A Breakdown of the Series' Timeline

[Drtooth]

The early seasons were also peppered with lecture-based segments similar to other kids' shows that were on at the time such as Romper Room. Some skits were also longer (need I mention "Hey Cow" or "Fireman Ready to Go"?), and some even repeated themselves. I, for one, am glad they did away with these.

I've been saying that for quite some time. Old School set 2 gets far more play than set 1. I do not find the school lecture parts entertaining at all, no matter how warm the human characters are. It somehow seems less realistic when the adults spend their time with kids asking which triangle looks like the others than a weird pinball table that completely changes when it's in a bonus portal (don't know Pinball terminology, but realistically, the breakdown segment should be an LCD screen), fuzzy monsters that eat cookies, fairy tales being news. plus, repeating the same segment 3 times in an episode? I get that it's supposed to mimic commercials, but.. well.. anyone ever watch a TV show that has the same commercial every single break? Like those Windows phone commercials where they fight at a school play? No matter how cute and inventive that stuff is you get sick of it the 10th time in a single night of TV watching.

I'm gonna do a smaller breakdown later, actually... Sesame Street really came into its own late 70's through the 80's.

On the subject of JTE, I didn't mind it too awful much... I liked it better when it was retooled starting in Season 34, it seemed to work better sending Big Bird into worlds where he actually had to look for Ernie himself for the entire segment, as opposed to Season 33 where he went into three different worlds that seemed to be put on shuffle, where he finds a box, Ernie's not in it, finds another box, Ernie's not in it, finds the third box, there's Ernie. The retooled JTE was also a lot more interactive and engaging as well.

I agree. JTE was supposed to be Sesame Street's answer to Blue's Clues and Dora. But that first incarnation? On the one hand, you did get to see older clips, sure. But the repetition of the same 9 worlds, 3 of each every time just had a terrible flow. And the only really thing going for it was the Ernie segment at the end, but often it was Ernie and Elmo (or just Ernie solo) songs or Ernie's Show and Tell, and not an Ernie and Bert segment. Having Big Bird go on adventures made all the difference. But it still mirrored the problem Abby's Flying School and Super Grover 2.0 would later have. Showing the segments too often per episode count left high numbers of rerun footage.

Honestly, the biggest problem I have with Sesame Street's current form is the reliance on character segments. Not so much for cutting off parts of the show, but for the low budget leaving these expensive to produce segments in low numbers, leaving threepeats in a single 26 episode season, only to have the same ones pad out the next season with like one or two held over segments added to the mix.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Eh, I'd say post Jon Stone is pretty bad.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've been saying that for quite some time. Old School set 2 gets far more play than set 1.

With me, all three Old School sets get played near-equally (I have no way of actually knowing how many times I've watched each set, disc, episode, scene, and so on... It's not like anybody keeps records of such things). However, when I watch the first two sets, I tend to watch individual scenes more than the whole episodes. I have watched the full episodes plenty of times, but I am more likely to put a disc in, go to the chapter stops, and go straight to a scene I really want to watch (and if it's not in the chapter stops, which is more likely with the volume 3 episodes, I'll hit that time bar thingy on the computer to get there, or I might be willing to go to the nearest chapter and wait, if it's close enough), but on volume 3 I've watched each of the full episodes a lot more, with the main exception of episode 1756. Don't know if it's because the episodes have more plot focus or what, though when it comes to watching full episodes all the way (as opposed to skipping straight to what I want to watch) on the first two volumes, I have watched the first episode the most (I usually try to watch the first episode every November 10th), and that one has the most plot focus (even if it's loosely a "plot") of the first ten premieres.

In a way, it's a little cooler for episodes to not have a plot or much plot focus, but at the same time, it sort of makes me want to just watch certain segments more than the full episodes.

I wonder when it became most common for shows to have plot focus. The Old School Volume 3 episodes all have plots, while the first two volumes don't have many plots, and when they do they're not given much focus. But I know that there are many episodes from the 1970s with plots, and there's many episodes from the 1980s and even 1990s that don't exactly have much plot focus.

