So... Sesame Street Season 44!

[Dominicboo1]

I'll meet you both way. There really seems like a lack of variety all over as a result of the budget problem. I wouldn't be surprised if they favor Chris and Alan because they're more available than anyone else. You also notice how empty the set becomes most of the time. Except for one or two episodes a season where there's a big party or contest or something... then they fill it up with extras and whoever's available on the set. Of course, there's also the matter that Hooper's Store is becoming more integral to street stories to some extent.

I don't mind the ham. At least they're having fun, too much fun, but it's far better than being completely out of it and wooden. They should reel it in a bit.

Speaking of Alan, did anyone notice a refrence to Mr. Hooper in the Little Red Riding Hood episode? Red refers to Alan as Hooper since it's Hooper's Store, and Alan begins to explain but she doesn't listen.

 

[D'Snowth]

I do believe that they do try to look for ways to continually acknowledge that there was, at one point, an actual Mr. Hooper who used to run Hooper's Store, whether it's the fact that the store's name hasn't changed after all these years, or the picture Big Bird has of him next to his nest, or anything like that.

But it's interesting that Alan may possibly be a more readily available performer at this point in time, because it seems like for a while there, he was hardly on the show at all anymore, mostly due to the increase in stage work he was doing.

As for the street being empty, that seems to go back quite a bit... at least since the 80s or so. The 70s seemed to particularly throw in a lot of extras in the background, with kids playing in the arbor area, or running up and down the sidewalks, but it does seem like that was slowly phased out a tad by the mid 80s. Similar to how the really early episodes of M*A*S*H had TONS of people walking around the compound in the background making the camp feel crowded before eventually just about the only extras walking around in the background were the recurring day-players (that and too, one early episode said there were 200 people in their unit, but later that number was down to 50).

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. The street is completely empty most of the time. No kids being called in, no extra puppeteers just having random characters pace around the background, no Extras... and a lot of the time, only 2 or 3 Muppets in the story. There's less and less of random characters popping up in stories. Quite a few times they walk by Oscar's can, and he doesn't even pop up.

 

[muppetlover123]

heres part 2 with elmo pretty interesting

 

[Muppet fan 123]

I would so audition just to see the inside of the SW building.

I'm not a big fan of their "Search for a new Cast member" thing. It seems below them.
Also, who's performing Elmo in that above video? Is that Ryan Dillion?

 

[Drtooth]

I'm pretty sure this was done months ago before Kevin left.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm not a big fan of their "Search for a new Cast member" thing.

I know right? I mean part of the charm of the humans that were on the show from the get-go is that they didn't take a big Hollywood approach to whomever they would cast, they just brought people in, had them interact with children in something like a focus group, and whoever the kids responded to the best were hired to be on the show, and that's how we got Susan, Bob, and Mr. Hooper. Even more recently, when they needed a new owner for Hooper's Store, mostly older, grandfather-like actors auditioned for the part, but CTW decided to take a younger approach (and later look to have Asian-Americans represented on the show), and eventually Alan was selected based on how well he could interact with the Muppets as well as kids.

But now, this? I mean seriously, WHY are they making such a big deal out of this? We knew about this sometime ago, SW posted about it on their site, and now we've got this three-part, "Search for the Next Sesame Street Star" video thing, I mean I just don't get why they're making it such a big deal; this is hardly the first time they've auditioned new actors for the show... heck, even Leela just simply popped up when Season 39 started.

 

[Muppet fan 123]

Exactly. They should be picking it out in the ways that they've been doing in the past. I don't think they found all the previous human actors by making a major open audition..when you're in the childre's entertainment industry, you know where you can find actors. I'm sure there are plenty of people worthy of being "The Next Sesame Star". Are there really no Asian-Americans in the business?

How do they just hire some random person? They have to prove that they can interact with little kids and the Muppets on camera, as well as being able to show that they can be entertaining to kids, as well as teach them. I don't know how much you can evaluate a person on by just having a three-part audition and then hiring them.

Also if they hold these open auditions, everyone wants to audition, but they're only accepting Asian-Americans. They should keep this thing more quiet. This whole "Searching for a New Star" thing doesn't work for Sesame.
This isn't American Idol, people! This is Sesame Street!

 

[D'Snowth]

One little correction for you: it's Hispanics they're looking for; I mentioned Asian-Americans as part of how Alan was eventually selected to be on the show because they decided they wanted an Asian-American fixture on the show at the time of his audition.

But yeah; part of what made the show so special was how they always did things their own way, which might be viewed as unorthodox, or even maybe unprofessional by other producers or studios or such; SST was always a unique show, and part of it was the unique methods they had of actually putting the show together, but this big to-do casting call they're having is so mainstream and "UnSesame" of them, it just doesn't feel right. Like you say, if they need a new Hispanic human on the show, then bring some in, have them do a screen test with some of the Muppets, have them interact with some kids, see who can relate the best to them, and let whoever have the job.

 

[Drtooth]

It's all about PR. Sesame Street needs more and more to be relevant, and here it seems like they're trying to make a big deal about adding a specific cast member of a specific race. The season doesn't even start for several months yet, heck... last one just ended. I wonder why they're doing this so early, myself...probably trying to get the jump on anyone with insider information. Clearly the cast member has already been cast, as they filmed a lot of season 44 during the second phase of filming 43.

I don't see this as anything but hype for the next season. It's gimmicky, but so is the business of PR and advertising. I still call shenanigans on making a big deal about another Hispanic actor joining the show, as Leela's culture is rarely talked about. And knowing Sesame Street lately, they're going to push that sucker and make sure the audience gets bludgeoned with the point.

I really hope they are more subdued about Hispanic heritage, since that's always been the main secondary culture with the show (I don't see them releasing albums in other languages in this country). Like they had that song in French once, but they usually go for Spanish language segments/education. Still seems like they need more actors of different backgrounds and races to talk about more cultures than just that one.