What would happen if Sesame Workshop retired Elmo?

[Drtooth]

i have to say this that , i like elmo and yes though at times he does still the spot light and that does get a bit over bearing but he is a cute little guy and he is a big part of SS .

I reiterate that it's yet another unfortunate side effect of 1990's kids programming. Elmo jumped into the spotlight at first out of necessity... Jim and Richard's characters were gone... Frank's characters weren't around as frequently... and after a while the whole reinventing of Sesame Street with the Around the corner stuff faded from the show. Characters started to gravitate in favor of the Crowd of Elmo, Zoe, Telly, Rosita, and Baby Bear (the last, mainly came out of David Rudman needing a regular character... this clearly before he took over Cookie Monster's role). But Big Bird, Snuffy, and Oscar were still frequently featured.

Then came Elmo's world, and TME, and we know what happened next. I really blame the whole Barney aesthetic for it, as I said above... instead of having a group of fun characters to play with, we have one central character with a couple assistants, and it's a whole matter of self centered-ness... all from Barney.

In the 1970's, Early 80's (and even a little after that) there was a LOT of focus on Grover (mostly books, I want to say)... but he shared the spotlight. Something tells me Elmo could have if they kept the show the same as it always had been.

 

[CBPuppets]

Elmo has always been one of my favorite characters ever since I was young. I kinda see him as someone who would keep the show alive.

 

[SSLFan]

Elmo has always been one of my favorite characters ever since I was young. I kinda see him as someone who would keep the show alive.

As much as it pains me to say it...I agree. Yes, I sat though those 15 minutes of EW, I cried whenever I wanted an 'Elmo' tape (or any SS tape for that matter), I wanted 'Elmo' toys. Going back to my childhood days, I too was under the 'Elmo' spell. BUT, as I've stated many times, Big Bird has always be my number #1 favorite out of the whole SS cast, so, when Elmo basically stole some of the spotlight from Big Bird, it kind of created a bitterness with me among the character. That's why I have this love/hate thing with Elmo now. I honestly don't know WHAT kind of appeal this little guy had on me when I was little to make me like him so much, but he's the muppet almost 90% of kids watching SS these appeal to the most. It sickens me in all honesty.
I know I sound selfish but, it's like he stole Big Bird's fame! I'm not using any other muppets, but you get the idea.

"Elmo basically stole [insert your favorite SS muppet name inside here]'s fame!"

*Sigh*...and then there's this other side of me that says "Wow! What Elmo did today on SS was sooo cute!"

It's like this guy has me twisted!

ELMO! ELMO! ELMO!
Even the name wears thin! Lol.

 

[ferrell]

maybe they should consider doing two shows,"sesame street" and "sesame street presents-Elmos world" I sometimes wonder if that's how Jim would have done it in the first place,or at least if he would have suggested it being that way because he never had one character as the main focus of any of his shows he always was fair with using the various characters even with the merchandising it wouldn't just be big bird it would also be bert and ernie and grover,something tells me that he wouldn't have liked the idea of having Elmo as the main character..just my opinion though..I don't think they should retire him but maybe they should focus on a new generation of fans and promote Elmo less over the next couple years,maybe focus on dvd releases of the other characters,like a series of "Best of's" or something like that,

 

[CensoredAlso]

I don't mind the character, more so the whole monopoly, how he's taken over. It reminds me of the reality shows that for some reason remain so popular.

 

[Drtooth]

maybe they should consider doing two shows,"sesame street" and "sesame street presents-Elmos world"

I've been saying that for YEARS now... but PBS would never give an hour long show another half hour. They can run shows 2 or more times a day, but they would never give that sort of care back to Sesame Street. They have too many shows as it is... Barney's dead weight, and Superwhy seems to be one of those things that they're shoving down everyone's throats so it can become popular, but it's so incredibly unremarkable that I doubt it would last 3 more seasons (they're slow to cancel things... even flops). As it stands, they moved Arthur to a really bad 2 PM slot here. And that was one of their anchor shows.

yes, Elmo's world should be its own, separate show. It seems to appeal to a different demographic all together.

I don't mind the character, more so the whole monopoly, how he's taken over. It reminds me of the reality shows that for some reason remain so popular.

There's a difference.... Elmo's popularity stems from a character that speaks to the same 2-4 year olds the show is now made for... Reality shows are still on because everyone's watching them ironically (again, it's like buying a book to burn it... you're still supporting it). Not to mention the fact that they are so cheap to produce, even if a show had a 0.00000001% share, it would still be renewed for 3 seasons more. Freakin' TV industry.

 

[Krazedmuppet]

What would happen if Sesame Street retired Elmo?

Im going to be a smart a** and reply:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enSYlCEz5VI


Replace "Robin's minstrels" with "Elmo"
(its clean I promise- just some Monty Python fun)

 

[CensoredAlso]

There's a difference.... Elmo's popularity stems from a character that speaks to the same 2-4 year olds the show is now made for... Reality shows are still on because everyone's watching them ironically

I'm sorry I don't get what you mean. Not trying to be rude, just asking for clarification.

 

[muppets2]

elmo has been going on and on and on for about 20 years so they should retire elmo's world already and give him a new segemnt or drop him from the line-up

 

[Drtooth]

I'm sorry I don't get what you mean. Not trying to be rude, just asking for clarification.

Oh... what, the watching something ironically? No problem.

Okay... you know when you watch a really really bad Sci-Fi movie from the 1950's... not to enjoy it, but to laugh at it, make fun of it, or sarcastically pretend to enjoy it (i.e. laughing fakely, loudly, and harshly every time someone makes an unfunny attempt at a joke)? basically the same principle....

Watching a reality TV show ironically is when people watch these shows to either laugh at the contestants or because they know the show is trashy, and they watch it for the campy trashy value. Sort of like why people watch Jerry Springer.

I'm under the belief that NO ONE likes reality TV shows on purpose. They watch Biggest Loser to laugh at the fat people, they watch American Idol to laugh at the tone deaf singers... etc. etc. and so forth. No one really enjoys it, unless they get a sarcastic laugh out of it. I hope this clears it all up.