Why people dislike modern Sesame Street

[Oscarfan]

a lot of the lyrics feel like they were written in one sitting and crammed into melodies.

That's how it works. The writers write lyrics and then they're sent to the different composers to create the track. There's no one there really along the lines of Raposo or Geiss, or frequent teams like Stiles/Cerf, to write their own music/lyrics.

I wasn't really "wowed" much by this year's soundtrack, but there were still plenty of songs I enjoyed. They're too short, for one thing, but that's all because of timing.

And I think I've realized (partially) why EW or ETM is there to close the show; both segments end with him signing off. Without the "brought to you by..." closing, there's nothing along the lines of an actual closing/goodbye. Maybe if they did something like the cold opens, only at the end.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Oh, and another thing, one good thing about the recent changes is, at least they finally cut back on all those annoying fairytale characters.

 

[Censored]

Because they treat loyal cast members like garbage.

 

[Oscarfan]

Because they treat loyal cast members like garbage.

Yeah, how dare they give Uncle Wally the boot!

 

[D'Snowth]

Mr. Hooper's death was all a conspiracy!

 

[MuppetSpot]

Because they treat loyal cast members like garbage.

You are seriously still butt-hurt about the cast members. Look I am sad as well I going to say something conversational but, I rather see them let go than working until there death for Sesame Workshop.

 

[Censored]

Strange...

 

[Oscarfan]

Joking aside, I doubt this recent "humans whoosie-doodle" would be a reason people dislike the current show. Even in Elmo's apparent rise to stardom, the humans were always there.

 

[Drtooth]

I always take into deep consideration this show was not meant for me for the past few decades. I want to make that clear first of all. This isn't brought on by 'Member berries, so much as a resentment of how things have changed drastically since SW's new head. Resentment's probably a harsh word. Maybe displeasure?

I understand full well the need to switch to a half hour format. Don't get me wrong. For years, Sesame Street has been struggling with its full hour, that's why Elmo's World was a thing. Recent seasons had Sesame Street cling to overly reused filler to get the show up to that length. They reused a High School Musical parody that lost its relevance (thankfully) years ago last season or so. Abby's Flying School, a segment which otherwise I had no problem with (in fact, I love Blogg) was run into the ground because of how darn cheap they are. Shortening the show to a half hour format was a long time coming, and I swear goaded by PBS to get another patronizing episode of Super Why (as in WHY are you still on the air?!) into the schedule. Problem is, Sesame is in the unique situation of being too long at a full hour and too short at a half hour (at least the way they do it).

So what do I not like about season 46 Sesame Street?

The Half Hour format they're using leads everything to feel rushed, first of all. Choppier street stories, especially. Of course, that can be said about most of the past 2 seasons that were the full hour as well. I also don't like how letters and numbers have taken such a back seat, sometimes existing only as the Number or Letter of the day songs. The letters are sometimes being awkwardly consolidated with the live action film segments that bare more relation to the episode's subject matter, and letters are never mentioned again. There was a big to do about them no longer doing the "Sesame Street is brought to you by" bit, but considering the lack of reading and math presence now, I don't think that's as necessary as it once was, iconic as it is.

But what makes the half hour format obnoxious is the insistence of continuing to put an Elmo segment at the end 3rd of the show. That consists of either a clumsily edited Elmo the Musical or a justifiably overedited Elmo's World which actually works better stripped of so much filler. That's where the letter and number time goes. To put at a half hour something meant to keep kids interested 40 minutes into an hour long show.

Sesame Street has been fighting to get back the older 4-6 year old audience the past couple years, and this season has taken a firm step backwards to 2003 levels of pandering to the younger audiences. For the first time, I'd actually agree that the show has been dumbed down. Yet, while I hate how the new low character count focus (which affects the humans as much it does the Muppets) regulates Telly, Zoe, Baby Bear, and even Ernie and Bert to background status, it did stop the season from being all about obnoxious fairy tale characters spazzing out while the cast regulars (even Elmo) were put into the barely in their own show role.

All and all, some changes that I actually like are removing things that were weak and a drain on the show's insanely low budget. I do indeed like less celebrity focus and the loss of Word of the Day. And much as I liked Murray, I'm glad his hosting segments are in the rear view mirror.

 

[Pig'sSaysAdios]

Sesame Street has been fighting to get back the older 4-6 year old audience the past couple years, and this season has taken a firm step backwards to 2003 levels of pandering to the younger audiences. For the first time, I'd actually agree that the show has been dumbed down.

Yeah, that's my biggest problem, frankly, the show was doing very well before and I don't think the target audience was asking for any of these changes. And as we can clearly see by the writing for the past six-ish years, the show was clearly trying to get back to it's original 4-6 year old demographic. Heck, that was one of the main reasons they added Elmo the Musical in the first place, because they wanted to attract an older audience than Elmo's World was.