Where's Bert and Ernie?

[Drtooth]

Join the club.

I LOVE Sesame Street and will continue to support it through thick and then, but come on, lets be real. Besides Elmo, Abby, Telly & any Joey Mazzarino performed character, everyone else has been completely shoven under the radar.

This is not a bash against the other performers. As Drtooth said, it all depends on availablity these days, since the new Muppet movie will take up time to work on SS for most.

The one things us fans must always remember, the characters all depend on who can play them. Muppet projects, be they movies, tv shows, or something as simple as a viral video may have to be shot at the same time as SS in some cases, leading Eric, Steve, Matt and David (again, depending on the extent they want to use Scooter and or Janice) to be unavailable, and Martin, Leslie, Carol, Kevin, and Joey (among others) will have to fill out the bulk of the other characters.

Now, I completely forget, but what happened with Jim, Frank, Richard, and Jerry when The Muppet Show was filming? Did they film it off season of the Muppet Show, did they just film inserts during their down time... or did they do a few in Britain?

They could always shoot some inserts during their off time with the Muppets (though, I'd kind of think they want some rest first).... That's the one thing that bothers me about the new format. Less time for insert segments, especially if they want new segments to be recurring in every episode... which I find out of the question if we're shown the same Abby segment three times a season.

 

[LamangoNumber2]

That's what I'd say too. Eric and Steve are among a few Muppeteers that have other roles outside Sesame Street. Where as KEvin Clash, Fran Brill, Martin Robinson... they're characters are primarily Sesame Street... in the case of Kevin, he's got a lot of duties on Sesame Street, so I doubt they'd bring back any of his characters for the movie, unless they loop dialogue. Bert WILL have a street scene next season, I don't know about Ernie...

And even season after that won't film until 2011. which means, if things go right with the movie (which was scheduled to start filming in a month or so) then SW is trying to tape their show around that so they don't lose too many Muppeteers to any Disney Muppet projects.

Off hand, Steve, Eric, Matt Vogel and David Rudman (depending on how much they use Scooter and Janice) would be very busy with their respective Muppet characters. And most Disney Muppet projects would film in California (unless I'm mistaken). SW is ALLLLLLL the way in New York, meaning they'd have to constantly fly people back and forth. If there were any projects going on in NYC, there wouldn't be that much of a problem. Why, Leslie apparently partook in a Stuffed and Unstrung New York show, and she's got a major character on Sesame Street.

You do realize they take a break after a season is filmed, right?

 

[Convincing John]

Now, I completely forget, but what happened with Jim, Frank, Richard, and Jerry when The Muppet Show was filming? Did they film it off season of the Muppet Show, did they just film inserts during their down time... or did they do a few in Britain?

I wondered that, too. I think that's why they had Caroll stay on SS, so that they'd always have a Muppeteer to do street scenes. I wouldn't be surprised if Jim had thought of that in advance. "Hmmm...there's a great new show I want to do, but we need some performers to be here on Sesame Street in the meantime..."

I always thought that they filmed inserts when they could, like how Frank does now. Film all the Ernie and Bert, Grover, etc. clips in a week (or however long it took them to film them in those days) and go back to The Muppet Show.

As far as Ernie and Bert being on the show now, here's a question. What's wrong with playing Ernie and Bert sketches? They have tons of them in the archives. They have some great clips with Steve as Ernie and Eric as Bert, plus a huge library of Jim and Frank's classic work. It wouldn't cost them anything to just put the clips on, right?

I know that SW wants to focus heavily on competing with the bland let's-talk-down-to-kids shows for preschoolers. True, we're not the target audience, but someone from the target audience doesn't have the IQ of a houseplant, either.

Fans of all ages love Ernie and Bert. They are too important to the show. So, instead of showing the same Abby's Flying Fairy School 3 times in a row, give them Bert and Ernie. It won't hurt the kids not to see Elmo or Abby for a few minutes.

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

As far as Ernie and Bert being on the show now, here's a question. What's wrong with playing Ernie and Bert sketches? They have tons of them in the archives. They have some great clips with Steve as Ernie and Eric as Bert, plus a huge library of Jim and Frank's classic work. It wouldn't cost them anything to just put the clips on, right?

I know that SW wants to focus heavily on competing with the bland let's-talk-down-to-kids shows for preschoolers. True, we're not the target audience, but someone from the target audience doesn't have the IQ of a houseplant, either.

