Sesame Street Season 46 Episode 4601 - Bedtime Story

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Thus far I've always taken it as a sign that he's still on the show. He's still listed during the end titles, isn't he?

Him being credited could just be part of SW trying to keep the older characters' retirement quiet and gradual, much like Billy Barkhurst taking over Ernie. It was already big national news that Maria was leaving, SST might not want to get negative attention for firing all the rest of the original cast members.

 

[OscarandTelly]

Him being credited could just be part of SW trying to keep the older characters' retirement quiet and gradual, much like Billy Barkhurst taking over Ernie. It was already big national news that Maria was leaving, SST might not want to get negative attention for firing all the rest of the original cast members.

That is true. Sometimes someone's name stays in the credits during the 1st year theyr'e not on the show anymore. I know it happened with Gabi in Season 43, and I think it also happened with Uncle Wally in Season 23, as I know he was still in the credits that year, however iv'e seen a ton of Season 23 episodes, and i can't think of any he was in. So yeah it might have to do with contract issues or something. I really dont know for sure.

 

[BlakeConor14]

Ok I live in the UK and don't often hear about these things so thank you

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I think it also happened with Uncle Wally in Season 23, as I know he was still in the credits that year, however iv'e seen a ton of Season 23 episodes, and i can't think of any he was in.

Well he appeared in episode 2931 but that's the only one on Muppet Wiki that has a page.

 

[Drtooth]

I totally think that SW's lower budget is also acontributing factor to the lack of cast variety this season. We're not going to know until season 47 (or until more season 47 details pop up) if that's the case, since 47 will be the first season produced entirely by HBO's money. When it comes to the older cast, sure. I can see them not being quite as energetic as they used to be. Carol's been working on this show for almost half a century(!) and has been in the puppetry game for a while before that as well. He's the only original Muppet puppeteer still with the show on a regular basis. Maybe Frank comes in every once in a while to do one or two skits.

It's the younger cast member uninclutions that kinda bug me, especially after the huge casting search contest for Mando, only to see him completely absent this season.

 

[CoolGuy1013]

Hey there, I'm new on the forum, but I have big plans. I am planning on reviewing every episode of the HBO-era SST episodes, and giving them a score out of 10. Here's how the system will work:

10/10 - Phenomanal
9/10 - Amazing
8/10 - Great
7/10 - Good
6/10 - Okay
5/10 - Average
4/10 - Bad
3/10 - Awful
2/10 - Terrible
1/10 - Dreadful
0/10 - Atrocious

With that out of the way, stay tuned for my first review (which will be on this episode, obviously)!

 

[CoolGuy1013]

Sorry this took a while, but now I can start the review.

Let's start at the cold open, which has Grover. One of the better things about this "Core 6" character scheme is that we get more Grover. One of the worst things is that the more he appears, the more flanderized he gets. Oh well, I'll save that for later. Anyway, Grover is trying to put on his pajamas, only to put on a firefighter's uniform and scuba gear instead. This isn't too bad, so I'll give it a pass.

Now onto the meat of this (and every) episode, the street story! It's... It's... it's boring. I completely forgot a lot of things from it (and I only watched it a little while ago), so I had to look them up on Muppet Wiki. Apparently the whole plot of this episode is Abby is sleeping over at Elmo's, but uh-oh, Abby does things different from the norm. Bring on the hijinks. I guess the flying toothbrush and tug-of-war with a giant make sense because she's a magical being, but why does she need a marching band for a lullaby? I'll admit, I did like Nina's lullaby, though.

Now onto the letter of the day. In the HBO era, each episode has a theme, and the first letter of that theme is the letter of the day. For example, this episode's theme is bedtime, so the letter of the day is B. Now in the HBO era, there are 2 types of letter segments. Letter segments and "letter" segments. The difference is that one actually teaches the letter of the day, and the other is just a montage disguised as a segment to teach the letter of the day. This episode has a letter segment. Enjoy it while you can folks, because after this season (and a few exceptions next season), the letter segments will be gone and replaced with more "letter" segments. Anyway, the segment has Tracee Ellis Ross trying to get ready for bed, only to find many B words in her bed, including Big Bird, which I liked. The ending line was also kinda funny.

I know that the Number of the Day comes before Smart Cookies in this episode, but with one exception, no other episode in this season or any season is like that. So I'll review SC first. Like with letter segments, there are 2 types of Smart Cookies segments. One where Miss Fortune gives 3 clues that must be put together to stop the Crumb, and one where she only gives 1 clue and Figby uses his tablet to get solutions. This one is the former, though unlike with letter segments these are pretty evenly spread. Anyway, this segment has the Crumb hiding a Ginger Snap (a cookie bomb that snaps until it explodes into a million crumbs) in the King's bedroom. In both types of Smart Cookies segments, Cookie jumps to conclusions after the clue is given and brings in something that fits the clue yet obviously won't solve the problem. Eventually, he stops and thinks and saves the day. It gets formulaic, but at least there's some variety. Also, how did Cookie survive eating an exploding cookie?

Now, the number of the day. It's 10, and we get a cartoon about 10 dog kisses, What does this have to do with bedtime?

And now the last thing I'll talk about, Elmo's World. Yes, this episode has the return of Elmo's World that nobody asked for. And wow, that cropping is horrible. Seriously, at some points, Elmo's eyes go off-screen. They even had to re-shoot the montage at the beginning because I guess they didn't want to crop that. I can see why they wanted to do this, I really can. They wanted to save money by reusing old material. But they had to crop it because those black bars on the sides are annoying to viewers. Simple solution: DON'T MAKE THEM BLACK! They actually did that with the Season 38 intro after they switched to HD the next season by putting cardboard borders on the sides. They even did it with the Mr. Noodle segment by using Elmo's walls as the bars. Why couldn't they do it with the rest of the segment, I guess we'll never know. And I completely forgot what I was talking about.

Overall, this episode was OK. There were some things I liked (Letter segment, Smart Cookies), some things I didn't (Elmo's World), and some things in the middle (Street Story). Overall, a 6/10.