Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 40

[Drtooth]

Another Game show episode, but the first one without Mr. Gameshow or whatever his name was. That was like a joke that was funny the first time, and after the third time you never want to hear it again. No mouse climbing up anything to ring bells... no nothing like that. But I really wish they picked different characters besides Elmo and Abby... Elmo has been a featured character in 12 episodes already. Abby and Telly, Abby and Rosita... just enough Elmo and Abby stuff.

Nice to see Wanda Cousteau and Buster the Horse... nice line about an Alligator with awkward teenage photos of himself.

Not loving these celebrity words of the day segments. Sure, some of them seem to know that they're on Sesame Street, and know what to expect... but a lot of them are like "I have kids and I'm on a Baby show! I better talk in baby talk and say how fun saying the word is a hundred times is" This one was no exception. Really... have FUN with it... don't use it as good PR.

You know, I'd like Abby's School a LOT more if it wasn't constantly repeated. It gets repeated amongst the reruns of the reruns. I know there's a budget crunch, and I was expecting them to show everything twice... but three times is ridiculous. I'm pretty sure even the youngest kids are squirming around seeing the same 10 minute segments over and over.

And of course, the only other major highlight of the episode, Ricky Gervais's "N" lullaby. I wonder how much of that was actually scripted. He just seemed to have a LOT of fun with that segment... a lot more fun than it deserved. A Quintillion times better than Andre Botechilli's "Hey Look! I'm-a- on-a da Sesame Street" segment from years ago. Really, these songs featuring Elmo this season are a LOT funnier than they need be.

 

[Oscarfan]

Not loving these celebrity words of the day segments. Sure, some of them seem to know that they're on Sesame Street, and know what to expect... but a lot of them are like "I have kids and I'm on a Baby show! I better talk in baby talk and say how fun saying the word is a hundred times is" This one was no exception. Really... have FUN with it... don't use it as good PR.

Well, the ones now are certainly better than the season 38 ones. Adding Muppet helpers really made them funnier. I think my favorite one so far is the "Machine" explanation, solely for the most-likely, ad-libbed ending.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, the ones now are certainly better than the season 38 ones. Adding Muppet helpers really made them funnier. I think my favorite one so far is the "Machine" explanation, solely for the most-likely, ad-libbed ending.

Definitely... but it seems the ones that get stuck with the cutesy characters just think "I'm on a preschool show, so I'll just blankly deliver me lines like I'm talking to 2 year olds."

Plus, I REALLY hate the "This word is fun to say... say it... say it again..." I'm sorry... but that's Barney/Teletubbies type stuff.

Seems the ones that really get it are comedians or actors that usually play comedic roles... And it really is better with a Muppet alongside them. Joey did some great improvising with Rico the robot and the Octopus ("OW! You twisted my tentacle!") A lot of these guys tend to actually have FUN with the skit. I would like to see more of that and less "I'm doing this for PR!" And I'm sure kids would too.

 

[Rendal]

Someone mentioned that we've had Elmo is 12 episodes already.
Anyone think this is the same reason we see Murry so much. Joey and Kevin are on staff, a lot of the rest of the team are free agents. It's cheaper to use staff Muppeteers?

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Yeah. It seems like the principal stars this season are Elmo, Murray and Abby. Though Rosita has shown up quite a bit.

BTW, did anyone ever try Gordon's experiment from the rainbow ep? If someone could get me a list of step-by-step instructions, I might give that a try.

 

[Drtooth]

I tell yah... there are times when I watch this show, and I just mutter, "I'm gettin' to old for this..." Stuff... I say stuff... This was one of those times.

The opening segment was more dull Elmo stuff... Chris and the puppeteers had about as much fun as they could... you could tell what stuff was improvised... but all and all... very very very dull... even for a little kid.

And YAAAAAWWWWNNNN more rerun Abby that's been rerun 3 times in new episodes that I'm sure every kid who watches all the episodes has seen all of these double digit times by now. Hey, Sesame Workshop... if you want to have a segment that appears in every single episode, you need at least 13 of them.

No really... if there's one thing I would like to see, regardless of my age, when I have to wait weeks for a new episode, it's old stuff I've already seen before.

Murray's school thing again. I love these segments and all, but there's NO excuse for not alternating it better with Ernie and Bert's Great Adventures. There are episodes we HAVEN'T seen yet that have already been produced. And frankly, they're a lot more interesting than half of the newer Ernie and Bert segments.

