I love Prairie, but she works better as a straight man in a comedy sketch... those Letter of the Day game segments, those times when she was a contestant on Guy Smiley's game shows, even those times when it's only her and a narrator overnarrating things.
Well, even Fran has said that she and the producer agreed that Prairie wouldn't make for a leading-lady Muppet on the show because she's too prissy and Polly Perfect of a character.
Token characters are the worst, but it really isn't the fault of the creators. These groups complain they aren't being represented, but any time they add a character with flaws and problems (stuff that makes a character rich and believable) someone gets antsy pants about it and complains, and shouts sexism or racism.
Well, how often have you and I said the same about Kenan Thompson? Just about the only time they use him in a sketch on SNL is when they need a token black character.
I've been reading a great book called "Cinderella Ate My Daughter!" by Peggy Orenstein about how little girls are being desensitized by society and the media.
I've been saying that for years, and so has everyone else... like all of these studies that suggest the media is constantly trying to sexualize little girls, and even more recent studies suggest that reality TV is bad for young girls (like teenagers and such) because it makes them believe they have to be aggressive and manipulative to be successful in life.
Princeton said:
Anyway, there’s a chapter about how most merchandise and children’s show characters are associated with the color pink in one way or another and Orenstein cited Abby Cadabby as an example. Clearly she’s done her homework because she interviewed Sesame Street’s current executive producer, who said that ever since the show’s inception, they’ve tried to add a new female character every season and for the most part they’ve all been unsuccessful. Lulu “wasn’t pretty enough” and Zoe “never caught on” (I also found out that her tutu was created for that reason, so that answers the question that my “Zoe’s Tutu” thread posed), which Orenstein translates to “neither of them were pink”.
Well, it's been mentioned there's two different reasons Zoe was made orange: 1) to visually compliment Elmo, because her orange fur matched his orange nose (and his red fur matched her red mouth), and 2) she was introduced at the time Barney was dominating kiddie television, so the made her orange so Zoe dolls would stand out on shelves dominated by purple dinosaurs. They even mentioned in Street Gang that someone said, "Too bad she couldn't be pink".
Lulu didn't capture the attention of the kids watching, but bad timing also stifled the character. After all, her puppeteer went off to Broadway for Avenue Q.
I think another problem too was that Lulu wasn't exactly a girly-girl character, as was Elizabeth, Stephanie's other character... remember her? She obsessed over her cat, Little Murray Sparkles.
The problem with most kids shows, including Sesame Street at times, is their sole motivation is to fill a quota (more girl characters, etc.) rather than create a well rounded character.
Exactly... it's like how most network shows nowadays actually are FORCED to include at least ONE ethnic character in the ensemble, and it seems like that's the character who's always the least-expanded upon character, and the most one-dimensional... actually, it's kind of been that way since the early days... like look at
Hogan's Heroes: you had an all-American hero in charge of a Frenchman, an Englander, a black man, and a Native American... guess who was always the "background" one of the group?
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