Major Changes in store for Sesame Street Season 46

[dwayne1115]

Well if you think about it going down to half an hour, the show would have to cut down on a lot of the things us long time fans love about the show.

 

[Drtooth]

If you watch current episodes, well... there's not much they need to cut. AFFS takes up a good 10 minutes of the show, ETM takes another 10... add in a couple other inserts, the show's clearly padded with reused footage that cost them a fortune to produce, and that they want to squeeze every penny they put in out of it.

If it's just street story, word of the day, and the letters and numbers with a couple inserts, it would work beautifully. That's sort of the format with the half hour ones already. If they pare down a couple things (or is it pair down, I know it's not pear down) and make the street stories punchier, there's nothing much to alter on that front.

 

[D'Snowth]

The more I think about it, this feels like ATC deja vu. Remember that part of the reason for the ATC era of the show was because by then it was felt that SST was "too advanced" and "too complicated" for little kids watching, hence why Barney came into play: with Barney taking place in the confines of a safe and clean suburban school, SST needed to go through a gentrification process of sanitizing the street and brightening it up to look cleaner and safer than it used to and the educational content had to be simplified a bit.

If reducing Muppets and trying to make the show "kinder and gentler" is what drove Joey away, then this is also similar to how Jon Stone got fired as a result of going on record saying to the new direction the show was going in in 1993 was "dumbing the show down."

 

[dwayne1115]

The real issue here is will all of the changes help kids learn more or not?

 

[Oscarfan]

Season 46 was already filmed for the most part, if not all of it before the HBO deal went down (I'm 50/50 sure they shot extra episodes for HBO once the deal hit). The major changes sound like they're coming next season. Unless seeds of it were planted in 46, and that's why Joey left.

They shot everything for season 46 by this point. They haven't shot any more episodes, as far as I know. Once the press kit goes actual live, you'll see (it's very interesting and odd with how the season episodes are being handled).

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

They shot everything for season 46 by this point. They haven't shot any more episodes, as far as I know. Once the press kit goes actual live, you'll see (it's very interesting and odd with how the season episodes are being handled).

Hhmm,sounds intriguing.Are the biggest changes with the overall format or with the Street stories?

 

[Drtooth]

The more I think about it, this feels like ATC deja vu. Remember that part of the reason for the ATC era of the show was because by then it was felt that SST was "too advanced" and "too complicated" for little kids watching, hence why Barney came into play: with Barney taking place in the confines of a safe and clean suburban school, SST needed to go through a gentrification process of sanitizing the street and brightening it up to look cleaner and safer than it used to and the educational content had to be simplified a bit.

I really don't think the reason was it was too advanced as it was to compete for relevance with the shiny new guy in a suit on the block, but essentially yeah. And of course, they lost a boatload of characters with Jim and Richard gone. I'm glad they're not using buzzwords, but they're using a George H. W. Bush catchphrase (not being political here) that essentially means nonsense coming out of SW. Something tells me whatever changes aside from more obvious ones we already know can't be expressed positively in the words "kinder and gentler." Every time I find some bit of news that I'm okay with (eventually), there's something else that pops up that I find unsettling, or at least concerning.

But if "kinder and gentler" means less in your face specialized initiatives and "core 6" means less (or no) episodes about whiny, obnoxious fairy tale characters screaming and flailing about for help, I'm all in.

The real issue here is will all of the changes help kids learn more or not?

I've said this many a time. The problem with Sesame Street is that when it was created, there was basically Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo, plus some little local things that were still around. While there were more options for pre-school and educational television in the 70's and 80's, it wasn't until the 90's with that aforementioned guy in a dino suit really shook things up. And things only got more competitive from there. Now not only are their more options than ever for preschool television, but we also have the internet and content for smart devices. And that's the concern. Not so much if they're still educational, but if they're relevant. And preschool programming is actually becoming better nowadays, with more abandoning the Dora "shout at the screen for a fake sense of accomplishment" model (mercifully).

Of course, in recent seasons, Sesame Street was able to get back the relatively "older" viewers of 4 and 6 back, when since the dawn of Elmo's World and season 33 especially turned it into a prepreschool show that kids already grew out of once they learned that things can be grown out of. And that can be thanks to the engineering initiative.

They shot everything for season 46 by this point. They haven't shot any more episodes, as far as I know. Once the press kit goes actual live, you'll see (it's very interesting and odd with how the season episodes are being handled).

Just the info I needed to know. I'm sure you have some inside info you can't divulge, and I'm anxiously waiting until this goes public of what to expect. The only thing I'm still wondering is how much of a change the HBO deal (and the unrelated Joey departure) will make of the season after the upcoming one, if there are more changes to be made that weren't already.

 

[dwayne1115]

I wonder if Frank will make any inserts as he would sometimes do.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I wonder if Frank will make any inserts as he would sometimes do.

Not sure if he'll be back any time soon,his name isn't in the credits anymore.

 

[D'Snowth]

I think that's because he's not officially part of the show anymore (because they can't afford him), but doesn't he otherwise still devote one day out of the year "just for fun"?