Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 37

[ISNorden]

That episode was Hilarious. Ha. Ha.

Seriously though, is it that hard to keep continuity? I know most people who watch this show don't know or care, but it'd still be nice. Maybe we can pretend they had another honeymoon in Hawaii...

That aside, I really liked this episode. It really was very funny. It's nice to see a story feature the grown-ups for a change. But you'd think Maria and Luis would know by now that if you want some time alone, you need to go faaaaaar away from Sesame Street. I also liked we got some more Big Bird and Snuffy time. Let's keep that up! But I did feel a bit bad for them when Maria and Luis said they wanted some time alone.

That episode was pretty good as new ones go, mostly for the reasons you mentioned. (Your remark about Sesame Street being a bad place for "alone time" hit the nail on the head.) As far as continuity goes, one of the new writers must have had vague memories of the Hawaiian episodes and conflated them with the honeymoon; Maria and Luis could have simply mentioned the cast trip, without losing the H-themed dialogue entirely. (One H-word that should have appeared, considering their romantic mood: "hug"! )

The Matt Lauer interview was great as well. Cookie has really gotten some great segments this year. I had forgotten just how funny he was. Nice to see them remind the audience that Cookie eats everything, not just cookies. At least they haven't forgotten that....

I get the feeling that the interview was written to defuse the "Fruit Monster" rumors playfully, on a level that kids and adults could both understand.

I really didn't see the point in having the usual letter of the day segment. We already know what it is...but then I think this and the number of the day segments are just dumb in general. You don't need to tell the audience what they are, just show the clips.

Amen to that, Big Bird Fan! When even the street story works a Thing-of-the-Day in, kids don't need the usual announcements on top of that. Sesame Street taught letters and numbers with no recurring segment for 30-odd years; it's hard to believe that preschoolers have changed enough to need a predictable restatement of what they already know.

On the same note: Sesame Workshop needs to vary episode endings more. Trash Gordon means nothing to most children that age; besides, linking the ending back to the street story makes better sense in an episode with letters/numbers as part of the plot. (Why not have Big Bird and his friends drop in again, showing an H and a 3 as they announce the "sponsors"?)

 

[Convincing John]

Some thoughts...

Haven't seen any of the SS episodes (except bits and pieces) since 2001 or 2002. But I've been reading everyone's comments and overall here are my two cents:

I read where the Fix-It Shop is back! Indeed it's as much of a part of Sesame Street as Hooper's Store or Ernie and Bert's apartment. Good to know that Maria and Luis are fixing toasters again.

Maria and Luis's honeymoon was in Hawaii? Waaait a minute. They went camping in the woods, and often bumped into another honeymooning couple, coincidentally named Humphrey and Ingrid (who were two Muppet AM's at the time). Humphrey didn't speak, but was always dancing to the music from his headphones, which he always wore.

Miles and Gabi graduating? As Kermit said in one News Flash sketch "holy cow!" Miles is supposed to be about what...four years older than Gabi?

With a show that has over 30 years of history, you'd think that they'd have a "Sesame Street archivist" or "historian" to keep it all straight. True, the kids wouldn't know the difference, but the parents watching may raise an eyebrow with these continuity errors.

I've also noticed that people are mentioning some clips as "rarely seen" which surprise me. The "Fifteen" song (with the animated teenage girl as the number fifteen) started running in the early 90's. There was a time when SS really emphasised on teaching the numbers 13, 15 and 18. This clip was shown almost daily back then.

Old clips--I guess my opinion on "old" or "classic" clips differs from the opinions of those who have posted in this thread. I've read outlines where clips are labeled "classic" when IMHO, they are merely recent ones to me. "Old" or "classic" clips (to me) is pretty much anything pre-1985...the stuff they showed on Noggin and the gems coming up on the nostalgic Sesame Street DVDs...

Each to his own, I suppose, and if the show is still teaching kids the basics, that's good. It's just that the Sesame Street I grew up with and loved and knew is long, long gone. Too bad that kids aren't getting more of Joe Raposo's original stuff, though. Suzy Kabloozie and "Every Kitty Sleeps?"...

Counting down...

Convincing John

 

[The Count]

Actually... The AM's Luis and María run into when honeymooning inthe Adirondacks are named Dwayne and Ingrid, got that on VHS. And Dwayne did speak, just not that much because he had his headphones on listening to music most of the time.
Hope this helps.

 

[Convincing John]

Dwayne, eh? Well, (singing) "Everyone makes mistakes, oh yes they do..."

I haven't seen the episodes since they aired, so my memory's a little fuzzy on them. I do remember the cast singing "Plan Ahead" to Maria and Luis before they go on their trip...and Oscar gives them some mosquito attractant! LOL!

Convincing John

 

[The Count]

Yeah... That was in either 2486 or 2487, got 'em from B_G's vault for help with my list project.And even though I don't have it, I do remember the episode at the campsite where Sonny Friendly showed up... It's been lodged in my memory, sponsored by the letters S and X and the number 17, cause it's the first one I remember with a sponsor number higher than 12.

Anyway, hope more new episodes air next week.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I really didn't see the point in having the usual letter of the day segment. We already know what it is...but then I think this and the number of the day segments are just dumb in general. You don't need to tell the audience what they are, just show the clips.

