Should Sesame Street continue?

[Drtooth]

Dr T. (and hating to sound like "When I was a kid " but I must)
When SS aired in the 70s there wasn't anything that aired from 20 minutes, then "coming up next" is Blah blah focusing on one character.....Everything was street stories then 5 minutes of say Ernie & Bert then something like "Today's Secret Drawing" then back to the street scene & a letter segment..are you following me here?.
It should be like that for kids today.

The problem is, everything else on children's TV is like that now anyway. Like I always say, Sesame Street doesn't intentionally "dumb" itself down, rather there's a black hole created by Nick Jr. and Disney Jr. shows that drags the rest of children's television down with it. I hate the fact they have an adapt or die attitude, but that's why the show's been on longer than anything else made for children.

The only other thing I can think of that lasted nearly as long is Scooby-Doo (even though it hasn't exactly been in production as constantly as Sesame is) and that changed formats multiple times as well, but always manages to go back to the original format. And despite what everyone says, Scrappy-Doo actually saved the show's sagging ratings. That's right! Scooby wouldn't have lasted as long as it did without everyone's least favorite character. I can't think of a better parallel... the block format that we don't like brought the ratings back up and most of them were the older demographic that Sesame Street lost in the 00's.

And you have to look at it this way, before they decided on the block format, the show was almost reverting back to its original form, or close enough to it. Season 39 shook off most of the changes brought about in 2002. They even had the cast members announce the letters and number of the day, often fitting into the main story's plot. Too bad that didn't last, but I doubt that's the last we'll see of it. No change on Sesame Street has been permanent. If they can get rid of Elmo's World, there's hope yet.

 

[Katzi428]

The problem is, everything else on children's TV is like that now anyway. Like I always say, Sesame Street doesn't intentionally "dumb" itself down, rather there's a black hole created by Nick Jr. and Disney Jr. shows that drags the rest of children's television down with it. I hate the fact they have an adapt or die attitude, but that's why the show's been on longer than anything else made for children.

The only other thing I can think of that lasted nearly as long is Scooby-Doo (even though it hasn't exactly been in production as constantly as Sesame is) and that changed formats multiple times as well, but always manages to go back to the original format. And despite what everyone says, Scrappy-Doo actually saved the show's sagging ratings. That's right! Scooby wouldn't have lasted as long as it did without everyone's least favorite character. I can't think of a better parallel... the block format that we don't like brought the ratings back up and most of them were the older demographic that Sesame Street lost in the 00's.

And you have to look at it this way, before they decided on the block format, the show was almost reverting back to its original form, or close enough to it. Season 39 shook off most of the changes brought about in 2002. They even had the cast members announce the letters and number of the day, often fitting into the main story's plot. Too bad that didn't last, but I doubt that's the last we'll see of it. No change on Sesame Street has been permanent. If they can get rid of Elmo's World, there's hope yet.

Well if they don't get anyone to fill Kevin Clash's shoes as far as Elmo goes, then Elmo's World (now Elmo The Musical) will be gone.
I thought of something the other day (but forgot to mention it) There are kids diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) Risking myself again with the "Back In My Day " buuttt Kids weren't diagnosed with that. (Then again doctors & other professionals know more now) Sesame Street jumping from one thing from to another every 15 minutes isn't helping ADD kids. They're just settled into one segment & then BOOM! It's over!

 

[SSLFan]

Should Sesame Street continue?

Yes, yes it should.

 

[Drtooth]

I thought of something the other day (but forgot to mention it) There are kids diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) Risking myself again with the "Back In My Day " buuttt Kids weren't diagnosed with that. (Then again doctors & other professionals know more now) Sesame Street jumping from one thing from to another every 15 minutes isn't helping ADD kids. They're just settled into one segment & then BOOM! It's over!

By that logic, you could say the same for the older episodes going from one thing to another every 2 minutes. The older episodes did have a problem going back and forth from longer to shorter segments. Look at "Hey Cow, I see you Now." That's 7 minutes long and it comes on with little or no warning depending on the episode (the first episode manages to lead into it), and then it cuts to a shorter cartoon about counting dots. I remember getting antsy at some of the longer segments that weren't Muppets, catchy songs, or animations. Still happens to me today, classic or current episodes. It seems to be a problem they always had. But that jumping around from thing to thing was what made Sesame Street unique.

