Things you miss

[CensoredAlso]

Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Ernie, Bert, Grover, The Count, and Oscar are very well known as well.

But they're not being utilized as much. And the newer characters never did really reach that level of instant recognition.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, sort of sort of. Kids know who Cookie Monster is, definitely. Grover's utilized quite a bit. Oscar toys are all over the shelves. It's the fan favorites like Sherlock Hemlock that they'd have problems with.

But the older fans know who they are, and will watch the show with their kids to see if they can find them. In the instance of disgust for the characters going underused, that's what the online clips are for.

 

[CensoredAlso]

In the instance of disgust for the characters going underused, that's what the online clips are for.

And that's the future anyway. The gov't and corporations just want to delay it as much as possible, hehe.

 

[Drtooth]

SW has been good with online clips. They didn't even demand fans take down their grainy old video taped versions.

But on the vein of celebrities, and I kinda mentioned it before... I miss when everything was a surprise. Now we know when everything is, and again, it's an internet issue.

But there's just something wonderful about surprises. They still manage to have a few. Ernie's "I wonder" song was a pleasant surprise.

 

[CensoredAlso]

SW has been good with online clips. They didn't even demand fans take down their grainy old video taped versions.

True, they definitely have.

But on the vein of celebrities, and I kinda mentioned it before... I miss when everything was a surprise. Now we know when everything is, and again, it's an internet issue.

I find that you just have to know where not to go, lol.

 

[JLG]

I could say a lot of things, but I'm gonna try to boil it down.

What I really miss is the casual feeling it used to have. You'd be visiting a familiar place, full of familiar friends you knew so well, but your visits were always unplanned. You'd just wander along, not in any hurry, not going anywhere in particular, waving to all the friends you saw along the way, not knowing who would and wouldn't happen to be around that day. And you'd never know what was around the next corner---the place was so huge and so full of nooks and crannies. Even sticking to the same path would never result in having quite the same journey twice.
I really miss that.
Today, the visits are very different. You can't just wander around, you're guided. Everything is planned and organized. There's no time to just stop and reflect on the scenery, because you gotta stick to the schedule. Hustle hustle hustle. As a result, you see much less and have a smaller experience.

Many of the individual things I miss can fit somewhere inside what I said above. The variety, the eclecticness, the mishmash quality, the breezy casualness that somehow managed to prevail despite all the research behind it....
And also the greater breathing room that all your friends, human and Muppet alike, had to develop organically and be themselves, much less weighed down by specific guidelines. The longer storylines---and story arcs----afforded them that, as well as the improvisional quality many scenes used to have. Not so much today.

The show used to just be so....big. It was a BIG place to visit, and you could totally get lost inside of there, encountering everything from a talking typewriter to a girl taking her llama to the dentist. But since today we have to stick to the path set by the tour guide, we don't get to see people like that anymore, or have the opportunity to meet new friends just as varied and interesting.

 

[Drtooth]

That sums up the problem perfectly. The structure season (32) ruined the course of the show. They were getting more structured before that, lumping the number and letter sketches with each other... but there's no time to stop and smell the Muppet flowers, since everything has to fall into the place of a rigid schedule of celebrity appearance, parody, Abby segment, Super Grover segment, Letter and Numbner segments, Elmo the Musical, and whatever's left has to tie in to some part of the curriculum. Most people say the show has dumbed down... I say it's quite the opposite. Now it's too busy and all over the place. They tried to get it back to where it was, but then they decided upon the block format, and that became a ratings hit. That means, they're sticking with it for a while.

 

[Katzi428]

Well, ISNorden pretty much said what I miss. (Then again she & I are about the same age & grew up on the old school SS B.E....AKA Before Elmo) There weren't any 20 minute skits centered around 1 character like there are today. I think they've pretty much babyfied SS . (yes..I know there's no such word as "babyfied" ) But my 5 year old niece stopped watching SS when she was about 3.
Someone mentioned when the cast went on trips. SS should NEVER have stopped that. I enjoyed that when I was a kid! Seeing the cast go to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, New Mexico was interesting! Instead now they devote their time to 20 minutes of Elmo's World & NOW what's this about MORE Elmo? ! They should've given Elmo his own show if kids loved him so darn much!(although if Romney gets elected I don't see that happening)
ANYWAY(I'm muffining here)
They should try to cut down some of the skits down & get back down to basics & get back to on the street stories & some of the stuff they used to show in the 70s & 80s (with a new twist) like Today's Secret Drawing & One Of These Things w/the adult characters singing & voicing(like Bob) over the clip.

 

[D'Snowth]

With such a meager budget as they have, they probably can't afford to do any traveling/vacation episodes anymore.

Heck, I was disappointed during that really short story-arc back in Season 37, when we never actually saw Gina and Maria travelling to Guatemala so Gina could adopt Marco... I thought that at least had potential of maybe further exploring the story a bit, if not also, squeeze a few little educational tidbits about Guatemala and everything... if anything, they could have had a nice little emotional moment when Gina holds Marco in her arms for the first time.

Speaking of which, considering I haven't been able to watch in such a long time, I assume Marco is probably walking and talking by now, isn't he?

 

[Katzi428]

With such a meager budget as they have, they probably can't afford to do any traveling/vacation episodes anymore.

Heck, I was disappointed during that really short story-arc back in Season 37, when we never actually saw Gina and Maria travelling to Guatemala so Gina could adopt Marco... I thought that at least had potential of maybe further exploring the story a bit, if not also, squeeze a few little educational tidbits about Guatemala and everything... if anything, they could have had a nice little emotional moment when Gina holds Marco in her arms for the first time.

Speaking of which, considering I haven't been able to watch in such a long time, I assume Marco is probably walking and talking by now, isn't he?

To be honest I forgot all about Gina traveling to Guatemala to adopt adopt Marco.(I forgot about Marco himself. Sorry!) And yes..I'm sure he's walking & talking.
Another thing. a while ago they had a story about "Bob's Deaf Niece" Samara.That was probably just a 1 episode thing right. How soon they forget about Linda who was there for more than I'd say over 5 seasons? Kids need to be taught about handicapped people .A LOT of handicapped people had been on the show(I don't need to make a list). Did the present writers of SS want to ignore the fact that there are handicapped people in the world?OK Canadian friends ...wasn't there a little girl Muppet named Katie that was in a wheelchair on "Sesame Park"? It's like the American version of SS all of a sudden wants to shield their kids from the handicapped!Aristotle the blind monster apparently didn't last long. That's not right!