Why was Sesame Street Unpaved shown late weekend nights?

[ssetta]

I think that's true, because I have been convinced that my petition to keep Unpaved on Noggin will not work either. Because, again, we are not who the show was geared for in the first place. Look at it this way: Just as we don't like the new version of the show as much, they don't like the old version as much as the new one, mainly because it has Elmo's World. I know most of us here don't like Elmo's World, but it's extremely popular with the age group the show is geared for.

 

[ScottMonster]

I should also add that there's a few reasons I can think of as to why a CTW channel is unlikely to become a reality either: First of all CTW dosen't exist anymore, they've been Sesame Workshop for some time now, which is pretty wise since Sesame Street is the only show they're producing these days. And even when they were CTW back in the day, they weren't producing that many shows. You can count the total number of shows they were producing on the fingers of one hand: Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and 3-2-1 Contact. Thats all, AFAIK and three TV shows does not a channel make. And even if it did, it would still be a channel for kids and therefore it would be kind of hard to justify airing TV programs that were made for kids twenty to thirty years ago, particularly educational ones.

What I think is that somebody --it could be an organization or handful of individuals with the money, the means and the wherewithall to do so -- should come up with some kind of a channel geared toward retro and nostalgia buffs where they could fill there programming schedule with all kinds of classic TV shows like "M*A*S*H", "All In The Family", "The Brady Bunch", "Cheers" etc. AND then they could devote part of their programming line up towards children's programming INCLUDING the episodes of Sesame Street from 1969-89 Of course, they couldn't *call* them Sesame Street Unpaved since that's how Noggin presented them, but they'd still be the same shows. They could show these along with other old kids shows, including The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact essentially all of SW/CTW's past shows as well as other muppet featured shows like Fraggle Rock, The Muppet Show (though I'd call that an all ages show) as well as old kids shows that aren't necessarily educational. (I mean I wouldn't mind seeing the Smurfs and G.I Joe again

But the major difference between a channel like this and a kids channel like Noggin is that even though they would show kid's programs, they're first and foremost a channel devoted to retro and therefore they wouldn't have the same issues about showing kid's programs that might be considered 'dated', like SSUnpaved or TEC, unlike Noggin or any other channel which is intended primarily for children, especially one that exists for educational purposes. If today's kids watch and like them, then great. If they don't...no biggie since the channel's purpose is nostalgia and not kid's TV.

Worth some pretty serious consideration IMNSHO

 

[ssetta]

Those were not the only shows CTW produced. They also produced Square One, Cro, and Ghostwriter. But I see your point, I don't see how the channel would be popular if it only had 6 shows. What I was planning on was maybe they could air some foreign versions of the show, some old movies and specials, and that stuff.

And from what you were saying, that's what TV Land is for. Imagine this, TV Land actually did a special on Sesame Street Unpaved back in '99 when it was new. Some of the cast members shared their favorite sketches. So maybe those old shows could get moved to TV Land!

 

[ScottMonster]

Originally posted by ssetta
(snip) ....So maybe those old shows could get moved to TV Land!

Not a bad idea! I don't know why this hasn't been done. In fact if you want to know the truth, as I was typing the post above, I thought to myself that this is an idea that's just so obvious to me and considering that there's now specialty channels for just about every genre and interest you can imagine -- science fiction, cartoons, horror, fantasy, cycling, golf, fishing, you name it -- and that the market for retro is so big now that there MUST be some sort of a channel devoted to this already and that I'm just totally ignorant and unaware of it. Not surprising given that I'm up here in Canada where TVLand is not available as part of any cable or satellite provider's programming package. I hate to admit it, but DTH and cable here sucks compared to what you guys have available to you in the U.S. DirecTV and DishNetwork are not legally allowed to distribute their programming in Canada because of almost totalitarian broadcasting regulations here. But the demand for their programing clearly exists and many subscribe to it anyway through what's called a "gray market" in which they set up a U.S mailing address and have their bills delivered there and pay for the service on their credit card in American dollars. But now the courts here have declared this to be illegal. However I have managed to obtain episodes of SSUnpaved through correspondence with some American tape traders who were good enough to tape them for me. I have eight episodes from 1969-78 and have watched them over and over again and I thank these people from the bottom of my heart for providing me with such great stuff which I otherwise might never have been able to see. But if our government gets with the times, I might yet see more. Yeah sure. And maybe there'll be a snowstorm in the Carribean

