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

[dbarrie]

This is all very exciting news! Will this special be released to DVD? I'll try to catch it on TV, but it sounds like the knid of special that would be worth owning.

In addition to this story, I read that two classic SS will make its DVD debut next month. Last night I read that Big Bird's "China" and "Japan" specials will get reissued on Feb. 10. Does this mean that other older SS specials will get released to DVD as well? I can't wait to see the "China" show again. I don't think I ever saw the "Japan" one, but I'm sure it's good too.

OI MuppetFan

 

[Phillip]

It's likely the new prime-time special will see it's way onto DVD by the end of the summer. Part of last year's premiere made it on the Karaoke DVD that was released last August.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Seems as I remember more Muppets on the Street when I was a kid, too. As advanced as kids are today (computers in pre-school??) they surely can't be overwhelmed by more than one character at a time.

 

[JEANYLASER]

sesame's 35th season special

this is the great idea for sesame street special. i am the biggest sesame street fan.

 

[Dantecat]

Me too!!!Mainly The Classics.

 

[Luke]

New season will include parody segments: Dr. Feel (Dr. Phil), Joe Hundred Guy (Joe Millionaire) and TriangleBob Trianglepants (Spongebob Squarepants)

The special is a good idea, although Elmo hosting it when it's supposed to be also geared at the older fan too is a little dissapointing but then he is the logical choice seeing as they can't use Kermit. This parody thing makes me very uneasy. What the heck are they thinking making such blatent parodies of shows that are just the bubblegum pop cheap tabloid TV fodder flash in the pan type shows of today ? Sesame skits in the past have been clever but things like 'Trianglebob Trianglepants' are just dumbing things down to make the show more watchable for the Pokemon fan kids of today - which i guess they have to do to keep the figures up but it does (at least to me) make the content start to sound like puppetry's version of reality TV.

Starting to incorporate some forms of light entertainment style content into the show which has traditionally just been more educational stuff, and doing a prime time special seems to me Sesame Workshop are starting to blur the lines between what we traditionally think of as Sesame projects and Henson's Classic Muppet projects. Usually you would expect to see the Classic Muppets in primetime, and doing skits of popular shows (ie:- Hogwatch) but now we will see Sesame using their characters to start to do the same kinda thing. Of course they are entitled to do this and if it works, cool - they had that clause removed from their EMTV contract which meant they can now show programming in any timeslot and don't have to stick to educational content. Sesame licensing has also been expanded a lot to embrace the nostalgia fans with action figures, t-shirts etc and they've taken advantage of that boom just like the Classic Muppets have. It is interesting that these kinda moves could be the start of them competing more in Henson's territory.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

The special is a good idea, although Elmo hosting it when it's supposed to be also geared at the older fan too is a little dissapointing but then he is the logical choice seeing as they can't use Kermit.

Kermit's agent stinks, then. They should be able to like, you know, 'rent' him for a day or something. I say, kick Martina McBride out the way and drop Kermit in! He's as valuable.

Isn't he?

 

[Erine81981]

Whats going to happen if Muppets mention something about SS r they going to be ripped from their contract? I would like to know why Kermit can't at least be on SS anymore? I can't believe that they would do that to SS. JH would be scolding them for what they've done to his favortie frog. When our they ever going to keep something simple and easy for SS. Now we will never see Kermit on the street or his News man outfit.

Poor

 

[Luke]

There's lots of things that come into it. Sesame Workshop and Henson are two completely seperate companies each owning 100% of their own characters and shows so (technically) the Muppets and Sesame Muppets are now completely seperate of each other. In theory Kermit could do a guest appearance on Sesame just like he does on Jimmy Kimmel, all it would need is some agreement for him to appear but then you get into the realms of whether either company actually does want any Muppet/Sesame crossovers at all and who would pay for it seeing as there is no opportunity to promote anything. With Sesame Workshop now owning 100% of the characters and being able to try new things and compete in entertainment genres as well as educational it's probably more in their interests for the public to see them as a seperate brand and production house rather than associating them with Henson's Muppets - having crossovers might confuse that.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

And Jim did always say that he wanted to keep the educational SS seperate from the commercial Muppets, hence the difference between Mahna-Mahna and Bip Bipadotta: practically the same character, just that the SS version wears shades.