Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 38

[Daffyfan4ever]

Here's a video of the credits from 4139. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5ghbgURF7Zo

Thanks. I know I saw that one before, but I couldn't find it again, when I did the search. I guess I'll have to add it to my 'favorites' list.

And woo-hoo on the demise of Get up and Play!

Yeah, but now I'd like to see "Journey to Ernie" come back. That would be a good way to get Big Bird, Ernie and most of the time Bert in every episode.

 

[BEAR]

I'm so excited! I have the next two days off, so I'll be able to finally catch some Season 38 episodes. Plus, we got a new satallite system on our tv and now we get the Sprout channel. So I can catch some older episodes too (today they are from the 2000 season). It'll be a fun and relaxing day. No, I won't be watching Sesame Street all day. I have some adult things to do too, such as clean out my closet, but atleast I'll have something nice to watch to make it go by smoother.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I might not be able to see much more of the new season now since I'm staring a new job next week and won't be home, but I caught today's episode and I'd have to say that so far it's much better than the past week. What I liked was they got Big Bird in the street story and in an insert. They really should do that all the time, either one or the other or both would work for me. Heck, he used to sort-of host the show back in season 33. They really should bring that back. What I liked about the street story was that it incorporated a lot of characters. I especially liked when Grover was dancing with Fat Blue. One can only guess how that could have got started. Though they should do that more. Have a plot that could all major characters in the street story. They were able to do that in "The Street We Live On" special. I realize a few characters were absent from the street-story today
(ex: Bert, Ernie, Bob, etc.) One can only wonder why the spell didn't affect them. Still I think they're doing better than they have been. Let see, what else can I say? Not too many new inserts. Quite a few were from past seasons. I think I've seen the part with Grover conducting the orchestra before. It sounded like Eric voicing him, so that might have been from a few seasons ago. I didn't see what they had at the end where they give the show sponsors yet, so I can't say much there.

 

[FellowWLover]

We've had at least two days of re-runs from last season here. No new episodes for some reason. Maybe they are spacing out the new shows this time, since there are less than before?

 

[The Count]

Um no. There are a total of twenty-six episodes this season, same as it's been since Season 33. It's possible that your affiliates skipped the episode meant for today from Season 38, it's happened to me as well. All I can say is wait for it to be repeated.
Hope this helps.

 

[The Count]

OK... Had to catch the repeat at a later ime on my second affiliate, but here's the rundown.

Episode 4140: The Tutu Spell.
Word on the Street: Murray Monster asks about "ballet".
Street Story.
*Thumbs up. Yaey, Zoe's catch phrase! "Don't joke me!"
*Huh? Shouldn'tve Luis and all the male characters have worn leotards instead?
Song: "Put On Your Dancing Shoes", or "Dance Away The Blues".
Word on the Street Explanation: Celebrity: Ellen Degeneris explains "ballet".
Film: Zoe notices some ballet dancers dancing.
Letter of the Day: E, with Prairie Dawn and Cookie Monster.
Letters in the Pool: E.
Construction Tools: E and e.
Hero Guy: The Bear Family Dance.
Film/Segment: "Do The Octopus".
Muppets: Song: "Share" by Ernie and Elmo.
Claymation Segment.
Muppets/Celebrity: Big Bird and members of the New York City Ballet demonstrate "up" and "down".
Song: "You Can Get Right Up".
The Count's Counting Organ: 6, six animals that are five laughing sheep and one quacking duck.
Animation Song: Number 6 Rap.
Song: "Six" by The Count.

Muppets: Grover conducts an emotion-filled orchestra.
Animation: Green Violinst plays different speeds on his violin.
Elmo's World: Violins, New.
*Thumbs up, the instrumental piece when the topic was proclaimed was the same for the commercials for Encyclopedia from back when it aired on HBO.
Dorothy's Question: How do you hold a violin?
Kids show Dorothy how to hold a violin.
Elmo's Question: How many violins can an octopus play, minus the bow.
Email: Abby Cadaby and guest violinist.
Drawer: What has strings and makes music?
*Thumbs up: Rosita finally appears, and strums the rock three-note triumverate on her guitar. Na-na-na na-na na-na.
Film: Lee shows how to play the violin in his music classes.
TV: The Violins Channel: The Violin That Loved her Bow; Added Parody Mention: Stringing in the Rain.
Guests: The Bow, and The Violin.
Tickle-Me Land: Violin: "We're going to watch a fish think? This should be exciting."
Ending: Song: "Oscar's Trash Time Band".

