Major Changes in store for Sesame Street Season 46

[cahuenga]

Does anyone knows if Luis, Gordon, Susan and Bob will appear on the show on season 46???

 

[minor muppetz]

I'm guessing that the "core six" will get the majority of their own street stories, with the others showing up in secondary roles and appearing in inserts. Snuffy can be involved in a Big Bird plot, Telly can be involved in a plot with Oscar or Elmo (or maybe he could be in plots with Cookie Monster and Grover, Telly doesn't really interact with them often), Zoe can be involved in plots starring Elmo or Abby, Mr. Johnson can appear in some Grover plots, and so on. I don't doubt there'll be a few episodes starring other characters, but it probably won't be too common this season.

I kind of feel like if there is to be a "core six", maybe they should change it up each season (so this season will be Elmo, Big Bird, Abby, Cookie, Grover, and Oscar, next season can be Elmo, Big Bird, Abby, Zoe, Cookie, and Telly, the next can be Elmo, Big Bird, Snuffy, Abby, Grover, and Telly, and so on). I also kind of wish that the test audience will keep asking "where's Ernie and Bert? Where's The Count? Where's Zoe?" (and of course I wish they'd ask "where's Biff and Sully?", but they probably won't).

I'm also surprised that neither Snuffy or Telly are among the core six, since Martin Robinson doesn't exactly have to balance his time between working on Sesame Street and working on Muppet projects (or any other puppet projects), while Eric Jacobson (Grover) and David Rudman (Cookie) do.

Ever since the "Best of Friends" DVD came out, I've been hoping for a sequel. While there still hasn't and doesn't seem to be a second volume in sight, I wonder if a second volume, if one does come out, will just focus on the core six.

With the street given such a big change, I wonder if this season will repeat street stories from the last two seasons. I also wonder if material with Maria will be repeated for the next few years after she's gone (they did continue repeating material with Olivia, Savion, and I think Linda after they let). I hadn't even realized she hadn't been on the show much lately (there was a time when it seems she was one of the most visible adults, along with Gordon, Alan, and Gina).

 

[JimmyDeanDog]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/02/entertainment/sonia-manzano-maria-sesame-street-feat/index.html

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

Does anyone knows if Luis, Gordon, Susan and Bob will appear on the show on season 46???

You're gonna have to wait for the Press Kit to answer that question.

 

[Drtooth]

With the street given such a big change, I wonder if this season will repeat street stories from the last two seasons. I also wonder if material with Maria will be repeated for the next few years after she's gone (they did continue repeating material with Olivia, Savion, and I think Linda after they let). I hadn't even realized she hadn't been on the show much lately (there was a time when it seems she was one of the most visible adults, along with Gordon, Alan, and Gina).

Hopefully if they rerun episodes, they won't be part of the 26 episode count. That was the best thing about this season, a full order of 26 actually new episodes instead of relabled episodes with nothing different about them. Other than that, I don't see that being a major factor because they'd then have to pick and choose reruns (the ones outside the 26), something I doubt that SW would want to bother with. Plus, I really feel that if anything Maria will be the show's Maris, and just being alluded to on the show if it needs be. She still lives there, but we don't see the character.

 

[DTF]

The real tell is that kids young enough think every character is Elmo, so there's that. Wore a Toy Story Mr. Potatohead shirt and a kid thought it was Elmo. And that's not exactly an obscure bomb of a film series. To be fair, it was one of those all face shirts.

Do they actually think every one is Elmo, though, or not have the words to verbalize who it is so just call it Elmo, as if Elmo is their replacement for "Sesame Street"? Not sure how you test for the difference, except maybe as k them to do something the character does. (Cookie Monster would definitely be a telling sign here if they don't pretend to eat cookies like crazy.

As for the core 6, it might not be bad. As long as the others are still in stories, perhaps the idea of a core 6 is that every street story will surround one of them or a few. Sort of like a sitcom has characters with certain kids there if it centers around of one of the kids, etc. And, I think these are ones we know can have others around easily, though I might have put Telly as a 7th. But, Bert & Ernie can easily with with several of these, Snuffy with Big Bird, maybe Elmo, etc., Zoe with a few, and so on as someone else said upthread. (Computer going show so sorry, no time to check, best to type so it gets posted before I have to leave.) Telly seems to draw his own crowd well enough, but maybe they'll create some good new duos. (I would be interested in anxious Telly paired with SuperGrover or some other capacity of Grover, it would be rather easy to draw laughs I think.)

