Why people dislike modern Sesame Street

[D'Snowth]

So many people are always complaining about how SST isn't the same anymore, and that it's not as good today as it was when they grew up with it: a lot of people cite because of the constant "modernization" of the sets, characters, show and educational content, etc, but yesterday, after reading the synopsis for this season's new episodes, something has donned on me...

I think perhaps one reason, not addressed enough, as to why people dislike modern SST, is the excessive fantasy aspect of the show. In the old days, the Muppets mostly added the touch of fantasy to the show simply by inhabiting the street: Big Bird, Oscar, Ernie and Bert, and the presense of others like Cookie Monster, Grover, and even Elmo, etc. Even though obviously small furry and fleecey beings don't co-exist with us IRL, but to us, it did seem realistic to see them live and play among the residents of the street. Again, that was basically the fantasy of the show then.

Today, however, like Gordon said 41 years ago has been taken to a new level... anything and everything DOES happen on the street these days, and maybe a little too much. At any given moment, something outrageous and off-the-wall can and will happen on the street at the drop of a hat, not just with Muppets, but even with humans: it may appeal to kids today I'm sure, but perhaps grown-ups are seeing this, and feel it's just simply TOO unrealistic, even for our favorite street.

Again, that's just my thinking.

 

[minor muppetz]

I hadn't thought about that as a reason to dislike the show. Then again, it gets me wondering: If Abby was on the show in the old days, would Big Bird have asked her to magically made the adults see Snuffy? Would Abby have used her magic to bring Big Bird back to Sesame Street in FTB? Would she have attempted to use magic to bring Mr. Hooper back to life (was she in the "When Families Grieve" special?), only to learn that magic can't be used to bring back the dead? Would her magic have been used as an explanation as to why Gordon and/or Mr. Handford's appearances changed (not to mention Oscar changing from orange to green)?

But I feel it's more than just that. Many fans complain about Elmo "taking over" the show. There's also the fact that Murray Monster hosts the show despite rarely appearing with other familiar characters. And there are less episodes per season, and it seems every season since season 36 focused heavily on one curriculum goal. And in the past few seasons it seems the main classic characters aren't used as much as they used to. And of course they don't show any "classic-era" inserts anymore.

 

[mrfinch]

I think there are multiple reasons, but let's face the big one: the Henson crew is gone. Some of the current Muppet puppeteers are still involved, but until the late 1970s Sesame Street was the primary creative outlet for Jim Henson and company. That influence lasted for a longtime after, but it has thinned out. Add that to age and keeping up with the Joneses, and you've got a watered-down Sesame Street. It would be more remarkable if the show *remained* as vibrant as it was for the first two decades.

 

[mr3urious]

The loss of writer Jon Stone is also a big contributor.

 

[Drtooth]

Let's be honest... Jim was involved in Sesame Street, sure... but not as involved as us Henson fans like to think. Let's not forget the multiple passings on in the 90's that lost many other people like Joe Raposo and Jon Stone... not to mention others just leaving the show.

Here's what I don't like:

• The Block Format. Man, I LOVE Murray and I think having a character out of the cramped studio in the real world would have done Jim proud! But when all is said and done, it just doesn't work... it turns Sesame Street from a show to multiple shows that are barely connected... and they reuse SOOOO much of that. The letter and number intros are one thing, but there's so much time blown talking about what segment's on next.
• Too much to cover in so little time, and so many initiatives are forced down everyone's throats in multiple episodes with similar structured... the nature initiative and the overused guessing game content for one.
• 26 episodes a season? Run to spread out for 6 months? THANK you PBS!
• Budgetary concerns beyond their control leading to multiple reuse of segments, smaller numbers of employees on site, and just adding a disparaging atmosphere to every episode.
• On that subject there was NO WAY that Abby's Flying Fairy School should have been a daily segment if they didn't even have enough segments for a season WITHOUT multiple reruns.
• They're making strides now, but seriously... hire some bright young indie animators to commission new segments for you. That foot mural one is EMBARASING! Those kids gotta be out of college by now.
• STOP bowing down to pressure groups, mkay? You didn't back down when you had a diversified cast, you didn't back down when Buffy breast fed, you especially didn't back down from giving Mr. Hooper a decent posthumous sendoff/wake... but someone sees a G rated amount of cleavage or calls you a liberal brainwashing faction and THEN you get all "Sowwy sir!"
• Seriously... get rid of Elmo's world. Replace it with another Elmo-centric segment, I don't care... but it's 10 year old dead weight that DOESN'T even have new segments anymore.
• And above all, I NEVER liked the bullhonkey that they need to give kids structure. Once they started moving away from it, they got pulled back into it.

Now, I could be like EVERYONE else and blame it all on Elmo... but there are things just beyond their control... Yes, watering the show down because of the very same garbage kiddy shows I always talk about is the BIGGEST factor. Remember, SS came out of a time when the only other kid's shows were Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo. To be fair, once the show started up, we got multiple clones... and we've had them well into the 90's But they all manged to copy SS, not have SS copy THEM. This... THIS is all Barney's fault. And I don't mean Stintson.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I hadn't thought about that as a reason to dislike the show. Then again, it gets me wondering: If Abby was on the show in the old days, would Big Bird have asked her to magically made the adults see Snuffy? Would Abby have used her magic to bring Big Bird back to Sesame Street in FTB? Would she have attempted to use magic to bring Mr. Hooper back to life (was she in the "When Families Grieve" special?), only to learn that magic can't be used to bring back the dead? Would her magic have been used as an explanation as to why Gordon and/or Mr. Handford's appearances changed (not to mention Oscar changing from orange to green)?

