Sesame Street Season 46 Press Kit; HBO premiere set for Saturday January 16, 2016

[Drtooth]

Aaww,well DANG IT! I had a feeling they were gonna dumb down the show.

I can't say I'm not concerned about the content of the show from now on. I agree with the sentiment that this was always a kid's show and it was bound to go through multiple changes as it's been on an unprecedented 46 years with more to come. And a lot of these changes are cost driven, something that was unfortunately a long time coming.

However, the fact that the multiple changes coming at once drove a longtime writer/performer/show runner away does leave a bad taste in my mouth. And I have to admit, some of the changes aren't bad, so much as I don't agree with why they're there. Sesame Street relied on parody stuff a little too much as of late. While I don't agree with "kids don't get it" I certainly agree with roping them in. Sesame Street has been a pop culture based show, they just never had to rely on it for relevance. And I do understand dialing back on the characters as well (especially the spastic one shot fairy tale characters), but I'm not 100% on the reasoning. Telly should not be done away with, and hopefully he isn't completely. But we definitely don't need Jack Horner pulling the wrong things out of pies and screaming about it for 10 minutes. We had enough of that last season.

I certainly will not kid myself with the "if (so and so) were still here, things would be different" argument. Besides, if it meant even more Elmo screen time, I'd think that would work to his advantage.

Actually, there is one thing that absolutely ticks me off about these articles. All of them basically say "It's completely bizarre that the network that airs, and ONLY airs, Game of Thrones and Sex in the City would want a kid's show." NO NO NO NO NO! HBO has had a history of children's programming, but... well... let's face it. Outside of Fraggle Rock and their Fairy Tale cartoons with non-Caucasian leads, they really don't have a...well... auspicious history. They had a couple kiddy anime dubs (back when it was a cheap thing) and like some crappy Stop motion guessing game show that was made in 1999 and is still on because they have nothing else. Of course they'd try to get the biggest name in edutainment to round up their less than stellar line up.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

I can't say I'm not concerned about the content of the show from now on. I agree with the sentiment that this was always a kid's show and it was bound to go through multiple changes as it's been on an unprecedented 46 years with more to come. And a lot of these changes are cost driven, something that was unfortunately a long time coming.

However, the fact that the multiple changes coming at once drove a longtime writer/performer/show runner away does leave a bad taste in my mouth. And I have to admit, some of the changes aren't bad, so much as I don't agree with why they're there. Sesame Street relied on parody stuff a little too much as of late. While I don't agree with "kids don't get it" I certainly agree with roping them in. Sesame Street has been a pop culture based show, they just never had to rely on it for relevance. And I do understand dialing back on the characters as well (especially the spastic one shot fairy tale characters), but I'm not 100% on the reasoning. Telly should not be done away with, and hopefully he isn't completely. But we definitely don't need Jack Horner pulling the wrong things out of pies and screaming about it for 10 minutes. We had enough of that last season.

I certainly will not kid myself with the "if (so and so) were still here, things would be different" argument. Besides, if it meant even more Elmo screen time, I'd think that would work to his advantage.

Actually, there is one thing that absolutely ticks me off about these articles. All of them basically say "It's completely bizarre that the network that airs, and ONLY airs, Game of Thrones and Sex in the City would want a kid's show." NO NO NO NO NO! HBO has had a history of children's programming, but... well... let's face it. Outside of Fraggle Rock and their Fairy Tale cartoons with non-Caucasian leads, they really don't have a...well... auspicious history. They had a couple kiddy anime dubs (back when it was a cheap thing) and like some crappy Stop motion guessing game show that was made in 1999 and is still on because they have nothing else. Of course they'd try to get the biggest name in edutainment to round up their less than stellar line up.

Yes, I completely agree,the whole "Sesame Street is gonna have sex and nudity because it's on HBO" thing really bugs the heck out of me because it is completely inaccurate,not to mention the fact that the whole joke was never actually funny, yet they still continue to make it.
As for the scaling back on characters thing,I do really hope they keep Telly on,he's one of my absolute favorite characters and he's one of the most well rounded. I think that if the show needs to scale back on characters,they should scale back on all the one- offs and perhaps the minor recurring characters like Mr.Johnson and Grundgetta. I like the minor characters a lot but for the most part they don't show up that often anyway and they're just minor characters. I love Bob,Gordon and Susan but they don't really have much of a purpose anymore. Get rid of the characters they don't truly need but keep the characters that have constantly driven the stories for the past at least 10-30 years.