Also when comparing the three Old School volumes, the character pressence decreases. It probably shouldn't be fair to judge character usage based on how they're seen in the first 15 season premieres, but it is still interesting. The first ten season premieres have a lot of Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster, and to a lesser extent The Count (he's in quite a bit of the Volume 2 episodes, but only one of the Volume 1 episodes) and Kermit (three of the five episodes on volume 1 show Kermit in at least two segments, while most of the episodes on volume 2 only feature him once). And yet while Big Bird is the star, he's really not in much of those episodes (he's in about as much as most of those characters). But on volume 3, Big Bird is more heavily featured in the season premieres (being the star of three episodes, and sort-of the star in episode 1836, though they're really about Gordon and Snuffy), while Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie, The Count, and Kermit are all shown a lot less (each of those episodes has at least one Ernie and Bert sketch, while the others appear more scarcely). Again, these are just season premieres, and at the time I'm sure nobody knew that the season premieres would one day be released together.

There are a number of things I didn't mention in my breakdown of the timeline. I think I might do that tomorrow (and give others a chance to bring them up). Though I do wonder if the show is currently starting a new era, with Matt Vogel taking over The Count and Ryan Dillion taking over Elmo. It's too soon to know for sure or to determine if these recasts have affected the show yet. Both performers are great with the characters. As far as I can tell this season The Count is being used as often as he was during Jerry Nelson's last few years, but it seems to me like Elmo is decreased a little, even though much of this season was finished before Kevin Clash resigned. It'll take awhile to determine if Ryan Dillion's Elmo will be used as much as Kevin Clash's was or if his role is decreased a little.

 

[Drtooth]

Here's what I'd consider the timeline...

1969-1971: The first batch of pancakes. It gets off to a pretty good start, considering it shows influence of older series at the beginning. Newer Muppet characters would start to creep out near the end of these early years, but that hole was filled at first by lame sketch comedy with human actors. Not the regulars, that is... the Larry and Phylis type bits that thankfully didn't last too long. Also, this era was filled with cover songs that have a post-Ed Sullivan, Pre-Muppet Show feel. These are pretty good, but hardly as memorable as the original songs written for the series.

1971-1976: The show takes Shape. We now have a diverse cast of Muppet characters that brought the show's fame and merchandising. No more in-episode repeated animated sketches (which are now looking a lot more diverse and fleshed out), and the series starts to look more and more like what old schoolers remember.

1976-1989: Perfection- a biased, yet fairly popular opinion. Let's face it... that was it's stride. The show came into its own since the mid-70's, and this was a steady stream of excellence that had the best of the 70's and the best of their then current material. The street stories became just that... stories. Some of the best remembered characters came from this era, human and Muppet. The parody segments started showing up (I'll get to this later), and the show's musical segments are as good as ever. Unfortunately, the late 80's saw Frank Oz's film career keeping him from being as involved with the show (a lot of Ernie solo segments came out of the late 80's), and a few deaths would lead us to...

1990-1992: The Struggle. With the loss of certain creative forces behind the show, there was a huge hole that left characters that didn't stick to fill in lost character rolls and use of older segment footage. Of course, the worst thing that happened was the new shift in children's programming. Which lead to...

1992-1997: Around the Corner. Apparently, this confused kids and was dropped later, but it was done to combat the rise of Barney type shows, all the while replacing characters lost by Frank's lessened involvement, and Jim and Richard's deaths. I'll admit, this was a blur for me. The street stories became more complex and... well... weird. This includes Slimey's trip to the moon. The celebrities sing parodies of their own songs tradition starts taking shape, even though "U really got a Hold on Me" was from the 80's.

1997-2002: The calm before the storm. This was when Elmo's World premiered. That's all I'll say about that. As for the show itself, the ATC characters disappeared (Benny stayed for a little bit after, though), there was starting to be more structure to the letter and number segments (all letter and number segments were segmented so you'd see a row of number or letter segments grouped together during the "breaks"). Elmo has become the breakout character, filling the void left by said character departures. Then there was...

2002: the Clusterfudge. That season... THE season everyone hates. The segmented show effectively changes the series completely. The show relied on segmented organized portions ever since. On the plus side, Eric Jacobson and David Rudman took over Frank's most popular characters a season before, and those characters slowly worked their way back in this season.

2003-2007, 2008. Sesame 2.0. Things gradually got better. Segments were improved, and then discontinued. Far less hamfisted than season 33, but still having that feel. The Fix it Shop became the Mail it Shop than the Fix it shop again, then completely disappearing into the show soon enough. The celebrity and parody segments start to become a major focus, rather than a pleasant surprise. Abby was added to the cast awkwardly, then gradually came into her own. Curricula started bludgeoning initiatives into the audience's heads, starting with health.

