WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST’S VISIT TO ‘SESAME STREET’ IN 1976 UNSEEN EPISODE DEEMED TOO SCARY

The late Margaret Hamilton has been the screen’s favourite Wicked Witch of the West character after her role in the famous Wizard of Oz. Hamilton reprised her role as the wicked witch in a 1976 episode of Sesame Street. 

For decades, fans wanted to watch Hamilton terrorise the residents of Sesame Street. However, the rare footage can finally be viewed after it had been leaked on Reddit and YouTube.

The episode revolved around the witch, played by Hamilton, trying to get back her beloved flying broom back from a character named David. The episode shared a similar plot to The Wizard of Oz.

Despite he attempts at threatening all the characters, calling them names, and teasing them, David still refused to return the broom seeing that the witch hasn’t used the magic word of ‘please’. After a while, the Witch loses her patience and tries to wrest her broom away from David. However, the witch is tragically reminded that she can not touch the broom once in someone else’s possession. 

After some scheming, including dressing like an old lady to try and fool everyone, to get her broom back, she still failed. However, David came up with a plan for the witch to get her broom back at the end. The goal to this episode was according to he Muppet fan archive Muppet Wiki, to “demonstrate fear' and 'the value of planning by creating and implementing methods of retrieving the broom”.

It is clear to say that Hamilton nailed the role as the wicked witch, even so good in fact that the former kindergarten teacher had to make a special appearance on an episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood to show children that really wasn’t a wicked witch, she was just acting.

This episode however only aired once in the mid 70s, as it was deemed too scary for children. The episode is archived in the Library of Congress for public viewing, according to the AV Club, and up until this week, the bootleg versions that were online were mostly low quality.