Least likeable Sesame character?

[Drtooth]

You just summed up pretty much television. They refuse to go the direction that the show creators want, and then when that direction doesn't work, it's the fault of everyone else BUT the people that told you to do that.

Oddly enough, I find the best sketches in MT to be the ones with little or no regular character in them... and in a sense, they were trying to recapture a LOT of what the Muppet Show was about, but without the characters that made it special (Deep Dish 9), Scheduling it opposite 60 minutes wasn't a brilliant strategy either... but Jim Henson Hour (which was brilliant) was underpromoted and didn't do well either. I say this all the time, but Syndication was GOOD to the Muppet Show.

 

[CensoredAlso]

You just summed up pretty much television. They refuse to go the direction that the show creators want, and then when that direction doesn't work, it's the fault of everyone else BUT the people that told you to do that.

You're definitely right, the creator is left with the blame. And it's the same with Sesame Street (to keep the original topic going, hehe).

Scheduling it opposite 60 minutes wasn't a brilliant strategy either

Oh wow, lol, I hadn't realized they'd done that. That is rather bizarre!

but Jim Henson Hour (which was brilliant) was underpromoted and didn't do well either.

I'm sure it was partially because I was young, but I never understood that JHH was a TV show. I honestly thought there were several Henson specials on that year, lol. So yeah it makes sense to me that they suffered in part from under promotion. Though I will also that JHH was a bit ahead of its time as well. Jim really just wanted the freedom to talk about and feature whatever topic struck his own fancy. And looking at it now it feels less like a typical TV show and more like a weekly Internet video series! In a good way, lol.

 

[LamangoNumber2]

Wanda the Fish Explorer or what ever.... Such a dumb idea...

Rodeo Rosie. Just an attempt to give a female cowgirl some air time, too bad she never was paired with Forgetful. Maybe then, the loud mouth would be liked.

Murrey Monster.... OH GOD I WANT TO STRANGLE HIM! I was home sick one day, channel surfing, when suddenly, BOOM, LOUD RED MONSTER YELLING AT ME WITH A SPANISH SHEEP. I was scared and confused.

Elmo. He's mellowed out now, and is actually a great character again. After getting the 40 years DVD, and seeing him litterally seem traumatized after the fire, my respect for Kevin went through the roof. It was as if the puppet was real again.

Zoe. Fran, you're a great preformer and all, but after I learned Zoe was just an attempt to get a female Elmo, I disapoint.

Whats all the hate on Telly? He's awesome, especially with Sesame Family Robison. Marty is a hilariously great preformer.

Mr. Noodle and the Noodles. I said it before... If they exist in Elmo's mind, while Dorothy can enter and exit Elmo's reality apparently on a whim, why haven't the Noodles? It's fictional characters thought up by a small child monster...

Rosita. Awesome character, but she lost one thing I really miss. Her constant flirting with Telly. Not many people remember this, but I do. She would nuzzle him, hug him, squeeze him. Telly and Oscar where the only two 'adult' characters that where puppets, I beleive, besides the 'obvious' ones.

Baby Bear. I liked him. I use to always wonder if he was related to Fozzie. But his HERO GUY.... I wanted to take his pictures and hide em.

EDIT:
Did people actually just hate on Grover and Benny? Grover's one heck of a monster. And Benny's awesome.

 

[Oscarfan]

I don't think it's humanly possible to hate Grover.

 

[Drtooth]

Oh wow, lol, I hadn't realized they'd done that. That is rather bizarre!

It's the same thing that killed Pinky and the Brain as a primetime show. They even made multiple references to that on the show... Pinky even sang, "The TV viewer's you'll delight, unless of course they put your show on Sunday night."

Of course, Friday Night wasn't all that good for them either... people were ticked off it was a mid season replacement for either Boy Meets World or one of the really forgettable TGIF shows at the time.

Baby Bear. I liked him. I use to always wonder if he was related to Fozzie. But his HERO GUY.... I wanted to take his pictures and hide em.

Hero Guy is thankfully long gone. It was just one of a series of new segments that just didn't go anywhere as far as the show was concerned, but they kept bringing the thing back. Now, I really like how they made Baby Bear a cartoonist, but the segments didn't work. On the same level Elmo's World doesn't work. The characters are best when they socialize.

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't think it's humanly possible to hate Grover.

How can people even think it's possible to hate Grover? Or Cookie Monster for that matter.

 

[Convincing John]

I'll have to go along with the other Baby Bear haters on this one. David Rudman's a great performer and all (we've seen it with Cookie), but just picture Elmer Fudd dressed as a bear babbling about porridge...

To be truthful, the character has been around since the early 90's. That's 20 years. We've had obsessions over porridge, getting mad at Goldilocks and drawing "Hewo Guy". If he disappeared, I don't think he'd be missed much. Telly could have some great storylines with Oscar again. Caroll and Marty have great chemistry, as we've seen in "Sneak Peek Previews" and "Ask Oscar".

