Elmo's World-free episodes don't go over

[Drtooth]

That would actually be great. Just make the street sements a little shorter, and you can have that sort of climate with EW untouched. I suggest they try a mix of that next and see how that goes over.

 

[wiley207]

I say they should do episodes with the three-to-four-part street story like those two episodes, but include Elmo's World anyway. That can make us fans happy. OR... if there is an Elmo-heavy episode, then don't do Elmo's World. If there is an episode without Elmo in the street scenes or in any other segments, THEN show "Elmo's World." It's a good compromise. Too bad they had to do it the opposite of what I said.

 

[frogboy4]

Middle Ground?

Do you think there would be any way for Sesame Workshop to make the Elmo's World segments shorter or better integrate them into the show? That and make him a little less "me" centered and annoying? I do understand why kids like Elmo and his (center of the universe) nature. But kids like candy and sweets too! Just a little bit of that goes a long way.

I feel too much Elmo could instill too much narcissism in kids and make for emotionally unhealthy adults. I know it seems a bit much or that I'm joking, but I'm totally serious!

 

[Drtooth]

Do you think there would be any way for Sesame Workshop to make the Elmo's World segments shorter or better integrate them into the show? That and make him a little less "me" centered and annoying?

I dunno. Do you think NBC can get rid of SNL's "digital shorts" or just get Andy Samberg to be on the show less, and give it to more deserving actors like Kenan Thompson? Just kiddin' verne!

I have said multiple times, you can take Elmo's world and make it shorter. And here are some ways to do that:

1. A couple seconds can be cut from the intro- The "Welcome to Elmo's World! Elmo's so Happy to see you" is redundant to the show. It can be shortened to "HEY! Welcome back! Elmo and Dorothy were just thinking about ...Yatta da Dah!...______"
2. Shorten Mr. Noodle's antics to one or 2 shorter "he's doing the wrong thing" gags. Comedy three works in a writing sense, but I feel that it's way too much time.
3. When the "How do you do___________" segment pops up, use one kid and one baby. Or cut out the segment entirely.
4. The "what does and what doesn't" segment is also pretty long. limit it to one good example, one bad example and one Muppet example.
5. Cut the capering of the computer down (or out completely). The E-mail portion is great, since it is the only window to other Muppets.
6. the "let's count how many" segment is unneeded. Cut
7. Make the inserted "Here's Elmo's friend _________ to tell you about it" film a half minute or more shorter.
8. Shorten the "want to talk to a _________?" down to one or two puns.
9. Shorten Tickle me land to one or two examples.
10. find a way to phase out the "__________ Song." Or at least limit it to one chorus. There's no need for it. It's just there for no reason. It may have seemed like a good joke before, but it's been played.

So, by shortening a few things, you could drop the segment down to about 10 minutes or less.

 

[Ilikemuppets]

Wow! it's really clear you've really thought this thing through.

 

[wiley207]

I seem to prefer the 2002-present "Elmo's World" segments, and besides, I'm used to seeing it as part of the show now, at least on 2000s-era episodes. But I do think that the new eMail segments are better than the old "made a video with THIS camera" segments. In those ones, Elmo seemed like he was using the camera as a projector to project the image onto the TV screen, because he didn't hook it up to the TV or take out the videocassette and put it in a VCR or whatever. And the "Jingle bells" parody isn't as bad anymore, IMO. But I loved it when Elmo sang the "Violin Song" while playing it on a violin instead of the xylo-piano! And halfway into the song usually, the piano begins to play by itself!

Another easy way to tell if an "Elmo's World" is a rerun besides the camera bit is if it has the older version of the Lecture Lady (the 1998-1999 skits, because the current version debuted in 2000), and if Mr. Noodle's late brother Mr. Noodle is in it. New ones have the original Mr. Noodle or one of the female Noodles.

 

[D'Snowth]

I, myself, actually prefer the older "Elmo's World" segments (1998-2002 or so), mainly because that was back in the days when "Elmo's World" was tolerable... after that, "Elmo's World" became a bit too much for everybody, so...

 

[Ilikemuppets]

I think their getting better personally!

 

[Drtooth]

I will agree. There are some things I liked in older EW segments and stuff I love in the newer episodes. I LOVED the Fred Newman appearance in "mouth," but I also loved the "Charlie's Restaurant" bit in "food"

I think the best part of the show (and the only salvageable thing) is the "__________ Channel." Just for Andrea Martin. Just for her. The cartoons have a nice little Fractured Fairytale quality to them. I can't deny that. But seeing Andrea reprise some of her SCTV characters in animated form is amazing. What is the name of that woman she plays that has the cats eye glasses, and they yellow/black polkadot suit and hat? That was great.

 

[mjb1124]

I think the reason why the EW-free episodes didn't go over well is simply because kids expect to see it. They tune in every day expecting the show to follow a certain pattern. Any major deviation from the show's formula will be met with resistance. I say they keep gradually cutting it back, and soon enough, the viewing audience will not expect to see EW every day.

Maybe they could help to smooth the transition by still giving Elmo a strong presence in the last 15 minutes of the EW-free episodes. They could also show a bumper saying "Elmo's World will not be seen today", just like they did on 3-2-1 Contact episodes without the Bloodhound Gang