Get up... it's time to play!

[Drtooth]

I don't care for it, but I'll take it any episode over Journey to Ernie. On the Get Up Play stuff they're not using Muppet characters and dumbing them down, which is what JTE did. JTE also took up a lot more time than these Get Up Play pieces are taking.

I could both agree and argue with that. I didn't think JTE dumbed the characters down way too much. The first season of JTE was atrocious, but I think they made progress. Journey to Big Bird and Journey to Bert were both the biggest highlights, not to mention the B museum with Bob. And I thought the Fairy Tale based one was great (for what it was).

But the Muppet rant goes on about how... at least performing Muppets is tricky and an aquired skill. Plus, as bad as some of it was, some of it was quite entertaining. I agree it's few virtues included seeing Two head on a regular basis, though.

The fact is, this can all go back to the thread about the constant nagging of nutrition friendly themes... at least the bits that tell kids to get up adn dance, and pretend to walk around like animals. ENough is enough. If you keep telling kids to jump up and dance around 1,000,000,000,000 times in a half hour, the more chances they won't.

The pattern ones are abhorrent and the very idealism of the whole "dumbing down" feeling the classic fans keep complaining about. It's slow, cheaply done, and not very interresting. I feel this segment could benifit from using older footage based on the same ideas. In stead of the Girraffe/Elephant pattern, they could use the old "Roof, Ribbit, Roof, Ribbit" Something's missing segment instead. It's a shell of a lot less down talk.

JTE's main sin was that it came out of the competitiveness with Nick Jr.'s frankly awful shows. Little Bill is all right, but hardly Fat Albert... nor does it have to be. Blue's Clues and Dora the Explora are what made kids dumb in the first place, and everyone praises them like sheep. JTE was made as a combination of those two (the interactive problem solving ideal, anyway), and I feel that it's much better a product... you think JTE is long... imagine if everyone YELLED REAL SLOW FOR A HALF AN HOUR!

I agree it takes less time, but that still is time (and money) better spent using much better skits.