Has anyone ever written to Sesame Workshop?

[mbmfrog]

I just like to know, because even though we are grown up fans of old school Sesame Street, and we have complained over the years of the increase of Elmo...has anyone ever written to the company about these "problems," escpecially with the current 40th season coming to a close ?

 

[D'Snowth]

I e-mailed SW months ago asking if they could confirm whether or not Bob's last name on the show really is Johnson, or if indeed he does share the same last name as Mr. McGrath.

I never received a response from them.

 

[Oscarfan]

I've sent a few, but only gotten one answered (about the release date of OS Vol. 2)

 

[D'Snowth]

Sometimes companies like that aren't really good about answering mail from fans like that.

I think Stretch Films (the animation company that produced Courage the Cowardly Dog have me on a blacklist or something, because they got pretty sick of hearing from me and my fanboy ramblings all the time, lol.

 

[JLG]

I wrote to them in 1999 when I was 17, to ask if there was any way to see episodes from the 1970s. I'd always been curious about what they were like, ever since I found out (at age 6) just how long the thing had been around. I got a reply from a woman who must have been some sort of spokesperson---I've misplaced the letter and can't remember her name now. She said "I'm delighted to be able to tell you that we have just launched a new channel in collaboration with Nickelodeon called Noggin..."

Unfortunately, my family didn't have cable, so I never did get to see Unpaved until a long time later when I started tape trading. (I've still only seen about 9 episodes from that decade). She also pointed me in the direction of the Museum of Television and Radio in Manhattan, which I had known existed but for some reason had never thought to look for Sesame Street there. (In hindsight, DUH!)

Wish I could find the letter. I do remember that it had the "Play it Safe" CTW logo on the stationery.

 

[dwayne1115]

I had never really thought about writeing SW about Elmo. I just kind of accepted him. Then after I read Kevin Clash's book my whole out look on Elmo changed, and now I think he is doing just what he should be doing.

 

[D'Snowth]

Besides, I honestly don't think that adults writing in complaining about Elmo is going to help much, because the show isn't aimed at us, it's aimed at the little kids watching, and apparently, they're the ones who are responding to Elmo, which is why he's so popular.

I think the main reason we don't like him is because most of us didn't grow up with him; we grew up with Big Bird, and back when target audience was 4 - 6, as opposed to Elmo and the target audience being 2 - 4.

 

[Drtooth]

The funny thing is, I think SW does listen to fans and DOES hear their complaints... or it's just a co-incidence and they just so happen to be in sync with most of them. The only reason why they still have Elmo's world is because they actually tried to get rid of it, and the episodes didn't test well without it. Heck, they changed JTE after one season and they got rid of "Time to Play" completely after one season. And we complained about all of them.

I wouldn't be surprised if, come season 41, they tweak a lot of things that we complained about. Either that we complained about them or they tested poorly is anyone's guess.

 

[dwmckim]

I think the main reason we don't like him is because most of us didn't grow up with him; we grew up with Big Bird, and back when target audience was 4 - 6, as opposed to Elmo and the target audience being 2 - 4.

While i concede one might be more likely to like Elmo if he was a part of their childhood, i think it usually is much more than that. I've talked about this extensively in the Elmo's Popularity thread (among other places), but to recap, Elmo went from being such a terrific sweet funny well-defined character to a generic bland hyper icon with very little of his original endearing traits.

 

[minor muppetz]

The funny thing is, I think SW does listen to fans and DOES hear their complaints... or it's just a co-incidence and they just so happen to be in sync with most of them. The only reason why they still have Elmo's world is because they actually tried to get rid of it, and the episodes didn't test well without it. Heck, they changed JTE after one season and they got rid of "Time to Play" completely after one season. And we complained about all of them.

I wouldn't be surprised if, come season 41, they tweak a lot of things that we complained about. Either that we complained about them or they tested poorly is anyone's guess.

Then again, they still haven't given Murray much interraction with the other familiar characters...