We have a winner:
Sesame Street is for kids and the kids LOVE Elmo. Also, Vee Corp's highest selling SSL show EVER was Elmo's Coloring Book in 2005. Their lowest selling show was Super Grover! Ready for Action which followed in 2006
AH- HAAA! That's what I've been waiting to hear. It IS a marketting tool, and clearly they won't alter the show too much. Maybe a little to feature Abby. But that's it. That said:
But does anybody else have a problem with the fact that Abby was pretty much invented for the point of merchandizing? I thinks its a good thing to develop a character who's a role model, don't get me wrong. However, I'm a bit offended as a long time fan that Sesame (Street or Workshop, I'm not totally sure) would stoop so low to create a character whose primary objectives is to compete with another children's television show and sell some stuffed animals. The show was to celebrate learning, sot side-check another program to boost ratings...
I don't completely doubt she was for marketting, but she was clearly added in due to the fact that the only female SS Muppets that had any staying power were Zoe, Rosita, and Prairie Dawn. Quite a few female characters left with Stephanie D'Abruzzo (sp?) And we got Zoe, Prairie, And Rosita vs, Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie Monster, Grover, Ernie, Bert, Snuffy, Telly, Baby Bear, and of course, Elmo. So it pretty much is a more male dominated area (there's another thread about it, which explains what I think about that thing). But clearly, with a female character, they can appeal to the female demographic when it comes to merchandise. Old Schoolers would want Prairie, and that leaves Zoe and Rosita. It really is a swing at Dora the Explora, trying to get a positive female role model into the show. (how positive is Dora? She has no personality).