Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 40

[dwmckim]

It's a shame because they make a new Zoe puppet and don't really use her. That's a waste of puppetry.

Not quite a case of making a new puppet and not using it - kind of the opposite: they took a puppet that was probably going to be used once and never used again (the Zoe the made for Abby In Wonderland) and found a (ridiculous) excuse to get more milage out of it. It would be like if they all of a sudden decided to replace the regular Elmo wih one of those Elmo varients in Elmo's World when Dorothy imagines Elmo as a shark or elephant.

 

[Drtooth]

Not quite a case of making a new puppet and not using it - kind of the opposite: they took a puppet that was probably going to be used once and never used again (the Zoe the made for Abby In Wonderland) and found a (ridiculous) excuse to get more milage out of it. It would be like if they all of a sudden decided to replace the regular Elmo wih one of those Elmo varients in Elmo's World when Dorothy imagines Elmo as a shark or elephant.

Well put... sort of like that random episode where Telly mothered a baby duck and turned into his exact puppet from "Peter and the Wolf" (or was it Elmo and the Wolf?) Everything is an excuse to save money... reusing segments all too much, long segment intros... less and less puppet characters in the background. I've said it before... inspired by the announcement of "The Muppets Cheapest Movie" Sesame Workshop just produced "The Sesame Street's Cheapest Season!"

The one thing that really bugs me, we should see more of Ernie and Bert's Great Adventures. I do like Murray had a Little Lamb and everything, but we're seeing reruns of stuff they showed twice last year... and after over a year for a new season they must get very boring to little kids. These aren't like 30 second cartoons that are supposed to be repeated over and over... a 5-10 minute segment that's been used over and over is going to cause a LOT of channel changes. Where as all the Ernie and Berts are done with... and there are around 30 of them.

In fact, E&B can have one episode in every SS episode and not have to rerun older segments until the next season. Why we're seeing only one every 2 or 3 episodes and we're seeing Abby School in every episode when they either don't have all 26 episodes of it ready, or want to stingily hold off on new episodes for next season is beyond me. No offense to Abby or Murray... I really do love these segments... just not as much after the third or fourth time.

 

[SSLFan]

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.

All I can say is...that SUCKS.

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.

Yes, I have to agree with you there. The only problem I had with Season 38 (at the time) was it was just lacking a lot of Big Bird, lol. But looking back, the pros out weighed the cons and it was a decent season, with the two EW free episodes and all. Definately better than our current season...sad to say.

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.

Yes indeed. It was looking to be a promising season at first. I admit I've enjoyed most of the street stories(espicially with Cookie Monster), and AFFS is good for the first time you see it, but after it gets boring with the constant repeats. However the show overall is just...blah. They've really slaughtered it this season.

Sorry to sound so negative about it.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes indeed. It was looking to be a promising season at first. I admit I've enjoyed most of the street stories(espicially with Cookie Monster), and AFFS is good for the first time you see it, but after it gets boring with the constant repeats. However the show overall is just...blah. They've really slaughtered it this season.

Sorry to sound so negative about it.

I still feel this season is leaps and bounds above the dreaded first season of the segmentation and routine-i-ness from 2002. Though, that one DID have that great Oscar and Telly segment. I mean, even the fifth time of seeing an Abby segment is better than Monster Clubhouse or Hero guy... bleehhhh.... I feel the coolness of that segment is wasted on cheapness, showing repeats of segments seen in the repeats of the older episodes from the season to bulk out 26 episodes to last 4 months.

I would agree with the slaughtered thing completely, but a LOT of it really seems like circumstances beyond their control. Seems like we would have gotten a LOT more if that stupid Elmo Live toy sold last Christmas.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I'm trying to think, wouldn't it be the opposite? After all, the reason Noggin stopped airing unpaved was because of all the Chicken Dance Elmo's that were sold. Their belief was that they stopped airing older stuff since they were making more money with newer stuff so wouldn't things have been worse if the Elmo Live toy sold? Just a little confused here.

BTW, I thought I'd make a comment on the 'Mary, Mary Quite Contrary' episode since yesterday was the first I saw that. It's nice to see an Oscar centered episode, since his role has been kind of light early this season. Plus it was good to see Fluffy, she hasn't been around much lately. It's neat that Bob made a second episode in season 40. I thought like Susan he was only in one ep per season. Maybe we would see those characters more if they'd change the format around and have more time to show more characters, both humans and Muppets.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm trying to think, wouldn't it be the opposite? After all, the reason Noggin stopped airing unpaved was because of all the Chicken Dance Elmo's that were sold. Their belief was that they stopped airing older stuff since they were making more money with newer stuff so wouldn't things have been worse if the Elmo Live toy sold? Just a little confused here.

No no no... One of the reasons they stopped airing Unpaved was that they were starting to politic with SW's partnership, and they were starting up the whole "The N" segment. Don't forget that.

Secondly, you were talking about Noggin's airings of an older show, where I'm referring to the current budget situation with SW. A lot of their income comes in from their profits of the merchandise, which they put back into Sesame Workshop products. They aren't getting all that much from PBS anymore (their budget is tied up with trying to buy up bad British shows before BBC America does, littering their once fruitful Britcom line up with crappy CSI knockoffs with a British accent). SW WAS counting on Elmo Live to be a big hit, and add the profits to their ever dwindling budget. But a 60 dollar toy in a Recession Christmas is a luxury buy. I'm trying to do my part, but frankly, I don't have all that money, and most of the SS products are just Elmo-centric trash.

 

[Oscarfan]

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.

Well, it's not as bad as when Elmo's World debuted. Each week, the same episode would be played for every episode. And there was 65 episodes!

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

No no no... One of the reasons they stopped airing Unpaved was that they were starting to politic with SW's partnership, and they were starting up the whole "The N" segment. Don't forget that.

Secondly, you were talking about Noggin's airings of an older show, where I'm referring to the current budget situation with SW. A lot of their income comes in from their profits of the merchandise, which they put back into Sesame Workshop products. They aren't getting all that much from PBS anymore (their budget is tied up with trying to buy up bad British shows before BBC America does, littering their once fruitful Britcom line up with crappy CSI knockoffs with a British accent). SW WAS counting on Elmo Live to be a big hit, and add the profits to their ever dwindling budget. But a 60 dollar toy in a Recession Christmas is a luxury buy. I'm trying to do my part, but frankly, I don't have all that money, and most of the SS products are just Elmo-centric trash.

Okay. I get it now. I guess it's hard to comprehend because I never got Noggin. But I guess it's one of those network changes (ex: WB to CW, Kids WB to 4kids TV, PAX network to ION television,) sort of a deal like that.

 

[minor muppetz]

I just noticed that Bip Bipadotta maded a cameo in today's epsiode, and it looked like he actually said something, thouhg I couldn't tell who did the voice.

 

[Oscarfan]

I'm not sure who performed him, but it sounded like he muttered "Manah Manah".