Opening theme truncated!

[ssetta]

I was just watching SS today, it was the Season 34 episode where Rosita became friends with a frog wearing a crown, and I noticed that the opening theme was much shorter. They cut out the intro and only had the first verse, and the film was truncated. Does anyone know if this is the way it will be from now on? I also heard that there was going to be a new opening theme for next season, and possibly a new closing credit sequence. It would be interesting, because, though it's a lot shorter, the closing credit sequence they use now is the same one they have had since 1992. Did anyone else notice this?

 

[D'Snowth]

As far as I know, it's been the same since the beginning of season 34.

 

[Infinity Sirius]

I haven't noitced the beginning, but I have noticed the ending and wouldn't mind seeing something new. I rememeber when it first came out too.

 

[The Count]

Hey ssetta... Saw the beginning of today's episode, 4087. And the opening intro was definitely truncated. There were the usual sponsor segments: McDonald's, Beeches, and Pampers (the pancake hat bit) and then Gordon's voiceover with the familiar "Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you" message. There was a fifth sponsor segment at the top, didn't quite catch or understand what company it was though.

The opening theme was speedier in tone, and only covered the first verse of the Sesame Street theme. They had Big Bird, Elmo grabbing Dorothy, and then it went straight to Super Grover crashing into the ground. Gone were Cookie Monster and my namesake with his bats.
Certainly hope this is only a quick-stop rush-through and we get the full intro for the season finale episodes later this week. If not, then I hope we get the full intro back next season.
Hope this helps.

 

[ssetta]

It's sad, I know, but I think the reason why they had to truncate it was because of the 5th sponsor. I'm afraid this is how it will be from now on. And if they do another one next season, it will probably be shorter as well.

 

[D'Snowth]

Hey ssetta... Saw the beginning of today's episode, 4087. And the opening intro was definitely truncated. There were the usual sponsor segments: McDonald's, Beeches, and Pampers (the pancake hat bit) and then Gordon's voiceover with the familiar "Corporation for Public Broadcasting and viewers like you" message. There was a fifth sponsor segment at the top, didn't quite catch or understand what company it was though.

The opening theme was speedier in tone, and only covered the first verse of the Sesame Street theme. They had Big Bird, Elmo grabbing Dorothy, and then it went straight to Super Grover crashing into the ground. Gone were Cookie Monster and my namesake with his bats.
Certainly hope this is only a quick-stop rush-through and we get the full intro for the season finale episodes later this week. If not, then I hope we get the full intro back next season.
Hope this helps.

Are you sure? I have that same episode on tape, and the intro is the same!!!

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

It's sad, I know, but I think the reason why they had to truncate it was because of the 5th sponsor. I'm afraid this is how it will be from now on. And if they do another one next season, it will probably be shorter as well.

That's sad. I thought they had too many sponsors already. Whatever happened to the good old days of PBS where they didn't have advertisements at all? They just went straight into the show.


By the way, D'Snowth, in response to your post, I'm guessing they did play the full opening theme when it originally aired. The shorter theme and the new sponsor must be pretty recent. Last I saw the show it had the complete theme song.

 

[The Count]

Answering a few questions...

1 D'Snowth, when Episode 4087 originally aired back on 4/8/2005, it had the complete opening intro song. When it aired on 12/27/2005, it had the shortened opening intro and the five sponsors as mentioned in my post above. Like Daffyfan2003 says, this must've happened recently and they've been changing the intros to their shows so they all match up like this with the sponsors at the beginning of each show.

2 Daffyfan2003, what happened was... PBS slashed and burned away at the generous budget they used to give Sesame Street. This also helps explain why the seasons got shortened to just 26 episodes for each year. Because the budget was so drastically cut, they had to get corporate sponsorship outside of PBS. Ralph Nader blasted them for doing this, which in my mind was a stupid move on his part.
He's condeming them for getting corporate sponsorship? Then where do you suggest they get the $3 million or whatever it was they used to get from PBS before?
Completely stupid.

Oh well, that's just my opinion though. Hope this helps.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Yeah. I know about the situation about congress cutting funding for PBS. But then again, even before that happened they still had all those sponsors. I could only imagine how the network would be if the situation with congress hadn't been resolved. Anyway, thanks for the info.

 

[D'Snowth]

your right