Sesame Street: Old School Volume 1 (1969 - 1974) [DVD]

I purchased this collection as much for my three children as for myself. I started watching Sesame Street in about 1973 and thought that it was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen. My mother once told me that Sesame Street was in New York City and I remember thinking that everyone in Manhattan must know Big Bird. The Sesame Street of these DVD's is the gritty, tire-filled urban landscape that I recall--with all the adults I knew and loved and trusted (a very beautiful young Maria...a dorky but loving Bob...a cool as a cucumber David...the can-do Luis) doing what they did best--teaching children not just how to read and count, but how to cooperate, share, resolve differences, and maybe most importantly accept one another regardless of gender, color or language. Today's Sesame is really a pale, anemic version of "my" brilliant Sesame, and I suspect that if this DVD sells well (which I suspect it will) the producers of the show will have to admit that somewhere, they veered away from the show's true mission--to meet the educational and psychosocial needs of preschoolers in all economic demographics. Cue Abby Cadabby?...oh, wait. Never mind. That being said, what do you get on this collection? Everything you knew you loved but haven't seen in 30 years. The 10 minute montage on the milk cycle. The absolutely spectacular "handclapping" sequence (guaranteed to stick in your head for hours afterward. As my 21-month old succinctly put it after viewing the segment for about the 30th time, "This is fun.") Remember "Can't you see? There's a bird on me"? How about when nobody could see Snuffy except for Big Bird? Lena Horne singing to Grover? James Earl Jones doing the alphabet? Luis demonstrating "exit" using nothing but a brick wall? Bert and Ernie at the movies? Count von Count counting to 6 using Ernie's pyramid of blocks? A wildlife segment on...the jackrabbit? How about a jazzy ode to a tiger ("Who you lookin' at tiger, and what do you see?")? Kermit getting dissed by a little girl who thought that Cookie Monster was part of a standard recitation of the alphabet? Could this collection be any more perfect as a representation of how television for children can and should be? Professionally, I'm a middle-school language arts teacher and K-12 reading specialist. I am amazed by the high level of instructional material that can be gleaned for children from just these three DVD's. Phonemic awareness in the form of rhymes, word games, basic vowel-consonant word patterns (CVC, CVCC), concepts of print--all of these fundamental skills can be explored with emerging readers to increase their own sensitivity to the way language works. The shows also explore a comprehensive sight word vocabulary that rivals any Dolch list. I have to say that the newer shows just don't do as good a job in presenting basic reading concepts. In my opinion, there's no need to reinvent the wheel here--just mix up the old reading segments (Dan the man with the golden "an") in with the newfangled Elmo/Zoe crowd and everybody's bound to be happy. I cannot wait for other volumes to come out. Will I be as eager to buy them once they lose their Henson-centricness? Hmmmm.

At 23 years of age, I can truly say that I have been a lifetime fan of Sesame Street. Watching the 3-DVD set of Sesame Street - Old School, Vol. 1 has been both nostalgic and enlightening. Because I was born practically a decade after most of the material on this set originally aired, I expected most of the content to be new to me (I was barely a year old when Mr. Hooper's death was explained to the world), but that was not the case. Many of the short films and interstitials were familiar (and not just because I used to watch Sesame Unpaved on Noggin) to me as a viewer from the mid-1980s, and I think that just underscores the quality the show has exhibited from the beginning. Sesame Street truly revolutionized children's programming, not just because it was educational, but because it was (and remains) entertaining, not pandering. I'll admit, seeing Gordon with an afro, Orange Oscar and the first few tries at Big Bird's head still freak me out a bit (as they did when I saw them on Noggin several years back), but the show itself is just as good as I ever remembered, something that cannot be said for most nostalgia entertainment (like Transformers or He-Man or JEM). The set contains five full episodes from the first five seasons, and 54 (the liner notes are incorrect, they should have asked Count for help) bonus clips. The set also includes the 25 minute pitch-film that was made before the series originally aired, explaining Sesame Street's message and motive. Although the episodes have a disclaimer that it is not necessarily intended for today's pre-school children, I believe they would probably enjoy "classic" Street even more than the current lineup of shows. The fact that today's pre-schoolers may be more advanced than the Sesame Street of yore can really be attributed to Sesame Street itself, and that's pretty cool. Still, I personally appreciate that the aim of the set is at adults, because so many of us associate our childhood with Sesame Street. A booklet is included that gives a brief overview of the series from the first five years and I found it informative. According to Muppet Central, a few sketches were altered or removed for music copyright issues (one with Stevie Wonder, one with Rogers & Hammerstein), but because I never saw the originals, I found nothing amiss. What astounded me more than anything was that at the end of the first five years, more than 600 episodes of the show had been produced. No wonder they can't release full seasons! Although the full-length episodes are great, my favorite part are the additional sketches from each respective season. Seeing Kermit sing "Bein' Green" in its original form, the "Bread, Milk and Butter" cartoon and the "In in the Sky with Diamonds" parody is a real treat. The picture quality is great -- especially considering the program's age (and the fact that it was one of the first programs to be recorded on video, although film was used for most of the interstitials) -- I doubt the show ever looked as good as it looks right now. The sound quality is good too -- mono of course -- but clear and crisp. Overall, I highly recommend this set for anyone who loves or loved Sesame Street. For those who were born after these episodes aired (like me), looking back at the beginning is really special. It is clear that everyone involved had a true love for teaching and interacting with children and taking television to another level.