Those are good thoughts, but I doubt it. If these problems could have been solved by magic, those stories show wouldn't really have had much of a plot. After all, Mumford was around back then and you didn't see him doing tricks like that.

 

[Drtooth]

Would she have attempted to use magic to bring Mr. Hooper back to life (was she in the "When Families Grieve" special?), only to learn that magic can't be used to bring back the dead?

That's a little too ghoulish for them to ever consider.

And I agree, Mumford was around then, and it seems they never bothered considering that with him around either.

But back to the subject, I'm disliking multiple reusals of single footage in a season. Now, this isn't a snappy little cartoon or segment under 30 seconds used through multiple parts of the episode like a commercial, I'm talking the longer 5 minute segments, and even some of the 3 minute parody/celebrity segments.

Seeing the same Super Grover 2.0's is one thing, but there was NO EXCUSE for seeing Will I Am AND TruMud twice. I know they've got some annoying budget problems (again THANKS PBS! Thanks for diverting funds to outbid BBC America on terrible British Cops shows you never even get to see because you have to run pledge month every other week to pay for them), but the massive reusing of footage in a single, short 26 episode season is a cry for help. It almost seems they spend more time on the international film pilots (Munchin Impossible, etc.) than they do on their own show. Seriously, we need to go out en masse and buy 2 of every t-shirt, personal budgets permitting. I SUUUURE hope Hasbro has some nice stuff.

 

[Canadian Fan]

I decided to watch an episode one day when nothing else was on. I couldn't get over the changes, now the street story is only in the beginning instead of throughout the show. I liked Murray Monster in the real world (although I would like to see him interact with some other muppets occasionally). Elmo's World is just plain weird. I thought Bert & Ernie's claymation sketches were cool, same with Abby's Flying Fairy School. I haven't seen Super Grover 2.0.

Why aren't there more classic characters interacting with Abby, Zoe, and Rosita. Personally, I'd love to see more Bert and Ernie in their puppet form and interacting with Abby (though I'm not sure it's possible with Steve's schedule, but it was great to see Ernie in two songs in season 41). I think they should bring back The Amazing Mumford just so he could interact with Abby (it could be funny).

 

[StreetScenes]

i agree with those who dislike the repetition of long and/or useless segments. but i don't think they do it for a budget thing--it's not like they don't have 40 years of stuff they could run...they just choose repeating new segments ad nauseum because they think new equals hip. they're wrong. new equals trendy. hipness is from quality, which transcends passing fads. they'd make a much better show if they mixed the best older segments with their new ones, and they'd also be able to stretch new content out over more episodes per season.

the biggest thing i dislike about today's sesame street is that they don't seem to write for characters any more. telly gets some decent roles since he has a champion on the writing team, and occasionally there's a nice story line for someone else, like the wing in a sling episode. but most of the stories are so divorced from the characters that you could just plug in any muppet into any plot. and the human cast members, with the possible exception of Chris, never do anything any more except sit in the background and offer occasional advice, to the point that their presence is kind of awkward. if you ask a kid who's only been watching for the past 3 years to describe the personalities of elmo, zoe, rosita, maria, luis and baby bear, i bet he wouldn't be able to tell much difference beyond age & fur color. all the characters have been built and nuanced over many episodes, which is a luxury most tv/movie/book writers don't have. it's a shame that they're not using that to their advantage, because they could make much more compelling and memorable plots if they focused on how their complex and well-defined characters would react in a situation rather than coming up with contrived situations with one-shot celebrity/AM/fairy tale characters and inserting elmo or any old muppet into the scene.

 

[SSLFan]

the biggest thing i dislike about today's sesame street is that they don't seem to write for characters any more. telly gets some decent roles since he has a champion on the writing team, and occasionally there's a nice story line for someone else, like the wing in a sling episode. but most of the stories are so divorced from the characters that you could just plug in any muppet into any plot. and the human cast members, with the possible exception of Chris, never do anything any more except sit in the background and offer occasional advice, to the point that their presence is kind of awkward. if you ask a kid who's only been watching for the past 3 years to describe the personalities of elmo, zoe, rosita, maria, luis and baby bear, i bet he wouldn't be able to tell much difference beyond age & fur color. all the characters have been built and nuanced over many episodes, which is a luxury most tv/movie/book writers don't have. it's a shame that they're not using that to their advantage, because they could make much more compelling and memorable plots if they focused on how their complex and well-defined characters would react in a situation rather than coming up with contrived situations with one-shot celebrity/AM/fairy tale characters and inserting elmo or any old muppet into the scene.

I couldn't agree more. I know it's something that us fans have complained about year after year, but within the past two seasons, this REALLY has been the case here. The same 4-5 muppets are used for almost every street scene, there's just no character diversity anymore. It seems as if the writers find comfort in writing for the same few characters and are afraid to take chances and branch out of their comfort zone and discover other possibilties when writing for other characters. Of course this also can be a budget issue, thus why we see all these Elmo/Abby etc. centered stories. Still, this whole situation is quite sad IMHO.