Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 40

[minor muppetz]

Apparantly my local PBS station moved Sesame Street to an hour earlier than it was since the last time I watched a new episode (which I think was the firs tmonth of season 39), so I missed the season premiere. Drats!

 

[D'Snowth]

It's a shame that they did HAVE to use the new Zoe puppet... it really is rather hedious.

 

[Drtooth]

You know A part of me thought that if the company was playing their cards right, then maybe the first episode in the 40th season would just be an average SS show.

I mean I loved the main story, but I was hoping for more shorts since it's the 40th season and the first episode and a reminder of WHY we all fell in love with the cast and crew in the first place.

I mean in one way one of hte shorts would be a new Erine and Bert one in their Muppet form where Erine turns the bathroom into a pond for his Rubber Duck and his ducky friends.

A version of one of these things is not like the other where we find out which animal belongs in which habait.

Also a moment where we see Slimey habait in the mud.

And moment where we see him in an abandon Cookie factory full of COOKIES.

I mean they could have saved the new stuff for tommorow and just focus on what made this show so great in the first place.

Isn't that what anyone else like to see in the show 40th year?

That's the problem... it ISN'T an anniversary special, and it wasn't really intended as one. Other than the obvious bit about the number 40, nothing really seemed to say "anniversary special" We didn't even have Oscar say anything. And there were like, 5 other regular muppet characters in the background (not counting the animals that popped up during the musical sales pitches for a new habitat). Again, I blame the low budget of the show, and PBS's refusal to make specials that aren't about Wayne Dyer or 1950's music to get pledge money.

Of course, if you were to take the same opening street story, throw in a bunch of old montages and classic skits, it would have worked as one.

It's a shame that they did HAVE to use the new Zoe puppet... it really is rather hedious.

Ugh... homunculus Zoe. I am not liking that puppet one bit. Seems like it's another budget thing...they rebuilt it for one appearance, and now they have to use it over and over to get their money's worth.

 

[BeckyDR]

This bit about 40 you all are talking about...it wasn't 40 Dots, was it? or 40 blocks from my home or another classic 40 sketch?

 

[MuppetManAZ]

This bit about 40 you all are talking about...it wasn't 40 Dots, was it? or 40 blocks from my home or another classic 40 sketch?

I seem to remember 40 candles and 40 nurses.

 

[BeckyDR]

I seem to remember 40 candles and 40 nurses.

ah, so no classic 40-related stuff...oh well, at least Kermit and Barkley made appearances on the show.

 

[D'Snowth]

]Again, I blame the low budget of the show, and PBS's refusal to make specials that aren't about Wayne Dyer or 1950's music to get pledge money.

Yeah, I mean Ken Burns is actually no longer making documentaries because he can't get the proper funding and finances he needs to produce them, and he's been doing these for years!

 

[Drtooth]

This bit about 40 you all are talking about...it wasn't 40 Dots, was it? or 40 blocks from my home or another classic 40 sketch?

By "the Bit" I mean the fact it was the number of the day, and they had a birthday cake with 40 candles on it... only thing that was an indication that it was their 40th year.

Yeah, I mean Ken Burns is actually no longer making documentaries because he can't get the proper funding and finances he needs to produce them, and he's been doing these for years!

And that's a bad thing? I could fill this up with a rant on PBS's current business model (I.e. every other week being pledge time, polluting said pledge time with self help gurus and nostalgic musical programming to get money from non-PBS viewers who don't care) but that's neither the time nor the place. Had PBS cared enough about a show that put their children's line up on the map, they would have at least designated some funds for an inexpensive retrospective... and in turn used that as a pledge drive special, like they used to.

 

[dwayne1115]

I think that one thing that was a problem for me is that they did not have a lot of classic SS Muppets. I mean it was nice to see Big bird, and Barkly, and was awesome to see Kermit, but there are a lot more "missing Muppets".
I know that they study the reaction to children and how they respond to the show. I can't beleive that kids would respond well to this type of format. It really jumps around from different "worlds" and was almost even confusing to me let alone a preschooler.
After reading the book Street Gang I can understand why they created parts like Zoey, and Abby. However you can't have two main Muppets fighting for popularity. They need to work together. I'll explain what I mean in a few posts, I have to go get my kids.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm also glad they switched back to full screen presentation.