Great for Sesame Street lovers who yearn for the pre-Elmo takeover. Very watchable with kids and grandkids.

Like most Americans of my age, I grew up watching Sesame Street. It was considered a new invention to give children some rudimentary education and teach them something about the world while they moppeted and gamboled around the house doing kids stuff. Looking back at these videos, most of which I remembered very clearly when I watched them again as an adult, I wonder what these people did to my mind. Sesame Street is now an obvious product of the counter culture. Watching some of the shorts and cartoons in it ... well, I can see why teenage pot-smoking reprobates enjoyed watching Sesame Street as much as kids in those days did. Heck, there were many, many prominent members of the counter culture featured prominently in the program. For example, I had a crush on Buffy St. Marie, American Indian Movement activist from the 60s, from listening to her sing nice songs on Sesame Street. I also had quite a few Stevie Wonder records because of his numerous appearances on Sesame Street. Other figures of the time also made occasional appearances; Johnny Cash and Jesse Jackson among others. It's funny watching the kids from Sesame Street (which, in case you don't remember, is in the Ghetto) gamboling around Farmer Bob's Farm, figuring out where food comes from and such. One of the great cultural artifacts preserved in Sesame Street, besides the psychedelic art and the hipster haircuts and moustaches, is the uniforms that this era of working class people wear. I mean, I remember people dressing like that, but if they weren't anthropologically preserved in the Bell Jar of Sesame Street ... that might have been lost to history. Nobody knows how Scythian bartenders dressed and comported themselves either. Watching the series really brings me back; it also reminded me of Mr. Hooper who was probably my favorite old dude on Television, and that the "old school" cookie monster is actually pretty scary. Is it good for kids? I think it is. If you're the type who wants your kid to wear a bicycle helmet when he walks around the house, you'll probably be horrified by it. I find it entertaining, educational, and profoundly nice. Sesame Street Old School also lacks any of the shrill sanctimony or paranoid preachiness that you see in modern kids shows. Kids can watch it and hardly know they're being taught stuff at all. I occasionally wonder that they didn't implant secret mind control engrams into my mind with some of those wacky psychedelic scenes, a la Manchurian Candidate, but over all this is great nostalgic fun.

We finished watching through the Old School Sesame Street DVD and the two things that stuck out the most were that C is for Cookie and that this is not meant for kids. What? Yes, we remember that right at the beginning, one of the first things you hear is that this nostalgic show is meant for adults and is not suitable for today’s kids (or something to that effect, not an exact quote). We were so taken aback by that introduction that we couldn’t even pay attention to the show for a while. How is Sesame Street not for kids? These are the exact shows that we grew up with. We watched them and became functional adults. That’s not good enough for today’s kids? Do they have to be shielded from 70’s fashion? Not understand why kids are playing outside? Miss their new characters? Or what? By far, that has got to be the most absurd statement we’ve ever heard. Once we got over the implication, we could enjoy the rest of the DVD. Particularly, our cookie song. This DVD was a nice trip down memory lane, albeit a short journey. There are only a couple of full episodes and the rest is highlight reel. The documentary on the creation of the show was interesting. We grew up on Sesame Street and never knew that it was designed to sell us fundamentals the same way products are sold in short commercials. Consumers (and pre-schoolers) learn by repetition and jingles, so that’s why it works. And that’s why, after all these years, we still remember that cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C. And no, we probably haven’t really heard the whole song since we slept with our cookie monster doll, but it’s always been rattling around our head. Actually hearing it again was cool and we sang along without missing a beat! Granted, we don’t remember any specific episode. But the sets, the characters, the people, and the general format were all so familiar, it’s like we saw it yesterday. That’s how much impact it made on our subconscious toddler brain. As soon as Snuffleupagus appeared on the screen, we immediately exclaimed, “It’s Snuffleupagus!” and just as quickly realized we haven’t thought about or said that name in decades, yet we knew! So it was very fun for this overgrown kid to see Cookie, Grover, Oscar, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, The Count, and even Kermit, again singing and teaching things we needed to know. It’s sad to think that today’s kids don’t need to know the fundamentals of life and education for some reason. Part of us wishes that this was a typical full season DVD so we could see more. But since it’s apparently meant to be merely a nostalgic memory jogger, it was probably enough content to see for old time’s sake. The artwork on the case is also fun and colorful, and the enclosed booklet is full of interesting information. We did enjoy it, but we’re giving it a 4 because it could be longer, and yeah, there’s the whole insulting our intelligence thing. Sorry we got the cookie song stuck in your head, too. This review has been brought to you by the letter C.

