DVD set idea: Sesame Street Golden Collection

I have an idea for a DVD collection of Sesame Street skits. This idea is similar to the Looney Tunes Golden Collection. These DVDs would be a four-disc set, with the main contents being all inserts and no linking plot, along with many bonus features. With Sesame Workshop planning on releasing The Electric Company on DVD soon and having it's target audience being nostalgic fans, then why not do this?

I will list all four discs in seperate posts. Most of the skit titles are just guesses but I'm sure you can figure them out. I will list multi-part skits once, and the skits lsited after those would be shown between the parts. Any slashes in Journey To Ernie titles would mean that the original Journey To Ernie format would be used.

Disc 1:
Rubber Duckie (original version)
near And Far (1970s version)
Elmo and Whoopi Goldberg talk about hair, fur, and skin
a Buddy and Jim skit
Alice demosntrates through
I can do it by myself
Wegmens Dogs in animal costumes
Grover The Plumber
What's My Part?: Foot
Big Bird meets Little Bird
Don't Waste water
The Banana Sketch
Any Monsters Go To Daycare skit
ABC-DEF-GHI (original version)
Grover The waiter: alphabet soup
james earl jones recites the alphabet
african alphabet
african animal alphabet
letter of the day: a
a-ape
harvey kneeslapper: got an a on ya?
ernies a machine
group of monsters: A!
the golden an
i'm an aardvark
sesame street news: alice in wonderland
The wasteroon Song
any tweedlebugs skit
any deena and pearl skit
the first and last cookie
journey to ernie/ mad/ everybody eats/ things that I remember
supergrover: computer
jim carrey shows happiness and sadness with his feet
any Ask Oscar skit
Global grover: Austrailia
any Global Thingy skit
the crying game
same sound brown
spanish word of the day: si and no
ernie makes a clay sculpture of bert
count it higher
number of the day: 1
let's sing a song of one
harvey kneeslapper: ya want one?
one duck
monsterpiece theatre: one flew over the cukoos nest
king minus
the nobel ostrich
ernie helps bert choose a pigeon hat
grover gives kermit ears
two-headed monster: feet
squeel of fortune
up and down (original version)
123 sesame street
elmos world: balls

heres disc 2:

You Tickle Me
kermit and grover talk about the number 2
a girl talks on the phone while her cat struggles to open a cat food can
the people in your neighborhood (original version)
that's what readings all about
two-headed monster: hat
monster clubhouse
the song of the count
ernie meets simon soundman
susie kabloozy hates the letter f
any ralph and wally skit
monsterpiece theatre: chariots of fur
any hero guy skit
born to add
number of the day: 9
let's sing a song of nine
pinball number count 9
coutn up to nine
jazzy spies #9
martian beauty
ernie and bert share jelly beans
the amazing mumfords disapearing cookie act
my pollywog ways
we coulda
any sneak peek previews skit
journey to ernie: rubber duckie land
do de rubber duck
a man asks a chicken in a duck costume "why did the chicken cross the road?"
any wanda the word fairy skits
rosevelt franklins alphabet
the alphabet song (with celebrities)
cookie monster alphabet
letter of the day: c
c is for cookie (1998 version)
harvey kneeslapper: wanna c?
sesame street news: the princess and the c
the typewriter guy: c
grover the waiter: charleis birthday
forgetful joens and buster brush each others teeth (original version)
lefty tries to sell ernie a scale
teeny little superguy: pet spoon
spanish word of the day: feliz
best friend blues
danger
the word is no
any marshall grover skit
elmos world: ears