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

Putting 1969-86 (best era of SS IMO) SS on TV Land would be a great idea...if you'd be willing to stand edits and commercial interruption. And anyways, I'd think that if TV Land had to pick a CTW show for a retro kids' block, they'd probably pick The Electric Company instead...

 

[ScottMonster]

Originally posted by Jeffrey Gray
Putting 1969-86 (best era of SS IMO) SS on TV Land would be a great idea...if you'd be willing to stand edits and commercial interruption. And anyways, I'd think that if TV Land had to pick a CTW show for a retro kids' block, they'd probably pick The Electric Company instead...

OK since I don't know much about TVLand, enlighten me: Is it a channel that's now widely available as a part of basic cable that you don't need to pay for? Or is it a specialty channel only available to DTH or Cable subscribers -- meaning people are paying to receive this programming and therefore shouldn't be seeing commercials (or edits) on these channels in the first place.
And why would they have to pick one or the other not both and even if they did why would it be TEC over SS? I mean even a channel like TVLand is only going to show programs that did well when they originally aired. Not that TEC did badly, but consider this: SS has been around for nearly 35 years and is still going strong and is shown in one form or another in more than a hundred countries around the globe. Compare that to TEC, seen exclusively in the U.S and parts of Canada and which only enjoyed six years of production before they had to throw in the towel. Did you know that episodes that ran on PBS from 1977 till about the mid 80s were only repeats of the show's last three seasons of production -- why couldn't they show any from the first three during that time? When Noggin started showing them in 1999, it was the first time since their original airing that they showed episodes of the series in its entirety. And while SSUnpaved is being shown less than it used to be and will by all indicators be on for another little while, TEC has now been phased out completely. Not that TEC was bad, though but it just wasn't as successful as SS, partially because it didn't have the muppets, IMO.

 

[beaker]

Originally posted by ScottMonster
should come up with some kind of a channel geared toward retro and nostalgia buffs where they could fill there programming schedule with all kinds of classic TV shows like "M*A*S*H", "All In The Family", "The Brady Bunch", "Cheers" etc. AND then they could devote part of their programming line up towards children's programming INCLUDING the episodes of Sesame Street from 1969-89

I'm not sure about putting shows/sitcoms about war, ignorant armchair racism, and chronic alongsideSesame programming.

Yeah, you can call them CTW, or Sesame Workshop...but to me and the fans it is an extention of the JHC.

Btw, I havent seen Sesame since the late 80's, but Im assuming the last good years were in the 80's if you all are saying 69-89 era. My fave era was the mid to late 80's when I was growing up(the debut of Telly, Honkers, Dingers, etc) Though I have to admit
Sesame in the last few years(at least from compilation vhs and dvds Ive seen) still has its charm with good ol Telly, Baby Bear, and Zoe. Though I just cant stand non Muppet segments...if they ever put a best of Sesame on dvd they need to nix the non Muppet segments like the cartoons, etc.

 

[mikealan]

If SSU is shown late Friday and Saturday nights many other Henson shows are not shown in our country, how about if Sesame Street (1969-89) and The Muppet Show would move to TV Land and they can be shown on our new Muppet channel we can make up that features Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies, 3-2-1 Contract, Muppets Tonight, The Electric Company, Cro, Square One TV, etc. Give Pokemon (TV show), Looney Tunes and Scooby-Doo a "big thumbs down", because I think that they are soooooo annoying!

But, when I watched the Season 30 episodes on Noggin, I love the new characters like the good old Elmo, Zoe, Rosita, Baby Bear, etc. I believe that they're muppets.

Sorry that many of you guys disliked Elmo's World, but I like it.

 

[ssetta]

Well, why not pick both of them?