What year did it all change for the worst?

[Drtooth]

The first two Old Schools DVD sets had the disclaimer "These early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grownups and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child." Thankfully they seemed to realize it was ridiculous (or at least that it was annoying fans, lol) so they removed it from the 3rd DVD set.

The problem is pop psychology constantly changing what the needs of preschoolers are. But aside from that, SW was covering it's butt. I mean, at worst, some myopic parent, grandparent, or guardian would toss it in the cart and give it to a small child (one too young to watch Sesame Street period), use it as a baby sitter, and then whine on amazon about how terrible it is, and spread word bad word of mouth. It still was totally unnecessary. Though, I will say this. I enjoyed the first box set, but the hold over techniques from earlier kid's shows that were essentially the adults being surrogate teachers instead of doing anything funny... yeah... I really am not a fan of that. I'm glad they got rid of that shortly into the show.

One thing that I notice about the Muppet humor on Sesame on the current one compared to Classic Sesame Street is the humor seems to be more gentler. I think some of the key elements of Muppet humor was irreverence, slapstick, surreal weirdness (monsters and explosions) and anarchy wildness. I can certainly see a lack of this and even with The Muppet Show Muppets currently. I see that it can be seen perhaps as old hat, but to me it's like taking the slapping away from The Three Stooges or the explosions and cartoon violence away from Looney Tunes. Call me old fashioned but I've always had a strong heart of this kind of comedy.

Why is it that everyone who claims how horrible the show is today doesn't actually watch any of it? Irreverent? We're talking about a show that actually made political references to George W Bush's "No Child Left Behind," snarky references to Fox News, and Elmo mocking Obama's first term campaign slogan. Look me in the eye and tell me that the last lines spoken by Tyler Bunch in the Preschool Musical parody wasn't exceedingly biting about the forceful overhype of the franchise. The Desperate Houseplants skit? They got so much innuendo by the little kids in that one. Slapstick? Did ya see the episode where It's Baby Bear's birthday and Telly keeps trying to restrain Curly from eating and destroying Baby Bear's Birthday Cake... only the crash right into it? Funniest episode I've seen in years. Even recently, Bobby Moynihan as the Quacker Oats man, crashing through boxes ala Kool-Aid Man as a running gag.... The humor's there, you're not looking hard enough.

If the humor's a little "soft," well, there's a thing called imitable acts. I'm surprised they get away with what they do (the ending of Heaviest Catch is a little morbid), but it IS a preschool show. It's a burden. They are responsible for what the characters do. Remember, they had problems with Don Music as far back as the 80's. But above all, Muppets have quiet, poignant moments. "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" didn't feature anyone running around trying to blow something up. That is part of the Muppets, but not the only part.

 

[CensoredAlso]

We're talking about a show that actually made political references to George W Bush's "No Child Left Behind," snarky references to Fox News, and Elmo mocking Obama's first term campaign slogan.

Again, it's good that they address those topics, but the execution doesn't grab me (nor would it have when I was a child). And Elmo is like Mickey Mouse, I never found him particularly funny, even as a child.

If the humor's a little "soft, well, there's a thing called imitable acts. I'm surprised they get away with what they do (the ending of Heaviest Catch is a little morbid), but it IS a preschool show. It's a burden. They are responsible for what the characters do. Remember, they had problems with Don Music as far back as the 80's.

It's partially a concern about backlash, I agree, but it also just feels like your basic "we jumped the shark."

 

[Drtooth]

It's partially a concern about backlash, I agree, but it also just feels like your basic "we jumped the shark."

They're far more careful these days, that's for sure. I'm sure the 2 year old late complaints by tin foil hat far righters whining that Fox News got a slight aside comment (i.e. the same exact "news" source that constantly picks on Sesame Street) wasn't helpful, either. But look at the article on the Muppet Wiki about The Count... some crazy guy got totally shot down by CTW. His style of letter writing seems vaguely serial killer-ish, and they calmly tried to explain, in not so many words, that he was indeed an idiot. Not to mention the absolute crap the show got from Southern affiliates because "Black People!" Now, they seem all too content to cover their butts to avoid controversy, all the while making their own with terrible press releases.

But with me, it's not so much the writing or use of overused characters... it's partially execution, partially pop child psychology that keeps conflicting, contradicting, and discrediting itself, the need to be exactly like its competitors, and the not so even handed approach to teaching. Similar storylines are clearly coerced at the production level, I can't blame the writers at all for it. The block format works and fails at the same time... on the one hand, it brought back the older viewers. But the fact that the show needs to be made up of little shows, aside from the mind numbing amount of repeated long footage (cuz, you know... budget) takes away completely from what the show was about. To say the least, the lack of non-celebrity/parody original character skits. I know the pop cultury stuff is supposed to attract parents to actually watch the show with their kids instead of using media as a babysitter. On that level I respect it. I like the parody segments very much, but they don't need to be the end all be all.

So the problem is the show has to maintain relevancy because it always has. it's just a little harder at the 40 something mark. I'd applaud any show to have consistent quality on the 5 year mark. Even that can't be done.

 

[AquaGGR]

To me, Sesame Street hasn't really Jumped the Shark or gotten worse over the years, it's just evolving. Sesame Street was and always has been an educational experiment. Constant changes to show are frequent. The needs of preschool children change over time, so the show needs to fit them.
The only thing about the newer episodes I dislike is the over-usage of Elmo, though.

 

[muppetperson]

What year did they remove all the original human cast?

 

[Oscarfan]

Well, Mr. Hooper died and the second Gordon was instilled in season 4 (I'm pretty sure). Other than that, Bob and Susan are still around.

 

[Drtooth]

A lot more of the cast was lost in the mid-70's to late 90's/early 00's than recently. Most of that cast was temporary anyway. Then again, no one lives forever, and actors also have personal lives.

After changing Gordon 3 times (including the pilot), which was early on in the show's run, we've had the same actor ever since. And he's still a major adult cast member. But you can't blame Sesame Street for having to add younger cast members. Maria was young when she started as well, and meant to be the young adult that hangs around with kids and resonates with them on that level.