I snapped up this collection when I saw a recent review of it in an entertainment magazine. I had been thinking for years how much the newer Sesame Street episodes differed from the ones I grew up with and longed to see those old animated counting segments, the baker falling down the stairs with his pastries, and nowadays-seldom-seen Muppets like Herry Monster. What a treat to see entire old episodes, plus a string of "greatest hits" segments featuring classic songs like C is for Cookie and Rubber Ducky. I absolutely loved it. As an adult the didactic qualities jumped out more, but were seamless to me as a kid. I loved the late 60s/early 70s look and feel as well. Some things I did not remember--an orange Oscar the Grouch?? --but others I immediately recognized even when I hadn't thought of them in 30 years, like the series of animations of dots marching across the screen, and then messing up in certain ways (turning the wrong color etc) and going back and re-doing it. Of the extras, the one I most enjoyed is the original "pitch reel" used to sell the Sesame Street concept. The first bit with Joan Ganz Cooney speaking flatly to the camera and explaining the educational theory of the show is a huge yawner, but when it switches to Kermit the Frog and Rowlf explaining how the show will operate, complete with sample bits, classic Muppet humor shines through even in this very early example of Henson's work. Neat! So I pretty much knew I would love it. All the neice-and-nephew family units received a set for Christmas and I have been holding my breath a little, figuring that even if the kids of today found it boring, their parents would get a kick out of the same memory lane trip that I did...but so far the kids seem to like it a lot too! Very cool, and something that my brother said he'll be far happier to watch with the kids than something like Barney or the Wiggles. So if you want to see if your kids will like old-school style Sesame, give it a go--unless they MUST have Elmo or nothing, because the little orange guy is no where to be found in this set (and some of us like it that way!)

After many years of fans begging the Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop) to do a major release of "classic" material from the archives, it appears that they finally relented! I think the success of the Electric Company Set from several months back paved the way... Let me start out by saying that I'm 29 years old and have been collecting this material for years. The bulk of what I've obtained came from the Noggin channel which was playing old episodes of Street from 1969 to 1989 until they stopped airing them a few years back. I imagine most of the people interested in this set are familiar with the early years of Sesame Street. It was a chaotic, brilliantly conceived show from day one... very much a product of its time (the late 60s), and although the show was devised to teach kids, it was in its own way as revolutionary in format as Monty Python's Flying Circus was... extremely fast paced and chock full of highly imaginative, trippy animated segments (such as, for example the Racecars Spies number series, best described as a psychedelic freak out with dreamlike, surreal animation regarding numbers one through ten and sung by Grace Slick, then of Jefferson Airplane, in her own inimitable way)... And that's just the tip of the iceberg. For those of you who grew up being hypnotized, and yes, often frightened by the many strange, often subversive animated segments of the show (many of which are permanently etched in your brain; you'd be amazed how vividly some of these clips come back to you even after not seeing them for 25 years or more), still recall with affection the brilliant jazzy orchestrations of show composer Joe Raposo (who wrote the most sophisticated music ever devised for children's TV), remember hanging out with Mr. Hooper and a Gordon who actually had hair (there were actually two other actors who played Gordon before the current bald one we know and love), and loved the rougher, edgier quality of those early muppet segments, this is the release for you. After many years of Schoolhouse Rock being available for purchase (which I love too, but the early Street material is even better in my opinion), we can now look forward to this: 7 hours of classic content 5 complete hour-long episodes (slightly edited due to music rights issues) Over 54 bonus segments, including: The original pitch for the show - first time available anywhere! Celebrity appearances from James Earl Jones, Jesse Jackson, Johnny Cash, Jackie Robinson Classic segments every parent will remember: "I Love Trash," "Rubber Duckie," "C is for Cookie" Original animations including Ladybug Picnic, Alligator King, King of Eight Hopefully this will be the first of many releases of classic Sesame Street! The second volume of the Electric Company will be released in November.

