Lost Media Archive

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Lost Media Archive
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On February 10, 1976, Sesame Street Episode 847 aired, featuring Margaret Hamilton reprising her role as the Wicked Witch of the West from the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.

The central plot involves the Witch losing her broom while flying over Sesame Street; throughout the episode, she threatens to turn Big Bird into a feather duster, David into a basketball, and electrocute Maria with her broomstick.[1]

Oscar the Grouch is the only one who takes to her, even to the point of having a crush on her. Big Bird eventually warms to the Witch, and is saddened when she leaves (only to drop her broom again).

A large number of complaints sent from parents and children were made regarding the episode, within a relatively short frame of time. Many concerned parents reported that their children were screaming and crying in fear of the Witch.[2]

847NEW

A behind-the-scenes polaroid of Caroll Spinney at Hooper's Store with Margaret Hamilton, holding a feather duster.

Additional test screenings of the episode were made, with the reactions of the children being a lot more subdued than expected. Some who watched the episode in color weren't frightened at all, but were instead fascinated by her green face. Regardless, the Children's Television Workshop made the decision never to re-air the episode, and it never has since. The episode was officially found on June 18, 2022 by an anonymous reddit user.

There is an ongoing search on Muppet Central Forums.

Wwwoscar

An image from the episode on the Margaret Hamilton page on Muppet Wiki.

UPDATE 22 Feb 2019: An image from the episode has just been uploaded on Muppet Wiki today by user Radionate and user Oscarfan's comment to it when he re-uploaded the image was "Mamma Mia!". Gavry3 and Notelu asked him where he got the image for the episode from, and all Radionate could say at the moment that the episode hasn't been lost and hopefully someone will share more about it sometime this year.

UPDATE 18 Apr 2019: User Gavry3 went back to the CTW archives and right as he was being told he had 10 minutes left before he had to leave, he hit the jackpot and found an entire folder containing the the memorandum and letters pertaining only to the episode. So, naturally, he took pictures of as many as he could, skipped a few, and took some more, barely skimming through them as presented in a Google Drive folder.

UPDATE 18 Jun 2022: The episode in its entirety was found on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.

Videos

The_Wicked_Witch_Visits_Sesame_Street_-_Banned_Episode_-847_(1976)

The Wicked Witch Visits Sesame Street - Banned Episode -847 (1976)

LSuperSonicQ’s video on the subject.

How_Sesame_Street's_Banned_847_Episode_Was_Found_-_The_Lost_Wicked_Witch_Segment

How Sesame Street's Banned 847 Episode Was Found - The Lost Wicked Witch Segment

Blameitonjorge’s video on the subject.

Wicked_Witch_Sesame_Street_Episode_Found

Wicked Witch Sesame Street Episode Found

Scribbles to Screen’s video on the subject.

Sources


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