And... oh... celebrity singing meh parody of his own song. Remember when I used to dislike when celebrities did covers of older SS songs? I say, we need more of that and less of this. Just not that Arron Nelville one with Ernie. I guess I'd probably at least enjoy the segment if I actually heard of this guy or heard of his music. Really, they need to get Chris Cerf back on the payroll... or at least give ol' Weird Al a call... at least give the job to someone who can do a parody right.

The one worthwhile bit in the entire show was that Cedric the Entertainer word of the day. You see? HE gets it. He had fun. He even had a fun spin on the "say the word 3 times so you'll learn it" bit. I swear, comedic actors or anyone that works in comedy KNOWS how to do this right. Not to mention I really like ol' Cedric.

 

[SSLFan]

Yeah. It seems like the principal stars this season are Elmo, Murray and Abby. Though Rosita has shown up quite a bit.

Oh yes, Elmo and Abby are SW's big moneymakers these days. Murray is just another Telly - a great character but extremely underrated. And it was obvious it would be many Elmo/Abby street stories, as from the episode guide in the press release.

As for Rosita, I'm glad she's gettig more airtime. She's also an underrated character in my opinion. It seems Abby and Rosita are featured more than Zoe this season too. It's deja vu, since when Zoe first came on the show, she sort of took the place of Prairie, and now that Abby is here, Zoe is now in the background.

Really, Season 40 seems really...distinct to me. The block format is killing the airtime of other muppets. I know it's an old rant, but really, the show is all about Elmo and Abby...literally. Nothing else.

Sort of random, but if it were a poll voting for the best season since the format change, I would either choose Season 37 or Season 39, IMO.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Really, Season 40 seems really...distinct to me. The block format is killing the airtime of other muppets. I know it's an old rant, but really, the show is all about Elmo and Abby...literally. Nothing else.

I agree. The season premiere ep was really good, but after that things seemed to go downhill. You'd think because it's an anniversary year there would be more to look forward to, I mean we have those hidden gems but sometimes you really have to look hard for those, aside from that, well things seem to be getting worse instead of better. I have noticed the lack of Zoe this season. It's a shame because they make a new Zoe puppet and don't really use her. That's a waste of puppetry. I don't care much for the puppet's new appearance anyway. Still it seems like Abby and Rosita have taken her place as the main femaile Muppets on the show.

 

[Oscarfan]

To me, the best format since the 2002 change is the one used in season 38. It was still structured, but still unpredictable. Plus, we got more non-Muppet cartoons/films in five episodes than we would a whole season. Season 39 sort of had it, but adding Murray and His Little Lamb every day didn't help.

 

[Drtooth]

I agree. The season premiere ep was really good, but after that things seemed to go downhill. You'd think because it's an anniversary year there would be more to look forward to, I mean we have those hidden gems but sometimes you really have to look hard for those, aside from that, well things seem to be getting worse instead of better. I have noticed the lack of Zoe this season. It's a shame because they make a new Zoe puppet and don't really use her. That's a waste of puppetry. I don't care much for the puppet's new appearance anyway. Still it seems like Abby and Rosita have taken her place as the main femaile Muppets on the show.

I keep saying it, but this entire season screams "Budget Crunch" in every aspect. The streets are almost deserted, segments are getting way too much rerun time (Abby's especially. I thought they made 26 of them, not 6 of them for 26 episodes), and Elmo seems to be in every episode because they could have just shot every single episode in the matter of a few days. And frankly, I see what Carol Spinney's pay cut is all about. Oscar was only on the show twice (we saw his empty can more) and Big Bird hasn't been featured much.

Is the lack of Eric and Steve (and you could even say David Rudman) characters partially due to all the Muppet Publicity work, or some project that will happen later? It really seems this seasons very Elmo heavy because we basically see the most of Kevin, Martin, Leslie etc.

Thursday's episode really spoke to what's wrong with the Elmo focus... he isn't even really a character anymore. he a mascot, devoid of personality... why couldn't it be more like the Ricky Gervais segment where Elmo actually... you know... emotes? Really... had Telly been in it instead of Elmo, there would have been a lot more instances for tension and comedy.

I've said it a billion times by now, but I like the idea of Murray hosting the letter and number segments, but the demonstrations of up and down (over/under, inside/outside...etc) seem to be there to waste time, and I think we can do without the show idea of announcing segments coming up next. What TV kid's show are they trying to emulate with this anyway? Last time I checked, Nick Jr. abandoned the whole "Face" concept when Clinton left office.