What are the lamest, Dullest, and Worst Non-Muppet segments?

[Drtooth]

I remember the first time I saw the "Hey Cow..." film, I thought "cool, I love cows!". And the song was catchy at first. But then it just went on and on and on. I swear, anybody who thinks SS shortens people's attention spans should see this film.

I swear I could have gotten through War and Peace while that was going. I think that, both this and the fire fighter film suffered from odd song writing. SOmehow, they made me laugh unintentionally.

But come on. There has to be something lazy and poorly done we can pick out. Like that clock one I mentioned. Seems like it took 2 minutes of thought, and 3 minutes of execution (including song writing time).

I almost forgot to list my other least least least favorites. Those animations of the Dancing Animals. Looking back on it, I liked some of their eariler rhythem pieces. They actually were good then. But it's the crap where they tried to slap in letters of the day, and Wiggle like an Octopus (with those terrible singers who sound like they have a wedge of cheese in their larinxes), they made just terrible and annoying segments. I miss the old rhythem pieces.

And, well, I'm not too crazy about the Clown Honk series either.

 

[Oscarfan]

I haven't seen those "Clown Honking" animations in awhile.

If you think SS cartoons/films are bad, you should see some of the things they've got on Plaza Sesamo. They're practically hard to sit through. They have VERY long kid-narrated films.

 

[Drtooth]

I like Plaza's animation segments, myself. Well, most of them. I remember posting a link to the animation site somewhere years ago.

 

[Oscarfan]

Most of the animations are good. There was one about the letter V for vaca (cow) and it had a photographer takes pictures of a cow and when she notices the camera, she beings hamming it up, like Gladys would.

 

[Super Scooter]

I have to admit, I had a hard time watching any segment that didn't have either the Muppets or stop-motion animation. Some of the animated segments and songs like the "Frog Struggle Song" were good, but otherwise, they just didn't really interest me.

<--- gimme more of these guys, I said.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I watched the Hey Cow, I see you now clip this morning and my younger brother was freaked out at fist witch was funny because I know that he has seen it before but he thought that it was very relaxing.

 

[Convincing John]

I read on another fansite that when the BBC started showing Sesame Street material, one preschool teacher had the class view that "Hey, cow" film. Afterwards, he asked them where milk came from; most of the children responded with "America".

"Of course milk comes from America! The land of Lincoln and Washington! The land of liberty, freedom and patriotism! The land of our forefathers! One would not think to drink milk from anywhere else but good old fashioned American cows!"

(Sorry, with it being 4th of July, I had to type that.)

Anyway, back on topic.

The "hey cow" film drags on for weeks and weeks. By the time the film is over, I'm surprised the milk from the cow isn't expired. But the only thing I saw funny about it was a comment from Sally. Gordon's giving her the "milk is good for you" bit, and Sally pipes up and says "I like to drink coffee!" Gordon struggles a little "Uh, coffee? Uh, well, uh..." and quickly gets back on track with milk.

But here's what I thought were the dullest non-Muppet segments:

Overall, I thought it was just lame for clips to be updated (usually animated) with extra unnecessary sound effects, computer animation effects and extra 90's music just for the sake of updating it. (When any character blinked, a xylophone note was struck, etc). Remember the shadow guy? His original bits were great! Like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RjmbCYJoEk

Then they ruined it with an awful, computerized background, totally taking away the realism of "it's a shadow." instead it just looks like a half-finished bluescreen effect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQTwh53N7ws

Also, during the 90's, they had a LOT of emphasis on the numbers 13, 15 and 18. That's a good idea, of course. Kids gotta know 'em, and 13, 15 and 18 (apparently) are harder to remember for kids than the other basic numbers.

BUT...they take forever and a half to count to in the animated segments from the 90's. They would always have a combination of the Sally Cruikshank, Rubber Stamp, Masked March, Number Creatures and the longest one of all, the "Growing Numbers" that came out of the sidewalk. Individually, they're fine, but when put together in one long segment of the show, they take ages to go through, especially when the numbers are counted so slowly. I wondered if by the second number clip, would kids lose interest and leave the TV?

Also, (I'm surprised no one said this), but Buddy and Jim are right up there with "hey cow" in my book. They took forever to get anything done! A slightly faster-paced sketch with Muppets would've worked for this concept, but not here.

The classical music with the flowers was more sad to me than annoying or lame. Every time I saw it, I remembered it was the clip they played right after the "I'll Miss You Mr. Hooper" scene.

