Sesame Street: Old School
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Sesame Street: Old School is the title of a series of DVD releases produced by Sesame Workshop. The first volume "1969-1974," was released in Region 1 (North America) on October 24, 2006. The second volume, "1974-1979," was released on November 6, 2007.
Whereas most DVD releases by Sesame Workshop focus on segments from more recent years of their PBS series, Sesame Street, these DVD's are aimed primarily at adult viewers who grew up watching the series in the 1970s. The first 3-DVD set includes the first episodes from the first five seasons, along with selected segments from the first five years. The second set follows the same formula for seasons six through ten. Among the most notable extra segments is one of James Earl Jones counting to 10 (which was actually created before production of the series officially began; it was a test film shown to children to gauge effectiveness of the format), and Jesse Jackson leading a group of children in reciting his poem, "I Am - Somebody".
Given the format of Sesame Street, many of the animated and Muppets segments featured in this set, especially those seen in the first episode, would be replayed on the series well into the 1990s.
Included on Volume 1 is a half-hour promotional film from early 1969 hosted by Muppet creator Jim Henson's trademark characters Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog that was created to sell the idea to potential sponsors. The second set features one of the test pilots that were shown to groups of children in the summer of 1969.
On the first release, each episode is preceded by a newly made animated segment introducing the episode, featuring "Bob" (a blobbly-type human not related to Bob McGrath, done in the style of the era) telling his memories of the show, and how it developed; notably, the segment that precedes the first episode from November 1969 includes Bob reading a disclaimer warning parents that the DVD is aimed at adults and that these early episodes no longer necessarily reflect the most commonly accepted practices in preschool programming. This disclaimer is also used on Volume 2, where each episode opens and closes with new animated segments featuring the anthropomorphic typewriter created by Jeff Hale.
[edit] Alterations
The episodes were also altered slightly to reflect the ownership of the word “Muppet” and Kermit the Frog by The Muppets Studio, LLC, a wholly owned entity of the Walt Disney Company, which purchased the non-Sesame Street Muppets and all related trademarks in 2004.
Several segments were replaced on the DVD versions of the episodes because of rights issues as well (including a musical number by Stevie Wonder produced specifically for the show, 123 Sesame Street; this musical segment, cut from the end of the 1973 season premiere, was a rerun segment from an earlier episode from that year).
The NET (National Educational Television) logo and the 1970 PBS logo were replaced with the 1971 PBS logo (see PBS idents) at the end of the premiere episodes of seasons one and two as well. However, the NET logo was retained on the pilot episode included in the second set.