disc 3:
Furry Happy Monsters
have you ever looked at a paperclip?
sesame street news: the three little pigs
any larry and phyllys skit
jazzy spies #8
ernies sandbox game
admiral big bird
proud of me
monsterpeice theatre: hamlet
somebody come and play (with Suzie Kabloozy)
Miami Mice: kermit interviews the mice
rappin' alphabet
alphabet jungle
alphabet in the swamp
ruben studdard recites the alphabet
letter of the day: K
kermit draws a K
K-key
herbs silly K poem
any hero guy skit
here is your life: oak tree
headball
journey to ernie/ felines/ martians and radio/ the case of the half-eaten sandhwich
grover and john john count backwards
Kermit talks about feet
subway
garbage man blues
wet or dry
spanish word of the day: esqualia
number of the day: 13
lucky thirteen
the number painter #13
grover the waiter: hamburger
naptime
oscars junk band
elmos world: food

finally, here is disc 4:
elmos song
that's about the size of it
rosevelt franklin teaches his class poision
if i was a cloud in the sky
i gotta be clean
nasty dan
mystery letter
number of the day: 20
herry and john john coutn to 20
grover and herbert birdsfoot count to 20
cookie monster counts 20 napkins
any mysterious theatre skit
any alphaquest skit
journey to ernie: journey to big bird
ernie and bert: tall, taller, tallest
telly sells kermit a head warmer
monsterpiece theatre: the taming of the shoe
global grover: france
spanish word of the day: flores
super grover and super elmo
alphabet piano player in lunchbox
ernie writes an alphabet story
elmos alphabet rap
letter of the day: z
kermits z lecture
z z blues
cookie monster asks a girl to name a z word
the zizzy zoomers
octopuses garden
everyone likes ice cream
one small voice
elmos world: hats
what does everybody think? what would you include?

I would like to add to your list some E&B skits:
Ernie & Bert Go to Egypt
Bert & The Beautiful Day Monster: The Cake

special features

I had thought about listing those, as well as the skit where Ernie and bert go to the jungle, sleep, cookies are a sometimes food, cookie monsters first cookie, the cookie bunny, and a song from kermit, but forgot to.

Here are what special features I would include.

disc 1:
•test pilot #1
•A Walking Tour of Sesame Street with james Earl Jones
•2 complete episodes: the first episode (with commentary by Caroll Spinney, Bob McGraph, Lorretta Long, and Joan Ganz Cooney), and the Death of Mr. Hooper (with commentary by Caroll Spinney, Bob McGraph, Sonia Manzano, Emillio Delgado, Roscoe Orman, Lorretta Long, and Alania Reed Hall).
•a tribute to Jim Henson
•special character documentaries: Big Bird, Ernie & Bert, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Sherlock hemlock, and Rosevelt Franklin.
•photo gallery: past video covers.

disc 2:
•pitch film (with Rowlf and kermit describing and naming the show)
•a tribute to Joe raposo.
•2 complete episodes: both visits from C3PO and R2D2.
•2 episodes of Play With Me Sesame.
•special character documentaries: Grover, Zoe, Oscar, Chris & The Alphabeats, Guy Smiley, and The Count.
•Photo gallery: past album covers (1970-1978).

disc 3:
•Sesame Street Unpaved special.
•a tribute to Jon Stone.
•photo gallery: book covers (1970-1974).
•2 complete episodes: the first appearance of Snuffy, and the episode where everybody met snuffy (with commentary by Caroll Spinney, Martin Robinson, Bob McGraph, Sonia Manzano, and Kevin Clash).
•special character documentaries: the amazing mumford, rosita, herry monster, little jerry & the monotones, mr. snuffleupagus, and telly monster.

disc 4:
•the Sesame Street animators (all-new documeantary)
•Julie on Sesame Street
•a tribute to jeff moss
•photo gallery: 30 character design sketches and set blueprints
•a conversation between past and present cast members (sonia manzano, emillio delgardo, roscoe orman, lorretta long, allison bartlett o'reiley, alan muraoka, david langhan smyrl, alania reed hall, ruth buzzi, and ward saxton).
•2 complete episodes: national counting day, and counting monsters day.

That would be cool. After all, a golden collection worked with "Looney Tunes," so why not with "Sesame Street."

