The future of Sesame Street

[BobThePizzaBoy]

First off, big shout-out to jvcarroll for coming up with the idea for this thread. I will say right now that discussion of one of the situations that happened to a former performer that in a way prompted this thread will not be discussed here. This is a discussion about the show and it's production only.

That said, we are in a major crossroads at this moment in Sesame's history. We just lost two performers to certain circumstances, one of whom was a major asset to the show as he became a more creative force within the last 5-6 years. Now with said person out of the picture, the show has the chance to go through some major changes or maybe not, either way the show will be impacted. We've already seen some actually positive signs of this, with some fan favorite Muppets coming into the limelight such as Herry but we've seen little of what the direction the show will head in within the next 5 years or so. Feel free to post thoughts, speculation, etc.

 

[minor muppetz]

Well, I read that most of next season had been completed before Kevin Clash resigned, so they have a year to train a new performer to take over Elmo. I'm sure Matt Vogel will do a good job as The Count and other Jerry Nelson characters.

Who knows, maybe Big Bird will be more prominient again (though I've read that his limited amount of appearances per year has been due to the writers not knowing how to write for Big Bird).

 

[D'Snowth]

Isn't this basically what the "Should Sesame Street Continue?" thread is all about?

 

[Oscarfan]

I say, wait it out and see. They have the next season in the can, so they have until the fall when they most likely start filming to make the important and rash decisions.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Isn't this basically what the "Should Sesame Street Continue?" thread is all about?

Yeah it does feel like there will be some overlap.

 

[Drtooth]

First off, I'm sure they have an alternate Elmo performer anyway. Secondly, Sesame Street was in far worse a position in the 90's and they came out of it in great shape. It's not like SS has ever had the same situation that SNL had in the 80's where things were that bad that the show almost ended until someone got fired. well over 20 years later, that's still on the air.

Sesame Street is too much an institution to go down easily. If so, what would they replace it with? Some lame CGI thing that, at best, would have a good 5 year run? No one is going to let Sesame Street go away. As much as they change the show, the fleeting demographic doesn't care. They watch it for less than 5 years and grow out of it. They'd only tend to lose older audiences (who are a year or so away from being out of the demographic anyway) if any drastic change was made. The younger set? it's all new to them.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Who knows, maybe Big Bird will be more prominient again (though I've read that his limited amount of appearances per year has been due to the writers not knowing how to write for Big Bird).

Just my own observation on that issue: Let's face it, Caroll is much older now, he doesn't live around New York so he's really only doing Sesame whenever he really wants to, he's been slowing down quite a bit and his performances as of late (mostly as Big Bird, not so much as Oscar) make that clear. I might be the only one who thinks that way and yeah, I think it's great that Caroll is still involved with the show even though I wish he had a position more on the creative side of things (he really should have taken the reins once Jim passed on to really be the head Muppet guy but that's just me) but I think it's becoming more an issue of Caroll getting older than a struggle to really use Big Bird.

 

[SSLFan]

Just my own observation on that issue: Let's face it, Caroll is much older now, he doesn't live around New York so he's really only doing Sesame whenever he really wants to, he's been slowing down quite a bit and his performances as of late (mostly as Big Bird, not so much as Oscar) make that clear. I might be the only one who thinks that way and yeah, I think it's great that Caroll is still involved with the show even though I wish he had a position more on the creative side of things (he really should have taken the reins once Jim passed on to really be the head Muppet guy but that's just me) but I think it's becoming more an issue of Caroll getting older than a struggle to really use Big Bird.

If that's the case, why not just have Matt perform Big Bird and have Caroll dub the voice? Or just have Matt take over completely? There's really no excuse as to why they can't use Big Bird more, even if the show's head writer - of all people - has trouble writing for him. Other writers should step in for that.

 

[Drtooth]

Matt, as he has Muppet Show characters as well, depends on what Disney is shooting at the time. If that's the case, we'll unfortunately see less of Big Bird, unless they manage to shoot a lot of footage during Muppet project down time. And honestly, that's a good thing. More Muppet projects. If we see a little less Big Bird to see more Kermit, Fozzie, Piggy, Gonzo, etc, that's a small price to pay.

That said, I really hope that Tyler continues to perform Herry. If there's going to be a gap in the show regarding certain performers, replacing them with older characters or characters that don't get as much screen time would be a great idea. That's not too likely, though.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Just my own observation on that issue: Let's face it, Caroll is much older now, he doesn't live around New York so he's really only doing Sesame whenever he really wants to, he's been slowing down quite a bit and his performances as of late (mostly as Big Bird, not so much as Oscar) make that clear. I might be the only one who thinks that way and yeah, I think it's great that Caroll is still involved with the show even though I wish he had a position more on the creative side of things (he really should have taken the reins once Jim passed on to really be the head Muppet guy but that's just me) but I think it's becoming more an issue of Caroll getting older than a struggle to really use Big Bird.

Well, that's understandable considering Oscar's not a full-body Muppet like Big Bird, so he doesn't have to wear the costume and everything. I am sort of wondering if they shouldn't train someone else to do BB and even Oscar since Matt is now doing Jerry's characters. After all, the majority of Matt's BB appearances were in "Journey to Ernie" and that's not even on the show anymore and to my knowledge Oscar has never had an understudy (Though I hear that John Tart-whatshisname did the puppeteering for him in "Sesame Street 4D"). In that case it may allow some interaction between Big Bird and the Count. Just a few thoughts I had on this.