Sesame Street: Old School, Vol. 1 (1969-1974) [DVD]

I bought the R1 version of this, hence why I know what's here :)

Today's British kids may know some of the Sesame Street gang if they have watched Elmo's World, Play with Me, Sesame, or the newest edition showing on BBC2 NI, Sesame Tree, but it's just NOT the same. I may sound like a nostalgia buff here just muttering about the good old days, but even those who last saw Sesame Street here in the 80's can tell you that Sesame Street proper is an entirely different animal, with a greater variety of learning topics and tools at its disposal.

It is for this reason that I have, for the past few years, collected various of the R1 Sesame Street dvds, and while excellent, they are basically stand alone specials, and not the actual show. I was quite delighted whenI discovered Sesame Workshop was releasing several of the actual vintage shows in their entirety in a series of box sets. So this year for my youngest Sesame Street fan, we bought Vol 1 for his birthday. It covers 1969-1974, and is comprised of the original sales pitch film to backers made in 1969, as well as the premiere episode from each of the first 5 seasons. Each of the 3 discs also contains 45 minutes of bonus material which includes even more clips meaning that over the three discs, we get over 7 hours of classic Sesame Street. Also included is a very interesting 16 page booklet that gives insights into the principles of the show and trivia about the cast and guest stars. The booklet also has an 8 page pull out section just for the kids, which is full of Sesame Street based activities to do.

While the episodes are great and it is not obvious that they are from different seasons (well, except for Oscar being orange in the first one), we wish that instead of just 5 premier episodes with lots of bonus material, that it was a proper season 1 box set. We just can't get enough, and we simply cannot understand why Sesame Workshop does not utilise their archives to release proper season sets. This aside, Production wise, I simple cannot fault the set. Great love was shown to the old originals when transferred to digital and it really shows. The prints are nice and clean and the old audio marvellously clear. I had to turn up the sound a little bit as usual to make up for the fact that its mono, albeit now digital audio

Educationally, the material itself is still very sound. Numeracy, phonics, road safety, clips about fire departments and such, are all topics where very little changes.Just the hairstyles and clothes date it a bit, but not much, as many of the styles are currently on sale on the High Street. I seriously doubt that the styles will matter overly much anyway to its target audience of children aged 2-6. With songs like "C is for Cookie" and "Rubber Duckie" , and "The Ladybug's Picnic", your kids will be too busy singing along to really notice fine details like that!

I bought this set just for the nostalgia. I forgot how joyous it can be. It has something that's lacking from current childrens television. It has optimism, a feeling that life is wonderfull. It encourages you to appreciate every little thing in the world. I don't want to sound too sappy but it really put a huge smile on my face when I watched it after so many years. It's lost none of it's charm. As a child some of the humour was lost on me. There's honestly some laugh out loud moments in this that adds to the appeal for adults like me seeking to relive a bit of thier childhood. If you don't want to get this for yourself, then get it for your kids. It's surely better than some of the brainwashing nonsense on tv today such as Teletubbies (a show surely created for stoners rather than children). I look forward to more volumes.

Nostalgia is funny in that we see things as children and don't realise how profound an effect it has on us until much later in life when such material is realsed on DVD.

I would not be far wrong in assuming that most of those purchasing this will be in the 40+ age bracket with young children.

For myself this is pure and utter nostalgia alone. If, as one reviewer states it's dated that is because it is 1969 to 1974. These were the formative years of my youth and yes I do remember Mr. Hooper (or as Big Bird called him "Mr. Looper") and I remember Mr. Snuffleupagus being only visible to Big Bird.

What I remember are things like Jim Henson's chef falling down the stairs carrying specific numbers of deserts, the songs "Who Are the People in Your Neighbourhood" and "One of these Things is not like the others" but I never realised until I once saw the credits that the human inhabitants of the street were actors not that it matters now of course.

Most of all I remember the really psychadelic animations, such as the Pinball Machine - of course I use the term "psychadlic" here with hindsight but they were pretty outlandishly garish for early 1970s childrens television.

What most people perhaps do not understand about Sesame Street is that they were doing something totally new - to try and break down barriers through learning - to show a diverse group of people - black, asian, african, spanish and use adults and puppets in a way that had never been done before. They never talked down to the target audience but at them and involved them in the activities being shown - in a way it was the pioneer of interactive television.

Then there are the Muppet characters - Kermit, Big Bird and Oscar (created by the late Kermit Love), the Count, Cookie Monster, Grover - all doing quite radical things - Kermit as a news reporter reporting on "fairy stories" or the shady character who wanted to sell you a letter "O" and not forgetting Bert and Ernie - they were styled after an orange and a banana but they almost look like charactures of Henson and Oz.

Sesame Street has probably had a profound impact on a lot of British and American youth who are now themselves parents and they could do a lot worse than show young children classic episodes from a much loved series.

Nostaliga or education - both dependending on the age of the viewer.