By the way, I thought the segment with Whoopi was with Hoots where they talked about feathers, hair and skin. Or was there another one with Elmo? Just curious.

Here is my dream case for this set...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v445/nforoura/sesamegolddreamcase.jpg

I can't wait! Hurry Sesame Workshop, make this great DVD!!!!

Whoopi Goldberg has made a few appearances on Sesame Street. Two of them have Elmo. In one, Elmo talks abou how Whoopis skin is different from elmos fur, and also observes that her hair is different from his fur, and briefly considers trading his fur for Whoopis skin and hair, but she teaches Elmo that these things can't be traded, and they also decide that they wouldn't really want to trade their body parts. This skit is from 1990.

There was another one, which I think is from 2002, where they sing a song to the tune of Somebody Come And Play, but I remember the lyrics being different. I can't remember what the title was.

Whoopi was also one of many celebrities who appeared in Monster In The Mirror.

There was a site called Muppet Monster Database, which I think no longer exists (i could be wrong). Anyway, that page incldued a still from a skit with Whoopi Goldberg and Hoots from the Big Birds Birthday special, which included segments from the show.

I hope this helps.

That box is good, although not what I would have done. If I were in charge of such a set, both content and packaging-wise, the main background cover would be black (like on the Songs From The Street 3-CD set). The cover would have Big Bird, Elmo, Grover, Bert, Ernie, and Oscar (either illustrated or live action) standing in front of an illustrated version of the street, only with a red carpet on the ground and some bright show biz lights, making it look like a grand premier. By the side would be small photos of some lesser-known characters like Chris and the Alphabeats, Biff and Sully, and Guy Smiley (well, if the main characters are in illustrated form these pictures wouldn't be incldued). The back cover would be a description of the set, with a small box listing the features. The photos would be stills from the segmets included: Rubber Duckie, Chariots of Fur (a grover and herry scene, not an allistar cookie introduction), and Elmos Song.

Here is how i would have the disc art: Big Bird on disc 1, Bert and Ernie on disc 2, Chris and the Alphabeats on disc 3, and Elmo, Grover, Zoe, and Telly on disc 4.

For the main menus, there would be a still of the street, with the original theme music playing (in instrumental form). The Play All option would be in the gutter in front of ernie and berts window. Scene selections would be in the window above the gutter. Special features would be in front of the door to 123 sesame street. And audio/ subtitle options (if any) would be in front of oscars trash can. A preview other Sesame Street DVDs option would be in front of Big Birds doors.

Oh and a couple other sketches I forgot to add to your list, dude:
These are E&B
Ernie & Bert's Eating Cookies In Bed (a classic)
Ernie & beautiful day's test for bert
The Cowboy hat pot
The Party
Godzilla the wonderdog-Maybe


and perhaps one or two more Monsterpiece Theaters--
The 39 steps or the king and I ( or both!)

There! That's great!

makign my list, I was trying to include as few segments that have already been released on video as possible. I did include quite a few previosuly-released segments, including both classics (like Rubber Duckie and African Alphabet) and some random segments that have been on video (like That's What Readings All About), but the majority of my content hasn't been released.

The 39 Stairs and The King And I are the only monsterpiece theatre segments that have been released on video (the 39 Stairs is on Put Down The Duckie, and an edited version of The King and I is on A Celebration of Me, Grover). Many recurring segments have never been on video, so if Sesame Workshop regularly released sets like this, I would wait untill later to include them (I migth include The King And I on a set that has I as the letter f the day, although I Stand Up Straight And Tall would be a better choice, and yes, I am aware that I included some skits for numbers and letters that weren't the letter and number of the day on those discs).

I do have some ideas for other volumes that I might list later.

other features

There are some features that I had planned on listing that I forgot to list. I was going to list all 26 "MY Favorite Sesame Street Moment" segments that opened the episodes from season 35 on disc 1. I was also going to list a trivia game for disc 4. Maybe the prize for correctly answering every question would be some bonus skits: a monster family skit, a green grover skit, a skit with hal miller as gordon, and a skit with richard hunt as elmo.

