Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 38

[jeffkjoe]

Count me in as one who thinks the new version of the theme is LAME.

Sesame Street ceases to be extraordinary and becomes ordinary.

 

[abiraniriba]

Missed most of 1st show

I missed most of 1st ep today Thanks for the rundown Count. I'll put an extra squid in your calamari. Megan wanted to watch a video. Her Elmo's Potty Time video, that is. I came in on Elmo's World and liked the beach idea. Guess I'll catch it on the reruns dude!

 

[CensoredAlso]

That's great that Abby was kinda cute. I'm probably bias but I would love a female character to be successful.

That's too bad about no Bert, Ernie and Grover in this episode. Hopefully that will change. I think when I have children, the first DVDs I will buy will be "The Best of Bert and Ernie" and "The Best of Grover." Lol Someone has to do the introductions. (insert Grover smiley)

 

[ssetta]

Cons:

The new theme music was a little upsetting, since they had used the same closing theme for 15 years.

I didn't like the new Abby song, or that Chris Brown song. And I was REALLY upset when they redid the "In the Library" song. They kept the original video, but the recording is entirely different.

Pros:
I was surprised to see all the old letter and number inserts, AND they have gone back to having 2 letters per episode, for the first time since 1995!

 

[SSLFan]

I agree Drtooth, the whole "Stand up, sit down" bit was a complete waste of time. It could have been time for a Bert and Ernie skit, or a street scene insert.

 

[SSLFan]

The new opening wasn't that great, but at least it wasn't cheesy like the 1992 Calypso opening! And I thought it was clever to have the episode number appear on a street sign next to the SS sign. The pigeon from the 1992 closing sequence also made a cameo in it (right before we see Ernie and Bert). And there weren't a lot of crazy sound effects to ruin the mood, either. I also thought the street-scene-intro music was interesting. It was another calypso version but it wasn't the 1993 version. There were also TWO letters of the day, instead of one like they've been doing since 1998. I also liked the "Green Eggs and Ham" parody at the end, complete with Gordon's cameo appearance. I guess they're going to vary the short stories at the end of each episode. And instead of the old 1969 closing theme heard at the end of the scene, they played a newer "nighttime" version of the theme, so at least it fits with the setting. I also liked the new closing credits. It was a refreshing change from the obsolete 1992 closing sequence, it was calm and cool instead of exciting and upbeat.

I like both openings actually. The one that was "cheesy" was the 2002 theme!

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[CensoredAlso]

I saw a small article in People Magazine about Tina Fey appearing on Sesame Street. She said something along the lines of looking back at old Sesame Street is like looking back at old Saturday Night Live, "You know, Bert and Ernie used to be the stars."

Well, the new season of Sesame Street sounds pretty good, definitely. But much like Saturday Night Live, it will never be as good as the old days.

 

[DTWolf]

Episode 4135--Bookaneers
Opening theme--I'm indifferent to the new music. They've changed the theme before, so I'm not upset, but it doesn't grab me. HOWEVER, I really really like the VISUALS of the new opening, with all the pictures unfolding, and I like how they've repeated that throughout the show in between segments.

The pirate street segment was fun, except:
• The woman pirate kept looking around all over the place. Somebody should have told her, "Look at ELMO when you talk to ELMO. Look at ALAN when you talk to ALAN. Don't move your eyes around like you're following a drunken fly!" It was driving me crazy.
• The CGI squid bugged me. The computer stuff just doesn't mesh with the real-world characters; it looks totally out-of-place.
• How can eight steps from the Fix-It Shop lead you to a library that's never been seen before in 38 years of Sesame Street?

It's wonderful to have Abby throw in a couple of French words in her song. They've been teaching bits of Spanish the whole time, why not some French too? Long overdue.

Brain Williams saying with a perfectly straight face, "Squids don't eat peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches." Marvelous!

Rhyme Scene Investigators--great great fun.

I'm glad they've done something besides Trash Gordon for the closing. "I am Scram and Scram I am!" Good stuff. I tried reading the titles of the books in the huge pile, but the only one I got was "The Ugly Dumpling." I bet the others were treasures.

Using a word of the day--sounds good to me. Let's see where this goes.

All in all, in my view, a good start to a new season. I'm looking forward to more.

 

[ISNorden]

Why do I have the spooky feeling that someone at the Workshop is reading this forum? Several months ago, another user (I forget who) remarked that a hip-hop arrangement of the theme would make more sense for Sesame Street than the calypso arrangement used in '92, since the show is ostensibly set in New York City. Someone in the music department must have agreed, judging by what I heard on TV this morning...I agree that the new opening arrangement looks and sounds too much like "See the Signs", but otherwise it wasn't too bad. (Unfortunately, I came home a few minutes too late to catch the "Word on the Street" scene; thank heaven my cable company offers two PBS affiliates, one of which will show #4135 tomorrow!)

Generally speaking, the writers handled the literacy theme well: none of the reading lessons preached or nagged at viewers, unlike other pro-reading PSAs I've seen during kids' programming. The "Bookaneers" correcting Alan was hilarious ("Any other stereotypes you want to bring up?"), and so was his reaction to the squid ("I'd better take the calamari off the menu"). Abby's new song was cute without losing any educational value; by the way, the lyricists deserve special credit for mentioning words in a different foreign language for once. The RSI parody wasn't half bad, especially since the wild list of rhymes and the "That's that!" remark near the end reminded me of the "Fat Cat Sat" sketch from the 70s. Two more things pleased me as an old-schooler: I haven't seen a Muppet teach letters to a real kid in ages, let alone an episode with two letters of the day. If this keeps up, I think I'm gonna like the literacy theme...

On the other hand, I agree that the "counting organ" segments ought to be retired by now. What the show needs is more segments with the Count in new settings, especially with real kids (like some of the new ones from last season). Did anyone else notice, by the way, that the Count hit a wrong note while he was trying to reach the eighth one?

I'm also glad that "This is the Game Today" has apparently been dropped this season. That makes sense, though, because exercise and nutrition aren't dominating new episodes so much. (I don't expect Sesame Street to stop teaching healthy habits altogether, but I'm relieved that it's become a "sometimes topic" again. )

Like several of you, I miss seeing "Global Grover" daily; it has been one of my favorite recent segments. If he comes back any time this season, I hope Grover goes to Norway soon...not just because of my personal tastes, but also because I heard Sesame Workshop was going to revive their Norwegian co-production this year.

The new "Elmo's World" (about the beach) was above average; the more Elmo interacts with other characters, the more he feels like one of the gang. I swear that seagull was upstaging him sometimes, though! *chuckle*

Finally, I'm glad to see Oscar's bedtime stories get out of the "Trash Gordon" rut. Parodying another classic for kids was a great idea; so was casting Gordon in a new role. The nighttime arrangement of the closing theme finally fits the bedtime-story frame as well; bravo to Sesame Workshop for changing what needed to be changed here!

All things considered, I'd rate the season premiere a 6.5 on a scale of 1 to 10: some new material added to the show, but other material (old and new) held it back from a perfect rating.

 

[SSLFan]

Like several of you, I miss seeing "Global Grover" daily; it has been one of my favorite recent segments. If he comes back any time this season, I hope Grover goes to Norway soon...not just because of my personal tastes, but also because I heard Sesame Workshop was going to revive their Norwegian co-production this year.

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They are?
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