How did SS evolve from "schoolhouse" to "entertainment?"

[ssetta]

I recently came across this vintage SS clip from Season 1, with Susan talking about animals and their heads and tails to kids. Here is the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTEAEpqSZgI

What's interesting about it is that it really didn't seem very entertaining for young kids, it seems just like a woman teaching a class. I'm guessing they did this a lot in the first season, or maybe even the first couple of seasons. I know that it continued just a little bit into the late 70s, and even later, but eventually, this is what really phased out. About when did they completely stop doing it?

 

[Drtooth]

I could not exactly pinpoint exactly when, but it seemed like there was a gradual change to a consistent plot since the late 70's, and it really seemed to blow up in the 1980's. And somehow, I think that was when the show was at the top of its game. You had the perfect balance of what the show was, what the show became, new and classic stuff.

It seems the first few seasons were more of a hardcore schoolhouse type show that took place in an inner city. But that's probably because Ding Dong School, Romper Room, and even Mr. Rogers had that sort of model to them, and that was all everyone ever knew. Maybe the funner segments started testing better, or getting the kids' attention better. I honestly think they did the right thing slowly getting out of that and becoming more of an entertainment based educational show. Plus, it did help them carry in more social values with certain plot lines.

 

[SOTTH]

The early Sesame Street model was a departure from the other educational shows of the era, but as Drtooth mentioned, that format was all anyone knew, and so Sesame Street ended up looking a lot like it. The difference is, CTW was always interested in finding newer and better ways to teach children, and constantly refined the show to make learning and engagement better. The Sesame Street of today has been an evolution: a slow, consistent, steady change.

Robert Morrow wrote a book called "Sesame Street and the Reform of Children's Television" which details the research that goes into Sesame Street and how it affects the structure of the show. The book itself is (I'm pretty sure) a doctoral thesis, so the language is a bit dense and boring at times. But I make my living as a learning measurement specialist, so it was fascinating to me. And of all of the people who measure learning engagement and learning effectiveness, CTW is a real leader in the field. And they are constantly altering Sesame Street to make sure they're engaging kids and teaching them to the highest level.

And as society evolves, the way we learn evolves. CTW just follows that evolution very closely.

 

[dwmckim]

Keep in mind too that for that first year of SST, they needed to film a LOT of filler for the street scenes - they had to fill 130 hour long shows and they didn't yet have the vast collection of clips and inserts to fall back on; so lots of stuff was done on the fly and improved - with everyone hoping it would be entertaining but you ultimately get what you get in those adult/kid moments.

 

[RedPiggy]

And they are constantly altering Sesame Street to make sure they're engaging kids and teaching them to the highest level.

Isn't the de-aging of the show kinda in conflict with that statement? Sometimes I get the impression that it's going to end up looking like Earl Sinclair is in charge of programming, with a half hour of nothing but looking at test patterns.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes no and maybe....

Unfortunately altering the show means they show has to change with the times, and as I've said countless instances, the face of children's television was changed for the worse in the 90's. Not the bigger kid shows (that was the later 90's when things slid a little, and then 2005-2009 when the older kid's programming really suffered), but when Barney first showed up on PBS, children's TV had to get younger, dumber, and louder. Then came Blue's Clues, and now you needed people to REALLY talk down to kids, and louder and slower than ever before.

Now, with Sesame Street, they had no choice but to keep embracing the competition (though even the original Journey to Ernie was still more watchable than what it was emulating). Not to mention the fact that Sesame Street was intended for an older audience including kids up to first grade. Remember, it was originally a poor kid substitute for Preschool. Not only can parents afford to send kids to preschool but even prepreschool programs like Mommy and Me and Baby Yoga and all that yuppie crap. And yet, they manage to keep adding more and more complex things to the curriculum. I swear there was an episode where a number actually said something about remembering division when they're older and get to grade school (or something to that extent). The show is now made for pre-preschoolers, and yet they feel the need for science, nature, more complicated math, and all these very heavy things should be in the show. Somehow they're managing to conflict themselves, trying to do older subject material when they have a very young audience that might not absorb it.

