Sesame Street Special "When You Wish Upon a Pickle"

[Phillip]

Special - When You Wish Upon a Pickle
HBO Premiere: Saturday November 10, 2018

This Saturday. don't miss an all-new one hour Sesame Street special on HBO. "When You Wish Upon a Pickle" will premiere on Saturday November 10 at 7 pm eastern, 6 pm central.

When a mysterious Wish Pickle is delivered to Sesame Street, Elmo, Abby and Bert find their wishes coming true. All three wish to have jobs--and once the wish pickle springs into action, Elmo finds himself switching bodies with Chris so that he can be grown up and run Hooper's store. Abby gets to solve mysteries with her favorite literary detective. And Bert winds up on TV to achieve his impossible dream, being a TV weathercaster. In the end the gang learns that if they believe in themselves--and practice, and play it, and dream it--they can be anything they want to be without needing magic. One word of warning though: when you wish upon a pickle make sure you read ALL the directions first. Only one wish per customer. (Guests: Amanda Seyfried, Blake Lively).

If you saw "When You Wish Upon a Pickle", please like this post and share your thoughts below.

 

[antsamthompson9]

I really liked the special! My favorite plotlines were Ernie's wish for Bert to be on TV and Elmo and Chris switching places, especially when Chris ended up in Elmo's World.

 

[Oscarfan]

Really, really entertaining special; I liked it. It was funny and was great to see E&B get some starring roles at last and nobody felt like they were the focus; nice ensemble piece for everyone, as well as lots of nice bit roles for all the other classic characters (notice that Abby's the only post-Henson addition, everyone else has stood the test of time). Loved the opening song and hey! It was more than a minute long!

Also dug the little throwbacks bits in the opening animation (the Bob album tho). And Eric nailing Guy Smiley's baritone.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Eric nailing Guy Smiley's baritone.

I forgot to mention that. It is nice that Guy still has that deep voice when he sings. Also I really liked the songs in the special. Since they were written by Broadway composers, they were able to show just how good the puppeteers can sing. Also, how funny was it to see Chris talk in Elmo's voice?

 

[Oscarfan]

Yeah, that was nice. I wish they had done their physical movements to be more like the other too, but whatever.

 

[D'Snowth]

So, in spite of how absurd the premise seemed on paper, the special was, overall, enjoyable and well-done. Of all the plot threads that were woven together, I think perhaps my favorite was Bert being on TV in the various different shows that Ernie was watching - this probably the best job Eric has ever done with Bert, and Peter was great as Ernie, it was great to see them in a larger role. Chris and Elmo switching places, albeit predictable, was also fun to watch - especially when Chris takes a nap and dreams himself in Elmo's World, where he knew nothing that was going on. Amusing little running gag of Mr. Johnson never getting his spoon. . . .

Spoiler

I was expecting him to complain about his soup being cold by the time Chris finally gave him a spoon.

The subplot with Abby and Natalie Neptune was a tad weak, I thought - it gave Abby something to do with being a detective, but it otherwise didn't really advance the story too much . . . and Amanda Seyfried's performance felt off somehow, can't quite place my finger on why.

Wish a little more was done with Cookie Monster accidentally wishing for 200 of himself, but I guess there's not much more they could have done with that.

The special did bring up a couple of questions, though:

Spoiler

How is it that everything that happened to Bert on TV was due to whatever Ernie changed the channel to? Was it because he made the wish for Bert? Because otherwise, wouldn't we see Bert doing different things on different TVs that would be set on different channels? And would anyone else have the power to affect what's happening to Bert if they changed the channel?

And, how is it that even though Oscar wished for everyone to go back to normal, there was still more than one Cookie Monster?

I agree, the songs were great - probably some of the better songs SS has had in a long time.

Other little highlights I'd like to point out are I like how Gail Warning was a (kid-friendly) jab at extremely shapely weather ladies who always wear figure-hugging dresses. And, all of the blink-and-you'll-miss-em cameos made by Mel, Herry Monster, Julia, and Jen Barnhart. Lastly, everyone who's been complaining about how dumbed-down Grover has become lately . . . this probably takes the cake. He's become so dumb he actually thinks clothes spinning in a dryer is a TV show? That's something out of JOHNNY BRAVO (specifically, he once watched a bowl of macaroni and cheese spinning in a microwave like a TV show).

 

[kathy26]

So, in spite of how absurd the premise seemed on paper, the special was, overall, enjoyable and well-done. Of all the plot threads that were woven together, I think perhaps my favorite was Bert being on TV in the various different shows that Ernie was watching - this probably the best job Eric has ever done with Bert, and Peter was great as Ernie, it was great to see them in a larger role. Chris and Elmo switching places, albeit predictable, was also fun to watch - especially when Chris takes a nap and dreams himself in Elmo's World, where he knew nothing that was going on. Amusing little running gag of Mr. Johnson never getting his spoon. . . .

Spoiler

I was expecting him to complain about his soup being cold by the time Chris finally gave him a spoon.

The subplot with Abby and Natalie Neptune was a tad weak, I thought - it gave Abby something to do with being a detective, but it otherwise didn't really advance the story too much . . . and Amanda Seyfried's performance felt off somehow, can't quite place my finger on why.

Wish a little more was done with Cookie Monster accidentally wishing for 200 of himself, but I guess there's not much more they could have done with that.

The special did bring up a couple of questions, though:

Spoiler

How is it that everything that happened to Bert on TV was due to whatever Ernie changed the channel to? Was it because he made the wish for Bert? Because otherwise, wouldn't we see Bert doing different things on different TVs that would be set on different channels? And would anyone else have the power to affect what's happening to Bert if they changed the channel?

And, how is it that even though Oscar wished for everyone to go back to normal, there was still more than one Cookie Monster?

I agree, the songs were great - probably some of the better songs SS has had in a long time.

Other little highlights I'd like to point out are I like how Gail Warning was a (kid-friendly) jab at extremely shapely weather ladies who always wear figure-hugging dresses. And, all of the blink-and-you'll-miss-em cameos made by Mel, Herry Monster, Julia, and Jen Barnhart. Lastly, everyone who's been complaining about how dumbed-down Grover has become lately . . . this probably takes the cake. He's become so dumb he actually thinks clothes spinning in a dryer is a TV show? That's something out of JOHNNY BRAVO (specifically, he once watched a bowl of macaroni and cheese spinning in a microwave like a TV show).

I saw the special too and it was fantastic. I did see the Herry cameo. Did Matt perform the Wish Pickle cause he did great?

 

[D'Snowth]

I do believe that was Matt; the voice sounded an awful lot like The Crumb.

 

[Oscarfan]

How is it that everything that happened to Bert on TV was due to whatever Ernie changed the channel to? Was it because he made the wish for Bert? Because otherwise, wouldn't we see Bert doing different things on different TVs that would be set on different channels? And would anyone else have the power to affect what's happening to Bert if they changed the channel?

And, how is it that even though Oscar wished for everyone to go back to normal, there was still more than one Cookie Monster?

Ernie never changed the channel; Bert was on the same station the entire time and the other TVs just happened to be set to the same thing.

And after re-watching the special, I'm assuming that Cookie was still duplicated because Oscar's wish was that "everyone here would go back to normal" and Cookie wasn't present at that moment.

 

[kathy26]

Did Abby get a new look this season?