Quick question

[Drtooth]

Amen to that, I mean we do need to see some of the old school characters from time to time on the show. Also I do love me so Rocko and ELmo moments.

Elmo's a good character when he EMOTES! All he does is smile and be happy and smile for the celebs with the word of the day. No wonder why he's so much better outside of the show. Kevin can actually stretch with the character and have fun with him when there's no script.

 

[beau]

Elmo's a good character when he EMOTES! All he does is smile and be happy and smile for the celebs with the word of the day. No wonder why he's so much better outside of the show. Kevin can actually stretch with the character and have fun with him when there's no script.

I do agree with this.

Though I still have the opinion Elmo has had some good moments on the show in the past.

 

[dwmckim]

There's a number of good points raised. No, we're not the "target audience" but in a way we are a "sub-target" audience. One of the main goals has always been to be entertaining for the grownups so they'll watch with the kids. SST KNOWS how much the adults love the older characters because there was the whole big thing with the Hidden Gems. That shouldn't be a once-every-40-years thing. Those characters should be among the atmosphere of the Street regardless. There's no reason they can't be rounding out the crowd even when they're doing the Elmo Good Time Sesame Street Hour Starring Elmo and Elmo's Friend Abby.

And yes, it's a given the more episodes a season, the more characters fill the screen. Unless someone's working hard to work against the truism.

SST does a great job of marketing the brand towards adults - but they often still fail when it comes to making adults want to watch with the kids. It's totally possible to find the happy medium while still giving the kids their Elmo and satisfying the cirriculum and research.

Sesame is a street. Street means a neigborhood. Neighborhood means neighbors which means more than a handful of the overused characters.

 

[Drtooth]

There's a number of good points raised. No, we're not the "target audience" but in a way we are a "sub-target" audience. One of the main goals has always been to be entertaining for the grownups so they'll watch with the kids. SST KNOWS how much the adults love the older characters because there was the whole big thing with the Hidden Gems. That shouldn't be a once-every-40-years thing. Those characters should be among the atmosphere of the Street regardless. There's no reason they can't be rounding out the crowd even when they're doing the Elmo Good Time Sesame Street Hour Starring Elmo and Elmo's Friend Abby.

And yes, it's a given the more episodes a season, the more characters fill the screen. Unless someone's working hard to work against the truism.

SST does a great job of marketing the brand towards adults - but they often still fail when it comes to making adults want to watch with the kids. It's totally possible to find the happy medium while still giving the kids their Elmo and satisfying the cirriculum and research.

Sesame is a street. Street means a neigborhood. Neighborhood means neighbors which means more than a handful of the overused characters.

I can't even edit down your quote to highlight a single point. All of it is quite valid.

But let's for a minute forget that they're even trying to get an older audience. I'm sure kids deserve better than the 90's downhill slide children's television has enjoyed. SS was a groundbreaking show... but funny thing happens when you break ground, once the barriers are taken down, there's less everyone else has to do. Think of it as the old "kids these days have it so easy! Things were REAL tough for us" adage. Remember when SS's biggest complaints were that they showed an inner city with... GASP... a diverse neighborhood? I don't wanna get into all that, but... now SS's complaints are so silly, they'd almost be funny if they didn't bring in mobs of angry people who want to bend things to their agendas. Now SS's complaints are Cookie Monster eats cookies instead of bran roughage, and you can kind of sort of if you look real hard see boobs on a women in a body suit. Not to mention the contradicting studies they get fresh off the wire from different child psychologists.

If you think about what happens with the international co-productions... not showing any letters for risk of favoring one language to another in one co-production to the long and turbulent history of Rechov Sumsum and others in that area...well... it's kind of pathetic, don't you think? SW somehow is brave when it comes to bringing peace and love to violent countries (something I could go on about, but don't want to), but they're total Wade Ducks when it comes to putting their foot down about certain things in the US.

