Lack of Jim Henson Clips on SST Lately

[minor muppetz]

One thought I had on that was maybe they feel that people already can see those clips on You Tube or the Sesame Workshop website, so I guess they figure 'why bother?' I guess it does get costly to play old clips especially with PBS cutting the funding these days.

But fans can also see many recent clips on those sites as well.

 

[Muppet Frog]

E thought is that they didn't show clips with Jim's Ernie that much is that SW doesn't want the little kids to be confused on why Ernie has both different voices.

 

[Super Scooter]

E thought is that they didn't show clips with Jim's Ernie that much is that SW doesn't want the little kids to be confused on why Ernie has both different voices.

I guess I was six or seven when Steve first took over Ernie, but I always understood the "new voice" thing. I new Jim was gone when I was a kid, but that Kermit was not. And remember, there was about 15 years of Sesame Street where kids were not confused. Honestly, to suggest that they would be confused seems to underestimate the power of the character and also the intelligence of the child. And if they do happen to be confused, there's really no reason a child can't ask his parent and expect an honest, but well thought out, answer.

 

[D'Snowth]

That's true, y'know?

In all honesty, I don't believe I ever detected any radical differences in a character's voice one day, then another as a really young child, but I did understand as I got older (about the same age that Super Scooter pointed out) that if there's a difference in a character's voice, it meant someone else was playing him... and I believe the biggest example of this for me as a kid would be hearing Jerry Nelson's Crazy Harry in TMM, and hearing John Lovelady's Crazy "Donald" in The Muppets' Valentine Special.

 

[Drtooth]

Cartoon characters have different voice actors all the time... especially the Looney Tunes (the most inconstant cartoon of the lot, based on whoever's available) so I don't think Ernie sounding different is too much of an issue. I wonder if deep down they just retire older clips so they don't get stale. If that's the case, retire all the kids painting the mural clips. Really... they're ALL probably in college by now.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

E thought is that they didn't show clips with Jim's Ernie that much is that SW doesn't want the little kids to be confused on why Ernie has both different voices.

I wonder about that. It seems like that's never stopped them before. But they used to do a lot of different things before than they did now. Personally, I think that would be a dumb reason not to play clips with Henson's Ernie, because the voices are close enough for kids who watch not to noticed a big difference. Not using the Brian Muehl Telly anymore is a little more understandable because there's more of a difference in the two voices. It's a good theory though, but I still think my theory about not wanting to spend money to play older clips may still hold true. Maybe it's a bit of both reasons... I don't know.

 

[D'Snowth]

Not using the Brian Muehl Telly anymore is a little more understandable because there's more of a difference in the two voices.

Yeah, I just recently saw an undubbed version of Big Bird in China, and there's a big difference, but I could tell that even before hand, thanks to taping an Unpaved episode, and seeing the Camp Echo Rock eps on YouTube last year.

It'd be the same case as not using his or Richard's Elmo anymore... now THAT would be even MORE understandable.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I know what you mean there, because I just saw the Echo Rock eps the other day and there was a scene with Brian's Telly. In fact, I heard that Telly in quite a bit of material. You can definitely tell there's a difference, but I really don't think there's that much of a case with Jim's and Steve's Ernie. I mean sure hardcore Muppet fans like us know the difference, but I don't think it's something that would bother a little kid.

 

[minor muppetz]

You know, for years I wondered if the reason why Kermit had very little dialogue in the linking footage from The Best of Kermit on Sesame Street was due to the pressence of so many Jim as Kermit clips while Steve was performing Kermit... Not to confuse kids watching the same thing.... But then I did find it odd that when Journey to Ernie debuted that they often had Jima s Ernie sketches following the segment.

In my opinion it's unnacceptable that none of Jim Henson's segments were shown this year (and hardly any last year). Of course when I heard that the show was going to switch to HD I wondered if they'd retire non-HD segments, but then it seems like there have been a handful of non-HD segments since then.

I don't care if Sesame Workshop's main focus is catering to the needs of today's kids... Jim Henson was one of the most important people invovled with the show, and his work needs to be represented on the show more than little kids need to learn!

It's especially ironic that the first season to not include any Jim Henson segments at all was season 40, the big anniversary year (and no, I don't count his picture in the background as an appearance).

 

[Muppet Frog]

Actually the only Henson clip on season 39 was the Ernie & Aaron Neville version of I Don't Want to Live on the Moon with Jim's recording and three clips of the original version.