 

[MuppetSpot]

Well Mr Johnson will be appearing this season so I'm not worried.

 

[Oscarfan]

The other characters are certainly going to be around still; why would they bother re-casting the likes of Prairie Dawn if they didn't plan to use her? We're probably just not going to get street stories that are centered around just Telly and Baby Bear, or Ernie and Bert anymore. This "core cast" limits the types of stories they can tell, however, if it keeps them character-based and doesn't have any more of these "fairy tale visitors with a problem" stories, I'm all for it.

 

[MuppetSpot]

Yes I hope SST will mothball fairytale characters.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yes, I completely agree,the whole "Sesame Street is gonna have sex and nudity because it's on HBO" thing really bugs the heck out of me because it is completely inaccurate,not to mention the fact that the whole joke was never actually funny, yet they still continue to make it.

Hey, look how long everybody kept spreading those Veggie Monster rumors, despite SST speaking loud and clear that Cookie never had or will become Veggie Monster, just that cookies are "sometimes food."

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Hey, look how long everybody kept spreading those Veggie Monster rumors, despite SST speaking loud and clear that Cookie never had or will become Veggie Monster, just that cookies are "sometimes food."

Yeah,adults kind of tend to believe what they want to about the show,mostly because they don't care that much.

The other characters are certainly going to be around still; why would they bother re-casting the likes of Prairie Dawn if they didn't plan to use her? We're probably just not going to get street stories that are centered around just Telly and Baby Bear, or Ernie and Bert anymore. This "core cast" limits the types of stories they can tell, however, if it keeps them character-based and doesn't have any more of these "fairy tale visitors with a problem" stories, I'm all for it.

It's still gonna take some getting used to,especially the fact that Abby and Elmo are going to be on it even more than they were in the past.It's also going to be a bit weird that Telly will hardly get any street stories where he's the main character considering how important he's been for such a long time. Having Big Bird,Oscar,Cookie and Grover around more will be an easy adjustment though.

Anyway,here's a new song from the Alan Cumming episode,it's actually pretty great. I'm really digging the music so far this season,this song and "Everyday Hero" are already some of my favorite songs from the show:

 

[Oscarfan]

Here's another very informative article, with quotes and thoughts from Llyod Morrisett (ya' know, the creator who isn't Joan), Gary Knell (former CEO) and Mike Davis (Street Gang author).

http://thinkprogress.org/culture/20...the-new-sesame-street-and-its-journey-to-hbo/

 

[D'Snowth]

Admittdly, I still get tired of hearing this mentality:

"Why buy 'Proud to be a Cow' on home video when you can watch the clip online for free?"

For . . . practical reasons? Online clips are obviously compressed so you lose a lot of quality that you otherwise retain on DVD - not to mention you don't have to have an internet connection to watch a DVD.

Nevertheless, so many new articles are coming out right now (and so many of them really long), I almost feel like I'm studying for finals.

 

[Oscarfan]

Admittdly, I still get tired of hearing this mentality:

"Why buy 'Proud to be a Cow' on home video when you can watch the clip online for free?"

For . . . practical reasons? Online clips are obviously compressed so you lose a lot of quality that you otherwise retain on DVD - not to mention you don't have to have an internet connection to watch a DVD.

Nevertheless, so many new articles are coming out right now (and so many of them really long), I almost feel like I'm studying for finals.

The general public wouldn't really care about video quality when it comes to finding stuff they remember. Most people finding their favorite segments on YT from when they were young aren't gonna say "Wow, I remember this, but the quality is terrible." They'll just enjoy being able to see something they remember. In fact, sometimes the worse the quality is, the more rare something seems, ergo makes it more valuable and more a worthy find.

And remember when people would tape trade/buy home videos just to see one segment? That's no longer the case anymore.

If you look at a release such as, The Best of Elmo 3, virtually the entire main feature consists of segments either on their YT channel or SS.org. It almost serves no purpose. That's the type of thing it's referring to. Why would I pay $15 dollars for a DVD that consists of nothing I can't see for free on their own website?