TV Alert: Sesame Street at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

[antsamthompson9]

Thanks. I'll take a look when I get a chance. Looking forward to seeing Noel's fine performance as Big Bird. :rolls eyes:

If you wanna see Noel do a pretty good job as Big Bird, check this out:

 

[D'Snowth]

Caroll originally wanted Noel to be Big Bird's understudy, but he apparently just couldn't get the hang of the Bird's voice.

 

[Cookie Chris]

Like everyone said, I was underwhelmed by their performance. I was upsetting and disappointing that Elmo sang the entirety of the song, and there were no solo lines for the other characters especially Big Bird. I noticed Alan dancing off to the side, though. Oh well, there's always next year.

 

[Schfifty]

I was asleep during the Sesame float's appearance, so I unfortunately missed it. I can't tell very well from the video, but did they play the 1992 calypso theme again? Apparently they've been using that theme in nearly every parade the last several years, but I would be surprised if they used the calypso closing theme again after all these changes the last year.

Caroll originally wanted Noel to be Big Bird's understudy, but he apparently just couldn't get the hang of the Bird's voice.

I saw the Tonight Show video, and I don't think he sounds too off. He probably sounds closer to the right voice than he was back when Caroll was deciding his understudy (the late 1990s, I assume).

 

[animalrescuer]

I didn't watch the parade at all this year or last year. I just got bored with the so-called "musical superstars". I was disappointed in this appearance too. I can understand why Sonia wasn't there, but what about Bob, Roscoe, Chris and the others? I don't know how I feel about the song itself. This was probably the weakest showing of the Sesame Street float by far.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah. I mean, how many of the pop stars do you actually hear about after the parade? Maybe I'm getting too old or something. That doesn't explain why I like some of the things I do that I shouldn't, but every year I'm like, man I wish I had On Demand or DVR so I can just fast forward to the balloons. I was just unimpressed with the balloon selection this year (must've missed Finn and Jake when I was ...uh... disposed), and the floats just... can we get a good sponsor if these are all going to be advertisements? Like when they had the M&M's salute to Broadway? Everything's like Gingerbread houses by insurance companies or something.

Also, I must admit, considering this thing airs on NBC, a company that loves to market the heck out of everything in all their projects (like the completely awkward scene where the producer's family was watching Biggest Loser and saying it was their favorite show in Get him to the Greek), I was absolutely shocked to not see a Minions balloon, float, or anything like that in the parade. And no Jurassic Park stuff either. It's NBC... they love shoving other projects into projects as advertisements.

And really... I hate the bro-country they shove into these things. Bro-Country is the worst music there is, and I love how they take this family event and book groups that sing all about sex. And because it's downhome AHMERICAN country music no one says anything about it. That woman singing about how they can't have a piece of her cherry pie... not subtle. Not subtle at all. Everyone knows what that's a euphemism for, even kids. I'm not prudish or easily offended by anything, and even I find this to be an obnoxious double standard.

 

[wiley207]

I was asleep during the Sesame float's appearance, so I unfortunately missed it. I can't tell very well from the video, but did they play the 1992 calypso theme again? Apparently they've been using that theme in nearly every parade the last several years, but I would be surprised if they used the calypso closing theme again after all these changes the last year.

Nope; they didn't play ANY Sesame Street theme this year. They did seem to change a bit more music in it as well; the parade theme music went back to being the theme to "New York, New York", but instead of the marching band rendition, it sounded more similar to the Frank Sinatra version but without vocals.
I wonder if next year, they'll continue to use the 2009/2011 instrumental theme like last year, or go with a new instrumental theme (as "Sesame Street"'s 46th season will use a newer shorter version of the opening theme.)

 

[D'Snowth]

Did I imagine Fran's U.S. Cellular commercial? I haven't seen it on TV again, it's nowhere on YT (not even U.S. Cellular's official channel), and nobody else here seems to have seen it. Weird. Because I remember thinking when I saw it that I guess Fran's retirement is like Sonia's: just a retirement from Sesame but still doing other things.

 

[antsamthompson9]

I saw the Tonight Show video, and I don't think he sounds too off. He probably sounds closer to the right voice than he was back when Caroll was deciding his understudy (the late 1990s, I assume).

When Big Bird talks in that video, it's archived audio of Matt.

 

[Schfifty]

When Big Bird talks in that video, it's archived audio of Matt.

Hmm, that makes sense. I must've been under the impression it was actually Noel speaking because of the words "do a pretty good job as Big Bird", like doing both the puppetry and the voice. I couldn't really tell the difference between the two...I probably haven't gotten used to Matt's BB voice, hence thinking Noel was really voicing the Bird.