2007: The year they tried to change things but couldn't. Two episodes lacked Elmo's World and had the original segmented street story. Tested poorly. Shame.

2008-2009: Another year they tried to change things and couldn't. The show, while it still had remnants of the 2.0 era, they tried to bring a classic sense back with the letter and number announcements by varying members of the cast. Unfortunately, this was a breather for....

2009-present: Sesame Street presents the Sesame Street related programming block. Abby's Flying Fairy School, Super Grover 2.0, Ernie and Bert's Great Adventures and the remaining letter and number and street segments now transformed the show into little, smaller shows based on the international programing block these short segments were cobbled into. Murray hosted, then thankfully Murray and Ovejita hosted. Kermit appeared in the last Elmo's World ever for a glorious 10 seconds. Elmo's world staled for a year then was replaced by ETM, a far better, shorter segment. Repeats of every segment abound while half the Ernie and Bert segments are still not shown in the US. The widescreen era started pushing full frame segments out the series. The Curriculum started bludgeoning Engineering of all things into a preschool audience... a pre-preschool audience. the celebrity and parody segments are more important than the show itself. Cookie Monster grew back his popularity and finally got another segment.

 

[minor muppetz]

Wow, Drtooth's post was.... A little bit better than mine. It mentioned some of the things I wanted to bring up but forgot (like the use of song covers and giving alternate performers to Frank's characters).

But there are a few things I don't think have been brought up:

• This might be minor, because I only know of two segments where this occurred (but it very well could have been in more segments we haven't seen), but the first season had a few segments where a human character (Gordon in all known cases) decorates the faces of Anything Muppets. I'm glad they dropped that concept (though the same thing basically happened in season two's "I Wanna Hold Your Ear", except it was a Muppet who decorated the face, and that segment was a lot better).
• The Muppets also seem a little less important in the first season. We all know that the Muppets were originally only supposed to be in their own segments (putting them on par with the animation and film inserts), and I've heard that the CTW Archives has correspondence between CTW and Henson dated May 1969 (before the test shows started) saying that the producers were almost considering NOT having Muppets on the show due to the performers desired salaries (and this was before Caroll Spinney was hired). But even as the Muppets prove more popular with test audiences, in the first season, outside of the first episode it's rare to see any Muppets who aren't Big Bird or Oscar in the street scenes. We only have 8 out of 130 first season episodes to reference, but does anybody have access to any first season street scenes (outside of the first episode) featuring other Muppet characters?
• Parody segments start to become a lot more prominent in the 1980s. During the first ten years, the majority of parodies are of game shows (and a few song spoofs). But in the 1980s, we start to get many more parodies, including recurring parody segments like Monsterpiece Theater, Miami Mice, Spaceship Surprise, and Mysterious Theater. Not only that, but we also start to get recurring Muppets who are parodies of real people, including Placido Flamingo, Polly Darton, and Meryll Sheep.

A few people pointed out the early years having the occasional overly-long film inserts like "Hey Cow" (which I agree is long and boring) and "The Fireman Song" (which I actually like, the tune is quite catchy). But I wonder if those kinds of segments are as minor as the segments with Anything Muppets getting decorated.

Another thing, about the years when The Muppet Show was on the air, the 40th anniversary book points out that production of that show limited the amount of time that Jim, Frank, Jerry, and Richard could perform on Sesame Street, and a few years ago Jerry said TMS was really the reason he stopped performing Snuffy, since that character was heavily in street scenes (though Michael Earl has said that Jerry performed the voice live on the set, and besides it's widely sourced that Richard performed the front half for a year). But it seems those performers still do plenty of new inserts during those years, the show doesn't really start to get new performers until The Muppet Show is a couple years from ending, and Earl Kress has said that during the pre-TMS years most of the main performers only spent a month on the show each season. It seems like Jim, Frank, Jerry, and Richard's characters appeared in street scenes just as often in the late-1970s as they did the early 1970s (I wasn't going to mention Jim, because it seems like it was always rare for his characters to be in street scenes, but at the same time, it's pretty much the same amount of usage).

 

[minor muppetz]

the Larry and Phylis type bits that thankfully didn't last too long.