A booklet would also be good. It could have a special introduction by somebody who has worked on the show for a long time, plus information about the various skits on eac disc.

the photo gallery of design sketches would include the sketches in framed form, with some text in the border talking about the character, some facts about the characters, and some live action photos of that character. For Oscar, there would be the original design sketch, a picture of the orange oscar, and a picture of the green oscar.

Yeah. That helps. Thanks. Whoopi has made quite a few appearances on the street, so this info isn't too surprising.

all-new featurettes

The character documentaries and tributes would be similar to the Behind The Tunes featurettes on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection. They would include interviews with many people involved with the show. Maybe Sesame Workshop could get some outside fans involved with the interviews as well. I would have these last an average of five minutes per documentary (some would be longer, some would be shorter).

It would be good if Frank Oz could be interviewed for features like these. I am sure that he would want to talk on the Jim Henson tribute, and maybe also on tributes that have to do with his characters. Clips of Jim Hensons characters would be used in the jim henson tribute, the other tributes would have clips from their works, and the various character documentaries would have various clips featuring those characters, including clips that aren't on the DVD.

The Big Bird documentary could include comments from Caroll Spinney, Matt Vogel, Lorretta Long, Bob McGraph, Sonia Manzano, Martin Robinson, Jerry nelson, Frank Oz, and Joan Ganz Cooney, for example. The Jim henson Tribute could have interviews with Jim Hensons family, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Fran Brill, Bob McGraph, Roscoe Orman, Emillio Delgardo, Steve Whitmire, Kevin Clash, Joan Ganz Cooney, and possibly some people who never had a chance to work with Jim henson, like Eric Jacopson and John Tartiglia (and of course many fans of Jim Henson). After all, Eric and John are probably fans of Jim Henson.

Maybe Christopher Finch (author of Of Muppets & Men, Jim Henson: The Works, and some Dark Crystal book) and David Borgenecht (author of Sesame Street Unpaved) could be interviewed as well (assuming that they are still alive).

a package description

Here is how I would make the description on the back of the packaging look like:

"Did you watch Sesame Street when it premiered on November 10, 1969? Do you remember when everybody thought that Mr. Snuffleupagus was only Big Birds imaginary friend? Do you remember the baker who always fell down the stairs? Do you remember Rosevelt Franklin, Harvey Kneeslapper, or Mr. Hooper just as much as you know Ernie, Bert, or Elmo?

Well, whether you watched the show when it began or if you just started to watch the show with your kids, This collection is packed with something for everybody: classic sesame street music such as Rubber Duckie, The People In Your Neighborhood, and Proud Of Me, segments like Sesame Street News and Elmos World, great animations and films like Pinball Number Count, Teeny Little Superguy, and more! Guest appearances by the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Jim carrey, Stevie Wonder, and other great stars. Inserts that haven't been seen in a long time. Many segments previously unavailible on video and DVD. And many of your all-time favorite characters.

Thus set is also packed with features, such as full-length episodes of both Sesame Street and Play With Me Sesame, photo galleries, a trivia game, all-new featurettes on various characters, tributes to Jim henson, Joe Raposo, Jeff Moss, and Jon Stone, and much, much more!

This four-disc set is expected to please any fan of the show, whether you are four years old or four hundred years old!"

