Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 40

[Drtooth]

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

He did indeed!

This episode was much, much better. I really like the episodes that focus on Oscar and Slimey. Nice little gag with Carrie Underworm. And I like how Oscar was up to his old gag of spreading grouchiness by having Slimey practice on the kitchen countertops at Hooper's. Elmo seemed to be just there for the sake of being just there... really should have been Telly. And Big Bird makes a nice cameo at the end. The fact that he's reduced to cameo disappoints me.

And Look how much fun the show can be if you have a NEW Abby Flying Fairy School. It doesn't matter how sharp the writing is, it gets old 3 times. But a nice little twist on Jack and the Beanstalk. I really do like how most of these are Fairy Tale themed.

And and Ernie and Bert Great Adventures segment too. Not that I don't like the Murray segments, but I've seen them all twice last year. Really.. I said it before and I'll say it again... we need to see more of that next time. They have so many E&B segments they can run and only so many Abbys and Murrays.

These Sesame English reused skits kinda get me down. Sure, it's cute to see a Hello Kitty-ized Cookie Monster and Elmo... but it's hardly the same thing as the actual puppets. At least they're not reusing more season 32 letter and number segments.

Also liked the Find the Habitat thing as well... of course, I can't say enough bad things about that terrible Zoe puppet, so I'll end right here.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

He did indeed!

This episode was much, much better. I really like the episodes that focus on Oscar and Slimey. Nice little gag with Carrie Underworm. And I like how Oscar was up to his old gag of spreading grouchiness by having Slimey practice on the kitchen countertops at Hooper's. Elmo seemed to be just there for the sake of being just there... really should have been Telly. And Big Bird makes a nice cameo at the end. The fact that he's reduced to cameo disappoints me.

Yeah. I see what you mean. It's too bad there haven't really been any street stories with BB this season aside from the premiere ep. I see what you mean about Telly though. He and Oscar used to have quite a bond. Telly can be friends with both Baby Bear and Oscar. They really need to bring back the chemistry those two characters used to have.

 

[dwmckim]

Yikes! Brendan Fraser is NOT again gracefully!

How cool to see Bip - i guess his "Mahna Mahna" was a confirmation that he is basically the SST version of the character (since Bip had never actually said it before)

 

[minor muppetz]

Also liked the Find the Habitat thing as well... of course, I can't say enough bad things about that terrible Zoe puppet, so I'll end right here.

It seems like Zoe, Abby, and Rosita have been paired as a trio quite a bit this season (two years after season 38's "Because We're Friends"). I wonder if we should expect to see the three as a regular trio... Of course, it is a bit odd that Zoe's hardly been on the street this year.

 

[minor muppetz]

I sort of feel like the race should have been more crowded... While it was cool to have Bip wathcing the race, it would have been cool to see more "Old School" characters in the audience... Biff, Sully, Herry, Dr. Nobel Price, Don Music...

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. I see what you mean. It's too bad there haven't really been any street stories with BB this season aside from the premiere ep. I see what you mean about Telly though. He and Oscar used to have quite a bond. Telly can be friends with both Baby Bear and Oscar. They really need to bring back the chemistry those two characters used to have.

Telly sadly hasn't been on many episodes either. Funny thing is, his puppeteer has performed a character in virtually every episode this season. Telly would have been a much more appropriate character to be rooting for him and worrying he'd lose than Elmo, who came off as just being their for merchandising purposes. Elmo has been in every street story except for 3, the one with the bees, the one with Mary mary quite Contrary, and the one with the bears hibernating.

For that matter, where's Baby Bear? He's usually in every episode. Was this some sort of availability thing with David Rudman and the other Muppets?

 

[SSLFan]

Elmo seemed to be just there for the sake of being just there...

Honestly, if anyone has been keeping track, HOW many street scenes has Elmo been in already this season? It seems too many, since he already owns 15 minutes of his own show, but that is one of the oldest rants already. Please, give other characters a chance to shine. It's not The Elmo & Abby Cadabby Show,(and if you're lucky on a RARE occassion boys and girls!) featuring the other Sesame Street Muppet Characters! Yippeee!


I seriously hate complaining about Elmo's overdominance on the show, since I really like the character, but it's TOO MUCH of him. Maybe it's a sign I'm just getting too old for this show, lol.

But really, I want this generation of kids to grow up with the same (or at least somewhat) quality of fun I got out of it as a kid, not this monster of a show they're showing these days. Bring back the SS Muppets first of all... not all this CGI stuff. That's my whole concern is that, slowly for surely, that soon SS will just be full of all CGI, and completely forget what made them successful in the first place.

 

[mikebennidict]

I don't wanna start trouble but I'm afraid this is just how it's gonna be.

It's best to to enjoy what exists on YT, the SS website and the DVD's, and those who are parents and feel the same way can show their kids all I mentioned.