As for Telly, I didn't used to like him, but the guy's grown on me over the years. It's great when Telly gets to do something besides talk about triangles. The scenes where he freaks out are wonderful! Just watch Telly making all those bracelets and shouting "Help me!" to Leela. The "mad scientist" rant he did was also a great moment. Telly is funny when he freaks out. So's Kermit. They just...work better that way.

Murray---Oh boy. I understand the idea of a Muppet being out in the real world (like Traveling Matt), but I think Sesame Workshop just tried too hard to make a character to compete visually and audibly with Elmo. I understand the educational value of the "visiting schools" bits, but why not have Grover do that...or Telly? (Telly might be the better choice because of the live hands). Murray gets all excited to do whatever with the kids, but having Telly do it, the process would be different. Like the early days with Big Bird, kids could feel like they're smarter than Telly and teach him things. I could see Telly being all nervous to try something new, then the kids build his (and their own) confidence by teaching him. Murray pretty much just laughs and smiles the whole time. Any mistakes he makes wouldn't be overcome with the same subtelty of character Telly would. Telly acts more like a kid. Kids get nervous and shy sometimes and that's why kids can relate to Telly. Murray is just a clown.

The framing segments...we can do without them. We ALL know that when it comes to teaching "near and far", one Muppet comes to mind: Grover. Murray doing "Grover's bit" is like Baby Bear saying "I love to count! Ah ah ah!"

All in all, I really think that Joey just wanted his own "Elmo". Give Murray a furcut at the barber shop and there's Elmo with a smaller yellow nose and a different voice. If Dorothy was "Muppetized", then we'd probably have an Ovejita-type character.

The Elephant---Nails on a chalkboard. Nails...on...a...chalkboard. It's a realistic, beautifully crafted puppet, no doubt about that. The puppeteering is done well, both when we see the elephant from the waist up and in full body shots.

But...

When creating new characters, why does it seem 'essential' to trump the last annoying voice with an even more annoying one? We talked about this already in this thread. Dave Goelz, in his one sketch with the elephant, did SO much better! With Dave, the character is at least tolerable to watch with a joke that works, even though it is one song.

Joey's elephant makes me have no guilt whatsoever in wishing an ivory hunter would visit Sesame Street.

Stinky the Stinkplant---Meh. It was just a one-note character. "Don't worry about me. I'll just wallow in self-pity." Looks like with Joey's current duties, maybe Stinky will be uprooted and thrown on the compost heap soon.

Mr. Noodle and other Noodles---Buddy and Jim revisited with voiceover interaction. In fact, David did this Mr. Noodle-type schtick here, but much better. It works because it was just one clip out of thousands played back in the old days. If it was played daily, we'd have been sick of David.

Elmo=The Red Menace. I'll watch Elmo's World the day Elmo's email gets spam messages from fake weight loss programs and "winning numbers" from the Lybian lottery.

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

All in all, I really think that Joey just wanted his own "Elmo".

But outside of that, Joey wouldn't have many characters. The elephant has been on less and less (you have to give Murray credit for that), Joey and Davey Monkey are gone, As are Humphry and Ingrid. So that just leaves incidentals. Same thing I said about Baby Bear... he wanted a signature character... everyone does. Now, I still say Murray had a Little Lamb was one of the best things to happen to the show in a long long time. Especially when they edited them down. They've got all the charm of the kid films and the Muppet and kid moments all in one informative segment. And the best part, they let the Muppet out there and let it get dirty. Jim would have loved that. What better way to create a suspended disbelief than to take a puppet out a dusty, musty studio, and have it do the same activities as the kids (cookie, sculpting, painting)?

Now, I too have a problem with the block format... unfortunately, kids don't, so we'll see it around for a while. But something tells me, Murray, Cookie, or Grover, no matter who's going to host this is doomed to failure. It's one thing to announce the word, number, and letter of the day, but introducing shows and that guessing game thing at the end need to go. And at LEAST mix it up with the closing "sponsors."

That said, I'm loving Murray and all, but they need to keep Ovejita around with him and film some new linking material. He's by far one of the best monster puppet designs in some time. Everything else seems like a utility Muppet.

 

[LamangoNumber2]

but they need to keep Ovejita around with him

Wasn't she like, the only other character Carmen has?

 

[D'Snowth]

All in all, I really think that Joey just wanted his own "Elmo".

Of course... he's been with the Muppets for two decades, and hasn't had a steady signature character like the other performers. Stinky the Stinkweed isn't a regular character, neither is Papa Bear, and Horatio has interchangable performers and personality (aside from Joey, Marty plays him as a sophisticated British elephant). Other than that, Joey almost always plays the same kind of one-shot/guest characters all the time, so it's really kind of past time he's had a signature character, and it's clear that's what Murray is.