Make classic Sesame Street available online (petition)

[LittleJerry92]

What are the 3 clips related to the hippie AMs that you mentioned? Or did the admin vaguely tell you that?

I’m referring to these clips:

 

[YellowYahooey]

I have to admit, I like the older Sesame Street, but only for the inserts and not so much about the street scenes. As a matter of fact, if not for having grown out of the show in the 1980s, my interest in the show probably would have peaked either during Seasons 16 or 17, because by the 1986-87 season, there were fewer letter segments (as many as five by the end of 1986 as opposed to as many as seven in, say, 1982). I bet, every so many years through the 1980s, the maximum number of letter segments per show would drop by one. It's possible that, if the number of letter segments on episode 2062 being six was the norms by 1985, chances are, Season 15 would have been my peak year in terms of interest.

Though the street scenes on one episode - the one with the teenager named Donna involved in a basketball game - would be very interesting to me.

 

[D'Snowth]

I really like the street scenes back then, especially when they shifted to having the street scenes link together for an actual storyline, as opposed to the more broken-up, vignetted format they did moreso in the 70s (something Caroll Spinney has said he actually prefered).

 

[LittleJerry92]

Yeah, I wasn’t big on that myself. It felt like nothing but padding and filler put in.

 

[YellowYahooey]

I really like the street scenes back then, especially when they shifted to having the street scenes link together for an actual storyline, as opposed to the more broken-up, vignetted format they did moreso in the 70s (something Caroll Spinney has said he actually prefered).

I think the storyline format of street scenes was probably a daily trend by around 1985 or so. Even the scenes focusing on the death of Mr. Hooper were limited to the final two street scenes, implying the full storyline of scenes was not in place during Season 15. Though I do believe there was a full storyline of street scenes on Fridays even before Season 15. In fact, Episode 355 had a full storyline of street scenes centering on a rainstorm, and that was a Friday episode, even back in the early 70s.

The Canadian countwrpart, "Sesame Park", didn't have storyline scenes on a daily basis until the final two seasons in 2000.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

In fact, Episode 355 had a full storyline of street scenes acentering on a rainstorm, and that was a Friday episode, even back in the early 70s.

And 7 years later, it was the same case with Episode 1285.

 

[D'Snowth]

I was kind of thinking about something similar the other day, about how some episodes in the 80s would have two storylines during the street scenes, such as Episode 1575, which has one storyline about Oscar feeling lonely since he has nobody to annoy with his grouchy activitiies, then a second storyline about Mister Rogers visiting the street. Or, similarly, there's Episode 2073, which has one storyline about Big Bird telling Petey all about Mr. Hooper, then a second storyline about Telly trying to put the letters on Oscar's stop sign.

But the vignetted street scenes didn't definitely completely become phased out until the ATC era; there's at least a couple of episodes from Season 23/24 that are definitely just vignetted street scenes.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Sesame Street is in not-so great shape these days, in terms of ratings. Sure, it has many viewers, but definitely far less than during the "golden age." That may explain why, in a 35-episode season, there are many repeats now. If not for the HBO deal a few years back, the show probably would have ceased production by now. It makes me wonder if Season 50 will be the official last season, as that will be the last season in the HBO deal.

It's rather sad, because when you think about it, this has been a problem for over 25 years now. When Barney came along in 1992, SS found themselves having to compete like crazy...then it happened again several years later when Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer gained a large amount of popularity. Looking at what kids are watching nowadays, it really has me worried about Sesame's future. The toddler my mom babysits is really into Paw Patrol as well as the Disney princesses. Other than that, I'm not sure which children's shows are all the rage at this point, but it does make me wonder about Sesame's post Season 50 future.

 

[LittleJerry92]

If they made it this far, I’m sure it will continue. I could see them making it to 60 years.

 

[Oscarfan]

Personally, I don't really like the whole "random vignettes on the street" approach unless they can come up with funny/interesting ones.

Also hot take: they should've knocked off that whole "130 episodes a season" thing ages beforehand. Less episodes would allow them to put the money toward bigger, more involved episodes (like that one with Jeff Goldblum as the Indiana Jones knock-off). And it also wouldn't have starved the writers of material and the need to create characters to fill in the gaps of Ernie, Bert, Grover and such (i.e. Professor D. Rabbit or Chip & Dip).