 

[ISNorden]

Like most of the adults watching this season, I agree that Season 40 has been hit-and-miss so far...mostly "miss". Don't get me wrong; the street stories have been more entertaining than usual this season, and not just because of the hidden gems. It's good to see the older characters, human and Muppet, get their chance to shine...and to talk to kids the way they used to do it, naturally with no hint of lecturing or dumbing down. I guess an anniversary made some of the cast think more closely about their delivery (Bob and Gordon especially come to mind).

As good as the street stories generally are...the rest of a typical Season 40 episode is too predictable, with more filler time than actual lesson material. The new "programming block" style is partly to blame; it's been ages since I was 3 or 4, but I'm betting that a lot of those test-audience kids got bored with Murray's coming-up-next announcements and his opposite game at the end. You know Sesame Street is wasting time when only one letter or number clip appears in 45 minutes. *shrug*

"Abby's Flying Fairy School" has given me mixed reactions so far. On one hand, a regular segment about problem-solving (even unrealistic problems; these are fairies after all) makes educational sense. The chemistry between characters (especially Blogg and Gonnigan) feels right for Sesame Street, too. But giving AFFS a theme song as long as the one for the main show? Come on, guys...even "Elmo's World" doesn't get that much theme time, and Elmo is the star of today's Sesame Street (like it or not). Most of you have already mentioned the rerun problem; I hope the Workshop will fix that soon, as they once did with "Elmo's World".

 

[Drtooth]

I was going to stop watching after the celebrity word of the day, and I really should have.

Very good story today. NO ELMO in sight, and we get a great Telly and Baby Bear story. Characters that can actually emote and don't come off 1 dimensional. Nice little story about confidence and losing it. And this is the episode with Biff and Sully. I wish more of these hidden gems were old character cameos, and less something written in the background of the background you can only see in high def and if you have a DVR and can pause it.

Good celebrity Word on the Street, though not half as funny as his segment singing to Elmo... but hey, at least no one's mom wrote one letter of complaint (there's a thread on that).

But really, the filler segments were weak. WEAK! I'm not mentioning the rebroadcast Abby and Murray (I like those, even after multiple reruns... just not so soon after). Boring segment about kids jumping over a J (at least it wasn't Hello Cookie again... but I'd almost prefer it), lame stop motion photo animation of violins, bunch of people dancing to the number 8 (actually that was pretty catchy)... that dumb "Jump Up" song. The Ernie and Bert segment was alright... I'm actually starting to prefer the claymation over the more recent skits. I just wish they had one new non-clay segment.

As good as the street stories generally are...the rest of a typical Season 40 episode is too predictable, with more filler time than actual lesson material. The new "programming block" style is partly to blame; it's been ages since I was 3 or 4, but I'm betting that a lot of those test-audience kids got bored with Murray's coming-up-next announcements and his opposite game at the end. You know Sesame Street is wasting time when only one letter or number clip appears in 45 minutes. *shrug*

"Abby's Flying Fairy School" has given me mixed reactions so far. On one hand, a regular segment about problem-solving (even unrealistic problems; these are fairies after all) makes educational sense. The chemistry between characters (especially Blogg and Gonnigan) feels right for Sesame Street, too. But giving AFFS a theme song as long as the one for the main show? Come on, guys...even "Elmo's World" doesn't get that much theme time, and Elmo is the star of today's Sesame Street (like it or not). Most of you have already mentioned the rerun problem; I hope the Workshop will fix that soon, as they once did with "Elmo's World".

I'm gonna do a post season wrap up when they finally run out of new episodes... but you pretty much stated a couple of my problems. I love Murray's word on the street and letter and number intros... but I think the opposites game is filler and nothing more (and we're seeing the same ones over and over) and I really don't like how he closes the show... only because they just redub his lines over and over. It's like a recording that breaks down and replaces one line awkwardly. If he did something interresting and different each time, I'd rather see that... or I'd rather see it tie in to the street story. Plus telling kids what comes up next just doesn't sit well with me. It's like watching a series of disconnected shows.

As for Abby, the only complaint I have is that we're seeing reruns and three runs. I think as far as theme songs go, it should be ALL the themes to all the segments that need to go. 3 segments with 1 minute long intros? You can show an additional 3 minute segment (or 3 1 minute segments) in that time. Other than that, the only thing I'd cut out of Abby is the Spot segment. But I reiterate... Abby (along with Ernie and Bert) is what all the other segments SHOULD be like. I mean, Journey to Ernie was sort of fun after they changed the format from that dreadful first season appearance... but Monster Clubhouse, Heroguy, Elmo's World, and the horrible and thankfully dead Time to Play segments come off as repetitive and bland. Heroguy had some potential, and I like Baby Bear... but it falls flat. Here we actually have a story. Not just saying to kids "HEY! This is this and that is that, and birthday cakes don't take showers."

I say, I would LOVE for them to replace Elmo's World with something similar to Abby starring Elmo... only with Puppets.