April Fools: Sesame Street to target older audiences directly

minor muppetz

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I was reading on the Sesame Workshop blog that Sesame Workshop plans to stop targeting the show at pre-preschool children and focus more directly at the older audiences -- teens, adults, and fans like us!

Since season 43 was produced at the same time as season 42, it'll still air as planned, all 26 episodes will air in August and then PBS will continue airing reruns of the 2008-2012 episodes for at least four years. But there's also going to be a new Sesame Street series, to air in prime time, twice a week, 30 episodes a season. It'll have new street stories and scenes, and new inserts, but otherwise it'll heavily feature inserts from 1969-1996, with later segments rarely being shown (mainly limited to material with classic characters, parodies, and guest appearances). The show won't be shot in HD, and on the rare occasions when HD segments do get shown, they'll be formatted to fit old TV screens.

Education won't be the primary goal of the new series, which'll be titled "Sesame Street 2.0" (though fans can cal it "season 43.1" if they want). While the show will heavily feature inserts of the past, the newer segments will rarely have any real educational value (except for when The Count appears). Because of this, the show will air many segments that failed at testing, including all four "Man from Alphabet" segments. Shows won't be sponsored by individual numbers and letters, and there'll be no curriculum.

The set will be rebuilt to resemble the set as seen in the early 1990s, though the launromat will still be part of the show. In fact, all of the current humans will remain, but Elmo, Telly, Zoe, Baby Bear, Abby Cadabby, Rosita, and Murray will all be downplayed. They'll all still make appearances, but not as much as in the past decades. The show will focus a lot more on the classic characters, not just Big Bird, Oscar, Bert and Ernie, Grover, The Count, Cookie Monster, Prairie Dawn, and Snuffy, but also old favorites like Biff, Sully, Sherlock Hemlock, Herry, Forgetful Jones, The Amazing Mumford, Hoots, Barkley, and Bruno, who'll be rebuilt because of fan demand (and to show support for the upcoming Caroll Spinney documentary).

The show will include all-new covers of pop culture songs. Little Jerry and the Monotones will perform "Video Killed the Radio Star", Chrissy and the Alphabeats will perform "Big Girl's Don't Cry", and Ernie will sing "Baby, Baby, Baby" to his niece, Ernestine.

The show will not include any long-form series, and like in the old days, a long street plot will be intercut with inserts. But like in the very old days, there will be a handful of episodes with no real plot, just unrelated street scenes and inserts. But some of the plots will include:
  • Alan and Chris learn who Mr. Hooper, David, and Mr. Handford were (though Alan SHOULD know who Mr. Handford was... He bought the store from him, didn't he?)
  • Oscar and Bruno go to the Trash Collectors Ball, where Oscar reunites with his first true hate, and Bruno reunites with his ex fiancee (played by Lady Gaga).
  • The Sesame Street cast participates in "The Sesame Sports Awards", playing many odd sports.
  • Bert and Ernie consider moving to Alaska.
  • Gordon forgets to grade test papers, and is afraid he'll get fired over it.
  • Grover acts as an assistant to Gordon, but he mistakenly thinks Gordon is a shop teacher.
  • While working on a spell to make Forgetful Jones stop forgetting things, The Amazing Mumford accidently casts a spell that makes everybody forget who Snuffy is. And once again, Big Bird is the first to meet Snuffy, and nobody believes him.
  • Bob annoys Leeya with questions about her indian heritage.
  • While struggling to come up with a new pageant, Prairie Dawn immitates Don Music and gets amnesia.
  • The Snuffleupagus parents decide to get a divorce. Snuffy goes to talk to Luis and Maria about it, but after overhearing them disagreeing on something, mistakenly thinks they are getting a divorce as well.

I guess you've figured out by now, but just in case, APRIL FOOLS!!!
 

minor muppetz

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A few ideas I think are funny (but some of which maybe would have pushed the joke too far) that I thought up AFTER posting this thread:
  • An episode where Gordon beats Susan at a game of checkers, and uncharacteristically boasts about it to his buddies. Then Susan falls and hits her face on the ground. Leeya sees her bruised face, and then overhears Gordon boasting about "beating his wife", and misunderstandings ensue!
  • Gabby agrees to tutor Alan's niece (Miranda Crossgrove), but then regrets it when she learns that his niece is a loser.
  • In the spirit of April Fools Day, I should have said that Rick Astley would make a guest appearance, teaching Grover how to roll a rick. And on that note, should have said that Cookie Monster would sing a cover of "Never Gonna Give You Up" to his cookies.
  • This next idea, I did think about, before posting, but forgot to mention it here. I was going to mention a ficticious episode where Cookie Monster gave up cookies and switched to candy canes, only to get stomach pains from it.

I feel some of these ficticious episodes would make for good fan fics (not sure if I'd write them as stories or as ficticious outlines).

One thing I was going to say, but forgot, was that some of the street stories would NOT feature any Muppets. How's that for a new Sesame Street aimed at older audiences?

Although they put an "April Fools" in the title, I don't care. I feel this idea might be more foolish than usual, and I feel like the "April Fools" thing does make the anticipation a bit funny.
 

beakerboy12

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Great joke, but I really do think it would be an idea for a fanfic.
 

minor muppetz

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Just for fun, here's an ideal outline I would do for one of the episodes with no street story:
  • Street Scene 1
  • A Little Bit at the Beginning
  • Gloria's Alphabet
  • New Grover Sketch
  • Mad Painter #7
  • Street Scene 2
  • New Animation
  • Happy and Sad with Kermit and Elmo
  • Henson #1
  • Monsterpiece Theater: Chariots of Fur
  • Street Scene 3
  • New Bert and Ernie Sketch
  • New Film
  • Beat the Time: The Count
  • New Animation
  • We Coulda
  • Unaired Segment
  • Street Scene 4
  • The Leslie Mostly Show: The Count
  • New Sherlock Hemlock Segment
  • Danny DeVito waits at the bus stop with Oscar and Bruno
  • Sand Animation: L
  • La, La, La
  • Spider-Monster: The Musical
  • Street Scene 5
 

minor muppetz

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You know, I almost considered NOT doing an april fools post this year, but then this idea suddenly hit me. Though I did think of ideas for two other April Fools threads which I had forgotten about. Thought of one where I was going to say that Disney was going to release a three-disc set of Muppet music (I feel I've thought about this kind of april fools joke a few times in the past, can't exactly remember if I ever actually did such a post), and a new album called "Muppets Sing the Beatles".
 

Dominicboo1

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Ernie singing Baby Baby Baby ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! He's so above that Bieber boy. So glad this is a joke.
 

Daffyfan4ever

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I'm glad we updated this thread, because I don't think I've seen minor muppetz post last year. If I did I forgot. (Imitates Frogetful) Uh hee. That would be interesting to have that really happen. I don't think that would be too much of a stretch if they kept it G-rated and made it more like a family sitcom. I'll have to check out your story when I get a chance. Your ideas sound really good. It would be nice if they could bring back some old characters and maybe find some new people to perform them since we no longer have Jim, Richard, Jerry or even Kevin now. You really should e-mail your ideas to Sesame workshop.
 
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