Sesame Street Season 46 Episode 4603 - Grover's Street Safari

[Daffyfan4ever]

Will a video of this episode be posted like last week? I'm not seeing any so far.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Rats.

 

[MuppetSpot]

You know Mr. Johnson sounded like he had a cold.

 

[Drtooth]

To be fair, it was the first time Matt performed the character, and hopefully not the last. While I personally think he lacks the voice quality of Jerry, his performance more than makes up for it. Mr. Johnson feels a tiny bit restrained here, but I'd count that more as writing than anything on him.

I have to admit, I'm shocked that Elmo and Grover pairings are so criminally underutilized on Sesame Street. There's a very special character dynamic with the two, Grover as the know-it-all big brother to Elmo's surprisingly more competent little brother. I just wish this episode had more room to breathe so they could have done just a little more with it.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I have to admit, I'm shocked that Elmo and Grover pairings are so criminally underutilized on Sesame Street. There's a very special character dynamic with the two, Grover as the know-it-all big brother to Elmo's surprisingly more competent little brother. I just wish this episode had more room to breathe so they could have done just a little more with it.

There are a lot of great pairings that I wish we'd see more of. I hope we get some Elmo and Zoe stuff this season.

 

[Drtooth]

What makes it baffling is that Elmo and Grover are 2 of the most popular characters on the show, but they don't have as much screentime together as you'd think. I really loved that bit they showed from a season or so ago in the last episode where they're explorers and Elmo was kinda getting annoyed by Grover's constant mess ups. I really feel we should have more of that. Elmo's never going to not be the big character on the show, so why not pair him up with characters that have an interesting dynamic with him? Elmo works best when he has someone to play off of.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Elmo's never going to not be the big character on the show, so why not pair him up with characters that have an interesting dynamic with him? Elmo works best when he has someone to play off of.

That's true,it's always been that way even from the earlier days with his sketches with Kermit and his appearance in the episode where the adults find out that Snuffy was real.
But the sad part is they've been forcing him with Abby for almost ten years,yet they have almost no real chemistry whatsoever.

 

[D'Snowth]

What makes it baffling is that Elmo and Grover are 2 of the most popular characters on the show, but they don't have as much screentime together as you'd think.

Especially when you consider all of the character bios that SW has written that says Elmo's two best friends are Zoe and Grover, but as you say, Elmo and Grover have very little to do together.

But the sad part is they've been forcing him with Abby for almost ten years,yet they have almost no real chemistry whatsoever.

Again, that's been the intent of SW all these years, is to have Abby achieve the same level of star power that Elmo has so she can be popular with little girls, and the only way they can effectively do that is to actually pair her with Elmo. But as has been pointed out many times before, Elmo works best when he can play off of someone, especially when that someone flusters him, such as those episodes where Zoe brings Rocco into the picture, driving Elmo crazy: "BUT ROCCO IS JUST A ROCK!"

 

[Drtooth]

But the sad part is they've been forcing him with Abby for almost ten years,yet they have almost no real chemistry whatsoever.

It's obvious they don't want to give Abby any sort of conflict in her role. Look at the AFFS segments. Abby instigated the ensuing chaos like once or twice, while Gonnagan and Blogg were saddled into the "load" role. To be fair, that's probably because Gonnagan's shyness and Blogg's goofiness are easier to work into a story. Of course, in her first appearance she was a little more frustrated in her magic than she is now, and while that is a sign of character development, it also took away any tension. That's why the Elmo and Abby pairing doesn't work. They want to keep the both Stepford Smilers for some reason. Like the episode a season or so ago where Cookie Monster played his best Denzel Crocker and tried to get Abby's Wand. Instead of Abby emoting and reacting to Cookie trying to steal her wand someone said no, let's have her blissfully counting away while Alan lectures Cookie on what could have happened.

Only time I've seen them bother giving any tension between Elmo and Abby was the one where they were fighting with each other about what they wanted Mother Goose to write. And that episode worked because there was tension. Abby needs someone to react to her magic negatively, Elmo needs someone who can get emotions other than smiletime laughfun out of him. But something tells me one of the higher ups is making them write them as happy faced mascots for the sake of merchandising.

 

[D'Snowth]

True. Without tension, there is no conflict, and without conflict, there is no story.