Why people dislike modern Sesame Street

[Oscarfan]

If there's anything I really miss, it's jokes. I understand cutting the spoofs and celebrities down, but like, there'd always been some funny quotes and lines in the stories and there honestly hasn't been. I can probably count on one hand the funny lines from this season.

 

[Drtooth]

If there's anything I really miss, it's jokes. I understand cutting the spoofs and celebrities down, but like, there'd always been some funny quotes and lines in the stories and there honestly hasn't been.

The sad thing is the one parody segment they had was quite clever, though I had to have an Orange is the New Black fan explain everything to me. Suffice to say, it was well researched a parody done by fans of the show. Heck, even the Birdy and the Beast story was pretty decent and had a few solid laughs in it. And I can't stress enough that Smart Cookies is the highlight of the season.

Other than that, while I'm glad that the parodies have been cooled down (listing Girl Scouts "and their cookies" and Simon Sez as parodies was just...sad) and I'm happy the self control stuff from last season was all but eliminated. But I agree the show's writing, after finally getting the older audiences back and replacing the pre-pre-preschool friendly Elmo's World with ETM. A segment that has a plot among other things. They brought in an older audience with the engineering and science concepts, for better or worse. And while I can applaud them for their smarter, stronger, kinder, faster, better initiative, it feels they're taking it in a very juvenile direction, and bringing the writing down with it.

 

[DePingPong]

I don't dislike modern SST as whole, but there's a lot I dislike about it. Some episodes I really loved, like Elmo the Grouch from season 45.

I really like season 46, although the pacing of the street seems feels too fast but that probably has something to do with the episodes being 30mins now.
Also, I don't care for a song being in every episode, gets kinda old. Loving the new set though, especially Hooper's Store.

 

[Drtooth]

Problem with the half hour format is that they could totally get the show to work in that format, had the segments alternated. So, like Smart Cookies one episode, Super Grover 2.0 the next, then Elmo the Musical. They wouldn't even have needed to bring back Elmo's Filler after at least 2 seasons of it finally being drug out behind the barn and shot. But SW painted itself into a corner with giving the last 15+ minutes of the show to Elmo. The older kids still watching threw a huge fit (supposedly) because it was no longer on the show when they tried removing it twice.

Which is the big...what?! for me. The kids old enough to remember EW was part of the show the previous season are basically a year or two from outgrowing the show, whereas the new audience going in doesn't know or care that a segment exists. Tree falling in the woods and all that.

 

[mr3urious]

Problem with the half hour format is that they could totally get the show to work in that format, had the segments alternated. So, like Smart Cookies one episode, Super Grover 2.0 the next, then Elmo the Musical. They wouldn't even have needed to bring back Elmo's Filler after at least 2 seasons of it finally being drug out behind the barn and shot. But SW painted itself into a corner with giving the last 15+ minutes of the show to Elmo. The older kids still watching threw a huge fit (supposedly) because it was no longer on the show when they tried removing it twice.

Not to mention foreign co-productions are able to handle half an hour of the show very well. So why not SSt itself?

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm totally okay with cutting down on celebrities - I know they've always had celebrities on the show from the beginning, but it was really getting to a point where they were utilizing the celebrities to really carry and bolster the show itself. Particularly when the celebrities were part of the storyline, which back in the day was really few and far between.

 

[Drtooth]

Not to mention foreign co-productions are able to handle half an hour of the show very well. So why not SSt itself?

That's an example that's strange to explain. The only reason Sesame was an hour in the first place was because it was given the freedom to do so on the up and coming public television option. A network would never allow a kid's show to go on that long continuously. A block of episodes that equals an hour or more, fine. Where as internationally the show has to be carried on mainstream networks, depending on the television situation of the country it's being broadcast to. Those versions of Sesame Street, however, have a slightly altered format. If Plaza Sesamo is an example, it fits a half hour by using something similar to the shorter street stories with "commercials" and films interspersed, yet sometimes only one street story, some Mexico exclusive clips one Muppet dubbed skit, maybe two if they're short enough, maybe a song either dubbed or original, couple number and letter bits, again, dubbed or original or even both. And no Elmo's World!

Because the most important difference is that other countries get Elmo's World as a separate show. Then of course there are the compilation shows they have now made around how the show is broken up into mini-shows, so some countries get a show that's all Abby's Flying School and the rest with maybe some other skits as filler.

 

[D'Snowth]

When I think about it, it seems to me that people getting upset over scaling back of Muppet characters down to a "core six" is really not that big a deal, because when you think about it, prior to the ATC era, that's pretty much what SST's Muppet cast was like. Sure, there were always additional characters who served purposes in inserts and such, but when you really think about it, SST pretty much had a "core six" cast of Muppets for the longest time: Big Bird, Oscar, Ernie, Bert, Cookie, and Grover; as the 80s progressed, Telly and Elmo ended up being incorporated into the "core" cast.

 

[Censored]

I honestly think that people who grew up with Sesame Street in 1969 have a particularly special bond to the show that is hard for others to understand. It was truly magic.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yeah, when you look at the comments on really old school clips on YouTube, it's amusing to see read some people's reactions: "Why is there trash on the sidewalk?!" "Why is Mr. Hooper selling cigars?!" "When did Sesame Street have the balls to use real traffic sounds?"