Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 41

[Daffyfan4ever]

I have to agree. I was hoping Bert, Elmo and Abby would have worked together on finding that pigeon. Instead of having the Muppet birds just tell Elmo and Abby what they were, Bert could have been around and told them and eventually got frustrated like he often does with Ernie. That would have been great to see. I guess the writers didn't think of that. Or maybe they had to limit how much airtime Bert got because of Eric's availability. I don't know. Though it was interesting to see how many different types of pigeons Bert has seen. I can't help but wonder what kind Bernice is. Also, did anyone notice that they changed 'The Good Egg' product and 'viewers like you' voice over? Not Gordon anymore. Probably just some random guy. Just thought I'd point that out.

 

[Drtooth]

[*]The new Pinball #12 claymation, even though it felt a bit too short...

I actually tended to look the other way when it came to truncating the song... a couple of times, it just was a little abrupt and didn't have the right flow... but I think that was the choice of the animator. I can see needing to cut it to shave seconds (translated as days of shooting) off the deadline filled with easier flash animated entries. I remember seeing a lot of the other contestants... some were really good (A complete stop motion remake with the song re-recorded... if not this one, than that should have won), some were really actually quite bad (one basically just used a digital looking font and just showed numbers... I would've called it a Powerpoint presentation, not an animation).

• As several of you pointed out, these "nature ID" episodes are getting WAY too similar. Three rounds of "you're wrong, here's another clue" before finding the real thing...*yawn*[/quote]
  
  I said it before and I'll say it again, The nature initiative may just be just as annoying as the health one. I guess the green part is that they keep recycling the same plot line... DWOAH Ho Ho Ho! It's almost as bad as the game show episodes when they have to find a certain number of things... and that was the season premier.
  

  [*]A Bert episode without Ernie, or a birdwatching episode without Big Bird? Someone had better help Sesame Workshop with their production budget next season, and convince the performers to get together more often.

  A Bert episode without Ernie isn't too bad (considering Ernie had his own solo ventures for quite some time) but a Bert episode without Bert is disappointing. The deserted looking street being a recurring theme is very depressing to look at. Sure, it's not always bouncing and jiving, but it shouldn't look like a tumbleweed is going to come by every 5 minutes. I can't wait until they get so desperate they make an episode with nobody in it, and they just focus on Oscar's can for 15 minutes.
  
  

  [*]The sooner "Flying Fairy School" gets replaced, the better; seeing the same recycled episodes is probably boring the kids as much as it bores me.

  Y'see... I don't even mind the fact that a segment takes 10 minutes out of an episode if the characters actually DO something. It's a great little segment on its own, but for lack of new episodes, showing ones shown 3 times last year...they clearly only made 13 of them, and they saved 3 for this year. Their biggest mistake ever was making it a daily segment and not even having enough to air them only twice in one season to begin with. All the Zha Zha Gabor, M.C. Hammer, Ramones, James Brown, Flashdance jokes in the world can't be funny after the 5th time.
  
  

  the nauseating CGI characters with glassy stares in watered down versions of watered down fairy tales ("Do...you...see...the...letter...P?" Blank staring for a full 30 seconds while the letter is in plain view next to him... "Right! Super job, super readers!")
  
  And parents were worried about Don Music making kids want to bang their heads against the wall...

  I can never say this enough, but I want to track down the self serving psuedo-psychiatrist that said kids need to learn by being talked to the same way "Ugly American" style tourists talk to foreigners..,. slow and loud so they can understand them. And then to congratulate them for finding something just behind the character. I hate this mode, I curse Blue's Clues for introducing it to the world, and I don't think it does anything but raise a generation of kids who want self gratification for doing nothing. Super Why sucks. It's a waste of a perfectly good concept... people who can go into books and change the story.. that was better done on a Fairly odd Parents episode.
  
  And those character designs... UGLY! If that came into my house, I'd stomp on it. It looks diseased.

 

[DTF]

The good thing about having a large cast of characters is that certain combinations of any of them can provide anything from comedy to drama to even a realistic feeling. Abby and Elmo... they seem like they're forced together because they're the popular characters. They have a very small thing together, sure... you can believe they're sort of friends to the extent that they occasionally hang out together... but there's not that deeper connection, like he has with Zoe. Watch EIG and try not to walk away with the fact they're feelings will grow deeper once they're older. There's a connection there. Grover? Grover's like Elmo's goofy older brother (not by many years, mind you) that tries to teach him how to do things... tries to be a mentor, but stumbles around giving him an example of what not to do. Oscar's like his grandfather figure... sort of a Carl/Russel type deal from Up. Even with Big Bird, Ernie and especially Telly, there's something there... it seems to be missing with Abby.. Abby works well with certain other characters, but that's another long list.

