Sesame Street Season 51 Episode 5106 - Holiday at Hooper's

[Phillip]

"Holiday at Hooper's" premieres on PBS this Monday December 6. Tune in and let us know your thoughts.

Season 51 episodes are also available to stream online at pbskids.org/sesame for a limited time.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Weird seeing "Holiday Lights" reused like that, especially since they dubbed over Caroll's vocal (why?) and replaced the shot of Baby Bear's family.

You know I thought that sounded like Matt's BB. I know it's a bit weird that I can't always tell, but Carroll's BB did sound pretty much off his last few seasons. In answer to your question, Oscarfan, what I'm thinking is that maybe when a TV performer passes, I guess the writers want to move on and maybe not confuse viewers which could be why they didn't use Carroll's vocals in season 50 when they were initial going too, since Carroll died pretty recently after his retirement. Maybe they felt people would be confused and think he was still around. Similarly to how when Mr. Hooper died, they didn't use him in flashbacks so viewers didn't get confused as to why he was still around.

I notice they seem to be doing the same thing on Jeopardy! Usually on Saturdays, they'll repeat episodes from the previous season, but this year they're playing episodes from the current season on Saturdays presumable because they're trying to put the Alex Trebek era behind them. So I guess SS is doing the same thing with the Carroll Spinney era.

It's sad that they do this because these people are legendary and it would be nice to see their material reused, but anyway that's about the best explanation I can come up with. Though I have read Antsamthompson's answer here and that's a possible explanation as well.

Anyway, we get a version of the 12 Days of Christmas, sung by Cookie Monster, as he counts 12 types of Christmas cookies his friends gave him. His mother gives him a chocolate chip cookie, Abby gives him 2 letters, Baby Bear gives him 3 gingerbread men, and so on until Santa Claus himself gives Cookie (and his mother) 12 snowman cookies. I think this was really good. I loved the appearances from Mr. Johnson, a Martian, and of course Forgetful Jones (gotta love how he forgot his 10 bonbons). Plus, the food theme reminded me of the 12 Courses of Dinner, which is always a plus.

Yeah, it was nice to see something different besides the Foodie Truck or Amazing Adventures for a change. Though I can't help but wonder who the furry character was that gave Forgetful the bonbons. Couldn't be Buster, because he doesn't have a furry hand.

I liked seeing Papa Bear played by Marty, too bad Curly wasn't there.

Yeah, I was wondering who was playing Papa now. I believe this was the first he spoke since Whatshisname's departure. So I guess Marty will have his hands full next time Telly has dinner at the bears house.

I liked the Crankymas reference too. Seems like they're finally starting to use some continuity. Though it did seem weird that Curly wasn't there. If they were concerned about leaving Baby Bear alone, leaving Curly alone who's much younger is kind of a stretch? Maybe she had to stay home alone and protect the house from Harry and Marv.

I guess it’s time for Elmo’s World: Monster Edition.

Yeah. I was wondering if we'd get any more of those this year. In all honesty, I was thinking they would have reused the shortened version of "Elmo's World: Happy Holidays," so I'm glad they decided to go with something new.

For my own comments that no one mentioned, there was a good Grover/Mr. Johsnon scene, though they could have expanded on it, but I guess they wanted to make room for the actual plot. Plus I found it weird that Hooper's wasn't decorated for the holidays in the first place. I've worked in retail for quite some time and I've never really seen a store that was that empty during the Christmas season, especially a store like Hooper's which has pretty much everything. Just some food for thought.

 

[antsamthompson9]

You know I thought that sounded like Matt's BB. I know it's a bit weird that I can't always tell, but Carroll's BB did sound pretty much off his last few seasons. In answer to your question, Oscarfan, what I'm thinking is that maybe when a TV performer passes, I guess the writers want to move on and maybe not confuse viewers which could be why they didn't use Carroll's vocals in season 50 when they were initial going too, since Carroll died pretty recently after his retirement. Maybe they felt people would be confused and think he was still around. Similarly to how when Mr. Hooper died, they didn't use him in flashbacks so viewers didn't get confused as to why he was still around.

I notice they seem to be doing the same thing on Jeopardy! Usually on Saturdays, they'll repeat episodes from the previous season, but this year they're playing episodes from the current season on Saturdays presumable because they're trying to put the Alex Trebek era behind them. So I guess SS is doing the same thing with the Carroll Spinney era.

It's sad that they do this because these people are legendary and it would be nice to see their material reused, but anyway that's about the best explanation I can come up with. Though I have read Antsamthompson's answer here and that's a possible explanation as well.

They kept Carol's voice for the Letter of the Day song in this exact same episode. If they were playing footage of Big Bird when Caroll's voice was more enthusiastic, they wouldn't have Matt dub it over. Before Coppa disabled comments on Sesame's YT page, half of the comments on the video for Julia's debut street story were about how depressed Big Bird's voice sounded. They probably didn't want that to happen again, so they dubbed it over to avoid people making those comments.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

If they were playing footage of Big Bird when Caroll's voice was more enthusiastic, they wouldn't have Matt dub it over.

Yeah, I see what you mean. After all, for inserts and repeat episodes they don't dub over Kevin's Elmo or Steve's Ernie or Jerry's Count. (Yes, I notice they do sometimes go that far back.) Big Bird is kind of a different story because of the change in Carroll's voice in the HBO era, so I get what you're telling me. Though it is weird that they did repeat "Birdie and the Beast" recently and they didn't dub Carroll's lines there. I guess they missed that one or something.