Olivia Sings "Nice People"

From the end of the same Hawaiian-trip episode, Olivia sings about human friendliness being universal. Gotta love her harmony with Bob and Buffy at the end...

Olivia and Boogie Share Poi

A little-known scene from the cast's trip to Hawaii in the late 1970s; how many Gen-X viewers remember her going there along with Buffy, Cody, Big Bird and Oscar?

Alaina Reed Hall: 1946-2009

Some old-school fans may have already learned that Alaina Reed Hall, the actress who played Olivia on Sesame Street, died on the 17th of December this year. A fellow fan on YouTube put together a short, but very watchable, playlist in her memory--enjoy yourselves!

Back to (Old) School

Today a close friend of mine shared a letter he'd gotten on YouTube. I'm wondering whether correspondence like this accidentally triggered last year's media hype about "classic Sesame Street DVDs are not for kids"...

I was wondering if you could help me with something. I am wanting to buy my 3-year-old son the volumes of Sesame Street, but I am not sure what the difference is between the "Old School" ones and new [DVDs]. I also was wondering if they are the same episodes only made over, or what.

Thanks,
[name withheld]

Dear [name]:

"Old School" is just the label that the DVD sellers use for older episodes of Sesame Street--roughly the first 25 years, before the show's format changed dramatically. The DVDs released so far include the premiere episodes for Seasons 1-10, a "test pilot" episode from mid-1969, and some other popular clips from the first ten years. If your son is a huge fan of "Elmo's World" or recently added characters like Curly Bear, he'll probably get bored and impatient watching older material. (Elmo didn't even exist until 1979, and didn't develop as a major character for another 5-6 years.) If he doesn't mind a slower pace and more random, spontaneous feel though...the Old School episodes just might grow on him.

If you'd like to check out some older episodes that didn't make it onto DVD (just to see how different the format was back then), I have a largish collection of my own. I can send them to you as movie files if you like, so you and your son can have a look together. Please let me know! [Editor's note: this is a private file trade; letting the general public download whole episodes could get us into legal trouble!]

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