Fans of all ages love Ernie and Bert. They are too important to the show. So, instead of showing the same Abby's Flying Fairy School 3 times in a row, give them Bert and Ernie. It won't hurt the kids not to see Elmo or Abby for a few minutes.

Heck, you got me at playing tons of ANY sketches they have in the archives. There's a LOT of stuff from, even as late as the 90's that's so timeless. Even a few years ago, they aired stuff as early as the 70's and no one knew the difference. It's just the current format... it's restrictive AND it's got way too much stuff for a 50 minute series crammed into 26 skimpy episodes.

Ernie and Bert are still popular, let's not forget. Heck, Ernie merchandise is second to Elmo merchandise half the time (at least until Abby came about, now he's third). Ernie and Bert are just as associated with Sesame Street as Big Bird and Elmo, so there's no real rush to purposely get rid of them.

The thing that gets me is that they decided to make Abby a daily segment. Which wouldn't have been bad, had they had at least 13 episodes, instead of 10. That left them to rerun reruns, that in turn get rerun with the reruns. Not a smart way to keep kids away from loud yelling flashy garbage on other networks.

All the while, the Ernie and Bert claymation segments alternated with Murray, and not even correctly. We had less than 13 episodes shown this year even though we have enough to show on every single episode of a season without rerunning a single one all season. There are still ones we haven't seen in the US.

Still... I wonder why they can't at least film a couple little new Ernie and Bert segments during downtime with the Muppets... unless the lack of puppeteers is also due to the budget problem, that left SS looking like a ghost town this past season.

 

[RyGuy]

I am a die-hard ccountry music fan and Today's Sesame Street is like country radio. Carrie is Abby , Kenny Chesney is Elmo George Strait is Big Bird . I use that metaphor everything sounds the same. Well I guess B&E are still kind of Brookls & Dunn -like in that there a duo . Steve and Eric's B&E are Brooks and Dunn . Jim 'sand Frank's B&E are the "Bellamy Brothers " Why not have an all -oldies episode of SS one time to see ratings but have a modern storyline

The storyline : Abby comes across a photo album of pictures that Bob gives Abby a photo albums of old pictures that has old pictures Gols of the episode could be Sharing memories and making new friends and there could be 50% "oldie" sketches and an Elmo's world about Memories the "elmo's world" segments could be about a girl visiting her grandmother and looking at pictures of when the grandmother was little .

For "channels " Elmo could watch the "Memory Channel " which could show paradoies like : Lawrence Elk , Mr Bed ( Parody of Mr ED ) it would get Grandparets watching as well.

It would be very interesting to see how it would do with today's viewers

 

[Gelfling Girl]

The storyline : Abby comes across a photo album of pictures that Bob gives Abby a photo albums of old pictures that has old pictures Gols of the episode could be Sharing memories and making new friends and there could be 50% "oldie" sketches and an Elmo's world about Memories the "elmo's world" segments could be about a girl visiting her grandmother and looking at pictures of when the grandmother was little .

For "channels " Elmo could watch the "Memory Channel " which could show paradoies like : Lawrence Elk , Mr Bed ( Parody of Mr ED ) it would get Grandparets watching as well.

It would be very interesting to see how it would do with today's viewers

That sounds like it would be a cute idea.

 

[Drtooth]

No! Oldie equals stinky for some reason. Yeah, kids don't also LOVE Scooby-Doo reruns. You can tell that character's never been popular... (PLEASE not the sarcasm)

It's just... this... dumb structure. The memory channel actual sounds like a good idea, but they'd never go for it. The memory channel IS SS online. The thing is, older skits need to be gently interwoven into the show like they've always done. I think SW dropped a HUGE ball last season. They had all these overused repeat segments for letters and numbers, and they had the chance to, as an anniversary year, run older skits in those places. They didn't. Instead, everyone was treated to stuff that was over used last season, the season before that, the season before that...

Then again, what's wrong with NEW Ernie and Bert sketches and filmed inserts? We just need some way to keep the characters going, and giving them at least one or two new bits a year. Plus, actually RUN those Ernie and Bert Great Adventures and let the segments that run longer and have less episodes alternate.

 

[Muppet Frog]

I wish Steve could be availabe for some Ernie inserts although he performed Kermit in the Frogs segment for Elmo's World.

 

[mbmfrog]

I wish for a SS moment Where Ernie met Abby for the first time.

 

[SSLFan]

I wish for a SS moment Where Ernie met Abby for the first time.

For what it's worth, they both can be seen interacting in the SSL shows. Lol.

However, I know what you're talking about.