Sesame Street: Old School, Volume Three

Sesame Street: Old School Volume Three, 1979-1984 (one episode each from seasons 11 through 15, plus bonus segments). Big Bird learns about the world.

Created by Joan Ganz Cooney. Directed by Lisa Simon (seasons 13-15), Robert Myhrum (11), Jon Stone (12) & Emily Squires (14). Written by Norman Stiles (seasons 11-15), Sara Compton (11-15), Judy Freudberg (11-15), Tony Geiss (11-15), Emily Perl Kingsley (11-15), Luis Santeiro (11-15), Ray Sipherd (11-14), John Glines (11-13), Joseph A. Bailey (13-15), Tom Dunsmuir (13-15), David Korr (13-15), Peter Swet (11-12), Jeffrey Moss (14-15) & Gary Belkin (15). Starring Caroll Spinney.

Concept: 3/4 (Good)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 3/4 (Good). Sesame Street has some of my favorite characters of all time, but you don't see much of them here.
Dialog: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Pacing: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 3/4 (Good)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good). Weirdly, they cut out the theme song. Did they not want to pay royalties or something?
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good, 3/4). I'm hugely disappointed in this DVD set. The Muppets featured in the story segments of these episodes are limited to Big Bird, Snuffleupagus and Oscar - and 90% of it is just Big Bird. Meanwhile, there are only five bonus sketches included per season. In all, there are probably only about 25 Muppet sketches total in the entire set, including a few that were already in volumes one and two. Those volumes had something like three times as much Muppet. Still, it's classic Sesame Street, and I love classic Sesame Street, so even a small cross section of it is better than nothing.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.3/4 (Okay)

Sesame Street: Old School, Volume Two

Sesame Street: Old School Volume Two, 1974-1979 (the first episode of each of seasons six through ten, plus a few hours of other sketches). Some people and monsters really love the alphabet.

Created by Joan Ganz Cooney. Written by Joseph A. Bailey, Sara Compton, Jerry Juhl, Judy Freudberg, Tony Geiss, Emily Perl Kingsley, David Korr, Ray Sipherd, Norman Stiles & Paul D. Zimmerman. Starring Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Caroll Spinney, Northern J. Calloway, Emilio Delgado, Loretta Long, Sonia Manzano, Bob McGrath & Roscoe Orman.

Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible)
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Music: 3/4 (Good)
Subjective Rating: 9/10 (One of my favorites, 4/4 5/4). The quality drops noticeably in these episodes compared with Volume One. There's still a lot of great Muppet stuff, but it doesn't usually have the feel of Jim and Frank Messing Around and Doing Whatever They Like that the early years had (which is not surprising, since they've got their own show by this point, whereas in the early 70s Sesame Street was their only regular outlet to get stuff on TV).
Objective Rating (Average): 2.7/4 2.8/4 (Good)

Sesame Street: Old School, Volume One

Data
Title: Sesame Street: Old School, Volume One
Years: 1969-1974
Network: PBS
Episodes: five (the first episode of each of the first five seasons), at about 1 hour each, plus about 2 hours of other sketches
Creator: Joan Ganz Cooney
Writers: Jeff Moss, Bruce Hart, Carol Hart, Jerry Juhl, Emily Perl Kaplin, Bob Oskner, Ray Sipherd, Norman Stiles, Jon Stone, Dan Wilcox
With: The Muppets (Fran Brill, Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Caroll Spinney, Frank Oz), Northern J. Calloway, Emilio Delgado, Will Lee, Loretta Long, Sonia Manzano, Bob McGrath, Harold Miller, Matt Robinson
Music: Joe Raposo, Jeffrey Moss, Bruce Hart, Jon Stone
I saw it: on video a couple times, most recently over the past week (have on DVD)
Synopsis: some people and monsters really love the alphabet

My reaction
Concept: 4/4 (Great)
Story: 0/4 (Terrible). Hey, don't get me wrong. I love the alphabet as much as the next guy. But let's be honest, it doesn't make for much of a narrative.
Characters: 4/4 (Great)
Dialog: 3/4 (Good)
Pacing: 1/4 (Bad)
Cinematography: 2/4 (Indifferent)
Special effects/design: 4/4 (Great)
Acting: 2/4 (Indifferent). Good from the Muppets, bad from the humans.
Music: 4/4 (Great)
Subjective Rating: 10/10 (Favorite of my favorites, 4/4 5/4). It's annoying that it's only three discs - more than 600 episodes cut down to less than seven hours. But, whatever.
Objective Rating (Average): 2.8/4 2.9/4 (Good)