Season 1, Episode 1 Letter is REALLY strong, big repetition within the episode, but not a big deal. Oscar was ORANGE at one time? Whoa, now I know why classic drawings of Big Bird looked funky--his head didn't get filled out till Season 2 I suppose. So Ernie and Bert live in the basement--I'd forgotten that! Season 2, Episode 131 This season spun up more of what I remember from my childhood! All the muppet characters have the incarnations that I remember. Season 3, Episode 276 More characters enter the cast. I hardly remember any of the human ones though, even when they interacted with muppets--the bit in Mr. Hooper's store with the soda is perfect: I remember Bert and Ernie, but not the others. Ah, and there's Spanish being spoken in this one.@Snuffy has funky eyes. Season 4, Episode 406 It's at this point that the show appears to hit stride, with improved quality all around. It also has th opening song that I remember th most clearly and really associate with the show. HEY, the letter is D, and that's my name--I love this show. Snuffy is as I remember him--I'd remembered his voice being deeper and not so whispery; oh well. Season 5, Episode 536 Now I'm worried, because the letter D has resurfaced! My vision of each letter of the alphabet being released is dashed. I really like the idea of the format, with the first episode of each of the seaons provided. Each episode is preceeded by Robert, a little cartoon that leads the episodes. It was nice seeing the songs and character skits I remember. It was fascinating to see the storylines of the episodes--I hardly remember them, which is only understanable. I also don't remember many of the live actor skits, and they were cool to see. I was surprised how strong the themes for the episodes were. It brings a smile to my face to see the multiple ethnicities without the distillery that has occurred over the years. I imagine the next set in th series will provide all the episode 2's? Very cool. Just seeing the episode information makes me realize that it would be all but impossible to release EVERY episode...but maybe they'll try... With all the good, I do have one complaint: I have to agree with everyone that the COST of these is a little ridiculous. $20 should be sufficient. Especially because: Some have complained that there is too much repetition. Call me crazy, but there always was repetition!(The show is ONE HOUR long! That's a lot of time to fill!) But: If I were Sesame Street, I'd have concentrated on the alphabet for a season (assuming each season completed it), and then maybe put the rest out, sans the repeat items--just to be able to see the progression of the unique Sesame Street stuff... Still, seeing the full episodes is satisfying, and fulfills the stickler in me... It begins to be clear maybe why these weren't released before now! Tough! Still, I have the feeling that they may only release a few sets, since these "super episodes" have highlights from the seasons... Some people complained about the picture quality *shrug* Deal. I don't think the picture quality at that time was very good anyway! Would you have paid a hundred dollars for a complete season? I would have. As much as I loved this set, I will NOT buy the next. In the final reckoning, I just cannot compromise my desire for completeness. I'm happy that Sesame in the form I loved now exists, but for a time/generation of complete sets on DVD, this doesn't cut it.

Per i più piccoli e i nostalgici di questo programma, Sesame Street, non è tutta la serie completa, ci vorrebbe un vagone di dvd per farla vedere tutta per ben 5 stagioni dal 1969 al 1973, invece ci sono 5 puntate suddivise una per il primo dvd con tanto di speciali e altre 4 suddivise equamente negli altri dvd. Personalmente mi è piaciuto molto e ho fatto un tuffo nel passato. Ultima cosa ma importante, non tutti i lettori DVD possono leggere questi dvd e bisogna avere un lettore DVD senza "blocco regionale" o "regioni libere" a seconda della dicitura, il mio lettore DVD preso anche esso su Amazon non ha "blocchi regionali" e legge pure i DVD versione U.S.A.

