I caught the show today...

[JLG]

When I see it now I'm always struck by how alien it feels. I don't catch it often these days---once a month or so--- so when I just saw it again, the new changes jump out even more than they would.

I know this subject comes up a lot around here, but today it seemed to me to become more acute. It really is a completely different television show, just with the same title. It's hard to put it into words, exactly. The best word I can use is "voice". The show speaks in a totally different voice.
It really strikes me because Sesame Street was always one of the most weirdly unchanging things in a quick-turnover culture. It really didn't change much at all in 30 years. (There was death, taxes, and Sesame Street .) A kid watching in '72, '82, and '92 would all pretty much be watching the same show.

Even when they started altering the format and watering everything down in recent years, it still felt like Sesame Street to me, just slightly altered. But suddenly now, when I look at it, I hardly recognize it. The newer content is coming from some other planet than the old. Even the Street scenes feel different, despite the familiar presences of Telly, Elmo, and occasionally Maria or someone else. Even though today's episode had a few 90's clips in it, they didn't offset the dominance of the new sensibility.

It's amazing to me because what we call "Sesame Street" was actually hundreds of different voices---i.e. filmakers, animators, puppeteers, etc.---contributing to a single product, and somehow all those voices meshed into one. If I may grossly generalize, it was coming from a certain place, a certain collective sensibility. Now that most of that material has been dropped and the old contributors have either departed or altered their agenda, the end result is a new animal that neither looks nor feels like the older one. It's a calculative effect---the graphics, the music, the writing, the cirricular goals, even the cultural/political context all play a part. And it's all happened so fast, too! *It's changed more in the past eight years than it did in the previous 29 combined.* (Guess it's like people who look young for their age until it suddenly catches up with them fast.)

Sorry if I'm speaking in abstractions , but it's hard to find the right words for this. I guess it's something that has to be experienced, and I'm sure you guys all have.
Change is inevitable, of course, but when it happens to something that was so the same for so many years, it's a shock.

So the world turns, then.....

 

[Big Bird Fan]

This should be in the Sesame Street section and not the Classic Sesame Street section.

Back to the topic, I know what you mean. The changes are a bit jarring at first, but there have been some glimmers of what SS used to be like in season 37. So while it has changed, there is still a little something left of what it used to be. At least most of the regular humans are still around, as well as Caroll Spinney. As long as they're around Sesame Street will never be completely alien to me.

Just out of curiosity, which episode did you see?

 

[JLG]

I saw the one where Telly, Elmo, and Baby Bear are trying build a lemonade-pouring machine for Miles.

Big plus: it featured the "That's The Story of Bert's Blanket" skit that I haven't happened to see in over a decade. That was worth admission right there.


I did consider about posting in the Sesame Street section, but I thought it fit better here since it's coming from the perspective of someone who liked the older show better. Don't want to sour the fun over there, don'cha know.