A Breakdown of the Series' Timeline

[D'Snowth]

Big Bird lampshaded this once! Back in 2003, Animal Planet had this countdown special of the top 50 greatest TV animals of all time (Big Bird was either #16 or #15... Kermit was definitely #2), and when interviewing him, he talked about how much he loved living on Sesame Street, but said that he wished he had a cover or something to put over his nest, "Everytime it rains, I get soaked!"

But that brings to mind something that I don't understand... in the early years, Big Bird has a ceiling fan hanging directly over his nest... how is that possible? I mean, aside from the fan probably hanging from the lighting grid or something inside the studio, that is?

 

[cjd874]

Big Bird lampshaded this once! Back in 2003, Animal Planet had this countdown special of the top 50 greatest TV animals of all time (Big Bird was either #16 or #15... Kermit was definitely #2), and when interviewing him, he talked about how much he loved living on Sesame Street, but said that he wished he had a cover or something to put over his nest, "Everytime it rains, I get soaked!"

But that brings to mind something that I don't understand... in the early years, Big Bird has a ceiling fan hanging directly over his nest... how is that possible? I mean, aside from the fan probably hanging from the lighting grid or something inside the studio, that is?

Plus, when it snows, Big Bird's nest area still gets wet. He probably has a shovel to dig out his toy chest, barrels, bags of birdseed, and everything else that's not tucked away safely. He must be freezing too, since he doesn't have four walls OR a roof surrounding him. And it must also be bad for the Bird when it gets really windy…I wonder if he's stayed in the 123 apartment on those occasions?

In addition to that ceiling fan, there's also the tire swing that was in the arbor area/courtyard for many years. I never understood how it was supposed to hang down. Wouldn't there have to be a long pole or tree branch (with a nearby tree, of course) in order for that to be possible?

 

[D'Snowth]

As far as cold weather goes, Big Bird does have electric blankets and heating pads in his nest to keep him warm, as Maria pointed out in CEOSST.

As for windy conditions, remember, he spent the night with Gordon and Susan as the hurricane blew through.

 

[D'Snowth]

And as far as ATC goes, we know for a fact that at least the park is still in use, because how many times in recent seasons have we seen Elmo and Zoe or Telly and Baby Bear, or really any other characters hanging out at the park?

 

[muppet maniac]

I always divided the different eras into two groups:

Pre-1973 (Early seasons)
This were the "experimental" years, when the show was new and they were trying things out. Seasons 1-3 were, as TVTropes would describe it, "Early Installment Weirdness"; while a good chunk of now classic moments came from these early episodes, there were some things that would have anyone born after this period
go "what?" and in some cases scream like the Nostalgia Critic after he saw "Baby Arnold". Things started to shape up a bit between seasons 4 and 5 (with the addition of characters like The Count, the debut of Newsflash, Snuffy given his modern look) but like the seasons beforehand, it's not all the way there (Gordon still having hair and being played by a different actor, segments repeating themselves multiple times - although they did do segment repeats as late as the New Mexico episodes from season 7, interestingly enough)

Post-1973 (Later seasons)
This is the Sesame Street everyone is most familiar with, regardless of which year they grew up in.

* 6-11; 12-14
* Post-Hooper (15-20)
* Seasons 21, 22-23, 24
* Around the Corner (25-29)
* EW (30, 31-32)
* New Format (33; 34-37)
* Word on the Street (38; 39, 40-today)

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing that's recently hit me about various eras is that, when it comes to decades, I prefer the early part of the decade over the later half.

I prefer seasons 1-5 over 6-10, seasons 11-15 over 16-20, and seasons 21-25 over seasons 26-30. But having said that, my preference is the opposite for the 2000s, preferring most of seasons 36-40 over seasons 31-35 (and I feel like the current seasons are great... Will seasons 46-50 not be as good?).

 

[D'Snowth]

I never really thought about that. Alls I know is that as far back as my memory goes, I very much enjoy from about 1984-85 up to 92, as I've mentioned before.

But, starting with Season 30, and up to 38 (I've hardly seen any of 39-44), here's how I'd rank 'em:

Season 30: First half great, second half not too much.
Season 31: Don't remember much, I was starting to fall off the bandwagon by then.
Season 32: Mostly good; was the beginning of my "born again Muppet Freak" phase.
Season 33: Rocky, took a while to adjust, but was also mostly good.
Season 34: Great.
Season 35: Some good episodes, but a mostly meh season.
Season 36: Great.
Season 37: Sucked.
Season 38: Great, and a fun season too with all the experimental episodes.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

Season 30: Great.

Season 31: OK, but not the best.

Season 32: Some episodes are good. Others not so good.

Season 33: One of the better seasons.

Season 34: Another one of the better seasons.

Season 35: Meh season. However, the Furry Red Monster parade is the best episode.

 

[minor muppetz]

I decided to make a similar thread about the Jim Henson Company timeline (and my post took me longer to write than my Sesame Street one): http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/...m-henson-company-timeline.56766/#post-1092635

 

[minor muppetz]

In the past few days when full scene rundowns for the first few episodes were added to Muppet Wiki, I've noticed something that I don't think had been pointed out about the first season: It was common for the show to have a segment with one of the adults reading an existing children's book. As far as I can tell, these readings were only featured in one episode each (there's no evidence that any were repeated, Muppet Wiki doesn't list the same stories in multiple episodes, and the CTW Archives "first season show content" doesn't list these stories among the many insert segments from the first season). And these children books were also "sponsors" in addition to the letters and numbers.

And now that there's a full guide to episode five, it seems like at first in the episodes with end credits, a segment for each letter and number sponsor would follow an announcement of each sponsor. The fifth episode didn't even mention number sponsors (though the numbers 2 and 3 only got one segment each, maybe that episode didn't really have number sponsors). I think there's another first season episode that doesn't announce number sponsors. It seems like the practice of showing segments after each individual sponsor was announced ended by the time of episode 115.

And was it also pointed out how in the first season there would often be segments with the cast observing live animals on the street?