What do you think of this description?

design sketches

Here is what I would do for character design sketches. I would include the pictures in boarders and on the side boarder would be text iformation about who designed the character, who performed the character, what year that character debuted, basic information about that character, and at least one special fact about that character. On the top boarder would be some pictures of the finished puppet. Sometimes there would be more than one picture. For Herry monster, there would be pictures of the furry nosed herry, blue-nosed herry, and purple nosed herry. Some of these would have easter egg features, which are basically extra segments.

the characters as follows are:
1. Big Bird
2. Elmo (easter egg: a Baby Monster skit)
3. Ernie and Bert (i think they were designed on the same paper)
4. Cookie Monster
5. Grover (easter eggs: three gray-green grover skits: kermit instructing grover to get in a box, the original near and far, and grover and other monsters demonstrating first and last)
6. Herry Monster
7. The Count
8. Countess darling Von darling
9. Countess Von Backwards
10. Rosevelt Franklin
11. Rosevelt franklins Mom (easter egg: a rosevelt franklin skit)
12. Oscar The grouch (easter egg: an orange oscar skit)
13. Grungetta
14. Osvaldo
15. Slimey
16. Bruno
17. Irvine
18. Lefty The salesman
19. Simon Soundman
20. Mr. Snuffleupagus
21. Alice Snuffleupagus
22. Baby Bear
23. Zoe
24. Fat Blue
25. Biff
26. Sully
27. Sherlock Hemlock
28. Sam The Robot
29. Guy Smiley (easter egg: some skits where Guy was called Sonny Friendly)
30. Honkers

Well, dude I Like A LOT of it(hope this comes true!!!) but the special features are a little unreal. It's just seems unlikely to have special features on every disc. Ussually box sets contain very few bonuses, showing you that the studios are lazy. But it seems like either a. they're gonna be stingy and give only a handful of bonus features b) they will contain the whole documenataries, interviews, FULL, UNCUT episodes of Sesame Street Unpaved, Play With Me Sesame, etc. but knowing today's studios they're gonna be cheap and do option A. Not to say I dont want full uncut eps ( Heck Yeah I do! I dont have any rare SS's from 70's, 80's, let alone 90's, the decade I was born!! LOL I'm desperate!!) but I just find that a little too unreal.

Anyway, I do hope that maybe somehow when you're finished entirely with this, you could email Sesame Workshop and then they decide to make this EXACTLY to our specifications (as the list says) and they could sell it for, oh, for all the bonuses and stuff, maybe somewhere around $48.00 and then I'll go to Best Buy and get it and worship you!! LOL

Ernie & Bert Go to Egypt
Bert & The Beautiful Day Monster: The Cake


two of my favorites

I am not sure whether Sesame Workshop is allowed to have outsiders pitch ideas. I wouldn't mind if somebody at Sesame Workshop saw this and usedthe idea without my permission, because then it would get made, but I am not sure if Sesame Workshop would consider this unless I got an ageant or was hired by Sesame Workshop. I could be wrong though. I know that palisades has taken suggestions for it's various action figures, but of course Sesame Workshop and Palisades are two different companies.

If this could be a reality but I had to limit the amount of special features, then I would just include the pitch tape with Rowlf, one or two of the test pilots (I only listed one as a feature so that there would still be features for possible future discs), and maybe a special like Julie On Sesame Street. I have read about two Sesame Street/ The Electric Company crossover specials, Out To Lunch and The Grover Monster/ Jean Marsh Cartoon Special. These would make great features for either a Sesame Street DVD collection like this or for the upcoming Electric Company DVD set. They would be especially good because none of us on Muppet Central seem to have copies or even memories of these specials.

I would be willing to have many inserts cut from actual episodes if it meant having episodes as special features (if episodes could be included but many of the inserts had to be cut, I would include at least one insert from each "insert break" between street scenes, at least one segment for each of the letters and numbers of the day, and any segment that actually has to do with the shows plot).

It might be more realistic to have a four-disc set full of inserts on each disc and nothing else. Theres nothing wrong with that, especially if it means having a lot of rare segments. If budget wouldn't allow for both special features and the use of Kermit The Frog (and any other character who has appeared on Sesame Street that isn't owned by Sesame Workshop), copyrighted music not written for Sesame Street, and celebrity appearances, then I would be willing to sacrifice special features.