Things you miss

[SSLFan]

Big Bird being the show's main character.

The magazine format.

Seeing classic Ernie & Bert sketches.

Prairie Dawn.

"Around the Corner".

 

[D'Snowth]

Prairie Dawn's gone now?

 

[HeyButtahfly]

In addition to everything mentioned in the poll above, I miss how the episodes used to have an actual plot storyline, with all the inserts and stuff in between. Plus, I also miss seeing any insert from the first 3 decades of the show, especially anything where Jim Henson's voice was heard.

Agreed. More than anything in the above poll, I miss the "old" format.

 

[SSLFan]

Prairie Dawn's gone now?

I haven't seen her in new material on the tv show since like season 39.

 

[Oscarfan]

Prairie made a silent, 4-second cameo in the "Furry Potter" ep. last season. She does appear in a sketch made for the new Kinect game though.

 

[Drtooth]

I miss the not block format. I mean, I get what they're going for, and they're somehow making the main show like the international versions, which are all segment based compilation shows now... but I really miss the street story being broken up and shown through out the episode. It's a shame that when they tried it more recently, it flopped with test groups.

 

[SSLFan]

I miss the not block format. I mean, I get what they're going for, and they're somehow making the main show like the international versions, which are all segment based compilation shows now... but I really miss the street story being broken up and shown through out the episode. It's a shame that when they tried it more recently, it flopped with test groups.

I still say if Elmo were included in those street story's there may have been a better response. Elmo was barely featured in any of those 2 episodes at all. I have a funny theory that those episodes were filmed without Kevin Clash knowing so he wouldn't find out they were trying to phase out EW, lol.

 

[CensoredAlso]

It's a shame that when they tried it more recently, it flopped with test groups.

It's a shame they painted themselves into such a corner relying so much on one character.

 

[Hayley B]

I miss the not block format. I mean, I get what they're going for, and they're somehow making the main show like the international versions, which are all segment based compilation shows now... but I really miss the street story being broken up and shown through out the episode. It's a shame that when they tried it more recently, it flopped with test groups.

I do miss that too. I can't see how kids will learn with the format they are doing now.

 

[Drtooth]

It's a shame they painted themselves into such a corner relying so much on one character.

They could go with Elmo and not the block format. It is giving them higher ratings, and the character specific segments are pretty good (just repeated too many times). But I've been missing the old format since the dramatic shift in the 2002 season. And once they tried to move away from it, they got pulled back in.

I still say if Elmo were included in those street story's there may have been a better response. Elmo was barely featured in any of those 2 episodes at all. I have a funny theory that those episodes were filmed without Kevin Clash knowing so he wouldn't find out they were trying to phase out EW, lol.

That was clearly the case. Except I don't think there was a conspiracy theory with Kevin and EW at all. They were starting to produce much less of them by then anyway. Why they chose to experiment with very Elmo-less episodes is beyond me. I get what they were trying to do, but they set themselves up for failure without just jamming some Elmo skit around the 40 minute mark.