Thanks; yes, that's one thing I'm finding is, I seemed to have characters just multiplying at times, and it was a concern for me in my first in this current idea I had; I didn't want too many. But, your advice is good - the more characters, the better chance that there will be a way to use a combination of any of them for something.

Elmo's lack of emotion at times makes it tough, too - he does with Zoe. With Abby, you're exactly right - I get the feeling it's lik, "Hey, let's have a playdate; there's nothing else to do." But, it doens't feel as close.

As for Big Bird's absence, don't you think kids watching were also *waiting* for him, since they know he's there? At the very *least*, have a line like:

"We need to find a bigger bird."
"Too bad Big Bird's not here today. He's somewhere people watching."

 

[Drtooth]

Elmo's lack of emotion at times makes it tough, too - he does with Zoe. With Abby, you're exactly right - I get the feeling it's lik, "Hey, let's have a playdate; there's nothing else to do." But, it doens't feel as close.

Elmo and Abby are making the show more and more a toy commercial. Let's put it that way. It's like putting Scrappy-Doo and Scooby-Dum together because they test well separately.

 

[DTF]

A Bert episode without Ernie isn't too bad (considering Ernie had his own solo ventures for quite some time) but a Bert episode without Bert is disappointing. The deserted looking street being a recurring theme is very depressing to look at. Sure, it's not always bouncing and jiving, but it shouldn't look like a tumbleweed is going to come by every 5 minutes. I can't wait until they get so desperate they make an episode with nobody in it, and they just focus on Oscar's can for 15 minutes.

Aside from making me envision a parody with Bob singing "There Are No People In The Neighborhood", it makes it feel like it's not even supposed to be in New York City anymore. I mean, sure, it's not as safe as it was in the '70s in the inner city, but it was still *bad* in some spots, and you still see kids out playing today, or in Sesame Street's case, you should see plenty of AM's out playing and hanging around.

They should get volunteers; have school classes come on field trips to fill it up if you have to, and let a few of the highest achievers (or all if you have to) hold a puppet still so it looks like there are Muppets around.

When I first learned that Sesame Street was actually supposed to be in New York City, I was surprised, but not very. (Not sure what age, probably pre-teens, when the biggest city I'd seen neighborhoods from was Cleveland, and I was from a town 1/5 that size) There was a lot of action, and I realized there were nice neighborhoods within big cities.

Now, it seems like it takes place in a town of about 1,000.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Thanks; yes, that's one thing I'm finding is, I seemed to have characters just multiplying at times, and it was a concern for me in my first in this current idea I had; I didn't want too many. But, your advice is good - the more characters, the better chance that there will be a way to use a combination of any of them for something.

Elmo's lack of emotion at times makes it tough, too - he does with Zoe. With Abby, you're exactly right - I get the feeling it's lik, "Hey, let's have a playdate; there's nothing else to do." But, it doens't feel as close.

As for Big Bird's absence, don't you think kids watching were also *waiting* for him, since they know he's there? At the very *least*, have a line like:

"We need to find a bigger bird."
"Too bad Big Bird's not here today. He's somewhere people watching."

Yeah. I had BB in mind when they started looking for a bigger bird, but I guess if he had shown up that probably would have ruined his 'four episode' contract. Plus hopefully Elmo and Abby are smart enough to know that he's not a pigeon, though according to Oscar he is part 'homing pigeon.'

So it was Chris who said the sponsors at the beginning? I sort of thought that was him, but I thought the voice sounded different. Though he may sound a bit different when he's reading something rather than talking to the Muppets. I might want to listen for that again next time.

 

[ISNorden]

As for Big Bird's absence, don't you think kids watching were also *waiting* for him, since they know he's there? At the very *least*, have a line like:

"We need to find a bigger bird."
"Too bad Big Bird's not here today. He's somewhere people watching."

Priceless! It's a shame Sesame Workshop doesn't hire good writers the way they used to hire them...no degrees in early education or child psychology required, just a great sense of humor and a gut feeling for what the kids like.