 

[Drtooth]

Other than the supreme silliness of everyone in tutus, this was a very dull, almost pointless episode. Good thing I really wasn't paying attention. However, i did pay enough attention to see that Oscar's Tutu was visable before it was supposed to be... oops.

I really want to say the fact that Chris was dancing in a tutu with a mop is somehow a reference to The Toxic Avenger (Toxic Crusaders), as Melvin Junko was forced to wear a Tutu while mopping before he became Toxie.

Good news: We got an Ernie segement.
Bad News: It was an Ernie and Elmo segment. Ernie is good, I like Elmo (oddly enough), but together they're as dull as Bert's Oatmeal and Pigeons.

The highlights were Elmo's World, Grover Conducting the CD player, and Oscar's Band. And you know an episode is in danger of being bad when the Elmo's world is the highlight. I take points away from it, though. They DIDN'T do the joke about too much violins on television. That was depressing.

But UGH... Why do they insist on using cartoons from the "Ugly Dancing Animals" studio? I HATE THEM so much! All kinds of animation are special... but this one is horrible. Shake your head and wriggle like an octopus. I HATE YOU!

That said, dull episode. Poor choices for filler segments as Usual. Why must they insist on ressurrecting Hero Guy?

 

[Big Bird Fan]

Yeah, but now I'd like to see "Journey to Ernie" come back. That would be a good way to get Big Bird, Ernie and most of the time Bert in every episode.

I'm glad that's gone. As much as I want more screen time for those characters too, I don't want it that way.

Today's episode was pretty good, but it was one of those street stories that needed to be spread threw-out the episode instead of all at once. It would have made the whole episode flow a lot smoother. There were just too many filler segments back to back.

Everyone dancing and wearing a tutu was pulled off better than I thought. I just assumed it would be Zoe and Abby talking the whole time and trying many failed attempts to get everyone to stop with just a few scenes of everyone else dancing. But they actually thought about how to stop it before trying a million different things. That's something kids need to see.

They also did a good job of spreading the screen time around and showing lots of characters, something I hope they keep up. That's Sesame Street at it's best.

Did anyone else think Maria and Luis's acting in Fix-it-Shop scene seemed off? Maybe it was the lines they had to say, but the whole scene seemed really forced to me.

I couldn't believe Elmo wasn't in the street story. Maybe they are trying to scale him back a bit? But this is how an episode should be. If Elmo isn't in the street story, then Elmo's World should air. It actually made Elmo's World more enjoyable since the only other time we saw him was with that song with Ernie. (Which was actually pretty catchy.)

Aside from seeing Big Bird in an insert, nothing else in the episode was noteworthy (or remotly interesting) except for "Oscar's Trash Time Band" at the end. I LOVED that, and I love how we don't see Trash Gordon at the end of every episode anymore. I think SW has finally figured out people like variety.

But the best part was definitely Grover dancing with Fat Blue. Nice to see them incorporated into the street story for once.

 

[minor muppetz]

I liked the scene with Fat Blue. However, I was editing Muppet Wiki at the time I was watching this episode (I was preparing a sketch listing for that episode, typing skits as they appeared in the episode). But when Fat Blue said "Why me?", I thought I heard a Martin Robinson voice, and I then turned my head and saw Fat Blue right as he exited the frame. Did Martin Robinson perform Fat Blue here, or was it Jerry Nelson? I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't Jerry Nelson. I don't think any of his other characters appeared in this episode, and Fat Blue only had one line, so it would make sense for them to have planned for Jerry Nelson to record the voice at a seperate time.

And does anybody know if that sketch where Grover conducted music has been shown before? I hadn't seen anything about it at Muppet Wiki, but Grover's fur looked shorter, not long and wilder like in the last few seasons. Has a new Grover puppet been built, with shorter fur, or is this an older sketch (I do realise that Eric Jacobson performed Grover in that sketch)?

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Hmmm. I usually keep my sound low so it sounded like Jerry to me, but you could be right. Jerry usually just loops in his character's voices these days, so they could have decided not to use him for one line. After all, you hear Rudman voicing Fat Blue for one line in the "Grouchland" movie and you hear him as Mumford for line in that DVD with Caroline Rhea. So I suppose it's possible.

I'm glad that's gone. As much as I want more screen time for those characters too, I don't want it that way.

Yeah. You're right. Rather than JTE, they should show BB at the beginning like at season 33 or at least include him in an insert in every ep in which he doesn't appear. Same with Bert and Ernie as well.