As for Elmo... there's no doubt they have an understudy. Even if that wasn't the case, they've filmed a good portion through season 44, so unless they were filming ETM segments last, I'm pretty sure they have enough to rerun over and over for the next couple seasons.

 

[dwayne1115]

The saying Elmo is bigger then one person explains everything that Sesame feels about Elmo. I however don't believe that Elmo is bigger then one person.

 

[Drtooth]

Elmo's freaking bigger than the company! I skipped right from TV show. I kinda think it's best if the character were to lay low for a while, but people are still grabbing up Elmo stuff. Not to mention a bit of season 44 has already been filmed. It's not until that second half where we'd see much of a change if any.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Not to be harsh, but since Bob, Susan, and others haven't really been on SS that often in recent seasons, will kids really notice their absence? Don't get me wrong, I love Bob, Susan, and the others, but it's not like the old days where a good handful of cast members were seen in each episode. Mr. Hooper was on the street frequently, so his sudden absence needed to be explained. Same goes for David.

 

[King Jim]

All right: I'm not trying to cause a war here.
But let's all look at the facts:
The show's been going for 43 years & change. Jim Henson passed away in 1990 (?) (I give Steve Whitmire great credit for picking up where Jim left off ; don't get me wrong!) But now Jerry Nelson has passed on.Kevin Clash has decided to leave us.Carroll Spinney isn't getting any younger (even though by Ryan/prawncracker's pics /he looks wonderful,he's STILL pushing 70something) I think Fran Brill has been around since 1972. I don't know about the other Muppeteers.
Plus what about the humans? Susan (Loretta Long) & Bob (McGrath) have been there since there since day 1! I found out from a fellow MCer that Bob is 80! At the Thanksgiving parade my family & I were remarking at how Bob had aged. If (God forbid) Bob and /or Loretta does pass away it'll be another explaining about death again to another generation of kids. It was handled well when Will Lee (Mr.Hooper) passed away 20 years ago (I applaud the writers & the cast . & just realized how long ago that was..WOW!Although I'm not happy w/the way they handled David's departure.Kids are usually told when someone leaves they come back. Big Bird was told that David moved to the farm to help his grandmother.I'm wondering how many kids wondered when David would be back.But that's just me.) Anyway, am I wrong in my thinking? And let's not turn this into a battle where the mods need to close the thread OK?
Kathy

I wonder if Sesame Street will ever make all there Muppets go CGI animated to save money. IF that did happen I'd be sad. .

 

[Drtooth]

Not to be harsh, but since Bob, Susan, and others haven't really been on SS that often in recent seasons, will kids really notice their absence? Don't get me wrong, I love Bob, Susan, and the others, but it's not like the old days where a good handful of cast members were seen in each episode. Mr. Hooper was on the street frequently, so his sudden absence needed to be explained. Same goes for David.

That's the Fleeting Demographic rule. Kids don't know or care much for characters that aren't on often, unlike us who grew up with them. On the one hand, it is pretty sad that kids don't have the same connection, but they have their own characters they connect to. We've seen Hooper's store change hands multiple times. This next generation will only know it from Alan and Chris. And that's pretty stable considering how many hands it changed in the 90's.

I wonder if Sesame Street will ever make all there Muppets go CGI animated to save money. IF that did happen I'd be sad. .

Other than the short lived Twiddlebug revamp and Abby's Flying School (which is no different from Ernie and Bert claymation segments), we're not going to see that any time soon. Sesame Workshop knows that, while Sesame would have been a good children's show anyway, it wouldn't have lasted 5 years, let alone 40 without the Muppets. Even though Jim is erroneously credited with the series, and often times was given a lot more credit than he really did, he did shape the show. Out of respect, SW is keeping the Muppets as Muppets (except for special occasions, like Elmo's Alphabet Challenge). Heck, Disney gave them the distinct honor of letting them still call the characters Muppets. Henson didn't even get that privilege.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Not to be harsh, but since Bob, Susan, and others haven't really been on SS that often in recent seasons, will kids really notice their absence? Don't get me wrong, I love Bob, Susan, and the others, but it's not like the old days where a good handful of cast members were seen in each episode. Mr. Hooper was on the street frequently, so his sudden absence needed to be explained. Same goes for David.

I miss the humans. Some of them were really great. I wasn't as big of a fan back then as I am now, but they really are great and they're so dedicated to the show.
I don't like that they've been phased out a lot recently, but I think a lot of characters have been phased out with this whole Elmo craze .