Sesame Street Season 41 Press Kit

[Drtooth]

Reread the press release about the episodes.

I can't believe we missed this.

Baby Natasha's gonna be in an episode! How cool is that?

 

[Oscarfan]

Yeah, that's good. Barkley's in two episodes this year! But it confuses me why Gina is feeding her. What happened to Marco?

 

[The Count]

More to the point, what happened to Humphrey and Ingrid? Maybe Gina's babysitting. Maybe the vet practice's going through a lull and she needs some extra cash.

 

[beau]

Season 41 looks like it'll be pretty good.

New Super Grover segment? Awesome. I love Super Grover, and wish he was used more. Looks like wish granted!

As for Elmo and Abby? Elmo is actually my second-favorite character. Yeah, he's better in the older, pre-Tickle Me Elmo episodes, but I love the little guy. He's cute and I'm honestly amazed Kevin Clash is able to do that voice as easily as he does.

I didn't think I'd like Abby but you can count me as another who actually enjoys Abby's Flying Fairy School. It's really clever and chock full of references preschoolers won't get. But yeah, either make newer segments or rotate them with something else. Every episode is overkill. And I want a Gonnigan toy.

As for Murray... I'll go with Drtooth and say keep him but get rid of the block format.

 

[Drtooth]

As for Elmo and Abby? Elmo is actually my second-favorite character. Yeah, he's better in the older, pre-Tickle Me Elmo episodes, but I love the little guy. He's cute and I'm honestly amazed Kevin Clash is able to do that voice as easily as he does.

I think the main problem with Elmo IS a matter of quantity over quality. He does have a personality, and he is capable of some funny or at least likable sketches... but when most episodes feature him, then sketches involving him and a celebrity, then Elmo's World... that's a little too much, and a lot of it is basically him personality devoid hosting. I think Kevin does a great job, sure... he is one of my favorite puppeteers. But this kind of over-exposure ruins character. Look at what happened with Pooh. He became more a source of revenue than the lovable character that we remember.

I want to see Elmo EMOTE! I loved him in the Ricky Gervais sketch, he's great whenever Zoe brings up Rocko... but most of the time, he's pretty flat. And it's not the puppeteer's fault... it's the stuff they have him doing. That's why we really should get SW to try abandoning EW one last time, but replacing it with one of the other Elmo based segments. SW had a Elmo's Backyard segment up on their site for a while, and I thought it was quite good. That's the direction they SHOULD take the character... have him interact with others. That's why EW doesn't work for me. He doesn't interact with anything that isn't a CGI or a separately tapes insert.

 

[Mupp]

I didn't think I'd like Abby but you can count me as another who actually enjoys Abby's Flying Fairy School. It's really clever and chock full of references preschoolers won't get. But yeah, either make newer segments or rotate them with something else. Every episode is overkill. And I want a Gonnigan toy.

Yes, I enjoy Abby's Flying Fairy School as well. It does have clever writing. I really like the new characters.

Its true, that was a problem with last season, the recycled the segments way too much.

 

[Convincing John]

I think the main problem with Elmo IS a matter of quantity over quality. He does have a personality, and he is capable of some funny or at least likable sketches... but when most episodes feature him, then sketches involving him and a celebrity, then Elmo's World... that's a little too much, and a lot of it is basically him personality devoid hosting. I think Kevin does a great job, sure... he is one of my favorite puppeteers. But this kind of over-exposure ruins character. Look at what happened with Pooh. He became more a source of revenue than the lovable character that we remember.

I want to see Elmo EMOTE! I loved him in the Ricky Gervais sketch, he's great whenever Zoe brings up Rocko... but most of the time, he's pretty flat. And it's not the puppeteer's fault... it's the stuff they have him doing. That's why we really should get SW to try abandoning EW one last time, but replacing it with one of the other Elmo based segments. SW had a Elmo's Backyard segment up on their site for a while, and I thought it was quite good. That's the direction they SHOULD take the character... have him interact with others. That's why EW doesn't work for me. He doesn't interact with anything that isn't a CGI or a separately tapes insert.

Exactly! The overexposure is what grates on parents' nerves (and the nerves of us old school fans).

