Sesame's 35th season kicks off with a prime-time special

[Censored]

I just saw it. The best I can say about it is, "nice try." Very little of it was about the old days. A lot more of the old days could be seen from the Noggin episodes than the few clips that they showed on this special. Grover was supposed to show Elmo the "Sesame Street he never knew" that was "before he was born." Yet, aside from the VERY brief scene of Mr. Hooper, all of the scenes were from Elmo's time. You can even see Elmo in the wedding of Maria and Luis. It didn't really make sense. I found it funny that when observing Miles' adoption, Grover said, "Gordon is still bald. Some things never change." I'm thinking, "Go back a little further in time, and everyone will see how much Gordon has changed. LOL Interesting that Gordon once again has a goatee beard, like he did on his first season there.

On the positive side, they actually did show a clip of the original Gordon at the end (if you remember, that was a high point of debate on here). Of course, it was very quick as a clip to represent the first season and nothing was said about it. David got just a little air time. As usual, his name was never spoken. It was also kind of interesting to see an extended version of "Dance Myself To Sleep" with celebrities, although it did not come close to matching the magic of "Put Down The Ducky" in its extended version.

I guess it was okay for what it was worth, but it could have been so much more.

 

[Censored]

Would you believe that I thought it was going to be on a different channel sometimw later this month? Any chance it'll be on again? I caught about 10 minutes of the show..

Don't worry. You didn't miss much.

 

[Censored]

Normally, that'd be 7pm Central, but check your listings and set your DVR!
I'm taping this for my kid who isn't even born yet (due in November), because
I want to raise him/her on Sesame Street, just as I was.

I think that is great, but if you really want him/her to appreciate the old days, I'd recommend tapes of the Noggin episodes over this special. Hope you get to share a lot of the "good old days" of Sesame Street with your child. Take care.

 

[Rowlf's Roadie]

Kermit appeared!
In brief clips, but Disney didn't sue! Was that Frank as Grover in the beginning? Bert sounded like Frank. Global Grover was definetely Jacobson. With Cookie I can't tell. Rosita and Grover had tons more fur, and Grover was brighter than I remember. Was that Miles in the end singing? All in all, a great episode, hopefully a harbinger of a great season.

 

[McFraggle]

Seeing Kermit and C-3PO and R2-D2 ranked as some of the highlights for me.

 

[BoyRaisin2]

It could have been better.

The first five minutes of the show, with Grover running down the street was the BEST part (with all the characters there) and I also liked that little retrospective at the end. Besides that, blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah, Elmo's World.

I recorded it, I'll keep it, but hopefully the 40th anniversary will be better.

 

[jeffkjoe]

I have to disagree with those who were disappointed with this special.

Sure, there was an overload of "Elmo's World," but what do you expect? I mean, granted, there was a plethora of useless sketches like the operatic "C is for Cookie," Global Thingy with the Chinese peacocks, the new Journey to Ernie, and that 3-D cartoon about the kid in the wheelchair.

But seeing the falling-Baker sketch/"Song of 10" again from 1969 was a real treat, even though it was descecrated with updated sound effects. That was a real surprise.

And the fact that the even acknowledged Matt Robinson in the 35 year retrospective at the end was a miracle, since the first Gordon's been dead to PBS since he left in 1971.

Plus, there were inside-jokes, like a nod to the Pointer Sister's 12 Pinball Count, and Nu-nu-nu the typewriter.

A good effort.

 

[Dr. Bombay]

I was not impressed in the least........true, I enjoyed the falling pie man and the typewriter cartoon......but what was with all the Elmo's World? And making a computer cartoon of the kid in the wheelchair? Why couldn't they just show the original clip with a human kid?

I realize that now-a-days SS is all about Elmo's World and Journey to Ernie and that's ok. But for a retrospective show, it should've been geared more towards the adults now who were kids then. More like the SS Unpaved special. To me if they were going to advertise that Grover takes Elmo back in time to the SS that was, the whole show should've been that, not the last fifteen minutes.

I was really disappointed.

 

[The Count]

What were the in-jokes referencing to the Pointer Sisters' Pinball Count and the Typewriter Guy?

 

[Drtooth]

The in joke about the Pinball skit... very funny...

If you can remember the scene with Grover and Elmo in the Taxi, they get lost on the way to Hooper's store and they show the stuff at the very end of the clip, after they finished counting in the background. There are pinball sounds (not the song itself) audible in the background.

The Typewriter guy was an actual skit (used C for Cat... which became little cat)