What would it take for you to stop watching current episodes?

[ssetta]

This is a thread I have thought about making for awhile, but I think that this would be a good time. We are about halfway through Season 42, and it looks like so far, there has not been 1 clip even from the 90s. Up to this point, the oldest clip shown was the "0 Dancer" film from Season 34. It does seem like over the last decade or so, they have used less and less classic clips. By Season 40, I already thought they were showing way too few classic clips, but there were a couple of 90s sketches used in Season 40, and even that made me happy. Then in Season 41, they had slightly more sketches from the 90s, and then there was that huge surprise with "I Gotta Be Clean", which had actually not been shown since Season 29! But this season, there haven't been ANY.

So I'm making this thread because I know that a lot of classic Sesame Street fans don't even watch the current episodes. But I still do, because even if they don't use a lot of classic material, they would still use at least some. It just seems like they keep using less and less, up to the point where they will never show anything from before Season 34 or 35 again. And so if they do end up going this route, I'm actually wondering if I will stop watching the show if I know there's not going to be any surprises or flashbacks. I even spoke with producer Tim Carter about this, and he says that it IS intentional, because they were getting complaints about the show looking too outdated with the music styles, and the clothing that people were wearing. And keep in mind that Sesame Street is pretty much the only show at all that mixes old material with new, and it was competing with other programs that have all new material. So will you stop watching the show if they don't show anymore classic clips?

 

[CensoredAlso]

The future is on the Internet, not Television. I'll be directing my kids to the Sesame Street clips on the official website where quality entertainment won't be censored for the terrible crime of being "dated." Or on the classic DVDs. In other words, I won't let what my children see be determined by TV ratings.

This attitude that old = bad is the last lesson I want my kids learning, thank you.

 

[Drtooth]

There was some surprise 1990's clip somewhere... I just didn't care because it was some kids running around. I completely forgot which one it was too.

Sure, there are a lot of filmed bits with kids that are completely outdated, but there are always Muppet segments and animations that are impeccably timeless. Several years ago, they showed a late 1970's Ernie and Bert skit (the one where Bert teaches checkers to Bernice).. that one came after a Journey to Ernie. If it's because of the widescreen stuff, I call bull on it. Elmo's World hasn't been new since season 40, and has always been in full frame. And they occasionally have to reuse older letters and numbers animations that are full frame as well.

Meanwhile Germany does this with the older segments:

That's all it takes. A cheap boarder. And it looks perfectly widescreen! Even Between the Lions did that up until it was cancelled. Putting boarders around old skits to make them seem WS.

My beef isn't with the lack of classic clips (a LOT of Elmo's Worlds are older than half the skits they show), but the fact that there isn't any room for them if they wanted to. Unfortunately, the block format's a hit, and we'll see it for a while until the writers try to revolt and revert it back. I still don't see why Abby's Fairy School, good segment that it is, has to be on every episode if they only introduce 8 or less a season (of 26 episodes), when it could better rotate with Ernie and Bert's Great adventures and/or Super Grover 2.0 (another brilliant skit that doesn't have enough episodes and SHOULD have more).

I shall never believe Sesame Street is "dumbed Down" ever again, because if nothing else, they're trying to do too much... especially when it comes to initiatives and expanding the curriculum to more complex scientific and mathematical concepts each and every season... ones that go completely over the heads of the 3-4 demographic.

 

[minor muppetz]

I even spoke with producer Tim Carter about this, and he says that it IS intentional, because they were getting complaints about the show looking too outdated with the music styles, and the clothing that people were wearing. And keep in mind that Sesame Street is pretty much the only show at all that mixes old material with new, and it was competing with other programs that have all new material.

Really? People complained about the show having outdated music and styles? Would classics like Rubber Duckie, C is for Cookie, Bein' Green, and Doin' the Pigeon be considered "outdated music styles"? I know, those haven't been on the show in ages, but I'd find it hard to believe that many of the classic early songs have outdated music styles. I am surprised they haven't remade those songs so that there'd be widescreen versions to broadcast.