Elmo can be more than a one-note tickle machine, but SW doesn't seem to want that. There have been some moments where Elmo gets angry, scared or frustrated just like a kid would. The Rocko stuff is a great example. So is the "grease fire at Hooper's" segment (see the 40th Anniversary DVD for that). Also, there's the 100% wish-I-taped-that-because-it-was-classic "Happy Caps" episode! Let's face it, Muppets are funny when they freak out. Kermit did it, Grover did it, Fat blue did it, Bert did it and for that golden episode, Elmo did it too.

Kids deal with problems and go through all kinds of emotions all the time. Why not have Elmo do the same? Big Bird has been doing that since what...season 2?

As for EW...I wondered that if SW wanted to do away with it, then just shave off a minute here or there this season, another minute the next season and so on until it's gone. Taking it away all at once, kids will notice. But what about a gradual process?

In EW, Elmo only interacts with Mr. Noodle, who is pretty much a mute Buddy or Jim. Segments like that were done so much better by Luis, Maria, Bob, etc. by using the "sped up camera" technique. Plus, kids learned how to spell a word or learned a shape. What exactly do they learn from Mr. Noodle? How to put on a hat? I understand the whole "kids feel empowered by knowing how to do something that Mr. Noodle doesn't" concept. I got that. But when you watch "Henson's Place", you'll see that Big Bird already served that purpose.

Also..."Let's ask a baby." Why? I can understand it being "cute" or whatever maybe once. But every day for over 12 years?

Don't get me wrong, Kevin is a great performer. I really enjoyed his early work as Hoots. You could just tell within seconds of seeing and hearing him that Hoots was an old jazz owl. you knew Hoots had been playing at clubs for 35 years and just landed on Sesame Street one day. You get the same vibe from Zoot or Floyd.

One thing I wonder is what will happen set-wise. For the longest time, the set had the gritty look that Jon Stone wanted. Then later, Big Bird's doors looked like they were made by Fisher Price, then the gritty look (at least of the doors) came back. What will they do this year?

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

Elmo can be more than a one-note tickle machine, but SW doesn't seem to want that. There have been some moments where Elmo gets angry, scared or frustrated just like a kid would. The Rocko stuff is a great example. So is the "grease fire at Hooper's" segment (see the 40th Anniversary DVD for that). Also, there's the 100% wish-I-taped-that-because-it-was-classic "Happy Caps" episode! Let's face it, Muppets are funny when they freak out. Kermit did it, Grover did it, Fat blue did it, Bert did it and for that golden episode, Elmo did it too.

Kids deal with problems and go through all kinds of emotions all the time. Why not have Elmo do the same? Big Bird has been doing that since what...season 2?

Couldn't agree more. Really. That's why I liked Elmo in Grouchland oddly enough. He actually grew as a character through the movie, and he has shown a deep "more than a friend as they get older" caring for Zoe. Abby's a very emotionally driven character, and she is even in her own segment (though, I really wish she'd be the one that screwed up for a change). She either shakes off a magical glitch as an "oh well, I think I need to work on that" or even gets a little depressed with a "why am I doing this wrong?" Even when she first appeared, she had a "do I really belong here? I feel a little too different" vibe.

The problem is what Elmo's world is. basically him talking to himself (assuming this IS all his imagination) and mute characters and mute objects with personalities. He works well with others, but we don't really see that except for celebrity moments or street stories. Elmo's Backyard has him talking to trees and animals that respond and interact with him, and Goodnight Elmo has some sort of sweet playfulness with his dad.

But when he's doing EW, that's when the character's there for marketing purposes. It's such a klunky segment overloaded with unneeded junk...I like the cartoon, the E-mails, the part where he talks to the subject matter (we should have had MORE like the mouth segment and had him talk to an actual person)... but there's no need to count superimposed ducks or talking to babies or anything like that. And the kid films are TOOOOOOO long.

 

[Muppet Frog]

I don't like EW too much but I like Kermit's cameo in Elmo's World: Frogs and Zoe giving Rocco a check-up in Elmo's World: Doctors.

 

[animalrescuer]

Yeah, that's good. Barkley's in two episodes this year! But it confuses me why Gina is feeding her. What happened to Marco?

On that note with Marco, what happened to Curly Bear? I haven't seen her in any of the latest episodes. I like Baby Bear, especially in the episode where Abby's freckles fly off and he says, "Why is everyone so obsessed with my underpants?" emphasis on the pants! How he said that cracked me up.
I don't really care for Elmo's World either. I watch most of the episode, then I watch something else when it comes on. I did like the cameo of Kermit in the Frogs show.