Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1268 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2006-10-24
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .54 pounds
• Running time: 60 minutes

Amazon.com
Were some of your first friends named Grover, Mr. Hooper, and Bob? Do you remember the Ladybug Picnic? How about Pinball Number Count? Sesame Street Old School is a time capsule of the early days of the ground-breaking series you grew up on. Take a trip back in time with Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and Snuffleupagus. Sing along with classics like "C is for Cookie," "I Love Trash," and "Rubber Duckie." For the first time on DVD, the music, memories, and mayhem from Sesame Street's first five seasons can be enjoyed again and again!

Amazon.com
When the Children's Theater Workshop's Sesame Street first aired on television in 1969, it was a revolutionary new show aimed specifically at preschool children--an audience previously untargeted by television programming. Exhaustively-researched and tested on real audiences of preschoolers, this "experiment in kid programming" aimed to teach preschoolers the alphabet, numbers, body parts, rhyming, and basic reasoning skills while thoroughly entertaining them. Through the use of humor, the amazing puppetry of Frank Oz and Jim Henson, animation, the incredibly catchy music of Joe Raposo and Jeffrey Moss, and a fast-action pace borrowed from the television commercial format, Sesame Street was, and still is, more successful at educating and entertaining children than anyone initially imagined. What's more, the lessons learned by generations of preschoolers went far beyond simple school-readiness skills to include values like acceptance, cooperation, and inclusiveness because the urban Sesame Street was a place populated by people and monsters young viewers could identify with, where anything could happen, and where every ethnicity, generation, and species co-existed and interacted harmoniously.

Sesame Street: Old School Volume 1 1969-1974 offers a sampling of the first five seasons of Sesame Street and includes the first episode of each season in its entirety as well as a large selection of classic segments from each season highlighting some of the most memorable sketches ("Bein' Green," "Rubber Duckie," "Whistle a Happy Tune," and Super-Grover in "Telephone Booth"), favorite human characters like Bob and Mr. Hooper, and guest appearances by celebrities like Bill Cosby, Lena Horne, Jackie Robinson, Carol Burnett, and Jesse Jackson. Adult viewers will be transported back in time as they witness Bert's frustration with his ever-noisy roommate Ernie, chuckle at the antics of Grover and his demanding customer in Grover's Restaurant, and wonder if Snuffleupagus will ever show himself to someone besides Big Bird. Other well-remembered moments include pinball number count, the baker who inevitably tumbles down the stairway with a handful of cream pies, the ever-munching Cookie Monster, "Here is Your Life" segments, Bert "Doin' the Pigeon," and the inevitably grumpy Oscar the Grouch. Post-Elmo preschoolers and their parents will laugh, learn, grow, and connect with one another as they share this classic compilation of Sesame Street moments. Bonus features include the original sales pitch reel (introduced by Joan Ganz Cooney and hosted by Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog) and a thick booklet rich with history, trivia, and a pullout activity section for children. (Ages 2 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Yes, Finally!!!
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.

Not Bad
They've done a good job at balancing full episodes with minimal (if any) repetition with shorts of the popular skits and segments. I find the announcer cartoon (called Bob) annoying and an unnecessary delaying tactic to get to the episodes. If you skip to the next chapter you miss the beginning. If you don't you're stuck listening to him. He may provide some useful info, but nothing I wouldn't want to be able to easily skip. Some of the sound and video quality is poor. Fuzzy film, blown out or faded colors. I'm guessing that the masters have degraded some, it is kind of interesting to hear record pops and static on "Being green" (Pretty minor distraction just at the beginning). Anyhow all these are minor quibbles. It was great to see the episodes and sketches as well as see the early incarnation of these characters. (It looks like Big bird is missing half his head and Oscar is Yellow!)

So the info I was looking for before I bought the disc and still haven't seen anyonepost it is what is on the DVD's. If you'd rather be surprised, stop reading now. If you would like to know what is listed as being on the DVD's, read on true believer...

Taken from the liner notes. Please excuse typos or ommisions.

