Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 41

[Drtooth]

I don't see how re-using the Will.i.am bit is related to the Kate Perry thing.

It's a theory anyway. They have to replace the segment completely, right? It was a last minute thing too. Nothing says panic mode like putting the same clip on twice. I'm thinking that they THOUGHT that segment was going to be on the last episode aired, but the way they've haphazardly thrown clips together (certain ones weren't actually in the aired episodes that the SW official episode guide said), they didn't realize that it was in another episode.

Even if that is indeed wrong, they HAVE been haphazardly tossing clips around lately, due to being short handed no doubt... what ever happened to the bit where Telly and Oscar talk about the letter N? Was that supposed to be a street story? If so, why was their already an N sponsored episode?

 

[Oscarfan]

An episode with the letter N as the sponsor has aired (The Isty Bitsy Spider one), but it didn't feature a segment like that (Instead they had the "Celebrity Lullaby" bit). One of the "repeat" episodes is sponsored by N, so I'm hoping we see it in that episode.

 

[Drtooth]

An episode with the letter N as the sponsor has aired (The Isty Bitsy Spider one), but it didn't feature a segment like that (Instead they had the "Celebrity Lullaby" bit). One of the "repeat" episodes is sponsored by N, so I'm hoping we see it in that episode.

That would be very disappointing. While everyone was concerned about the lack of Big Bird this season, I'm more bummed by the lack of Oscar. He was, what, like in one episode so far this season? Yeah, I know a few are coming up. I'm glad they're using newer footage for the rerun episodes, but the amount of footage they're reusing for the actual new episodes has been ridiculous lately. So, I'm wondering if some of this was indeed afterthought about having "new" episodes made out of old ones, throwing a couple new segments into them and using reruns to pad out the actual new ones.

 

[Oscarfan]

Oh my god, Telly saying "I ain't gettin' on no plane!" is one of the funniest things I've ever heard!

 

[The Count]

Episode 4225: The A-Team.
Sponsors: A, 9.
Airdate: November 5, 2010.
Season: Season 41.

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

Street Story:
Big A just shows up recruiting Elmo, Abby, and Telly.
Okay, the funniness in this episode is going to come exclusively from Telly who already said the "jibber-jabber" line.
The A-Team shows up with dramatic music to get Curly to take her nap by getting an astronaut reciting the alphabet doing acrobatics.
Yes, they got Curly to go asleep, but Baby Bear had the best line: "How exactly is this going to help?"
Big A: "I love it when A plan comes together."
The A-Team then gets Gina's letter out of a tree by having animals with apricots tied to their ankles sneeze it down thanks to their allergies.
Next they show up at Oscar's trashcan to stop some pigs from endlessly playing rock-paper-scissors with Alan wearing an afro, being chased by an alligator with an attitude, then Big A breaks out the "Long A" sound thanks to an ape dressed as an angel singing about acorns. Alan suggests they try asking the pigs to stop playing their game.
Oscar then has to put up with the A celebration, a cheap chanting of the classic A-Team theme song further annoying Oscar.
Big A: "Sounds like he's playing for the O Team. O snap!"

