Sesame Street Season 45 Episode 4502 - Bert's Training Wheels

[Daffyfan4ever]

I agree. I still see no reason why they can't replay the classic sketches back when Jim played Ernie. Sure they may be outdated, but replaying those have been part of the show even after they changed the format. If they're hesitant about going that far back, then maybe they should introduce it as a 'back in the day' clip or something like that.

 

[Drtooth]

The show doesn't like to rerun anything over 10 years old, period. Whether it's the new HD format, the fact that only older audiences want those skits and can find most of them conveniently on line, or wanting to have a smaller roster of more current clips while retiring others, they just don't. Sure, they had segments from the late 70's right up until about 2003 (mainly one instance of Pinball Number Count and a couple Ernie and Bert sketches), but they've always retired clips if they're old enough. And again, most of them are found online.

My bigger beef is with currently produced segments made with the international market in mind, but taped here in English before it had to be dubbed (the Ernie and Bert fairy tale songs are made in Germany for Germany and therefore don't count).

 

[Oscarfan]

Oh wow, I'm dumb. I thought they played Repair Monster the Musical because it had a bicycle in it. Then I realized the word of the day was "repair." D'oh!

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

OK...after missing this episode every time it came to my TV, I finally found the half hour version on the PBS Kids website last night. But, I will say that I'm pleased that I was warned about Ernie's new voice beforehand- which I finally got to hear yesterday in the Dance Video episode.

My opinion on the possible new Ernie? Well...how do I put this? It was easy for me to adjust to Ryan's Elmo and Matt's Count (as well as David's Cookie Monster and Eric's Bert and Grover) right there on the spot, but Billy's Ernie is gonna take some time for me to get used to. In both episodes, I couldn't help but wince nearly every time he spoke. I know it sounded rather similar to the voice John Tartaglia used for Ernie in PWMS, but this voice Billy used for Ernie was just...well...I don't even know what to say right now. Before anyone criticizes me for what I'm saying, I just wanna point one thing out: if Steve chooses to stop performing Ernie for life, that's OK. I know that having a new performer for Ernie is better than having no Ernie on the street at all. If Billy eventually becomes the new Ernie performer, I do hope he gets some practice and eventually I'll become immune to the new voice.

Rant over. Let's get on to the street story. It was absolutely lovely! Though, I'm still a little surprised that Bert was the one not being able to ride his bike without training wheels as he's the older one, but oh well. It's cool that Luis now owns a bike shop. "That's How I Roll" was catchy (both Bert's version and Luis/Ernie's version). Like Weston (SpinneyBigBird1), I not only appreciated Eric having mastered Bert by this point in time, as well as his love for pigeons and paper clips being mentioned, but I really enjoyed seeing several other major characters/humans in the background while Bert was riding his bike near the end; I wish it could happen more often.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

Is Steve Whitmire still performing Ernie?

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Is Steve Whitmire still performing Ernie?

Well...we don't know for sure. It hasn't been officially established whether Steve will come back or not.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

Well...we don't know for sure. It hasn't been officially established whether Steve will come back or not.

I will be heartbroken if Steve leaves Sesame Street.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

I will be heartbroken if Steve leaves Sesame Street.

ALL OF US will be heartbroken. But it's probably gonna be for the best- these days, he's been incredibly busy with the Disney Muppets, and like another user pointed out, after Muppets Most Wanted wrapped up production, he more than likely wouldn't have been up to flying up to New York to film at Sesame Street. With Eric, David, and Matt, it was a different story. They have more than one character to perform; Eric has Bert and Grover, David has Baby Bear and Cookie Monster, and Matt has The Count and possibly Big Bird. Steve only has Ernie to perform, so it makes sense that he's not needed so much on the set these days.

If Steve does leave the show, at least he'll still be performing Kermit, and several other Muppet Show characters- it's not like he'll no longer be performing with the Muppets all together. Fran Brill just retired, and that's a little heartbreaking, even though it was her choice, but that's another story.