Sesame Street Season 42 News

[RyGuy]

Hello, Ryguy here. How has your spring been ? Haven't posted in a while .

I have a new sesame curriculum idea for a future season :

How about dedicating an entire season to storylins and skits revolving around people with Special-needs. I know the progam has touched on the subject of disabillities from time to time throught the seasons through Terrah and Traction Jackson Jackson and what not . But the've never made it an area to hone in on and explore . I have CP and and Aspergers and I know first hand what it was like growing up disabled . Here are suggested storylines

There could be amuppet "school " segment (gosh, I miss those ) where an anything Muppet boy with autisum is afraird of fire drills (I've been there too ) SS has never had a muppet school segment about fire drills either so making a sketch such as this would accomplish two curriculim goals : intoducing the feeling of startled and the message about fire safety in school. and safety measures and that people with autisum are just normal peple liike us

other ideas for that season include :

Guests could include :

Terrah talking about her disabilty to this generation.

the Oak Ridge Boys could sing Touch A hand Make a Friend abot not being shy around the disabled and it's okay to shake hands and make friends regardlesss of whether people have special-needs

George Jones could sing "Same Ole Me " and turn it into a song about just because you're different you're still the same old you no mater what .

they could have a segment wher a muppet girl sits next to a muppetwith a talking-borad device in a wheelchair andthe girl could be confused how to talk with him andthe talking machine ( voiced by Kevin Clash or Farn Brill ) could "say " Hello. my named is Rasheem ( this would be the first muppet skit where a Muppet had a name other than "Jimmy " or "Cara " I don't think the've had a anything Muppet "student with a more "cultural " name before. and this could be leson about patience and waiting for people to answe and incrase social skills possibilties .

I think this is kind of overdue but not way overdue sort of in-the -middle and I think that there should be at least six "street Stories " center around disabilties ( making Hooper's acessible , Emily ( Mrs. Rosen's daughter from Season 33-ish )should make more apperances.

A storyline could be about a human cast member's Mother or "older friend " that uses a cane to help him walk due to "old age " and that he needs assistant getting around now .

 

[Drtooth]

I am in no way opposed to education of disabilities and inclusion of characters in Sesame Street.

I AM opposed to when these characters are just there to say "Hi! I'm different from you and representing people like me" and do nothing of value or importance. Then to have that character disappear when the writers just can't think up ways to conveniently slip them into a scene. Characters like that are written with kid gloves, and therefore they don't seem genuine.

Arthur has talked about this in one of the best ways possible. They created a LIKELY character that befriended one of the other characters, they explained his case thoroughly, and they even managed to strategically bring him back in a future episode, WITHOUT saying "Oh yeah, he's the Asperger's kid". They used a character to explain a disability, not using a disability to add a character.

The opposite, unfortunately, what Sesame Street did with Tarrah. All she did was show up as the kid in the wheelchair, she didn't have much to say, and just nodded her head when Big Bird said anything. Now, it's not the actress's fault, it's not the disability's fault... it's the writers. They don't want to add personality or tension for fears that something's going to be portrayed in a negative light, and they're going to get letters from the same people who suggested they add a character to represent them.

If SS should talk about special needs kids, they need to do it RIGHT! Add one with personality, one that's not up front in every episode, and strategically written into specific shows where his/her character can shine as a regular, flesh and blood human that's different from the norm, but can hang out just the same with everyone else. Don't just add one for the sake of adding one, and botch it up. A flat character who's ONLY known for a disability is WORSE than not addressing it at all.

So above all, GREAT idea for a curriculum... I just hope they manage to do it the justice it deserves.

 

[Canadian Fan]

Looks like Bert & Ernie will be featured in a street story for season 42, according to Tough Pigs (check out the behind-the-scenes video at the link below):

http://www.toughpigs.com/live-from-sesame-street-part-1/

Good to see Eric and Steve back performing the muppet versions of Bert & Ernie besides the claymation versions.

 

[TSSD]

A street story with Bert, Ernie, and Oscar? That's just too awesome!

 

[Oscarfan]

Keep in mind, they filmed season 42 and part of season 43 at the same time. While I hope this airs as part of season 42, it could very well not air until season 43.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Looks like Bert & Ernie will be featured in a street story for season 42, according to Tough Pigs (check out the behind-the-scenes video at the link below):

http://www.toughpigs.com/live-from-sesame-street-part-1/

Good to see Eric and Steve back performing the muppet versions of Bert & Ernie besides the claymation versions.

Good to hear Roscoe Orman's still around as well. In another thread, someone startled me with the news that he was departing, but I guess that was just a rumor. I wonder how involved B&E (not sure if we still have those Muppet smilies or not) will really be involved there. Remember we were disappointed at 'Bert's Pigeon Seach' since Bert had such a small role in that one. But I'll check out the videos when I get a chance.

 

[Drtooth]

Keep in mind, they filmed season 42 and part of season 43 at the same time. While I hope this airs as part of season 42, it could very well not air until season 43.

Personally, I'm just glad we're getting news that we;re having an episode featuring Ernie and Bert and we're getting the evidence to prove it. Remember last time when we had snippets of news about Bert being in multiple episodes, but he just had a third of a street story cameo in one, and he wasn't in the other? I guess they wrote the synopses based on the original scripts when they did that.

 

[D'Snowth]

The fact that they're filming BOTH Season 42, and part of 43 doesn't sound like good news to me: usually when series film two seasons at a time like that, they're getting ready to wrap up production for good.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Maybe there was a little something to that April Fool's joke I posted. Hmmmmm.

 

[D'Snowth]

I've heard quite a few people talking about how they feel that maybe perhaps it's time that SST comes to an end, and that if it does, they really wouldn't miss too much, considering how much the show has changed beyond recognition.

IMHO, even though I haven't even been able to actually watch the show regularly in years, and I don't even really know much about what's actually going on with it, I would be very saddened if it were to end anytime soon, because it's such an interquette part of mine, and practically everybody's lives, and has been for over forty years: yes, the show has changed rapidly in the past decade or so, but keep in mind, SST has BEEN changing since day one... maybe the more recent changes weren't quite as subtle as older changes have been, but the thing to remember is that this show was always considerd an "experiment", and it will continue to be an "experiment". The most important thing is that it serves it's purpose to educate preschool children and help better prepare them for the academic challenges of grade school, and it's been proven that kids who watch (educational) television do better academically than kids who don't watch television, and part of that has been thanks to SST.

I would very much like to be able to celebrate 50 years; as big of a hoopla 40 was, just imagine how 50 would be like. I would hate to miss that.