Am I the only one who didn't like the Calypso Theme Song?

[D'Snowth]

I have to admit, the Calypso opening managed to warm up a few hearts over the years. I liked the visuals and the huge concentration of Muppet characters, and I like how that tradition held on since.

I agree that the addition of Muppet character in the opening titles was something that was needed. I get that prior to ATC, the opening titles always utilized footage of kids throughout NYC boroughs and such to give the feeling that Sesame Street is near any inner city street, or even near your own home (titles that had more suburban shots), but actually including Muppets in the opening (aside from just Big Bird) helped a great deal.

 

[CensoredAlso]

the opening titles always utilized footage of kids throughout NYC boroughs and such to give the feeling that Sesame Street is near any inner city street, or even near your own home

Have to say I prefer that (no surprise, lol). As a kid, I enjoyed it when Sesame Street showed me real places I had never been before. With real people just being normal, rather than "acting" for the camera. It gave the show a grounded vibe. The Calypso theme made the show feel more like a cartoony fantasy that only existed in your TV.

Now, it's not the presence of the Muppets that bother me. Again, it's the overly rehearsed and acted vibe of the Calypso theme overall. It's just all too obvious they're competing with Barney, etc.

 

[D'Snowth]

Drtooth and I have both mentioned that the show in general has been a little too fantastic in recent years overall. Abby is one thing, but the excessive use of spastic fairy tale characters and sentient fruits/veggies/food/other items, etc. Less Muppet representations of the kind of people you may actually find living or commuting around the street.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Drtooth and I have both mentioned that the show in general has been a little too fantastic in recent years overall. Abby is one thing, but the excessive use of spastic fairy tale characters and sentient fruits/veggies/food/other items, etc. Less Muppet representations of the kind of people you may actually find living or commuting around the street.

And at this point, Barney ain't the power house he used to be. What shows is Sesame Street competing against at this point, that they think they still need to go all fantastical? Not saying there aren't any, I'm just curious.

 

[Drtooth]

Barney's completely dead now.

But trust me when I say this. There are crap tons of preschool programming. Like an excessive number of them, and it's mostly Nick Jr. I am NOT kidding. A new show gets announced almost every week. In the last month they announced a show about Genies, a show about Dogs (not Paw Patrol, a show with actual dogs), and turning some kiddy band they made up into spies.

The Barney movement was one thing. Nick Jr. just started doing original programming back then. They were sort of popular I think, at least until Blue's Clues came and blew the roof off and then everything had to copy that model (leading to Dora, of course). But what did Barney bring with him? A bunch of lame imitators like Bloopy? Nick Jr. essentially made it so we have entire networks devoted to preschool programming!!! That's some hard competition. Add to various internet sites and well... yeah. And they're all fantasy based. All cartoons about talking animals and fish and stuff with no grounding in reality. Not that there aren't ones that are good. Disney's line up is surprising ever since they stopped copying Nick Jr. They learned their lesson from Mickey's Clubhouse. But you got, like, Doc MacStuffins being the closest thing to reality, and even then she talks to toys. I haven't seen enough of it to really tell if it's all in her imagination like a Winnie the Pooh deal or if they really are alive in a Toy Story, but we can tell humans sort of way. Sesame Street had that grounding in reality when there were shows like Mr. Rogers and stuff.

Then again, the fantasy thing came from the 90's and seems to have been grandfathered in, even when they tried to move a little beyond that. I still don't get why fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters have such a hold on plots when they have perfectly good Muppets they aren't playing with. I've had that rant several other places, and essentially it's that they feel it's easier to drive a point across (like a railroad spike) using old fairy tale standbys instead of coming up with new stories. I can agree there's an easy association for kids, but they go so incredibly overboard with characters like that. And in the 70's up until very early 90's the fairy tale stuff usually kept to itself in skits like Sesame Street Newsflash. Then the whole 1993 shake up happened and they became a regular occurrence on the street. Still are.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I can't say I will ever understand how some of these shows become popular. And there's no "it's for kids" excuse. All kids aren't alike. I can't see myself liking most of this stuff even as a child. Of course, that's a whole big discussion, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

Preschool programming to the contrary is becoming much better. The Dora mode has died off (except Nick pretty much enforced it because they came up with it), and we have some great stuff on Disney Junior. Even PBS has some new good ones like Peg + Cat. The trend of low quality merchandise driven edutainment has broken. It's still merchandise driven to an extent, but there's better writing, voice acting, and animation overall. Still am clusterfrogged about how 7D wound up as an XD show. Totally should have been on DJ instead.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

I can't stand the current theme song that Sesame Street has right now.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

I can't stand the current theme song that Sesame Street has right now.

We ALL hate it- we've expressed this many times. Just hang in there, a new one will be making its way for next season.

 

[Drtooth]

I've no major problem at all with the current Sesame Street theme (other than the embarrassing use of that Zoe puppet). A little "We're Still Relevant?" Sure. But considering the show embraced Disco the second Saturday Night Fever became a hit, I'll give that a pass. I'd say, if anything, given the urban street setting of Sesame, a hip hop take on the theme makes a LOT more sense than random Calypso music. Quite honestly, this arrangement sounds a whole lot better as an instrumental. Not that the vocals are bad, mind you, but some songs just sound better as lyric-less tunes.

While I can't say I hate the Calypso theme at all and love the Muppet characters popping up, I agree that it did pretty much encapsulate the semi-removal from reality the show had in the 90's. The show's a little more grounded now (fairy tale characters aside). Plus... let's face it. They didn't exactly have a large amount of Jamaican/Caribbean people on the street, so it does come off as illogical. And no, Caribbean Amphibian and The Air that Blows in the Caribbea don't count.