So, What do you Think of THIS?

[D'Snowth]

I was browsing through fye today to see if they had anything worthy of a few bucks or so... I went through the family section, to see if they had any Muppet/Henson-related something I yet to add to my library, and saw something that, unfortunately, is not strange, but makes me wonder how others would feel about it...

Now, the DVDs and such were separated in an alphabetized manner, no biggie... but get this, there were two different selections: a selection for SST, then a separate selection for Elmo.

I mean, I look at this myself, and think nothing new under the sun, and I'm sure perhaps this is just this particular store, but it makes me wonder what other would think of something like this... would this make you do a faceslap (or facepalm, or whatever you like to call it) that Elmo has to have his own selection? Does it make you wish that if Elmo gets his own selection, why not Big Bird and Cookie Monster and Ernie and Bert, etc?

 

[Drtooth]

I mean, I look at this myself, and think nothing new under the sun, and I'm sure perhaps this is just this particular store, but it makes me wonder what other would think of something like this... would this make you do a faceslap (or facepalm, or whatever you like to call it) that Elmo has to have his own selection?

Nah... they make more Elmo's World and Elmo based DVD's than any other character, so there's no real surprise there. Other than 2 Cookie Monster based ones, I don't think any character had more than one best of or video that focused completely on them.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I've never seen Elmo have his own section anywhere myself. I would never agree with such a decision because it's essentially a monopoly, lol. It's just never a great idea to have so much riding on one character.

 

[The Shoe Fairy]

Over here this is usually the case, because EW is considered a separate show. Because of this there are a ridiculous number of Elmo themed DVDs, and it tends to spam up other SST stuff on the shelf; so it makes some sense to separate the two.

 

[matleo]

I kind of understand it. I face the same thing at our library. Some Sesame Street stuff is filed under 'S'. But there are some specific titles (Big Bird in China/Japan, Abby in Wonderland, Elmo's World, etc.) that are under they're respective first letter. One hand, it's very frustrating, but in the case of Elmo (and particularly Elmo at retail) because there is so much of it and such a demand for it from kids, it makes sense.

--Matt

 

[CensoredAlso]

It makes sense now, when Elmo is big. But if that ever changes, if Elmo starts to get ignored for whatever reason, he may very well take the entire show with him. That's what can happen when you invest so much in one character

 

[Drtooth]

Unfortunately, I don't think kids would ever tire of Elmo. There's a reason why he's so popular, and the fact that the 3 year olds who the show is now made for relate to that character is going to keep him the "star" of the show for some time.

There is a demand and an audience, and it hasn't changed for well over 10 years now, and that's exactly the problem.

There have been a handful of best ofs or starring character videos, sure. But for the longest time, the videos were just compilations based on educational content, or ones off of specials.

The only other character that had more than 2 videos center around them is Big Bird, but that's only because the 2 Asian specials add to that.

 

[CensoredAlso]

There is a demand and an audience, and it hasn't changed for well over 10 years now, and that's exactly the problem.

I'm not even sure that's true anymore; I see a lot of other kids shows that seem just as, if not more, popular at this point.

 

[D'Snowth]

You know what's funny though?

I bet there were people who grew up in the 60s and 70s who thought thew "new" SST of the 80s and 90s was terrible, while those who grew up inthe 80s and 90s think today's SST is terrible, and even in another ten or twenty years from now, people who grew up with 00s and 10s SST are going to think the "new" SST o fthe 20s and 30s is terrible.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm not even sure that's true anymore; I see a lot of other kids shows that seem just as, if not more, popular at this point.

Funny thing... look at Ed, Edd, N' Eddy... Now, there was a show that premiered around the time Dexter and PPG ran the network... it was pretty underrated, little to no people heard of it... it was basically just there, and then, randomly, sometime in the early to mid 00's, several years being on and unnoticed, it became one of CN's most popular shows. They had merchandise almost 5-10 years after it premiered... I have the Ed sitting on a toilet racer.

But as far as Elmo goes, it really seems that's where the demand is... to a much lesser extent, Abby... but mostly Elmo. That's the unfortunate thing that hasn't changed much since 1998... however, there have been strides since then, and almost every single other character had a surge of popularity (Grover got a balloon before Elmo did)... Elmo's just the most consistent...