Convincing John

 

[ISNorden]

Anyway, back on topic.

The "hey cow" film drags on for weeks and weeks. By the time the film is over, I'm surprised the milk from the cow isn't expired. But the only thing I saw funny about it was a comment from Sally. Gordon's giving her the "milk is good for you" bit, and Sally pipes up and says "I like to drink coffee!" Gordon struggles a little "Uh, coffee? Uh, well, uh..." and quickly gets back on track with milk.

Even if Sesame Street had not dedicated two seasons to "Healthy Habits for Life", no kid today would've gotten away with a response like that; the producers would've either assumed that somebody was being a smart aleck, or called a social worker instead of choosing the kid for casting. Man, I miss the days when children acted more typically on Sesame Street...

Overall, I thought it was just lame for clips to be updated (usually animated) with extra unnecessary sound effects, computer animation effects and extra 90's music just for the sake of updating it. (When any character blinked, a xylophone note was struck, etc). Remember the shadow guy? His original bits were great! Like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RjmbCYJoEk

Then they ruined it with an awful, computerized background, totally taking away the realism of "it's a shadow." instead it just looks like a half-finished bluescreen effect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQTwh53N7ws

Ugh....Just because a studio has the technology to jazz up every little detail of a classic clip, that doesn't automatically mean they should use special effects and new sounds ad nauseam. How many three-year-olds still enjoy ordinary, homemade shadow puppets with Dad's flashlight? More of them than you'd think...

Also, during the 90's, they had a LOT of emphasis on the numbers 13, 15 and 18. That's a good idea, of course. Kids gotta know 'em, and 13, 15 and 18 (apparently) are harder to remember for kids than the other basic numbers.

Well, the range of typical sponsor numbers had jumped in the late 1980s (from 2-12 to 0-21); so films on the "new" material got a lot more exposure...no pun intended. Besides, the "teen" numbers probably do confuse some preschoolers; even in some of the old Muppet/kid clips about counting to 20, I remember the kids needing help once they got past 13 or so.

BUT...they take forever and a half to count to in the animated segments from the 90's. They would always have a combination of the Sally Cruikshank, Rubber Stamp, Masked March, Number Creatures and the longest one of all, the "Growing Numbers" that came out of the sidewalk. Individually, they're fine, but when put together in one long segment of the show, they take ages to go through, especially when the numbers are counted so slowly. I wondered if by the second number clip, would kids lose interest and leave the TV?

You do have a point there; when they started airing related segments in "chunks", slow segments must have seemed even slower to anybody with a toddler's attention span. Nowadays I wouldn't be surprised if kids either changed the channel or began hollering for Elmo after the second #18 cartoon...

Also, (I'm surprised no one said this), but Buddy and Jim are right up there with "hey cow" in my book. They took forever to get anything done! A slightly faster-paced sketch with Muppets would've worked for this concept, but not here.

Once more, I agree with you--the Buddy/Jim sketches (and similar bumbling-duo bits) were paced too slowly for CTW's target audience to follow. As slapstick for the parents at home, they worked; as lessons for kids, they bombed.

 

[Super Scooter]

the Buddy/Jim sketches (and similar bumbling-duo bits) were paced too slowly for CTW's target audience to follow. As slapstick for the parents at home, they worked; as lessons for kids, they bombed.

I agree with that. I like Buddy and Jim, but I think they really don't work for the show all that well. If the same bits were done with a Muppet pair, and paced a little differently, it would have worked better.

They still crack me up, though.

"Now the hammer's backward!"

 

[Drtooth]

Ugh....Just because a studio has the technology to jazz up every little detail of a classic clip, that doesn't automatically mean they should use special effects and new sounds ad nauseam. How many three-year-olds still enjoy ordinary, homemade shadow puppets with Dad's flashlight? More of them than you'd think...

I never understood fully why they did that. A lot of skits were ruined with horrible sounding cheap SFX. And for some reason, seems they did away with all the prints of the unsweetened versions. Like how the Old School vol 1 had the Alphabet Soup with the cheesy keyboard music.

And on that subject? I hated the stop motiony looking computer segments from the 90's.

For example... "This is the Letter X" The various other alphabet ones, and especially the crappy remakes of the "Find the _________" skits, where the computer gives a lame "Uh Oh... try...again!" instead of the loud buzzing sound.