That would be interesting to see. One thing I like about the oldest episodes is the random background characters that you hardly-- or never-- see in the newer episodes.
I know this isn't the right thread to ask-- but with as much material and episodes this show has, were there ever any noteworthy scenes that never made the final cut? Or even entire episodes that never aired?
Sometimes scenes had to be cut or cut back because of events that took place that were bad coincidences. There was a scene in Buster Baxter and the Letter from the Sea that had a big tidal wave that approached the underwater kingdom. The scene was substantially cut back because of the devastating tsunami in southeast asia in 2004. There was a fear that it was in bad taste and would lead to further anxiety for some kids.
In the Great McGrady when the kids were having a fantasy about Mrs. McGrady dying of cancer. There was a scene of McGrady walking down the hall into some bright glowing light effects at the end of the fantasy. But the efx were removed and I believe the scene may be gone entirely in the final cut. Anyway that whole show is not airing now because of the Lance Armstrong cheating admission.
There was also the famous Postcards from Buster episode called Sugartime Vermont that was removed from the circuit of shows and lead to the head of PBS kids resigning over the right to free speech. The George Bush government wanted the show removed and threatened removing funding because they were against the depiction of a family with 2 moms.
A few episodes never air on TVO network in Canada because they feltt they were too scary. The show with the purple orange comes to mind.
There was a show made for a private company by Cinar/WGBH. Not really a show exactly. It was a story with Arthur characters and one of the characters did not have a head. The idea was that kids could pay to send in their photo and have it mapped onto the Arthur character so the kid would appear in an Arthur show. It was a story made specifically for that venture. The company went out of business and never paid so it was put on the shelf and never used. Could be wrong about this but I think it was called. You are Arthur.