Celebrity/Muppets: Rebecca Romajn and Abby explain "accessory".
Abby keeps poofing up fashionable accessories. Yeah, girl shopping power.
Abby: "You can never have too many accessories."
Film: Everybody Dance Now, meh.
Letter of the Day: Murray tries rapping about A words.
Film: Astronaut, the real one, presents the letter A in space.
AFFS: Show and Tell Day, new?
Blogg shows off his bad skills at the ball-and-cup game.
Abby then brings in the poisoned apple from Snow White, of course they say it's "enchanted" instead.
At snack time Blogg predictably bites into the apple because he's unsatisfied with the Pixy Food.
It's good that Mrs. Sparklenose gets a chance to be part of the adventure this time.
Abby and Gonnigan search the file cabinet and find a grandfather clock with boring British Mr. History patter, a cuckoo clock, and finally the alarm clock they wanted.
Blogg sleeps through the ringing, predictable no?
Apparently Abby doesn't know her fairy tales that well if she has to ask what's the best way to wake someone up from an enchanted sleep.
Abby: "I've got it, I know what mouths can do!"
A mouth can talk, a mouth can chew.
Not many things a mouth can do... But I digress.
Names for the dwarves: Dozey, Meanie, Blushy, Obsequious...
Abby takes responsability for bringing in the apple and conjures a frog to convince Gonnigan to act the part of the prince.
He gets Blogg to wake up.
Gonnigan liked being prince...
Mrs. Sparklenose: "Don't worry, you'll always be the artist formerly known as a prince."
Number of the Day: Murray and the kids count 9 baskets.
Film: 9 hidden in a brick wall.
What the heck was that? It was over way too quick and had nothing to do with the number 9. Great, now we have an updated version of the mural to get angry about.
Bert & Ernie's Great Adventures: Magicians.
The Great Ernesto and Bertini end up falling into the top hat realm to get their wand back from the magic rabbit.
Looks like someone was watching the Teen Titans episode starring Mumbo Jumbo.
Silly rabbit... You just give them the wand back so you can be a part of the magic team? Bleh ending.
Muppets: Murray plays Sounds of the Street hearing a saxophone, drums, and a rooster playing a trumpet.
Muppets: Pre-School Musical.
Animation: The Letter Circus presents the Alphabet.
Elmo's World: Wild Animals.
Closing: Murray rewinds back to the sponsors.

Though this street story is the kind of thing that I'd prefer to be better thought out as far as parodies go, there were a couple of zingers thrown out throughout the entire episode if you stuck through the segments.

Okay, so that's it for me until next April... Stinkin' DST.
BTW: Catch the Colbert Report for Thursday November 4, there's a bit in there about our long-standing discussion regarding .
Must've missed the line about the plane, butTelly's right. What if there are MF snakes on that MF plane? ! ? I wouldn't want to get on that plane either.

 

[Oscarfan]

The 9 film was short, yeah. It showed a heap of white pebbles, where a 9 made of pebbles was clearly standing out.

 

[Drtooth]

You can tell a street scene is strong when you can't even bring yourself to say anything about the rest of the show. I've written off Abby's segment as a bathroom break at this point... and I dislike the fact that we've seen High School Musical Parody segment 3 seasons in a row of new episode... but the story was so strong, I didn't care. I can barely remember anything else, and I just missed the 9 segment.

I remember seeing the Breakfast Club bit which left a bad taste in my mouth, and from then on I said to myself ONLY to expect name only parodies.

Not only was the opening title parodied, not only was Telly dressed as Mr. T (without the Mohawk but WITH the chains), but they even managed to stick some casual A-Team fan inside jokes. Telly's line "I ain't getting in no plane" If you've seen the A-Team, you KNOW why that's funny. Fell out of my chair, and that's no lie. And of course the line "I love it when A plan comes together." This is one of the most thorough parodies they've done in a while. Of course, most of the other stuff, being on cable and all, was lost on me if any inside references were present. Only thing I would have added was having Elmo wear a baseball cap and talk in weird random accents like Howlin' Mad Murdock. But Mr. T(elly) was enough for me. And even without the parody, it has the same wacky wacky Muppet feel of allergic animals and random astronauts and Apes with harps. That was something that was sorely missing from most of the episodes.

This week has seen some of the strongest street stories this season. No repetitive nature clue episodes... no guessing games... no bludgeoning us with one specific education initiative. Just good old fashion alphabet fun. And Oscar.

The Ernie and Bert one seemed... short. Seemed like they needed to chase the bunny a little longer, getting mixed up in preschool friendly mayhem. Didn't even reference Bullwinkle in the "pull a rabbit out of my hat" bit. Not one of the strongest, but not one of the weakest.

Edit: 9 film sounds like I didn't miss much, eh?

 

[The Count]

BTW: What exactly was the animation that accompanied the song Lonely Eleven? Thanks.

 

[Drtooth]

It was 2-D computer animated chalk outlines superimposed on a real chalk board of numbers, but the number 11 had eyes... one on each 1.. and it was sulking about when it walked, using its 1's as legs.

 

[TSSD]

I just saw I-pogo. Awesome on so many levels, but mainly, No Elmo or Abby in the street story! Finally!