 

[LaRanaRene]

Here's the thing: SST's done its job very well over these past 46 years, and back then its main objective was to reach out to the disadvantaged and inner city kids who didn't necessary grow up in the idealic world of suburbia where they were more likely to be surrounded by books and raised by educated parents - this is what Joan Ganz Cooney was producing documentaries about prior to SST. There was a need back in those days, and SST supplied that need: back in those days, it's main educational goals were pretty simple, such as letters, numbers, reading, shapes, patterns, and such. Not only that, but the show was aimed at the 4-6 age bracket.

Fast-forward decades later, the target audience has gotten steadily younger to prepare kids at an even earlier age, and not only that, but you've got tons of different educational shows competing for kids' attention, SST has to keep up with the times to face said competition (remember, they started it). With kids learning basic educational goals at such early ages, they have to step it up a notch and get a little more "advanced" in their content (lest we forget the season or two that was almost solely dedicated to STEM education); showing old-school SST to today's preschoolers, admittedly, would be like that episode of ARTHUR where Ratburn's sister subbed for the day and was teaching the students kindergarten-level lessons.

As for the confusion . . . hey, it could happen. I remember when I was in kindergarten, we had the original Letter People from the 70s, however, our teacher had the slightly updated record (this pre-dated the completely overhauled P.C. Letter People of today). Mr. H was depicted as being purple in most of our material, but the record cover had him yellow, and I was trying to wrap my mind around how could Mr. H be both purple and yellow. Showing old-school SST to today's kids, they're going to wonder where Elmo, Abby, Murray, Zoe, and others are; they're going to wonder who Mr. Hooper, David, and Olivia are; they're going to wonder why Snuffy is Big Bird's "imaginary" friend; they're going to wonder why does Hooper's Store have a taxi checkerboard tile front and why there's a Fix-It-Shop instead of a laundromat.

I showed Follow That Bird to my 2 year-old brother; he kept asking where Elmo was. I always wonderered why they have Elmo on the new cover when he's only in the movie for less than 2 seconds.

 

[D'Snowth]

Does anyone knows if Luis, Gordon, Susan and Bob will appear on the show on season 46???

It's been confirmed that Bob will be, as he recently expressed his thoughts and feelings on the new set and what have you. It's been discussed that Luis will still be on despite losing Maria, but I don't remember if that's actually been confirmed yet or not. Likewise, it hasn't yet been confirmed or denied if we still have the others.

I always wonderered why they have Elmo on the new cover when he's only in the movie for less than 2 seconds.

It's something of an unwritten rule with them that they have to include Elmo on every Sesame product, or it won't sell. Like that SST Christmas Carol DVD that came out nine years ago: the special is mostly about Oscar in a Scrooge-esque role, and Elmo's involvement is exclusive to flashbacks, yet Elmo's plastered on the DVD cover right next to Oscar.

 

[Drtooth]

Elmo is to Sesame Workshop as Wolverine is to Marvel.

Just slap him on to sucker kids into buying DVD's. Seems to work.

I hope that whatever happens next season, whatever focus they decide to take doesn't become the only thing they teach on the street. I admit, though, the self regulation had some "Anvils need to be dropped" concepts, especially movie theater behavior. Kinda wish they had one episode telling kids not to freaking run around in crowded spaces away from Mommy or Daddy because someone's liable to knock them over or slam into them. I hate that. Free range tiny kids running around, and it's like your fault if you didn't see them. Running's for playgrounds, not every freaking where else.

EHEMM!! And it would be nice to see them actually care about letters and numbers again. They seem to be some sort of after thought now, and yeah... they have that once a season random celebration of a letter or number episode and all. I really feel they're stuck in a rut with that one.

 

[backpackmina]

It's been discussed that Luis will still be on despite losing Maria, but I don't remember if that's actually been confirmed yet or not.

It's been years since I've watched Sesame, so I have no idea: has Luis even been appearing frequently in the recent seasons?