Disc 1
Season 1 Episode 1 Originally aired Nov 10, 1969
Animals wash off with Bert and Ernie; Henson #3; Meeting Oscar; Gordan Dresses Anything Muppets; Jazz #2; Wanda the Witch; Kermit Walking W; Picture Hanging Buddies; Beginnings

Bonus tracks (called Bonus Trash in pamphlet)
Bein' Green; Rubber Duckie; Counting with James Earl Jones; ABC-DEF-GHI; I Love Trash; Alphabet with Jackie Robinson; Batman Crosses the Street; Swinging Baboon; Big Bird Meets Little Bird; Alphabet with Lou Rawls; I've got two; Alphabet Soup; Original Sales Pitch; The Itty-Bitty Nitty-Gritty Kiddie Show; Season 1 Credit Crawl

Disc 2
Season 2 Episode 131 Originally aired Nov 9, 1970
Henson Dollhouse; Everybody Makes Mistakes; Alphabet with Bill Cosby; Exit Animation; Noisy Bedroom with Bert and Ernie; Carol Burnett's Nose; What's my Part? With Guy Smiley; Whistle a Happy Tune; The Case of the Missing Sandwich

Season 3 Episode 276 Nov 8, 1971
Welcome to Sesame Street; Oscar's traveling Can; Grover's Restaurant; Big Bird meets Snuffleupagus; Great Cookie Thief; Sorting Song; People in Your Neighborhood; Short and Long Ladders; Ernie Counts Sheep

Extra Cookies
Season 2; King of Eight; Over, Under, Around and Through; Superman; Astronaut Drawing; Counting with Listen My Brother; I love being a Pig; Season 2 Credit Crawl
Season 3: C is for Cookie; Ladybug Picnic; Martians Telephone; Amazing Mumford Magic Trick; Alligator King; J Friends; A Special Day with Bert and Ernie, "I Am Somebody" with Jesse Jackson; Would you Like to buy an `O'; I in the Sky; My Favorite Letter P; My Martian Beauty; Mad Painter; Season 3 Credit Crawl

Disc 3
Season 4 Episode 406 Originally aired Nov 27, 1972
Sesame Street Alphabet; Alphabet with Ernie and Cookie Monster; Simon's Song; Jon Interview; Count Counts Ernie's Blocks; Heaney and Light with Grover; Here is Your Life, Oak Tree; Enter and Exit; Grover's Restaurant

Season 5 Episode 536 Originally aired Nov 19, 1973
Fat Cat; Kermit and Joey Do the Alphabet; At the Movies; Bird on me; How do you Do?; Chin Ups with Grover; Beat the Time; Hand clapping Number; Doing the Pigeon

More Paper Clips!
Season 4 Kermit's News with Rapunzel; Bread, Milk, and Butter; Lost Paper Clips with Bert and Jon-Jon; Witches Cooperate; Song of the Count; Bert's Bust; First and Last with Beetle Bailey; Season 4 Credit Crawl
Season 5; At the Movies with Bert and Ernie; Nasty Dan with Johnny Cash; Prairie Dawn's School Pageant; Twiddlebugs go to the Zoo; Jazz Alphabet; Hamburger Bun Factory; Madrigal Alphabet; 3 Wishes with Bob and Cookie; Telephone Booth with Super Grover; Season 5 Credit Crawl

Yes Virginia, there was a Sesame Street before Elmo...
I have been an avid fan of Sesame Street since the age of six weeks, when my mom placed me in my baby swing in front of the TV on an autumn day in 1976.

I just received this set today and I watched it from beginning to end. The episodes are crystal clear, fully restored, and completely unedited, unlike the versions shown on Noggin. I saw many clips that brought back fond memories, including the classic sketch where Bert is disturbed by water dripping in the bathroom and asks Ernie to "do something about it". In response, Ernie turns on the radio to drown out the sound of the faucet, and then turns on the vacuum cleaner to drown out the sound of the radio! Absolutely hilarious! All of your other old school Muppet characters are here, including Grover, Cookie Monster, Oscar (shown in his original orange color and his telltale green fur), Herry, Little Bird, Kermit the Frog Prairie Dawn, and of course, Big Bird and Snuffy! All of the actors look so fresh and young and you gotta love them 70s outfits! In addition to the five season premieres, there are also "classic clips" from each season as well as the original sales reel hosted by Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog (who would later star in the Muppet Show) explaining what this new show called Sesame Street was all about.

I am glad that Sesame Workshop (formerly known to us old schoolers as the Children's Television Workshop) finally listened to the pleas of us thirty-somethings. I hope that there will be more episodes to come. This is a set that I will treasure for years to come and someday hope to share it with my own children.