Major Changes in store for Sesame Street Season 46

[Drtooth]

I guess it's just "not what I'm used to" and I was never good with massive change in general, so maybe just seeing the street I remember over the years look almost completely different just bums me out. I would maybe also appreciate the updates more if I was watching daily with kids (which I don't have).

Some changes are more subtle when you watch them play out. I'll agree some of these are a little sudden. Like "Around the Corner" sudden. There were hints of a garden there for the last few seasons, though. Looks like it expanded a little more.

But as I said, while it is important to talk about physical changes, I still wonder what any format changes will be. Seems that everything that's a major change to the format usually gets changed back, then changed again. Nothing has been permanent as of late.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Thread bump. According to Alan Muroka's Facebook page, it's fair to assume that Jennifer Barnhart will be taking over Zoe!

 

[Drtooth]

Great to hear. Or read, rather.

Abby should not have to shoulder the female lead character focus on this show. I like Abby fine, though they seem to be turning her into a Stepford smiler lately. it's just that (and I've said this enough times) Abby and Elmo are an inorganic pairing, whereas Zoe and Elmo bring out the best of each other. It's no secret that a lot of the hate Elmo got is due to him just being there for marketing purposes. But I always felt that Zoe got Elmo to emote to say the least. Glad to see Zoe's still on board.

 

[DTF]

Interesting to read about the changes, I've been too busy to even read any of the info on here about any episodes after a peak at the first few bits on this site, given my online books and such. Which is just as well, so much is online if I want to see it, and the way things went I don't know if I'll even be adopting with the way the economy is - but DrTooth mentioned his birthday so I'll just include this for my faith & how I've dealt with it if anyone's interested.

Anyway, there was such a major change from the '70s to the '90s/early '00s, when i'd see it with my nieces and nephews, but I think it only seemed much less stale in my younger days because they didn't have reruns. I wonder how much of a change there can really be if they continue to only show 26 episodes and not show any clips from before a certain date? And, isn't the technology available to recreate the older clips *as* HD now, anyway? I mean, they can remaster old black and white films as color, redub music from long ago to sound like it's new, if they can take all the problems out of things like that, can't they do the video, too?

So, I hope for many peoples' sake that's one major change. The kids would love many of those old segments. (Being legally blind, i wouldn't know the difference much.)

Big Bird's doors, I wonder if kids will notice the need for privacy is gone. A shower curtain would be good, but I know at the age they're targeting, they don't really think about such nuances as social cues that much. Besides, do we know for sure he doesn't have a sliding door, sort of like the turbolift on Star Trek, where it just goes into the Enterprise's wall when it opens? Sure, kind of tricky for a tree, but possible in a world where talking numbers and letters waltz in at various times.

That's the kind of space age thing I'd expect, and I'd also think it's nice they've updated the street's look. Now they could use a bit more technology. Granted, Abby's always had her wand phone, so SS was ahead of the curve when it came to little kids having cell phones to play with at such an early age. But, I think Luis' Fix-It shop should come back but as a technology repair place. Luis could have taken online courses and learned how to repair cell phones, computers, etc. and also how to fix higns that have viruses and stuff like that.

AFFS was great at first but did get old very quickly. Murray, too - although his interaction with humans was great.

 

[Drtooth]

Tech repair does sound like a good concept, though most of those who can afford the latest whatever when it comes out are prone to throwing stuff away anyway. It's a bike shop now, which makes sense considering the healthy life style portions of the show.

Other than that, it seems they're trying to remake older segments with mixed results. Strangely this is almost exclusively on Bud Luckey cartoons. Ten Tiny Turtles got a claymation remake, Number 9 Cutie got a...well... puzzling puppet makeover (of which the puppet looks much uglier and bordering on Nightmare Fuel). I remember a while back they redid old Ernie songs with the current puppet, but with the original recordings. I don't see why we don't have more of that. There was that contest run Pinball Number Count remake, that's it.

 

[Oscarfan]

I'll say it again, there's no reason to play classic clips if the only reason is so that they play classic clips. Never in the series have they stopped making any new material, resting their laurels on their huge archive. Newer material replaces the older stuff, it's how it works. Even with their current habit of repeating newer stuff multiple times a season, I'd much rather see some other HD bits that haven't gotten much play than something older. There's stuff from the first HD season that hasn't been replayed since. And more character-based Muppet bits would be great, like that Estimation Vacation skit. I would have never seen that coming and I'm glad they did it. They just need to do more of those types of things.

A lot of the material is timeless, yes, but it's all online anyway. Why complain about it not being on the show when it's right at your fingertips?

 

[Drtooth]

I'll admit I'm actually kinda mixed on the subject, but pretty much agree right there. Kids pretty much wouldn't care about the classic skits because they don't know of them unless they're shown them. On the other hand, I don't think some skits would be as jarring as SW believes they would be to little kids (though some would be extremely jarring and baffling in certain aspects). I do not think SW needs to put any older skits on the show, as they have plenty of new footage, despite multiple reuses.

However, I think they should be in the market of remaking/updating staple skits. Wasn't there a new version of "I Love Trash" every few years at one point? I'm all in favor of updated remakes of classic songs like "C is for Cookie," and maybe the occasional updated version of an older skit. And especially reused street stories. Not so much the stock file plotlines of guessing game/game shows or celebration of letter and or number that they reuse once a season, but older street story plotlines. Kinda like what they did with the Cookie Flu being recycled from the Counting Flu.

Seems like they do have plenty of ideas for the show, but there's always room for redoing "ABCDEFGHI" and things like that every so often. Not that they haven't done that before.

 

[SpinneyBigBird1]

I don't think I'm allowed to divulge details, but I visited the set last week and learned there will be a little bit of a shake-up in the human cast as well for season 46. But, I also got my hands on a few scripts and the episodes seem pretty great.

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't think I'm allowed to divulge details, but I visited the set last week and learned there will be a little bit of a shake-up in the human cast as well for season 46.

I kind of get a sense that most of us have pretty much made that conclusion already, just based on some of the Muppets' new residences.

 

[SpinneyBigBird1]

I kind of get a sense that most of us have pretty much made that conclusion already, just based on some of the Muppets' new residences.

I mean, the shake-up that I heard about didn't really correlate with the new residences. It kind of took me by surprise when I heard. There could be more changes regarding the new residences, but I hadn't heard anything.