I agree with you there. In fact I don't think they had any new ones of those this season. They just keep replaying the older ones. They must be running out of ideas for that. But it is a good way to give Cookie Monster more airtime.

Seriously though, is it that hard to keep continuity? I know most people who watch this show don't know or care, but it'd still be nice. Maybe we can pretend they had another honeymoon in Hawaii...

Yeah. I had that thought too. While we're at it, we might also pretend that Gabi skipped a few grades or two to graduate the same time as Miles. But then, the flashback to the first day wouldn't have worked. They really ought to do something about all those continuity errors.

 

[Big Bird Fan]

Episode 4116

When I read that this episode would be about Elmo going to pretend school, I didn't exactly have high hopes...but once again Sesame Workshop has proven me wrong! Today's episode was really funny. I couldn't stop laughing how everyone kept coming in and saying what great things they've heard about the place...and then Alan was nominated for teacher of the year. heh heh. I guess since Elmo is so famous he must have a great PR department to promote this place!

Is anyone else tired of seeing that Ernie singing about his room song? It seems like they air it a lot. I don't know if it's because the reruns I happen to catch have it in it, or they really do play it that much.

I was surprised Matt Vogel wasn't doing Big Bird in Elmo's World. He always did him in Journey to Ernie, so I figured it'd be the same here. Unless it was him and he's gotten really better at performing him. And of course we had the classic "It's a rock." line. That never gets old.

I also checked TV Guide.com, and it looks like new episodes will be on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Episode 4116

When I read that this episode would be about Elmo going to pretend school, I didn't exactly have high hopes...but once again Sesame Workshop has proven me wrong! Today's episode was really funny. I couldn't stop laughing how everyone kept coming in and saying what great things they've heard about the place...and then Alan was nominated for teacher of the year. heh heh. I guess since Elmo is so famous he must have a great PR department to promote this place!

I thought the street story was okay. I didn't find anything too exciting, but that's just my opinion. I did get a laugh out of Alan trying to help those customers decide what they want and then run back and forth to do the school thing with Elmo. I also wonder why they didn't use Gordon since he's already a teacher. He must have been at his real school at time.

Is anyone else tired of seeing that Ernie singing about his room song? It seems like they air it a lot. I don't know if it's because the reruns I happen to catch have it in it, or they really do play it that much.

Yeah. They do tend to play the same and skits/songs over and over again. I would like to see some new ones or at least older ones that don't get that much airtime. Speaking of which, I like that they're coming up with new ideas for the Count's number of the day sketch. Someone mentioned that they should get rid of Cookie Monster's letter of the day sketch. I don't think that it should be scraped completely. They just should make some new ones. I don't think they had a new one of those at all this season. At least, last year they made a few ones. I especially remember the one with Oscar and Slimey and the one where Prarie imitated Cookie Monster. They need to come up with more ideas like that.

I also checked TV Guide.com, and it looks like new episodes will be on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week.

Ah. So they're playing new eps every other day now, so we still have to deal with the same tired eps the rest of the week. *sigh*

 

[Drtooth]

I might as well give a rundown of the last couple weeks, since I'm not here every day.

I HATED the Breakfast club segment. That was just a horrid disappointment to see it was just Miles singing about breakfast. I turned it off in disgust, if it got better towards the end I appologize. I will give it another chance. I mean, it's just that seeing the Law and Order parody, I expected something much more clever.. like a bunch of teenage AM's looking like the characters from the movie talking about what they ate for breakfast. It almost seemed like a waste of a perfectly good idea.

I dispise get up, it's time to play. JTE may be juvenile and repetitive, but at least Muppets were in it. Not to mention sometimes it was pretty enjoyable. This thing is just... well.. it seems like another half-shelled attempt at trying to get little kids in shape. I agree that the other 72 segments about that work... but how about you start pushing the dang fat 12 year olds with their x-Box 360's instead? They're the REAL problem.

But all and all, I enjoyed yesterday's episode, but just a little bit. Though I must say, had it not been for the confused customers that didn't know if they wanted tuna or egg sandwiches, the first segment woulda been a total snooze fest.

>>Is anyone else tired of seeing that Ernie singing about his room song? It seems like they air it a lot. I don't know if it's because the reruns I happen to catch have it in it, or they really do play it that much.<<

I really disliked that one. It's not too clever. It's just about rhyming, and the lyrics are asinine. Especially the thing about the Rocket. Not even attempting anything. It seems like they only HAD to make it to fill out time. I mean, I don't mind repeating Ernie and Bert segments over and over, but at least use a GOOD one. Though I admit the puppetry for Ernie playing the Drums was pretty good. It matched the recordings.

>>Someone mentioned that they should get rid of Cookie Monster's letter of the day sketch. I don't think that it should be scraped completely. They just should make some new ones. I don't think they had a new one of those at all this season.<<

Exactly. The "Letter of the Day Game" bits had a lot of potential... the first letter of the day things from 2002 (which are 4 years old BTW... just putting that into perspective) are tired. They are funny, and better than the second wave ones where Cookie seems too bananas about eating the letter, but still... they have been used SO many times on so many reruns. I hope they make new ones next year. Whatever the delay was, it sure as shell isn't for filming new Cookie monster bits.

Plus, get a new Count zero sketch.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Well, except for the one with Matt Lauer. That's definately the best part of the new season so far.