Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 43

[The Count]

Episode 4309: Practice Makes Proud.

Word on the Street: Proud.

Street Story.
Elmo's ready for a game of basketball, showing off his gear to Leela.
And then Abby poofs in to see what's happening...


Okay, anyone else but me think that Elmo struggling, both to get his shirt on and with what word for how he's feeling a throwback to the Tyra Banks Word of the Day segment from years ago?

Hmm, seems Abby's getting some practice on being a fairy godmother like she wanted to in the show When Elmo Grows Up.
*Nod to MCR now playing Sesame Street Live music for that reference.

So Abby's gotten Elmo's shirt on for him and helped peel his banana for his snack, then brushes his teeth for him, which gets us to the game of hoops. Leading Abby to charm the ball so it magically goes through the net. Oh Abby... Don't you know it's not the ball you have to charm, just give the player a confidence potion like Felix Felicitas (that's not really a magic potion after all).

Then Leela shows up bringing us the inescapable lessonof the day, showing Elmo that all he needs is practice.

Practice? Practice?
We're talkin' about practice.
Now understand, it's just practice.
Prac-tice.
Dot Warner: Thank you Alan Iverson.
Song: Elmo Feels Proud.

Segments.
1 Muppets/Celebrity Word of the Day.
Abby and some guy named Ben talk with Hansel and Gretel about feeling proud.
Oh, and Jerry's new Humpty Dumpty made an appearance!
Wait, that's the Big Bad Wolf? I thought it was Blögg.
2 Animation/Song: Belly Breathe, which kind of shows an angry red monster turning back into his normal self.
Cute song with Elmo... But I can't help thinking this maybe fuels the Elmo-haters out there.
3 Murray Tune-Ins: Bring Out Your H.
4 H is for Home Animation.
*Misses the hat-hook-hose animated segment.
5 H Computer Key Animation.
Lame attempt to update/modernize the Typewriter Guy segments.
6 Abby's Flying Fairy School: The Rapunzel Dilemma.
7 Muppets: I Love My Hair.
8 Murray Tune-Ins: Number 15 with fifteen bookbags.
9 15 Garden Animation.
*Hateses these worse than Milo Counting or Mural Paintings!
10 Muppets: Number of the Day, The Count and his organ count to 15.
Wha?! Then why didn't you just skip the bogus garden and get fright to the castle. *Pleasantly surprised.
10 Super Grover 2.0:Up a Creek.
11 Song: Being A Pig, updated with new sound effects.
Good that we got a classic song, but can you please not insert these cartoonish sightgags in the next song you decide to update?
12 Murray Tune-Ins: Dare to Compare.
Which two tools are different? Two wrenches, hammers, levers, and a sock and wrench.
13 Muppets: Bert and Ernie Sketch, new! ! !
Ernie comes in and takes the box Bert keeps his bottlecaps in and starts playing pretend like a spaceship or treasure chest or robot costume.
Reminds me of when Peter took the box away from Stewie.
*Laughs at Ernie: "That does not compute Bert."
13 Celebrity: Ziggy Says.
14 Elmo: The Musical, Sea Captain the Musical.

 

[Drtooth]

First up, I might as well give some corrections..

H Computer Key Animation.
Lame attempt to update/modernize the Typewriter Guy segments.

That actually was a live action segment where someone with writer's block was typing on a laptop.

The H for house one was both live action and animation. The lame "what's in the garden" segment looks like it was CGI.

As far as Abby and Elmo go, why didn't they try this episode sooner? Abby's magic should really speak of not letting everything come easy for you and that magic can't solve everything more, instead of just being a gag. Somehow it almost reminds me of Timmy Turner in the episode "Wishing Well," but Elmo comes to this conclusion himself. I wonder if Abby knows of Da Rules yet.

The Belly Breathe song was fun, if ONLY for Frazzelmo and the Monster version of Common. I hope Frazzelmo gets used some other time. They always make an excuse to reuse puppets. He'd be a much better reused character than homunculus Zoe or random Duck Telly. I swear they made that old episode just to reuse that puppet.

And yeah... surprise new Ernie and Bert sketch. I think it speaks for itself. And yes... Ernie saying "Does not compute" made my day as well.

Now, I just gotta say, I know I'm not going to harp on reruns... I can see why they used the Cee-Lo or Ziggy bit from several episodes back again... but did we really need to use the Murray's Dare to Compare from the last episode?

 

[muppetlover123]

That's cool, I hope a video of the new Ernie and Bert segment comes up.

 

[cahuenga]

Who was doing bert? Frank or Eric?

 

[antsamthompson9]

The new street story was good. I liked the proud song. The Word of the Day was good. Great to hear Jerry's voice as Humpty again. The Belly Breathe song was good. I liked that they showed the best of the Number of the Day bits. The biggest surprise was the new Ernie and Bert sketch. This gets my hopes up that someday, we'll see a sketch with Ernie and Abby. I don't understand why they reused the Murray tune-ins from season 40.

 

[Oscarfan]

Why are some of you asking for an Ernie/Abby pairing? I can't think of anything funny they'd be able to do together unless they were somehow messing with Bert. From their personalities, I see almost nothing funny coming from Ernie and Abby in a sketch; there's almost nothing that could cause conflict between them.

I mean, they do a sketch not meant to be funny, but where's the fun in that?

 

[antsamthompson9]

Why are some of you asking for an Ernie/Abby pairing? I can't think of anything funny they'd be able to do together unless they were somehow messing with Bert. From their personalities, I see almost nothing funny coming from Ernie and Abby in a sketch; there's almost nothing that could cause conflict between them.

I mean, they do a sketch not meant to be funny, but where's the fun in that?

It would just be nice to see. Besides, if idiots who believe the rumors see something like that, they might stop thinking that the rumors are true. Also, Ernie and Elmo make a good pair, why not Ernie and Abby?

 

[Oscarfan]

It would just be nice to see. Besides, if idiots who believe the rumors see something like that, they might stop thinking that the rumors are true. Also, Ernie and Elmo make a good pair, why not Ernie and Abby?

I don't think Elmo and Ernie doing some song covers equates to being a good pair.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Who was doing bert? Frank or Eric?

I was wondering about that too. I'm guessing Frank because he sounded more like the classic Bert rather than in "Great Adventures," but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this.

Great to hear Jerry's voice as Humpty again.

I didn't think that was Jerry as Humpty. I may have to listen to that again, or maybe he used a different voice than he had before. I don't know. Speaking of Jerry, it was nice to bring back the Count Number of the Day segment, but too bad we sort of had a spoiler because Murray gave away the number in advance. That's the trouble with the block format.

Anyway, it was good to see a new B&E segment. I don't know if they have any new "Great Adventures" episodes planned for this season, but seeing them in puppet form is much better any day.

 

[antsamthompson9]

I don't think Elmo and Ernie doing some song covers equates to being a good pair.

One Fine Face was an original song.

I was wondering about that too. I'm guessing Frank because he sounded more like the classic Bert rather than in "Great Adventures," but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on this.

It was Eric.