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

[MuppetSpot]

Am I the only one who's slightly disturbed by the redesigns of Grover and Cookie's moms? Just slightly? They seem to have a rather youthful redesign, they look more like they would be those characters' sisters rather than their moms.

Cookie's Mother mother yes, but, Grover's mother she just looks like she's younger version before she had Grover.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

But working for SST was Steve's childhood dream. I'd say Disney is somehow involved, but if that were the case, Eric, Matt, and David would probably be effected as well.

Don't know if someone already answered this, but I believe it was more Sesame's frustration with Steve's crowded schedule as Kermit, so they just straight up moved on to a new performer to fill the role and the schedule.

Also I'm pretty sure the other three are based in NY, so their scheduling may work a bit better.

 

[Drtooth]

I've said it before (and I believe Drtooth has too), but that's a drawback to producing seasons so far in advance (and for a while there, they were doing two seasons in advance), by the time they make it to air, the references are a tad dated.

The episode that was an obvious parody of the band ***** aired well after they broke up and were culturally irrelevant. And it wasn't even a close parody. It was one of those really loose "we're still relevant, darnit" ones that had nothing to do with *****. I mean, they didn't play instruments and the plotline was about how they needed instruments... really didn't bother researching anything with that one. And there's no excuse. There's the internet.

And then there's the point where they got really desperate about their parody segments in recent years. They made fun of "the girl scouts and their cookies" and the game Simon Sez and were proud of that. Then there's the whole bit about Everyday Magic being a parody of "Pippin" (which enjoyed a revival about a year before the episode aired), except it wasn't and had nothing to do with anything. I really feel that the satirical pieces were the show's burden. They only mention one this year, an Orange is the new Snack parody. That screams "in name only" considering the subject matter. I'd say the bigger problem is celebrity guests. Didn't the lead of One Direction leave shortly after "That's what makes U Useful," if not before?

 

[Oscarfan]

I wonder if that closing song will appear during or before the closing credits. I didn't see credits when I watched the clip.

They wouldn't include any credits it in for promotional purposes. I assume it'll have credits; there's a lot of negative space in the shots (such as the one of Cookie and Rosita) where the credits would go.

 

[D'Snowth]

Don't know if someone already answered this, but I believe it was more Sesame's frustration with Steve's crowded schedule as Kermit, so they just straight up moved on to a new performer to fill the role and the schedule.

Yeah, it was already brought up that Steve felt it wasn't practical to keep traveling to New York for just one character. But if that was the case, then that seems rather harsh, considering back in the day, CTW relished in the one week a year Jim devoted to taping new inserts for them.

 

[Drtooth]

To be fair, Jim had a lot more than one character that was continuously featured. Ernie and Bert weren't appearing much in the show as of late, and what was made seemed to be for foreign markets. Other performers split between Sesame and The Muppets have multiple roles in the show, or at least characters that appear frequently, like Cookie Monster (David) or Grover (Eric).

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

A new song with Aloe Blacc, featuring Segi and the Two Headed Monster:

There seems to be a lot of celebrity songs this season.

 

[Drtooth]

"Everyday Heroes" seems to be the season's new initiative.

Hopefully they don't go so incredibly overboard with this one like they did with the self-regulation one. They just seemed to shove those breathing exercises into any episode where it feels appropriate. They even stopped dead in the middle of a song to drop another anvil about it. And the less said about the nature guessing game season the better.

Though this does seem to be a nice thought for the show. Selflessness and helping others seems to be, well... in short supply lately. Nice to at least give this to the next generation.

 

[D'Snowth]

What about the whole STEM education initiative? That was during a time where everybody (especially Bill Nye) was all, "Kids aren't interested in engineering! We need to get kids interested in engineering or the very future as an evolved human race is in peril!"

 

[Drtooth]

I had problems with that one as well. And the health initiative. I find it hilarious that reading initiative (minus the Word on the Street thing that lasted for years after) and the math one were the most subdued and subtle of the initiatives...and Sesame Street has been teaching reading and math all along.

I've been harping on the initiatives for a while now. Nothing is wrong with adding something to the curriculum or putting a slight emphasis on one of the subjects, but they tend to go completely overboard with the concept of the season. And it's a shame since they have these segments made to present these subjects. Super Grover 2.0 did engineering and problem solving better than the street stories, ditto Crumby Pictures and self-regulation. Though I still think they were just awful with the nature initiative and the repetitive and boring guessing game episodes. Especially the one that was supposed to be about Bert, and he was just there for the first minute and the last 30 seconds while Elmo and Zoe found out the magical lesson that birds give different calls. Oh, and that one where Chris and Elmo go camping and have to serve different foods to different creatures to deliver the message that different creatures eat different things (which is going to be rerun this season). Just dull and repetitive.