Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 41

[Oscarfan]

Huh, it says that on the SS website. I guess it's right.

 

[Bert is my BFF]

What the fridge ever happened to the bert and ernie puppets? they only have the stupid clay ones

 

[Bert is my BFF]

make abby's flying fairy school a puppet production, and not an animation, and it will be even more fun then it is now

 

[dwmckim]

One thing i'm really liking this season is that Nitya Vidyasagar's getting to do lots more singing.

I really love both Chris Knowings and Nitya and even though the show's been using their "new toys" a bit overmuch in relation with all the other veteran humans, i still enjoy seeing those two when they're on. Chris has been getting the lion's share of screentime since the two joined the cast but i've really been wanting to see more of Leela since she has such a great screen presence and works well with the Muppets - i've also always totally loved her voice - both her speaking and singing voice - and hoped she'd get to do more singing and so far this season she's had more a chance to show off her singing talent.

 

[Oscarfan]

I think Chris is getting a little too much exposure recently. He seems to be the go-to human virtually.

 

[Drtooth]

At least some humans are as scarce as some of the Muppet characters.

I wonder if it has a lot to do, again, with the budget... or just that certain actors are more available than others or if they're just trying to focus on some of the younger stars or what.

Bob only appears in one or two episodes a season now, Susan too. But that was almost like that for a while now. We've seen Gordon a lot of times too, just not quite as much. And I know Maria was in one, was Luis in any episodes this season yet? Alan was... what, once?

So I'm wondering if they're just available to shoot certain days or what, since it really seems like a lot of the episodes have the same cast and puppets because they have to knock so many off in a days/weeks shooting due to budget cutbacks.

 

[Convincing John]

I just saw the Count singing about the number 8 on today's new episode! Awesome!

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

It is absolutely, utterly, and humanly impossible to have ANY excitement about yet another guessing game episode. I don't care whatever meh accent they give the bugs, it's the same episode with a different species. But, griping about the repetitiveness is repetitive in and of itself, so I'll cut it short.

So far, we reuse the same plot, the same 13 Abbys (of which we already saw 10 4 times now), and everything we were so excited about last season this season that, while still funny, just doesn't feel as fresh as it would had they had a season off for all new skits.

The ONLY highlights were Jim Parsons's Arachnid demonstration, which actually had me laughing quite a bit (I love Big Bang Theory, and he is the best character on the show... at least, he's the one that makes me laugh the most), The Count's 8 song (which was good mainly because the Count was in it. Somehow, they should have at least made it Roma sounding music, and have him singing in the castle... it would have been a lot more memorable), and the Ernie and Bert in Australia.

Other than that, I don't think they're going to keep holding 3-5 year olds with the same lame Dora-esque story, the same long 10 minute cartoons, and the exact same Murray Tune ins over and over and over again.

I could have waited for the Jim Parsons bit and the Count song to hit Youtube.

 

[The Count]

Episode 4226: Where's Itsy Bitsy?
Sponsors: N, 8.
Airdate: October 29, 2010.
Season: Season 41.

Cold Opening: What's the Word on the Street?
Arachnid.

Street Story:
Elmo, Telly, and Rosita sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song for Chris while waiting for Itsy Bitsy to show up.
When it gets too late, Rosita speculates Itsy Bitsy got lost.
Telly gets panicky... Good to see that again.
So yeah... Another nature clue ID episode.

The kids head off to the garden to search down the elusive spider, counting the various insects' legs to find who's a spider and who isn't.
Joey's voicing the beetle, the first insect the kids find... Nice Dr. Evil voice he gave Mr. Beetle.
David voiced the Grasshopper with a Midwestern drawl, and yet I liked his snitchy response: Maybe I've seen a spider... And then again, maybe I haven't.
Dunno who voiced the Ant, but it had a good Billy Bob Thornton gruff voice.
They follow a sticky string to Itsy Bitsy's spider web home.
New rhyme? Yeah, it summed up the whole ten minutes down to just one. Thanks for the kill.
Ah, the joy of spider egg hatching. But where's to count all the little baby spiders?

Celebrity/Muppets: Jim Somethingorother explains the word "arachnid" with a Muppet spider voiced by Joey.
Letter of the Day: Bring out Your N.
Necklace, newspaper, nickel, nose.
Nickel... Where's Lefty when you need him to swipe this segment away?
Muppets: Letter N Celebrity Lullaby with Elmo and Ricky Jervais.
AFFS: Naptime, repeat from earlier in the season.
Number of the Day: Murray and the kids count 8 thingeys.
Muppets: The Count sings "Eight is Great".
Bert & Ernie's Great Adventures: Outback Explorers.
Aw, look at the joey in his mommy's pouch...
Okay, I can't help myself from making the following quote: "Nothing could be better than to ride in the pouch of a red kangaroo."
If you know what that's a reference to—I'm looking at you Drtooth—you get a macadamia cookie.
Mama Kangaroo ends up taking the group picture. A sorta nice episode.
Muppets: Murray shows inside and outside.
Muppets: Mad Men.
Song: Do the Honeybee Hullabaloo.
Elmo's World: Dinosaurs.
Closing: Murray rewinds to the sponsors.

An okay episode... Probably the last one I'll see for now thanks to stinkin' DST switching up the schedule for PBS. At least I got a brief segment with to try and forcibly tie this episode to Halloweenish feelings. Then again, it's been a better haunting season thanks to MCR and www.fanfiction.net's authors doing several 13 Nights series—much better than ABC Family's 13 Nights, seriously, Turtles as part of Halloween movies? ! ? And what's with repeating movies as feature presentations thereby wasting two of the celebration's main nights? Pffft.
Anyway... Happy haunting and a good fright to all!

 

[Drtooth]

Aw, look at the joey in his mommy's pouch...
Okay, I can't help myself from making the following quote: "Nothing could be better than to ride in the pouch of a red kangaroo."
If you know what that's a reference to—I'm looking at you Drtooth—you get a macadamia cookie.

I SHOULD know, but I'm just drawing a blank right now. Wanna say Monty python for some reason, but that's clearly not right.

I do have a question. Does DST happen the same day in Puerto Rico as it does in the US? Because if so, take heart... It doesn't happen until the 7th, so there are 2 more episodes at least... according to Wiki... before DST happens.