Sesame Workshop lays off 10% of employees

[Oscarfan]

Are they wrapped for season 44? Seems like only Season 45 would be horribly affected by this.

Oh frog.

The anniversary season is going to be a TREMENDOUS disappointment.

I'm pretty sure they're done. If anything, the only things left are the celebrity Word of the Day bits. I know they started filming, but someone (who as at the PBS Annual Meeting a month or so ago, where they had info on the new season) said they started in July. So, either they were wrong or there's still a few more of them left to shoot.

I'd like to know if they filmed any ETM bits before Kevin left, hopefully. It seems some of the inserts weren't filmed during the regular season shooting time (the parodies were filmed around Late April-Early May).

 

[Drtooth]

If anyone was asking, the 45th anniversary season will be a disaster. I was part kidding on that.

Anyway, I wonder if SW considered dumping The Electric Company. Seems like every time I wind up watching it, it's always the same 3 episodes. And that cartoon thingy that's an advertisement for the website? That was cute at first, but it got very annoying very quickly. I mean, I think the show is great and all, but it seems completely dumbed down vs. the first season or so. I mean, you hear old school Sesame fans complain about how the show's dumbed down... but even if that's the case, I mean it didn't take 2 seasons for that to happen.

Anyway, I still think they should be using the unused footage made for international markets in some fashion. If they can force us through a season of having to look at the reused Zoe mouse puppet, they sure as shell can use some of those Spanish health tips and unseen Ernie and Bert claymations. And even if the remaining claymations did test poorly, I still don't see why they don't take advantage of a second volume DVD release with a "Never before seen" sticker. I mean, that sticker alone makes it a license to print money.

 

[Oscarfan]

If celebrities are apparently costing much, I don't know why they don't go the AM route for some of them. "Measure, Yeah, Measure" felt very classic just because it used an AM caricature instead of the actual Justin Beiber. Part of the humor from the newer spoofs is because of the caricatures and how accurate they can make them; why not do the same for some of the musical spoofs?

 

[Drtooth]

Get out of my head! I was just about to say that.

I've always felt the self celebrity self parody songs were a little...ehhh... self serving. Some of them were good, I can't lie. Furry Happy Monsters, and even that Five By thing were pretty good. Sad thing is, Outdoors has more comprehensible lyrics than the actual real song it was based on.

Now I can't pretend to understand specific minutia of the deals SW has to make to get these celebrities on there, but it seems to me the bigger concern is that they probably have to pay the record companies something for the use of real world music tunes. Where as, Jimmy Hart versions (Rebel L, Letter B, etc) are cheaper to write and copyright themselves. There is the danger that someone's going to try to sue them, sure, but parody law is usually on their side and I have never heard a case where the original song writers actually won it. Even the Family Guy case over "I need a Jew," which was essentially laughed out of court.

And on the plus side, they don't have to be bound by top 40 musicians. They can parody any song from any era.

As far as celebs go, I'd rather see them go the Little Richard/Elmopalooza route and just sing Sesame Street standards. If I want to hear them sing their own songs, I'll listen to their own songs. If I want their songs with new lyrics, I'll wait for Weird Al to do it.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Hey, now that HBO is paying for the production of Sesame Street, I guess Sesame Workshop can focus on other things without having to worry about losing half their budget.
So SW can put their money into more military family programs, international outreach and maybe hire more people to help maintain that massive archive of SST footage. And best of all, no more lay offs, yaay!

 

[D'Snowth]

In this day and age, I doubt no more lay offs, from any business, will ever be a thing.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

In this day and age, I doubt no more lay offs, from any business, will ever be a thing.

Well sure, but I just mean they will probably be less likely and less frequent than they were a few years ago.