 

[ISNorden]

Aside from making me envision a parody with Bob singing "There Are No People In The Neighborhood", it makes it feel like it's not even supposed to be in New York City anymore. I mean, sure, it's not as safe as it was in the '70s in the inner city, but it was still *bad* in some spots, and you still see kids out playing today, or in Sesame Street's case, you should see plenty of AM's out playing and hanging around.

They should get volunteers; have school classes come on field trips to fill it up if you have to, and let a few of the highest achievers (or all if you have to) hold a puppet still so it looks like there are Muppets around.

When I first learned that Sesame Street was actually supposed to be in New York City, I was surprised, but not very. (Not sure what age, probably pre-teens, when the biggest city I'd seen neighborhoods from was Cleveland, and I was from a town 1/5 that size) There was a lot of action, and I realized there were nice neighborhoods within big cities.

Now, it seems like it takes place in a town of about 1,000.

Volunteers with AM extras...another great idea that would give Sesame Street the older inner-city feel without killing the production budget. Back in the 70s and 80s, I could believe the neighborhood was some magic-touched part of NYC; now it feels like a gentrified suburb crossed with a kindergarten classroom. (Remember when Big Bird's door looked run-down, without all those shapes and letters floating around that weren't part of the lesson?)

 

[ISNorden]

II said it before and I'll say it again, The nature initiative may just be just as annoying as the health one. I guess the green part is that they keep recycling the same plot line... DWOAH Ho Ho Ho! It's almost as bad as the game show episodes when they have to find a certain number of things... and that was the season premier.

Amen! They're even recycling hacked-up episodes from Season 39 this year, and some of those don't fit the nature initiative. (Bringing back the firefly episode today I can understand, but did kids really need to see "Sock Chaos at the Laundromat" redone?) You're right, though, that these past two seasons are almost as dull as the "Healthy Habits for Life" years. At least they haven't made Oscar scrub his trash can and put everything into a compost heap yet!

The deserted looking street being a recurring theme is very depressing to look at. Sure, it's not always bouncing and jiving, but it shouldn't look like a tumbleweed is going to come by every 5 minutes. I can't wait until they get so desperate they make an episode with nobody in it, and they just focus on Oscar's can for 15 minutes.

"What's the word on the street?" "'Abandon'." Sorry, couldn't resist...

[AFFS is] a great little segment on its own, but for lack of new episodes, showing ones shown 3 times last year...they clearly only made 13 of them, and they saved 3 for this year. Their biggest mistake ever was making it a daily segment and not even having enough to air them only twice in one season to begin with. All the Zha Zha Gabor, M.C. Hammer, Ramones, James Brown, Flashdance jokes in the world can't be funny after the 5th time.

AFFS is suffering from the same problem "Elmo's World" did when it was the new show-within-a-show...too much scheduled airtime and not enuogh material. If it's here to stay, let's hope the writers can produce more episodes with different settings, challenges and plots. (The pop-culture jokes are fun the first couple of times, but I agree that they get stale fast.)

 

[Mupp]

I was able to see the Pigeon episode today, and yes; very disappointing that Bert was only see briefly at the beginning and end of the street story.

I am really getting sick of this.

Why do the writers hate the classic characters so much? Would it really have been so hard to include Bert in the whole story?

In this case, I don't think that it was necessarily a matter of Eric not being available.

One of the reasons why I was happy with season 40 is that a lot of the classic characters were seen a lot in street stories. There was a lot of Big Bird, Oscar, and Cookie.

But not so much with season 41. And the recycling of footage is getting worse.

I cannot even remember the last time that Ernie and Bert were seen together in a street story.
The availability factor is certainly a tough thing, since Disney is doing things with the Muppet Show characters, and the fact that Sesame Street is still going strong, its very demanding for the performers who do work for both The Muppets Studio and Sesame Workshop.

I hate to say it, but perhaps it is time to re-cast Ernie, it just seems to be too demanding for Steve, and if things keep going the way they are, I fear that we will never see Ernie in a street story (or new sketch) again.

And if Sesame Street keeps having budget problems, I question if the show will last much longer, since the quality is rapidly decreasing.

As a side note, I personally don't have a problem with "Flying Fairy School" I like the new characters and I think they nailed the Muppet feel. Yes, perhaps sometimes its a little long, and I wish that they didn't recycle footage so much.