And I'd like to think that many of the classic Muppet segments aren't outdated. Some, yes, especially if they have celebrity aappearances, but many seem timeless.

I was surprised to read that last season had a lot more 1990s clips than the previous season. When last season began it looked as if the show was avoiding anything (except Elmo's World) that wasn't shot in HD, but then more pre-HD segments aired later in the season. I can see them thinking the picture quality of 1970s segments looking dated, but if they can show stuff from the early 1990s, I don't see why they can't show stuff from the late 1980s (there's not a big picture-quality difference between '80s and'90s material). They showed stuff from the 1980s up until season 39. If you count the use of Jim Henson's vocals in Aaron Nevil's "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon", then the show hasn't had anything with Jim's involvement since then (I find it very inexusable that the big anniversary season was the first to completely ignore material where Jim Henson was heard).

It seems they stopped showing older stuff with the human cast in the 1990s, but older stuff with the Muppets wasn't off-limits then, even if they looked real different (I think they only avoided stuff like orange Oscar, season one Big Bird, green Grover, Television Monster, "imaginary" Snuffleupagus). It's a good thing the older stuff is available online and on video. It's a good thing that the really old stuff isn't off-limits for video releases. In the past few years it seems they were avoiding classic stuff on DVD, except for as bonus clips or part of stuff intended for adult collectors, but this year there's suddenly been quite a few DVD releases mixing classic stuff with more modern stuff (Silly Storytime, Elmo's Travel Games and Songs, even Elmo's World: People in Your Neighborhood).

 

[CensoredAlso]

I shall never believe Sesame Street is "dumbed Down" ever again, because if nothing else, they're trying to do too much.

Both can be true I think.

 

[Drtooth]

Both, yes... in certain aspects. Still, I have a hard as heck time trying to understand why they're so worked up about kids being able to know different kinds of birds, knowing the fundamentals of 3rd grade math, being able to be engineers, being expert in various international cultures, and being able to able to use words like "deciduous" when they have Elmo explaining that those mystical and impossible to understand appendages at the end of their legs are called feet for 15 minutes.

Talk about a logic gap.

 

[mr3urious]

Both, yes... in certain aspects. Still, I have a hard as heck time trying to understand why they're so worked up about kids being able to know different kinds of birds, knowing the fundamentals of 3rd grade math, being able to be engineers, being expert in various international cultures, and being able to able to use words like "deciduous" when they have Elmo explaining that those mystical and impossible to understand appendages at the end of their legs are called feet for 15 minutes.

Talk about a logic gap.

Don't forget about yoga! Kids have gotta learn yoga, apparently!

 

[Drtooth]

Ah yes... the gentrification of Sesame Street. No wonder you don't see half the characters anymore. The probably had to move away because the rents went up because the yuppies moved in. Hooper's is THIS close to being a Starbucks in my mind. And the Fix it shop will be a place that sells 10 dollar cupcakes the size of a shot glass.

I hate how they have to shove yoga in the show. That's what snotty suburbanites do with their spoiled little brat kids at Mommy and Me classes. I miss kids playing in construction sites like they were the kids from Fat Albert.

 

[GonzoLeaper]

I guess it doesn't really matter, so hate to point this out- but shouldn't this thread be in the "Sesame Street" forum?

 

[ssetta]

I really wondered which forum I should post this in. I think I chose this one because I wanted to see how the Classic SS fans feel about there not being enough old material in the new episodes, and I know that some current SS fans don't WANT to see old material in new episodes. That's why people were complaining about the show.

I also agree with what heralde said, and Tim Carter did say something very similar. He basically just said that the old segments can be found on the website, and on the official SS YouTube channel. I think that's where most people go to find classic material. This may also be why you don't really hear of new TV networks picking up old reruns in general.