Should Sesame Street continue?

[muppetlover123]

i hope it goes til at least 50

 

[Drtooth]

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 .

I never really bought the "characters being phased out because of Elmo" meme. It all had to do with puppeteer availability. Cookie, Bert and Grover were appearing less because Frank was. Eric and David brought the characters back. Cookie's pretty much the character you'll see most next to Elmo in merchandising and personal appearances, Grover on the show. Like I said, Super Grover got a Balloon in the Macy's Parade, Elmo didn't. The only characters that were really phased out are ones that haven't been recast yet, or ones the writers just can't write material for somehow. If you look at it, we've seen more classic characters come back, if anything. Too bad some of the comebacks aren't permanent.

But the human actors, that's another story. There's the argument that they're focusing on the younger actors, even though Gordon is quite prominent, as is Maria from time to time. But I guess that also has to do with availability. The actress playing Susan also teaches (I don't know if she still does or not), and I'm sure Bob has a private life as well. Besides, they're not going to be around forever. You can recast a Muppet, you can recast kids, and they did recast Gordon twice, but you just can't recast people who have been on the show forever.

 

[Katzi428]

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.



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.

Dr. Tooth (tooth...ouch!...er..never mind) you make a good point in letting the Muppets still be called Muppets despite Jim Henson being gone & Kermit & Co. being sold to Disney.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Dr. Tooth (tooth...ouch!...er..never mind) you make a good point in letting the Muppets still be called Muppets despite Jim Henson being gone & Kermit & Co. being sold to Disney.

Plus it refers to them as Muppets on Sesamestreet.org. Check the top of the page/

 

[CensoredAlso]

I never really bought the "characters being phased out because of Elmo" meme. It all had to do with puppeteer availability.

Well that was definitely part of it. But I don't recall any of the newer characters geting their own segment in the show like Elmo's World.

 

[Drtooth]

Well that was definitely part of it. But I don't recall any of the newer characters geting their own segment in the show like Elmo's World.

Most Muppets had their own segments. Difference is they weren't that long, nor did most of them last that long. We tend to forget, Letter of the Day was Cookie Monster exclusive, and Number of the Day was The Count's segment when they first did them as segments. Let's not forger Journey to Ernie, a Big Bird vehicle. The only major characters on the show currently to not get a segment were Telly, Baby Bear, and Zoe. Even Oscar had the short lived Trash Gordon. Grover even had 2.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Most Muppets had their own segments. Difference is they weren't that long, nor did most of them last that long. We tend to forget, Letter of the Day was Cookie Monster exclusive, and Number of the Day was The Count's segment when they first did them as segments. Let's not forger Journey to Ernie, a Big Bird vehicle. The only major characters on the show currently to not get a segment were Telly, Baby Bear, and Zoe. Even Oscar had the short lived Trash Gordon. Grover even had 2.

OK fair enough, I admit I'm not as up on 1990's-Present Sesame Street. But I do think once Tickle Me Elmo became a huge hit on Black Fridays the creators did lean in a certain direction.

 

[Drtooth]

Elmo's popularity was starting to show just before the Tickle Doll. But that can be attributed to the recent decision to drop the Around the Corner setting and most of the characters, the age group demographic starting to swing towards Elmo's 3 1/2 year old age, and the lack of certain puppeteer's availability. This also lead to Telly and Baby Bear being bigger characters.

But everyone seems to forget, after Tickle Me Elmo, there was the slightly less popular but still huge hit Sing and Snore Ernie that lead to a huge popularity bump in Ernie. He even had a recurring segment, Ernie's Show and Tell. Of course, poor Bert was left out in the cold.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

He even had a recurring segment, Ernie's Show and Tell. Of course, poor Bert was left out in the cold.

Steve Whitmire & Eric Jacobson do a great job with Piggy and Kermit, but I don't think the Ernie/Bert dynamic can be imitated as easily. That was a Henson/Oz dynamic, unique to their friendship.

 

[Drtooth]

Eric and Steve have been doing as good a job. They wouldn't be better as one team or another because they're the same people. The real problem was the Steve and Frank dynamic. They were both in top form, but there was some stumbling block of chemistry.

But that's not why I put that point forward. Ernie became almost as popular as Elmo around that time. And just think, the character is so old, he existed before Sesame Street was a TV show. You know that was on the right track. Sad thing is, Cookie didn't get an epic Christmas season toy. Grover's Super Grover 2,0 is supposedly a hot gift this season, but I've never seen anything to prove that.

That's not to say that those two characters aren't back. Remember, what character wanted to be on SNL and had an audition tape? Cookie. Who had a viral video parody that was a hit? Both Cookie and Grover.