I've only seen one Larry and Phyllis segment, and that one is boring (though I'd like to see some others to see if they get better), but all of the Buddy and Jim segments I've seen are great. There's also Wally and Ralph who were on the show from 1971-1974. I've only seen one of their bits, and I'd say it's not as good as Buddy and Jim, but better than Larry and Phyllis.

Unfortunately, the late 80's saw Frank Oz's film career keeping him from being as involved with the show (a lot of Ernie solo segments came out of the late 80's)

I've said this a number of times, but it must have been difficult for CTW to schedule a time where Jim and Frank could both perform together (though they did work together on the 20th anniversary special), since not only was Frank directing but Jim was busy with scores of projects. Of course solo Ernie segments have never been uncommon (even before and after this era there had been nearly as many Ernie segments without Bert as there had been with Bert). But there are at least four Ernie segments from what appear to be the late-1980s (that Ernie puppet debuted in season 14, so I could be wrong) that are ABOUT Ernie having the apartment to himself. Not to mention the Best Friends Blues song where Bert is sick.

But Bert hasn't had as many scenes without Ernie (though in the 1970s there were quite a few solo Bert segments on the street), and in season 20 it seems like they started putting Bert in solo segments, such as when he talked to Elmo about loud and quiet, Simon Soundman gave Bert a lesson in making tuba sounds, and Bert sang "Keep the Park Clean for the Pigeons". And then Bert was given a few more solo segments between Jim's death and Steve taking over as Ernie.

And not only did the late-1980s give us less Ernie and Bert pairings, but Ernie also appeared less with Cookie Monster and Kermit appeared less with Cookie or Grover. It became a little more common for Kermit to appear with Elmo, and for Jim's characters to appear with newer characters. Then again, Frank or no Frank, in the late-1980s it must have felt special for Jim's characters to have scenes with new characters performed by newer Muppet performers. I'm sure Jim liked to perform with the new performers, and they probably liked performing alongside him.

And during the 1980s, I would have thought that Jim would have been a lot busier than Frank. After all, Jim had scores of projects at once and was often flying around the world during the week and even weekends, while Frank only directed movies, and yet it seems like Jim was able to work on Sesame Street more in the late-80s than Frank was. Jim's minor characters were still making occasional appearances, and Jim was still frequently performing one-shot characters while Frank wasn't. And Jim even performed a new recurring character, the captain of the Spaceship Surprise.

1992-1997: Around the Corner.

Actually, that was 1993-1998.

 

[minor muppetz]

This thread was so much fun, I wonder if we should start a separate one in the General Discussions regarding other long-time franchises. Or a separate thread for The Jim Henson Company.

 

[cjd874]

Here's my own breakdown of SS's history

Gold: The first decade or so; 1969-1982. Arguably the best years of the show. Started out very rough around the edges at first, what with the repeated animated segments and the just plain freaky Muppets (Fred the Dragon, anyone?), but is quickly refined and polished. We got a taste of just how groundbreaking the show would be. The cast was interracial (African Americans, Latinos, and Caucasians living together harmoniously). Three Gordons in one era! Amazing! Besides the Gordons, we also become acquainted with Susan, Mr. Hooper, Bob, Luis, Maria, David, Linda, Olivia, and Mr. Macintosh. The Muppets were the breakout stars (Big Bird, Grover, Ernie, Bert, Oscar, Cookie Monster, the Count, Sherlock Hemlock, Herry Monster, the Anything Muppets, etc.). The animations and films became legendary (the King of 8, the Bud Luckey cartoons, Doll House #2, Henson's Counting Baker segments). Lots of famous celebrities too: James Earl Jones, Bill Cosby, Carol Burnett, Madeline Kahn, Lena Horne, Stevie Wonder, Jessie Jackson, Harry Belafonte, and more. Such a wide curriculum for such a young audience. Overall a great period, cut short by Mr. Hooper's sudden death, handled tremendously well by all at CTW.