 

[mr3urious]

I definitely agree that SS especially shined between the mid '70s to around 1992-ish. Gone were the days of slow, painful lectures like the cow example below as well as repeats of inserts, and along came the best of classroom-like lectures, social lessons, and simple entertainment along with consistent plot lines.

this one

The late '90s is where its quality fell dramatically when it tried to emulate those non-interactive shows like Blue's Clues and it tried to be more structured and routine. However, when the writers are allowed to be witty and creative like in the old days, they really go all out, like the Cookie World episode and Preschool Musical.

Cookie World

Preschool Musical.

 

[Drtooth]

I definitely agree that SS especially shined between the mid '70s to around 1992-ish. Gone were the days of slow, painful lectures like the cow example below as well as repeats of inserts, and along came the best of classroom-like lectures, social lessons, and simple entertainment along with consistent plot lines.

this one

UGH! That cow film again. I can pick it apart so well. The fact of the matter is, Abby's Fairy School is a very long time consuming segment, sure... but it goes by fast. That cow thing is so slow in tone, and filled with painful redundancies and repetition. And not the learning BY repetition... like a long, dry professor's speech that says the same thing over and over. Joe Raposo could have wrote a snappy 3 minute or less ditty about milk that we'd all be humming awkwardly as adults and not caring how childish we look. That music sounds like some sad guy in a subway strumming his guitar slowly and moaning over it.

Sesame Street was always meant to be snappy. The 10-30 second bits about letters in the form of "commercials." Counting segments with fast catchy music with quick cuts... How did Jazz Numbers fit with that long winded Cow thing, I'll never know.

Maybe it was because the segments with the Muppets or cartoon characters doing sketch comedy were testing better, but I think they learned a very good lesson from that. I mean, even when they had adult characters doing comedy bits (I mean the meh comedic duos, of course... not Maria, Bob and the others) it just didn't match up. Larry and Phylis and the others just couldn't hold a candle to Ernie and Bert. Think of which characters have been with the show since the conception. They're still popular today.

 

[minor muppetz]

Keep in mind too that for that first year of SST, they needed to film a LOT of filler for the street scenes - they had to fill 130 hour long shows and they didn't yet have the vast collection of clips and inserts to fall back on; so lots of stuff was done on the fly and improved - with everyone hoping it would be entertaining but you ultimately get what you get in those adult/kid moments.

I wonder if there was a minimum requirement of street scenes/new content for each episode. The first few seasons often repeated the exact same segments two or three times (it seems episode 179 repeats most of the same non-Muppet content in the second half). Though it seems it was just the letter and number segments that got repeated in episodes, and ones without Muppets or the cast.

Though it seems that the first season had a lot of segments that were only shown once or twice in the first season (and not just segments that were dropped by the end of the year). Kermit's W lecture seems to have only appeared twice in the first season, and yet the first season had many episodes sponsored by W (including practically the whole first week).

The book Street Gang said that when planning, every segment had to be entertaining and educational. So I wonder how that explains boring segments like the ones mentioned in this thread.

 

[CensoredAlso]

UGH! That cow film again. I can pick it apart so well. The fact of the matter is, Abby's Fairy School is a very long time consuming segment, sure... but it goes by fast. That cow thing is so slow in tone, and filled with painful redundancies and repetition. And not the learning BY repetition... like a long, dry professor's speech that says the same thing over and over. Joe Raposo could have wrote a snappy 3 minute or less ditty about milk that we'd all be humming awkwardly as adults and not caring how childish we look. That music sounds like some sad guy in a subway strumming his guitar slowly and moaning over it.

Oh come on, leave the Cow film alone, lol. Sesame Street had other segments that weren't snappy and quick. I don't see why this particular film gets attacked so much.