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Sesame went down hill when Elmo came on the scene

BlakeConor14

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Sesame Street had adapt because of more channels creating more shows which means that kids now have a choice that they didn’t really have in 70s and 80s. In the 90s you had Barney and Blues Clues, as well as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network producing hit after hit in the 90s. And of course Disney Channel also came out swinging with shows like Bear in the big blue house. And then in the 00’s you had Dora and lots of other shows.

Sesame had to adapt to keep up with the changing times otherwise it could’ve been left in the dust. However it didn’t loose its original morals and spirit and that’s why it’s trumped all the shows it once might have feared
 
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MuppetSpot

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Need we be reminded of how ATC was made in an effort to compete with Barney.
 

datman24

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Let me further explain:
The purple dinosaur gave us the change in the overall tone and feel of the show that still lingers on to this day. The blue dog gave us Elmo’s World and the change in format of the show. The bilingual explorer gave us Abby Cadabby, which destroyed the already working dynamic duo of Elmo and Zoe.
 

LittleJerry92

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Just curious how Abby Cadabby has relation to Dora? Sorry, I’m not really seeing the connection.
 

MuppetSpot

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Just curious how Abby Cadabby has relation to Dora? Sorry, I’m not really seeing the connection.
I blame Dora for giving stuff like Journey To Erne than Abby, plus I remember that people literally got sick of Elmo and Zoe at the time like when they were circus detectives. If anything Abby was probably just added to due the growing market towards little girls, I remember Abby came out when Disney was really pushing their Fairies and Princesses line.
 

D'Snowth

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Ironically, these shows and others have been criticized for copying SS, mainly for the fact that they all speak directly to the audience, as SS does.
 

DatH

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Pity
I used to dislike Abbey when I was a kid. Then I realized that was mainly due to being like Elmo's equal, which prevented a lot of character interactions, and the fact she overshadowed Zoe almost entirely
Similar to Clash's Elmo, she's a riot out of the Street. Goes to show the Muppeteers are good, the writers not so much
 

D'Snowth

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Well, that was, unfortunately, intentional: they were in desperate need of a female Muppet character to achieve Elmo's level of star power to bring in more little girls to watch, as well as give little girls watching a character they could relate to . . . they tried it before with other female Muppets like Ruby, Merry, Roxie Marie, and yes, even Zoe, but they each kind of missed the mark.
 
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