Best of Sesame Street: Spoofs!—Volumes 1 and 2

For over 40 years, Sesame Street has built elementary lessons in reading, math, and social living around humor and popular culture in order to make the teaching more appealing to young tykes while also entertaining parents along the way. This two-disc set compiles two hours of gentle parodies of shows past ("Hill Street Twos" and "Monsterpiece Theater" with Cookie Monster as Alistair Cookie) and present ("Mad, Mad Men," "Desperate Houseplants" and "A's Anatomy"). The version of The Closer, for example, is all about closing cases… and doors, drawers, pencil cases, suitcases, and the like, while "Law and Order: Special Letters Unit" features a Richard Belzer Muppet. Plenty of guest stars are on hand, as well: Anderson Cooper pops out of Oscar's trash can to report for GNN (the Grouch News Network) and Dr. Phil meets Dr. Feel (his near-perfect Muppet double) to work out their differences. DVD extras include a "Smell Like a Monster" Old Spice ad parody with Grover, a "Jon and Kate Count to 8" spoof, and a classic "Beat the Time" game show clip with Guy Smiley. Entertaining and educational, this sure-to-be-popular set is recommended. Aud: P. (S. Axmaker)