes to some university (maybe his alma matter). Their online library has video previews of each tape and that's where all these clips and such have come from.

I think I forgot that he had died. I recently read that he auctioned his rights to his songs, assuming that wasn't a hoax I thought it was interesting (even if the price was high - though I wondered if any fan could just pay what they could and pay the rest after the royalties came in), but if he passed away then maybe it makes sense.

I actually can't remember if I heard about that online library donation. Sounds familiar, but I'm really not sure. I did a google search for "Tony Geiss video previews" and saw online listings for Sesame Street books and videos at the Hamilton Library (didn't check to see if there were video previews), but only found commercial releases (I couldn't find a search bar and had to click on Children's Television Workshop under one of the pages).

 

[LittleJerry92]

Posting this here cause I think it's worth sharing, and I don't care if it's from 2000. As Oscarfan pointed out earlier, 2000 clips (presumably up to 2004 I would say) should be considered "classic" at this point, and plus it'll be 20 in three years anyway..... To think I'll be 28 by then.

But anyway, courtesy of Matt...

I found it intriguing when I was a kid not hearing any dialogue from Big Bird in the credits.... It actually kind of weirded me out back then (but I always found those credits to be pretty trippy anyway).

 

[LittleJerry92]

Not sure if this clip's been mentioned on here yet or not, but found a clip of Ingrid when she was Mona Monster with Telly.

Only downfall is (and it doesn't surprise me either).... It's in Portuguese.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Not sure if this clip's been mentioned on here yet or not, but found a clip of Ingrid when she was Mona Monster with Telly.

Only downfall is (and it doesn't surprise me either).... It's in Portuguese.

You know, this has got me thinking (*gasp, no Pig's Laundry, don't hurt your brain!), the American version of the show scaled back on it's characters last year to focus on a main six last year so kids would be less confused. But kids watching international versions of the show probably have it way worse. I mean, they have to keep up with the main local characters on the street, but they also have dubbed clips with all the current characters from the US show, plus sometimes American Muppets that left the show 10 years ago, and even completely obsolete ones like Roosevelt Franklin and Aristotle.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

You know, this has got me thinking (*gasp, no Pig's Laundry, don't hurt your brain!), the American version of the show scaled back on it's characters last year to focus on a main six last year so kids would be less confused. But kids watching international versions of the show probably have it way worse. I mean, they have to keep up with the main local characters on the street, but they also have dubbed clips with all the current characters from the US show, plus sometimes American Muppets that left the show 10 years ago, and even completely obsolete ones like Roosevelt Franklin and Aristotle.

That's actually a great point! I mean...don't forget how Plaza Sesamo would air clips from the Canadian Sesame (I'm not sure if they still do nowadays), so the Mexican viewers had (or have) 3(!!) sets of characters to keep track of.

It's also interesting how Sesamstrasse has released videos and CDs/cassettes (mostly between the 90s and mid 2000s) that only focus on skits from the American show. Based on what I see on the Wiki, it wasn't until 2006 when the German characters starting having their own spotlight DVD's.

 

[LittleJerry92]

I can definitely see the confusion there. Reminds me of when I was a kid and I got REALLY confused on why Ernie had a higher-pitched voice (in this case, Steve Whitmire, compared to others, same thing with Kermit the frog; of course, years later I found out Jim passd away); I can even imagine kids being confused as to why Kermit sounds different in the linking footage than in the regular skits on the Best of Kermit VHS. Or another instance when I was wondering why "Grover's customer was in the 'I wanna know Y!' Sinister Sam skit (in this case, the use of same puppet, different character). Or why, on the Rock 'N Roll VHS, Jackman Wolf's picture of Little Jerry and the Monotones consisted of a trio with two members replaced and the song/linking footage used the quartet/respected members (and in another case, why Big Jeffy later on was with Little Chrissy and the lavnder guy was gone). Point is, small changes in a kid's show can make you confused at a young age

I'm just glad many international shows do at least air many classic clips, even if not in their respected language. We at least get to see the footage.