Major Changes in store for Sesame Street Season 46

[WalterLinz]

Behind the scenes video of the photoshoot posted earlier, where we have a better look at the new Street set:

Awesome! Hooper's looks nice, I see they did remove those construction doors around Big Bird's nest, and I see they had replaced that garage with a little preschool or something!

And I gotta say, Peter Alexander's collection is quite adorable.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm glad to finally get to see more of the overall changes, though I have to say, my initial reaction to seeing the new street included a certain four-lettered word, I'm flabberghasted.

I almost get a sense that now that Victor DiNapoli is gone, they just went hog-wild in redoing the street.

I will admit that the new look of the street I find to be really disorienting to say the least. It looks like it's really gone more urban and gritty in certain areas (Hooper's, for example, while it looks good, looks like it took a beating), while other areas seem more bright and colorful like reminiscent of ATC.

I see they got rid of Elmo's brownstone (huh, where's he gonna live now?) and replaced it with a painted flat of what looks like maybe the Brooklyn Bridge, or maybe a different bridge. I can't even tell what in the world is going on in the Arbor, it's virtually unrecognizable. I can clearly see the community garden is now gone, but I honestly can't tell what's in its place.

I think the one change I'm most upset about is the radical overhaul of Big Bird's nest area, by getting rid of those construction doors which I've always liked, and . . . is that a tree just growing in the middle of the lot?

Again, I'm disoriented right now. Hooper's does look pretty good, interesting to see Oscar's ATC newsstand is back, don't know what the Elmo is going on with the Arbor, and don't particularly care for the overhaul of Big Bird's nest area. I think I need to see a little bit more to get the fuller effect of the new street.

EDIT: I just watched the video again, and had overlooked the new neon sign that Hooper's has. Now that is cool, that is cool, I really like that. I know I wouldn't be able to make an actual glowing neon sign, but I've got to figure out someway to replicate this for my scale model.

EDIT AGAIN: Watched the video again, and after doing a lot of pausing, I noticed something: the interior walls of Gordon and Susan's apartment look more like Elmo lives there now: I see a crayon drawing of Dorothy on the wall along with other child-like decor, and what looks like a small bed. So now where are Gordon and Susan going to live? And since Oscar's can is gone from its original place, where will he dwell now? In that new trashbin inside the dumpster in front of 123?

 

[Oscarfan]

The only thing I'm iffy about is the placement of Oscar's can. But if I see in real life, I'll make better judgement on it. (Hopefully, I'll be able to get my picture in it. They're apparently iffy on pictures cause of the set rebuild, but let this slide somehow).

 

[D'Snowth]

Where is Oscar's can anyway?

 

[Oscarfan]

It's in the wall in front of 123. If you watch the video, it's the second shot.

I'd heard about Big Bird's nest change, I didn't expect it to look like that though. Maybe it's not the final incarnation necessarily. This photo shoot was a couple of months ago, so maybe they changed things. It looks like it was meant to be movable.

And by the looks of it, it seems Elmo now lives in 123.

 

[D'Snowth]

My suspicion has been confirmed.

 

[antsamthompson9]

Here's some of the members of 5th Harmony with Elmo:

,

. I like that now that EW is over, Elmo just sings Elmo's Song.

 

[D'Snowth]

And by the looks of it, it seems Elmo now lives in 123.

That's what I brought up six posts ago. Makes me wonder where Gordon and Susan will be living now -- assuming they'll still be on the show; Susan and Bob seem to be the most underused of the human castmembers anymore.

I'm also curious how Oscar's new setup will work out for Caroll or anyone else performing Oscar: it looks a lot more cramped compared to Oscar's usual setup.

 

[SpinneyBigBird1]

Some thoughts regarding the new set:

Overall, I like it. I think Hooper's looks great now, even if the outside and the inside don't really match anymore. I think the outside says classic soda shop and the inside says convenience store, but still it really looks cool.

I think it's awesome that it looks like an actual street again. There aren't just brick walls on both ends of the street. There's actual city beyond the nest and behind Hooper's.

The newsstand looks cool, and I wonder who is going to run it now.

Oscar's trash can looks fine in front of 123 in the dumpster, especially since giant heaps of trash cans and crates on the sidewalk aren't common in New York anymore. The only thing is that it looks really uncomfortable to puppeteer in. It looks like it is completely backed against the brownstone with enclosed sides all around it. It doesn't look like there's as much freedom or even air flow to this new setup.

My first instinct seeing the new nest area was that it looked awesome. Just like the piles of trash, construction sites aren't normally boarded off with old doors anymore. The nest now is in just a vacant lot out in the open, and I think the sort of simplified nature to it is refreshing. Plus, it looks great seeing the nest in a tree like a real nest would be. I think that looks really cool.

I do have some gripes, however. I don't like that Elmo is now living in Susan and Gordon's apartment. That's a staple of the set that's been there since the beginning. There have been some cosmetic adjustments to the set, but for the most part all the important stuff has stayed more or less in the same place. Elmo doesn't HAVE to be at the center of everything, including moving to the focal point of the street. (However, it sort of sunk in to me how Elmo is now literally the only thing the show cares about when I saw that the Count Tribute DVD is being called "Count on Elmo," but that's another story.)

Also, what is going on with the carriage house? What even is it anymore? Is that the area of make-believe? It literally doesn't match ANY of the other parts of the set. I don't even know what it is. I can only assume that's where Abby lives now or something, because it really looks like something out of a fairy tale. Elmo was interviewed in front of something that looked like a magical pumpkin garden, so it makes sense. Although, I hope they just dressed up that area for the photo shoot that is taking place in the video.

 

[D'Snowth]

If it is all just for a photo shoot, it seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through to radically change up the set just for a photo shoot.

But the more I think about it, you know what the changes to the set remind me of? All the different changes Sesamstraat has gone through with their set - it's gone from looking like an actual Dutch street, to looking more like a colorful and fanciful street that's received a lot of cosmetic changes over the years, to now being like the inside of a giant toy box full of building blocks.

I think this is perhaps the most radical remodeling the street has ever gone through, even moreso than Season 33 or Season 39 - it probably wouldn't be wise to continue repeating episodes from two previous seasons ago at this point, it's going to confuse the kids beyond hope.