Sesame Street Gets New Executive Producer

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Today it was announced that Ben Lehmann would be the new executive producer, replacing the more controversial Brown Johnson. Lehmann has been with the show since 2001 and became supervising producer in 2015:
http://deadline.com/2017/12/sesame-...tive-producer-sesame-workshop-hbo-1202225327/

As with any EP switch, this will no doubt be a new era for the show with some interesting changes. Good or bad? Who knows, we'll just have to wait and see what the future holds.

 

[D'Snowth]

What happened to Carol-Lynn Parente?

 

[Oscarfan]

I dunno about Carol. She's a writer for the show now, so these must have been some power shift.

But this seems good. Brown Johnson sprung from nowhere and this guy has been around the show for awhile.

 

[mr3urious]

Could we see the show move away from the super juvenile focus it's been reverting back to recently?

Well, it depends on how much sway an EP has on the creative direction.

 

[D'Snowth]

True. Just because someone is an executive producer doesn't always necessarily mean they're also the showrunner as well.

 

[ssetta]

I really hope and pray that these are good changes. And I'm glad Brown Johnson is gone. I cannot stand that *****. She will always be known as the woman who destroyed the Sesame Street we know and love. I hope Ben can revive a lot of the aspects of the show that are now gone, such as moving Oscar's can back to it's old location, putting the construction doors back up, and hopefully re-hiring all the older humans.

 

[Schfifty]

As much as I'd really love for those to happen, I doubt it will at this time, especially the latter. However, we are getting close to the 50th anniversary, so something like that is I guess viable.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I really hope and pray that these are good changes. And I'm glad Brown Johnson is gone. I cannot stand that *****. She will always be known as the woman who destroyed the Sesame Street we know and love. I hope Ben can revive a lot of the aspects of the show that are now gone, such as moving Oscar's can back to it's old location, putting the construction doors back up, and hopefully re-hiring all the older humans.

The older cast members were hardly even on the show when they were let go. Maria, Bob, Susan, Gordon, and Gina all only appeared in one or two episodes each by their last season after years of gradually being phased out, not counting the few episodes where they only appeared as background characters. And now that they've been gone for three seasons (soon to be four now that season 49 finished filming) I think it's far beyond too late to bring them back. Kids (y'know, the real target audience) wouldn't know or care who they are. And some of you guys keep forgetting, just like every major change in the entire show's history, there was a curriculum reason for their departures. It wasn't about Brown Johnson having a personal vendetta against them, it was educators and care takers that complained that such a huge cast confused the kids watching, and therefore they would benefit more with a smaller group of characters. Carol Lynn Parente has alluded to this, Brown said this, even Bob McGrath said this. This decision had research and testing involved, with children in mind. So, no, they're not going to bring back Susan and Gordon just because of a few adults' nostalgia for a show they don't even watch anymore.

 

[ConsummateVs]

The older cast members were hardly even on the show when they were let go. Maria, Bob, Susan, Gordon, and Gina all only appeared in one or two episodes each by their last season after years of gradually being phased out, not counting the few episodes where they only appeared as background characters. And now that they've been gone for three seasons (soon to be four now that season 49 finished filming) I think it's far beyond too late to bring them back. Kids (y'know, the real target audience) wouldn't know or care who they are. And some of you guys keep forgetting, just like every major change in the entire show's history, there was a curriculum reason for their departures. It wasn't about Brown Johnson having a personal vendetta against them, it was educators and care takers that complained that such a huge cast confused the kids watching, and therefore they would benefit more with a smaller group of characters. Carol Lynn Parente has alluded to this, Brown said this, even Bob McGrath said this. This decision had research and testing involved, with children in mind. So, no, they're not going to bring back Susan and Gordon just because of a few adults' nostalgia for a show they don't even watch anymore.

T'is the sad truth. As much as I would like to see the older humans again, SS has to stay with the times.

 

[Schfifty]

The older cast members were hardly even on the show when they were let go. Maria, Bob, Susan, Gordon, and Gina all only appeared in one or two episodes each by their last season after years of gradually being phased out, not counting the few episodes where they only appeared as background characters. And now that they've been gone for three seasons (soon to be four now that season 49 finished filming) I think it's far beyond too late to bring them back. Kids (y'know, the real target audience) wouldn't know or care who they are. And some of you guys keep forgetting, just like every major change in the entire show's history, there was a curriculum reason for their departures. It wasn't about Brown Johnson having a personal vendetta against them, it was educators and care takers that complained that such a huge cast confused the kids watching, and therefore they would benefit more with a smaller group of characters. Carol Lynn Parente has alluded to this, Brown said this, even Bob McGrath said this. This decision had research and testing involved, with children in mind. So, no, they're not going to bring back Susan and Gordon just because of a few adults' nostalgia for a show they don't even watch anymore.

And take a look at Luis - he appeared in one of the Chrysler videos last summer! That shows that the older cast members aren't being left out entirely.

At the very least, I would see some of them making a special appearance for the 50th anniversary. And I agree about the research and curriculum stuff. If it's been established already for the best for kids, then we might not want to tamper with it too much.