As for the whole Elmo-fication... that's another wonderful bit we've had since since the 90's of centralized single character worship... again, certain purple rubber suit. Then of course we got stuff like Blue's Clues and Dora. Sesame Street has never been called "The Big Bird Show" or "It's Elmo Time!" Sort of like how Tiny Toons was never the "Babs and Buster show" (not counting the short lived Plucky Duck show spinoff). There's always SUPPOSED to be a rotating cast. There's regulars, but everybody gets a turn. That's how SS was supposed to be too... but Elmo draws them in, Abby was thrust into the mix to quell complaints of it being a boy's club. The block format stinks, sure it works for the half hour international TV blocks where it's a different show anyway, but somehow, they're not doing it right here. I don't see how all these extra segments can't fit in as recurring mixed segments... which is where they fail. That's why we have to suffer endless reuses of "new" material in new episodes.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Sort of like how Tiny Toons was never the "Babs and Buster show" (not counting the short lived Plucky Duck show spinoff).

What Pluck Duck show spin-off are you referring to? I don't think I'm familiar with this one.

 

[Drtooth]

What Pluck Duck show spin-off are you referring to? I don't think I'm familiar with this one.

This one

It was VERY short lived, only on Saturdays, and it was made up of old TTA episodes, except for ONE episode, "The Return of the BatDuck" or something. It was something that was on Fox, again, very briefly.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Okay, thanks for the info.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

Hahaha- that was awesome! Too bad it didn't last any longer than it did- or have much original material. I thought it was funny that there seemed to be a quick parody of Chip 'N' Dale: Rescue Rangers in the opening. Nice! (I also love that cartoon by the way.) And they had a clip from the "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" movie- which I still love watching! I've got it on VHS- it's hilarious!

 

[minor muppetz]

There's a number of good points raised. No, we're not the "target audience" but in a way we are a "sub-target" audience. One of the main goals has always been to be entertaining for the grownups so they'll watch with the kids.

You know, I started wondering, if research showed that hardly any kids at all were still watching the show and the majority of watches were hardcore adult fans like us, and the ratings were still as good as ever, do you think Sesame Workshop would just end the show, or would they change the format to appeal to us more? Include more stories involving Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie Monster, Grover, The Count, Ernie, Bert, and Snuffy, drop the block format and Elmo's World (maybe also other "everyday" segments), and repeat classic clips once again?

 

[Drtooth]

You know, I started wondering, if research showed that hardly any kids at all were still watching the show and the majority of watches were hardcore adult fans like us, and the ratings were still as good as ever, do you think Sesame Workshop would just end the show, or would they change the format to appeal to us more?

End the show... Invader Zim... Freakazoid... 'nuff said. The demographic is more important than anything else, and it's not like a product you can buy at a store. If only adults were buying SS stuff (and they pretty much have to anyway, for their kids), they'd still make the stuff because they'd still make money. I'm sure even if Boom's comics were geared towards kids, but adults were the ones buying them, they'd still sell them. if it makes money selling, it doesn't matter who's buying what and what they're doing with it.

TV is another matter all together. The demographic sometimes takes precedence over ratings (cough cough cartoon network), and too often, shows want too many or too few types of viewers. Look at the insanity that hit the long canceled, short lived Fox Cedric the Entertainer show. They pulled it because not enough white people were watching. Hey, I'm white... I watched. Likewise, more adults watched Zim than kids, and Nick was all too happy to pull it, until they found out the cancellation made it a cult hit, and they just threw T-shirts at the matter.

But getting back to the topic at hand, I think we all can agree we're all Elmo'd out. Even if we had a hundred new episodes, Elmo would indeed be in at least 97 of them (street stories and newer segments, not counting EW which will NEVER die). Be it even a brief shoehorned cameo or starring role. Certain long lost characters are going to remain lost (though, i don't see why they don't take the new Sherlock and just have him walk around in an opening segment). Personally, I wanna see at least 6 episodes with Big Bird in it every season. Even if it's just a quick walk by/line.