Is it possible to buy or download old episodes of Sesame Street?

Remember the filmed series about sounds? They'd show a bunch of tires laying on the ground and pan up to show nothing. However, you could still hear steps. Then they'd show the same shot again except with an athlete running through the tires, finally linking the sound with the image.

That shot back into my brain a few weeks ago after a 26-year absence. My eventual deathbed delirium is going to be so much more of a trippy experience than any other previous generation in my family.

http://video.sesameworkshop.org/
Fun!

Youtube has a pretty great selection of really old (ie 1970s) sesame eps. The ones with the "jazzy spies" with the song done by Grace Slick is awesome and surreal. I grew up with fucked up 70s sesame street and I loved it.

The pinball one that counts to 12 has song by POINTER SISTERS!?!?!

I would love more than ANYTHING to get a copy of that song.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HgocE-JfWFI

Fantastic Planetesque!

Big fan of Teeny Little Super Guy, too.

Haha I love the pinball song too Abb! :D Some mates of mine were in a band that did a cover of that, which was cool.

Other faves:

- the "everybody sleeps" song
- the singing orange that had an elastic band mouth and dishmop head that sang opera (Carmina Burana? I forget)
- The yip yip yip aliens trying to work out a telephone
- the bert and ernie skit where bert wondered what time it was in the middle of the night so ernie opened up the window, and started loudly singing out of it "o solo mio.... o solo you-ohhhh" pissing everyone off till someone shouted "knock it off, its 3 o'clock in the morning!" and then ernie closes the window, turns to bert and says "its 3 o'clock in the morning, bert!" bwaap bwaap bwaaaaa

I love the orange but it kind of terrified me as a kid.

http://www.sesameworkshop.org/oldschool/

I always got terribly upsetted by the man who always fell down the stairs with all the pies in his hands. Why was he so clumsy? It looked painful!

there is also a volume 2 and 3 that covers all the way up to 1980, don't know why they aren't on that page

oh maybe there's just a volume 2 right now. whatever. my kid is fucking obsessed with our Muppet Show dvds right now, Kermit in particular; since Kermit isn't on Sesame anymore, I think I'm going to grab these so he can see Kermit in a more educational context and not just getting smashed by a hammer

Kermit isnt on SS anymore!?

Man it hasnt been the same show since Elmo appeared. Gimme Oscar's grumpyass misanthropy and Grover's flailing stupidity any day.

GROVER!!

yeah I'm having a hard time finding out when exactly kermit vanished from SS but i think maybe it was when Jim Henson died? maybe it was earlier though; they might have segmented him into 'muppet show' land exclusively in the 80's to lump him in with that brand, as a result he's now owned by disney.

I have learned in the past few days though that jason segel (freaks and geeks, how i met your mother, sarah marshall) is behind the next muppet movie, apparently he went out of his way to get to disney to meet with them about it and get it rolling; apatow might be involved too

maybe I learned this on ilx, i don't know, man my brain is fucking muppet soup these days

It was the orange's epic EYELASHES that were the scariest.

why am i cringing at the thought of apatow involvement in a muppet movie?

it will only be good if jonah hill plays all the characters

The 2nd volume of the Old School DVDs has a warning: may not be appropriate for today's children - what???!!!

the sesame workshop link is a BEAST

Today's children are made gingerbread and burnt matchsticks. In my day, a blue monster eating cookies just made us already tough kids tougher.

(I don't know for sure, but I bet the recent changes in Cookie Monster's diet are a part of that warning.)

there was an article in salon about the sesame st old school dvds, where the current director of CTV basically said there was no way they'd get away with the depressing tone of the original series on tv now; that if they tried to create a character like Oscar NOW, they'd get criticized. basically, original sesame street looked like it was a real street, with lots of dirt and dark overtones on the walls.

stevie wonder doing "superstition" on sesame street is one of the best music performances ever on tv. search for it on youtube, totally worth it if only to catch a glimpse of the dancing kid freaking the fuck out on the fire escape.

you'd never have a kid dancing on a fire escape on a modern sesame street! you wouldn't even have a fire escape, except in a sketch about fire safety.

As part of trying to learn spanish I've been watching Plaza Sésamo because spanish language TV for adults is way too hard for me to understand. It's kind of awesome because they dub lots of old-school Sesame Street bits in Spanish. Like Enrique singing about his patito.

oh man i love plaza sésamo sooo much

kid losing his or her shit around the 4:10 mark.

Regarding the original question, there was an episode that I will never forget watching when Big Bird finally introduced everyone on Sesame Street to Snuffy. It guest-starred Phil Donahue.

That video is awesome. Is that Ron Jeremy in the horn section?

Oh man! I loved the Stevie Wonder performance as a kid. I think it was the first time I ever heard his music actually.

I think I grew up assuming everyone in america had fire escapes out their windows.

HammondB200 (9 hours ago) Show Hide
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Is stevie using Orange amps?

lemurianphoenix (3 hours ago) Show Hide
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dude it was the seventies those amps are tangerine!

boom tish etc

Stevie Wonder - You are the sunshine of my life
02:56 From: swf
Views: 1,257,670

Stevie Wonder ~ Superstition
05:03 From: sante3d
Views: 1,208,228

Stevie Wonder - I just called to say I love you
04:26 From: taskada
Views: 2,516,085

Stevie Wonder - Part-Time Lover
06:02 From: universalmusicgroup
Views: 1,049,097

THERE IS NO GOD.

I heard a cover of that Pointer Sisters song not too long ago

that entire stevie wonder clip is fucking AWESOME.

I can relate to the curious ways of Snuffy's questionable existence.

HEY ABBOTT:
http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/CM/Pointer_Sisters_-_Pinball_Number_Count.mp3

Oh my god I GIVE YOU SMOOCHES. SO MANY SMOOCHES

Yer welcome.
Fuck, the steel drums on that track sound SO GOOD

James Earl Jones recites the alphabet on Sesame St.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxwrVw6Vsjw

This may be the most riveting thing I've seen this month

Man it hasnt been the same show since Elmo appeared. Gimme Oscar's grumpyass misanthropy and Grover's flailing stupidity any day.

Yeah, Elmo sucks, but aw, c'mon, Grover's not really "stupid", more just kind of hapless and a little naive.

Revamped website is up and searchable by character and "classics only" and linkable and is a truly frightening time sink.

Every pinball!
http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=videoPlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_videoListId=597

Biff and Sully! http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=videoPlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_uid=b18199fd-1648-11dd-995c-3d52ab3e4656

yip yips!
http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=videoPlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_videoListId=368

Grover discusses marriage!
http://www.sesamestreet.org/video_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=videoPlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_uid=c7c62a59-1551-11dd-8ea8-a3d2ac25b65b

1800+ VIDEOS! 1800+!

ANTE UP

don't know if i can do any more work for the rest of the day.

Round and tasty on a bun
Pickles, french fries
Yum yum yum

In a hurry to be fed
Beady eyes and big blue head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIzRHlxXgzY