Jesus, I come back and there's new screenshots! I really need to get up w/ y'all.
I hope we'll see the episodes one day. What's the latest update?
Latest update is the episode is not “lost” but rather unreleased to the general public. If you were lucky enough to attend, it was shown (the Witch segments only) along with “Snuffy’s Parents Get A Divorce” at the Sesame Street: Lost And Found panel at the Museum Of The Moving Image last year. That’s been the only way to see it since it’s original airing in the 70’s.
There have been rumors that a huge amount of episodes are being scanned for archiving at the the American Archive Of Public Broadcasting and might even be shown on HBO. Whether this includes the Witch and Snuffy’s Parents episodes is not certain yet.
Last Edit: Apr 8, 2020 15:46:50 GMT by nostalgiaguy
Question: Are we absolutely certain the episode aired only once? I've started some research into this and I've found TV listings and articles in various newspapers from the time that list multiple airings (on at least some PBS stations) for February 10, 1976, the morning premiere and an afternoon re-airing, along with re-airings planned for a few days later. (Looking back, this is what happened with I think PBS Kids as a whole on my local stations; a morning airing of the block, followed by an afternoon reairing.)
I can see it getting both planned airings the day it premiered on at least some stations, and maybe even some planned re-airings in the days following.
There have been rumors that a huge amount of episodes are being scanned for archiving at the the American Archive Of Public Broadcasting and might even be shown on HBO. Whether this includes the Witch and Snuffy’s Parents episodes is not certain yet.
I was hoping that this was be the case, however after learning that HBO Max is missing certain Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts as well as certain episodes of South Park due to their controversial aspects, I feel like these episodes wouldn't make their way to there.
The only downside is that it's ONLY available at the Library of Congress in-person. But before i close this out, let me say:
DO NOT HARRASS ANYONE ON THE MUPPET WIKI FOR THE FULL EPISODE THAT'S ALREADY ON THE AAPB. Sesame Workshop may (or may not) release this episode on HBO Max in the very-late future!
So for now, we need to be patient and wait for the day to come!
Glad this has been (sort-of) found! For years I'be been convinced that they must've re-ran it sometime later (perhaps as part of a clipshow/retrospective?) because while I would've been a toddler for the original airing I definitely remember seeing it as a slightly older kid. I don't recall finding it truly scary, just disturbing inasmuch as the Witch runs around actively menacing the beloved Street cast, being not nice on a level that the show never remotely reached otherwise.
Yeah this is pretty impressive, though I can't say it's of much interest to me personally(as I personally lost all respect for Sesame Street after they used their autistic character Julie to do a commercial promoting the organization Autism Speaks, which aspies like myself utterly despise for far too many reasons to go into on here, so because of that and their complete lack of an apology for the ad despite intense criticism from loads of people, I chose not to get involved in any Lost Media searches relating to them). Regardless this does give me hope for other lost media as if something this closely guarded can be found then anything is possible.