Silver: Post-Hooper to Richard's passing; 1982-1993. New Muppets & cast members introduced, due to lack of puppeteer availability, Jim & Frank especially. Brian Meehl, Martin Robinson, Kevin Clash, & others create memorable characters such as Telly Monster, Barkley, Snuffleupagus, Nobel Price, Hoots the Owl, and a certain red guy named Elmo. Uncle Wally & Gina are among the newcomers. The street stories become more intricate, some spanning whole seasons (such as Maria & Luis' relationship, marriage, & planning for parenthood). More great animated and live-action segments like "Hip to Be a Square" and "We All Sing with the Same Voice." Celebrities: Andrea Martin, John Candy, Paul Simon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Danny DeVitto, Johnny Cash, the New York Mets, and more. Jim Henson, Joe Raposo, and Richard Hunt pass away too soon, leaving a huge hole in the show's foundational structure.

Bronze: Around the Corner and final gasps of old-school nostalgia; 1993-2001. The street expands to include new locations and new friends: Celina, Ruthie, Savion, Lillian, Carlo, and Lexine. Frank and Jerry return to perform original characters, joined by new Muppeteers David Rudman, Joey Mazzarino, and Lisa Buckley. Jon Stone still directs until his fallout with CTW, thus the show loses some of its original wit and magic.

Copper: The block format era (or as I call it the "Elmo and Abby Show"); 2002-present. Appealing to an even younger audience, very commercialized. Features like Journey to Ernie, the Spanish Word of the Day, Super Grover 2.0, Abby's Flying Fairy School, and Murray Has a Little Lamb make their debut. New characters Chris, Leela, and Mando join the cast. 40th anniversary celebrated with new merchandise and an in-depth commemorative book and DVD set, both titled 40 Years of Sunny Days.

 

[Drtooth]

The Muppets also seem a little less important in the first season. We all know that the Muppets were originally only supposed to be in their own segments (putting them on par with the animation and film inserts), and I've heard that the CTW Archives has correspondence between CTW and Henson dated May 1969 (before the test shows started) saying that the producers were almost considering NOT having Muppets on the show due to the performers desired salaries (and this was before Caroll Spinney was hired). But even as the Muppets prove more popular with test audiences, in the first season, outside of the first episode it's rare to see any Muppets who aren't Big Bird or Oscar in the street scenes. We only have 8 out of 130 first season episodes to reference, but does anybody have access to any first season street scenes (outside of the first episode) featuring other Muppet characters?

If the show didn't have the Muppets, it wouldn't have been as well known. In fact, I doubt it would have had much impact and would have lasted, and I'm being generous here, about 6 years tops. Any of the Muppet nay sayers at CTW would later eat crow, as those very same Muppets are essentially their source of income. So much so that Disney even allows them to call them Muppets, something JHC doesn't have the rights to.

Of course, the show started without much regard for those characters, and like I said, they came up with those comedy duos to fill that spot (even when they had more characters) up until they realized how unfunny they were compared to the Monsters or Ernie and Bert. Once they introduced more characters, the show started coming into its own. That said, first season characters are ugly! The AM's didn't have the sophisticated placement of the eyes half the time, Orange Oscar, color aside, was an ugly looking guy, Ernie and Bert didn't look as expressive, and Bullwinkle Big Bird was just awful. Carol was right to change the character.

Parody segments start to become a lot more prominent in the 1980s. During the first ten years, the majority of parodies are of game shows (and a few song spoofs). But in the 1980s, we start to get many more parodies, including recurring parody segments like Monsterpiece Theater, Miami Mice, Spaceship Surprise, and Mysterious Theater. Not only that, but we also start to get recurring Muppets who are parodies of real people, including Placido Flamingo, Polly Darton, and Meryll Sheep.

The 70's was when it started (mostly with musical bits, like Count it Higher), the 80's was when it was more prominent, but certainly not as overly important or emphasized as the last few seasons. Of course, they didn't have the internet to post huge press releases back then, but the parodies weren't given exact dates and summaries... at least not to the general public. The difference is, you'd see Miami Mice or Cereal Girl or something naturally. Now, the parody and celebrity segments are promoted over everything else in a season. This is only for the benefit of the adults watching with their kids. Heck, seems like now they make them to put online directly to make sure every one knows they're still around.

 

[minor muppetz]

That said, first season characters are ugly! The AM's didn't have the sophisticated placement of the eyes half the time, Orange Oscar, color aside, was an ugly looking guy, Ernie and Bert didn't look as expressive, and Bullwinkle Big Bird was just awful. Carol was right to change the character.

I kind of like the way the puppets looked in the first season. Maybe not better than they would look next season and later, but I still enjoy watching those early, cruder versions of the puppets.