How did Elmo become so popular?

[rexcrk]

Hey guys, I was wondering how Elmo became so popular. I mean, he's all right but there's much better characters I remember from my childhood (Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, Grover). They made all kinds of Elmo stuff like the infamous Tickle Me Elmo ( ) lol, and today I noticed they had "Elmo" fruit snacks at the grocery store (but it also had Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie Monster, and Zoe).

 

[guysmiley4ever]

Wow, I think may know the answer to this one!
Hmmm, I've asked this question before and got the same answers.
Rosie O'Donell really liked Elmo and when she showed the Tickle me Elmo on her show, the world went Elmo happy.
I thought I remember seeing Elmo on Sesame street in the mid-late 80s, he would just be hanging with the other monsters not saying much.
After Henson left us, I believe that the crew wanted something big so they started making other characters more 'visable' and Elmo just went thru the roof!
I thought he was quite dreadful at first, but my son fell in love with him. Guess he liked the squeaky voice, laugh, and bright red color. So I'm able to tolerate him now, but I still love my other muppets.
Not sure if I explained this well, but I tried...

Hey guys, I was wondering how Elmo became so popular. I mean, he's all right but there's much better characters I remember from my childhood (Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, Grover). They made all kinds of Elmo stuff like the infamous Tickle Me Elmo ( ) lol, and today I noticed they had "Elmo" fruit snacks at the grocery store (but it also had Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie Monster, and Zoe).

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I think Elmo is so successful because - like Barney - he relates to three year olds on their level. He's the type of character children that age would want to play with. I mean let's face it, we all love Burt but he's not nearly as much fun if you're three.

 

[FurryBlueCutie]

Ugh...I hate that. It drives me crazy how is used to be pretty much equal, and now it is all Elmo. I can't stand the little red rat. Wow, sorry...I got a little carried away. Anyways...I don't think anyone deserves to take up half the show. (Well...I'll admit that I would be estatic (sp.) if Grover took up half the show ) But, it would be much better if each monster had an equal amount of time in the spotlight. I sure hope to see less Elmo and more of everyone else.

 

[ssetta]

Sadly, I don't think that will happen. They have done research saying that kids don't like those old characters anymore, because they're too old-fashioned, especially Bert. I think they like Ernie, since he has his own part now too, and kids still like Big Bird. Now, I have been told that Global Grover does well. And a lot of those films are pretty old. But Cookie's Letter of the Day, I don't think that's very popular. The Count's number? I don't think so.

Part of it is, the audience of the show is a lot younger than it used to be. When the Tickle Me Elmo came out, the audience of 2-year-olds really increased a lot, so they wanted to do more little kids stuff, and not as much gags and crazy stuff for older kids. See, older kids of today don't really watch Sesame Street, they outgrow it when they're like 4 or 5. I think that age used to be like 7 or 8. Anyway, it's all very complicated.

 

[rexcrk]

My mom pretty much said what you guys said. Elmo kinda relates to the younger audience with his bright red color and high-pitched "cute" voice. Me, I prefer the older cast (Grover, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and The Count). I haven't watched Sesame Street in a long time, and I don't really want to if it's been a bit, um, "dumbed down". Is there any Sesame Street show that features the older stuff?

 

[billyk]

My niece has those "Elmo" fruit snacks at home. Also in there are Oscar (green) and Zoe (orange).

 

[Ryan]

Well, Elmo was (to a certain extent) popular before Tickle. In the late 80's he had his own storylines in some shows. But, true, he did get much more popular in 96-97. I think it's kind of sad that we are losing the old guys, but it's good in a way becuase it's giving SS a lot more exposure.

 

[WiGgY]

I don't think the old characters are being lost totally. Cookie, Grover, Ernie, Big Bird and Count all have segments on each show. And Bert is seen a lot, though not as much. Telly is there too. Oscar seems to be used less, but pretty much all the main characters are there. It would be nice to see Guy Smiley show up once in awhile along with some of the other older characters, but it's not a show for me anyway.

 

[ssetta]

I don't mean to confuse you. When I said that it's all very complicated, I meant that child development has changed a lot within the last 30 years. For instance, a 7-year-old today is equivalent to a 10-year-old 30 years ago. So part of the reason why the audience has gotten so much younger. Kids are watching TV at a much younger age than they used to. And the reason why they just have a few long segments rather than 40 short ones is because the kids of today are smart enough to pick up the remote and change the channel. And eventually, they would come back to it, and they wouldn't know what the story was. And kids of today don't really need to learn their letters and numbers, because they already know that stuff.

I don't mean to upset you, but the digital cable channel called Noggin (I don't know if you've heard of it) used to air old reruns of Sesame Street from the 70s and 80s during the wee hours, and called it "Sesame Street Unpaved." It was just cancelled a few months ago, and I was more upset than ever. They also used to have episodes from the 1993-94 season during the day as part of the preschool shows. But both of them have been cancelled.