Wer ab 1971(da wurde Sesamstrasse zum ersten Mal im deutschen Fernsehen gezeigt)zur Zielgruppe der Vorschulkinder oder jüngeren Schulkinder zählte,wuchs auch hierzulande mit der Sesamstrasse auf. Gerade diese Generation sieht auch die deutsche Bearbeitung meist eher kritisch und sehnt sich nach den allerersten Folgen,die noch in den Kulissen eines amerikanischen Wohlfühlslum spielten. Und diese 3 DVD-Box bietet tatsächlich ein Wiedersehen mit diesen schönen Kulissen und der Urbesetzung der Sesamstrasse mit den Menschen Bob(Bob McGrath,geb. 1932),Gordon (Matt Robinson,1937-2002,ab Staffel 4 Hal Miller),Susan(Loretta Long,geb. 1940),Krämerladenbesitzer Mr. Hooper(Will Lee,1908-1982),Maria(Sonia Martinez,geb.1950),Luis(Emilio Delgado,geb.1940,der bis zur aktuellen Staffel 41 noch immer mitspielt) und anderen. Natürlich gibt es auch ein Wiedersehen mit den Muppets Ernie und Bert,Krümel,Grobi,Oscar aus der Mülltonne,Sherlock Humbug,Bibo,Kermit,Graf Zahl(im Original:The Count...den Witz hatte ich bisher gar nicht geschnallt),Supergrobi,TV-Moderator Guy Smiley und dem abgedrehten Computer S.A.M. (Die Charaktere Professor Hastig und Schlehmil sind leider nicht enthalten.) Dabei gibt es einige auch für alte Fans unbekannte Entdeckungen zu machen. Wer weiß schon noch,dass Oscar in der ersten Staffel kein grünes Fell hatte,sondern oranges? Und wer erinnert sich an den Gastauftritt von Oscars Omi? Gastauftritte gab es in den Staffeln etliche,meist von Schauspielern(Michael Landon,Lorne Greene,Dan Blocker,Bill Cosby,Shirley McLaine,Raul Julia,James Earl Jones,Carol Burnett u.a.),Musikern(Johnny Cash und viele schwarze,mir leider nicht so geläufige Soulsänger) oder sogar Comichelden(Superman,Batman,Robin,Joker,Beetle Bailey!). Gesungen wird auch viel,oft nur das Alphabet,aber die Songs sind oft so schön,dass sie sogar auf Platte hörenswert wären. In der ersten Staffel begeistert mich die Hippie-Musik mit Möchtegern-Simon and Garfunkel-Interpretation besonders. Insgesamt bieten die drei amerikanischen DVDs ohne Untertitel im Originalton ca 7 Stunden und 20 Minuten Material,wobei einige der Kurzfilme sich aber wiederholen (besonders beim Zählen lernen,hier gehörte die Wiederholung aber zum gewollten Konzept). Die DVDs enthalten eine Promofolge,das Fernsehdebut(Folge 1)von 1969 und die jeweils ersten Folgen der Staffeln 2-5 (Folgen 131,276,406 und 536). Als Bonus gibt es Highlights aus allen Staffeln zu sehen,inklusive Stabangaben. Die Bildqualität ist bei der Promofolge mies,bei den anderen Folgen je nach Beitrag akzeptabel bis gestochen scharf(letzteres meist bei den Muppet-Beiträgen). Die Box richtet sich eher an ein erwachsenes Nostalgie-Publikum,eingangs wird eindeutig darauf hingewiesen,dass die sehr alten Beiträge für heutige Kinder nicht mehr unbedingt passend sind,aber mein Sohn im Vorschulalter spricht,wie wohl die meisten Kinder hierzulande,sowieso noch kein Englisch. Für Erwachsene sind einige der Beiträge nicht so interessant,der krude Anarchie-Charme der oft dilettantischen Zeichentrickfilme,gepaart mit der zuckersüßen Sixties/Seventies-Musik macht die Box jedoch zu einem durchweg gelungenen Trip in die Erlebniswelt der eigenen Kindheit.

Awesome, old time sesame street with all the old favourites.

A great throwback to the first episodes with the original cast. How I miss them. Only Susan remains alive and I hear from her now and then.

We didn't want our son, who is 9 months, to grow up watching television or DVDs...and we were able to hold out for 9 months! When my wife saw this DVD set on sale for such a great price, we buckled and ordered it hoping it'd be something that would entertain our VERY active and often cranky boy. As many parents have probably discovered before us, Sesame Street is magic! Even at 9 months, our son is captivated by the funny monsters, the songs, and even the "real life" scenes off the Street, so to speak. To be honest, the first episode is a bit of a dud -- Oscar is orange (!!!) and Big Bird just doesn't look right. But that disc aside, the other two discs are wonderful: the episodes are wonderful and the highlights from the seasons are not to be missed! We are really enjoying watching along with our son. We're trying to hold out a bit before ordering Volume 2, but we will definitely add it to our collection soon!