She promises to be back and disappears in a puff of smoke as David tells the viewer she won't get the broom until she shows him some respect.ĭavid and Maria emerge from the wet store with the kids in disbelief from what's just happened. The Witch loses her patience and tries to wrest it away from him, but she's reminded that she can't lay a finger on it so long as someone is holding it without mystical repercussions. David warns her that she's got to be more careful considering how it fell into his posession. When she spots David with her broom, she demands to have it back. Underscored by electric guitar, The Wicked Witch of the West emerges from around the corner and realizes she's not in Oz anymore she must be somewhere over the rainbow. Not one to look a gift broom in the mouth, David begins sweeping up the sidewalk in front of the store. He notices an object falling from the sky, braces for its impact, and catches a broom which immediately ceases the wind. Scenes 4, 5, and 6 were shown at this screening.ĭavid walks out of Hooper's Store and observes how spooky it is that the windy weather rolled into Sesame Street the way it did. Following the 2019 announcement that the American Archive of Public Broadcasting would house 50 years of Sesame Street, the episode became available to view on a restricted basis to researchers at select locations.Ĭlips from the episode were screened in November 2019 at the Museum of the Moving Image as a part of the Jim Henson Legacy's " Sesame Street 'Lost and Found'" event, where former head writer Norman Stiles and current Vice President of Education and Research Rosemarie Truglio discussed its educational and entertainment merits. Left out of nostalgia-driven home video releases as well as streaming options such as Hulu and HBO Max, the episode remained "in the vault" for years. See: Sesame Street episode 847 response DistributionĪfter its initial broadcast on February 10, 1976, the episode aired in repeats before the decision was made not to show it again. Typical responses included parents concerned that their children were afraid and now refused to watch the show.ĭue to the overwhelming reaction, additional test screenings were held from March 1 through the 5th, "to assess children's reactions to the Wicked Witch of the West." However, due to the parents' reactions, the letter content, and testing observations, it was ultimately suggested that the episode not be aired again. Most of what we know about medieval witchcraft today comes from the records of religious inquisitors, legal officials and testimony from accused witches themselves (often while being tortured).The episode prompted a large amount of mail responses from parents, almost entirely negative, within a short time frame. It’s impossible to know whether such stories, reported at the height of anxiety over witchcraft in Europe in the Middle Ages, reflected reality or not. Read more: How Trick-or-Treating Became a Halloween Tradition Anxiety Over Witchcraft Leads to Legends In his book Murder, Magic, and Medicine, John Mann cites a 15th century text by the theologian Jordanes de Bergamo, who wrote that “the vulgar believe, and the witches confess, that on certain days or nights they anoint a staff and ride on it to the appointed place or anoint themselves under the arms and in other hairy places.” Pharmacologist David Kroll writes in Forbes that alleged witches in the Middle Ages were thought to concoct their brews from such plants as Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Hyoscyamus niger (henbane), Mandragora officinarum (mandrake) and Datura stramonium (jimsonweed), all of which would have produced hallucinogenic chemicals known as tropane alkaloids.Īccording to some historical accounts, rather than ingest these mind-altering substances by eating or drinking, which would have caused intestinal distress, witches chose to absorb them through the skin-often in the most intimate areas of their bodies.
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