Elmo, Ready for Action! and his Overdominance

[Teheheman]

I dunno, you've seen other characters phased out on SS before. Henry Monster is a good example. But, it seems to be more about those 4 than the others. Although, do you think that it's because of ratings or the people who do the puppeteering for those are retiring because they've been at this for a long time and the newer characters are there to just give those people time to retire(less time on those characters mean less work time) Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my opinion.

Daniel

 

[CensoredAlso]

I would imagine if all the original puppeteers were still active, the other characters might have continued to be more present. I personally like Elmo when he's the younger monster trying to learn from the grown ups. But since a lot of characters were retired, it's like the kids took over the house so to speak.

Of course, that's just the way things happened, no one's fault.

 

[BEAR]

I don't understand why they make television more stupid and simpler for younger kids now.

It isn't just on TV. Check out the new Playhouse Disney Live show at the Disney Parks and you'll see what I mean.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

the Doctor of Teeth has a point. Bet ya kids just don't like him in test screenings, but he is a good supporting character and that puppeteer has been around forever, maybe longer than Kevin

who plays him anyway?

Martin P. Robinson. And I think he has been around for a little bit long the Kevin as far as credited performers go to think? Because I think he did some background and extra's on set stuff before he was officially a performer on the show.

which actually brings me to the next item. How the shell is Telly still underrepresented in merchandising? Elmo may be in every episode, but Telly's in most of, if not every other episode. But other than a mention in Family Guy, you never hear much about him. Even Baby Bear gets a little representation from time to time.

Yeah! It's funny becuse Telly is not even in the pening credits at this point. But leave it to old family guy to refrence him.

 

[Drtooth]

They have(referring to Ernie and Big Bird)? Lately it's been the Elmo, Oscar, Abby, and Cookie Monster show.

marketting wise, the merchandise has been focusing on the characters I listed. In fact, Ernie was along side Elmo (after sing and snore Ernie) for quite some time. Cookie came up a year later, and then we finally got some Big Bird and (just recently) Oscar stuff. There was a 4 piece Easter plush set featuring Elmo, Ernie, Cookie, and Oscar. Oscar I just couldn't see coming. (all the while, a set of sepperate plushes made for Easter featured the same characters, except Big Bird instead of Oscar).

I'm surprised Grover didn't have his own line of Merchandise a couple years back. Sure, he was the Macy's Plush, and he had a video and CD based on the video, but nothing much else.

 

[Krazedmuppet]

Right, when I was talking about diversity, I meant that the show needed to include all the different sort of characters, not just Elmo.

And I get the impression there are a lot of child experts nowadays saying we must avoid "confusing" children too much. That adults must always make things extra easy for kids and not challenge them. It's not helpful in the long run and we will pay for it down the line.

Children are not as simple as some people think they are. And if they do have questions, that's what parents and teachers are for. And to raise them without challenges means they will be unprepared for life. Jamie Lee Curtis recently talked about how she helped advertise toys for awhile and there was this one toy she remembered where it looks like you're winning, but at the last second, your tower may crash and you lose. Apparently, parents were so sick of their kids' tantrums when they lost, that the company changed the game! Parents may have avoided the tantrums, but they also avoided teaching their kids how to live a full life.

Well look at American Idol, all those people who honesty think they can sing, lots of people in their lifes told them they could just to avoid hurting their feelings, and where did that get them? Humiliated on national television. Its ok to loose, you cant always win, in fact you'll loose more than you win them in life. An important lesson. Along with “lifes not fair, and it never was and it never will be”

 

[Drtooth]

I don't understand why they make television more stupid and simpler for younger kids now.

2 reasons. Some of the child experts are the same kind of people that say that everyone should get a trophy, no matter how terrible they are at something. You know, so they don't feel left out. While it does sound like good intentions, it basically evolves into a kid's sense of entitlement. This is reflected in the constant reassuring the audience that they're "Geniuses" for pointing out obvious stuff like where the green ball is.

Reason 2- The very same shows that started that crap (Dora and Blue) are successful for lord knows what reason. And when something's successful, what happens, class? We get flooded with like minded garbage ridden inferior knock offs.

I give credit to shows like Cureous George and Word World. At least they're still trying to be a show, instead of being interactive. How interactive can watching television be?

 

[dabauckham]

I just don't think it's teaching a great lesson. If you're a kid who doesn't happen to like Elmo (yes they do exist lol), you're not going to get as much out of the show at this point.

You know, even kids in first grade these days don't think Sesame Street is cool. Kids are actually getting older younger, and the problem with Sesame Street going younger and overusing Elmo and the like is that they are losing their audience. They're squeezing it out this way.

The other odd thing with a lot of the "dumbing down" in TV shows/theme parks/kid's entertainment is that it's a weird juxtaposition with the school system's increasingly high expectations. Being a teacher, I can say firsthand that expectations for students have skyrocketed over the last several years. So, here we have Kindergartners who are expected to write constructed responses to test questions, and meanwhile they're being shown babyish material on TV? In my opinion, neither approach is correct. What happened to a happy medium between the two?

 

[Drtooth]

You know, even kids in first grade these days don't think Sesame Street is cool. Kids are actually getting older younger, and the problem with Sesame Street going younger and overusing Elmo and the like is that they are losing their audience. They're squeezing it out this way.

And didn't SS at one point boast an audience of 4-7 year olds. Maybe the odd 3 year old or something. Kids ARE growing up too fast, and I really think that kid's television is suffering that. Stuff like Hanna Montana and Zach and Cody are cool because they are live action, and not cartoons. Older kids don't want to watch any cartoons that aren't on Adult Swim or comedy central anymore. And judging by the cartoons we're getting now, it's no wonder.

If you miss your childhood, you run the risk of growing up without magic, greedy and self absorbed.

 

[SesameStMuppets]

Elmo on the other hand is part of a very diverse and interresting cast. Take away characters that have been retired, or just don't have a suitible recast, you still have Bert, Ernie, Grover, Cookie, Bird, Snuffy, Oscar, the list goes on and on. Now I give credit to the merchandise. They have started to focus more on Ernie, Bird, Cookie, Abby, and Oscar. But still, the balance is still skewed. Until you get to the stuff driven to collectors and older fans. Elmo does have adult sized mens T's, but its more common to see Bert and Ernie, or the Ensamble cast. or Oscar. (Still kinda depressed they never made an adult Telly Shirt).....

I don't disagree... But does anybody else have a problem with the fact that Abby was pretty much invented for the point of merchandizing? I thinks its a good thing to develop a character who's a role model, don't get me wrong. However, I'm a bit offended as a long time fan that Sesame (Street or Workshop, I'm not totally sure) would stoop so low to create a character whose primary objectives is to compete with another children's television show and sell some stuffed animals. The show was to celebrate learning, sot side-check another program to boost ratings...