Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 40

[dwmckim]

Since we've seen a majority of the episodes, i'd have to say that though certainly not without its moments, as a season the current one has been more a disappointment than a winner - and when one considers that this is their 40th season which should have been a little more special, it really has been missing the mark. Things like the gems (which i hope turns into a tradition beyond season 40) and Kermit's EW cameo are cool but they don't carry an episode - the team has focused too much on certain small areas to make season 40 special but lost total focus on the overall big picture.

My main thought when watching an episode or a sequence of episodes shouldn't end up being "are you guys really sure you know what you're doing?" Yet that's exactly what's tended to become my mantra! For a show that's been called the most researched show in history and includes creative problem solving among its cirriculum, it sure has massively failed to grasp some pretty simple concepts as to how to put on a good show that will engage the viewers and how to still shine despite the budget cuts.

I do have to at least throw in amongst the discussion of season 40 that i thought it was massively cool that they just threw in the random surprise just for the heck of it of having the opening theme end differently in at least one episode by having Grover fly into the lamppost without knocking it down but rather getting up dizzily and leaning against it knocking it over that way. Just a really cool fun way to catch the viewer off guard and make them smile/laugh during a moment in the show they're not expecting to see anything different in.

 

[Drtooth]

Well put. I mean, a Lot of it, as I said was budgetary... reusing segments, lack of characters, smaller cast, smaller number of puppets in a scene or sequence, one new Elmo's World (so far), and basically a lot of filler to eke out as much spare time that would have been filled with more carefully placed or newer segments. But a lot of it was choice. They chose to put one episode of Abby in every episode, and they chose to hold back on some of the episodes so they can make them last (provided they did make 26 segments)... they chose to do a block segment that's hit or miss no matter who's the star...

All and all, it really feels like a kid's Christmas or Birthday in a recession that the kid's parents almost forgot. You're really excited, then you find out you got so little, and most of it just seems like cheap junk bought at the last minute that the kid really doesn't want... and he doesn't even get the stuff he asked for.

So far, here's things I'd like to see different if I didn't state them enough already as it is:

• Keep Murray hosting the Letter and Number and Word segments. Get rid of the fillers telling what's next and the opposite games.
• Make the choice between showing an episode of each segment every day or making x amount of episodes last more than one season. Something they managed to get wrong last year too.
• The theme songs for various segments are catchy, but they also take up a lot of time.
• You CAN keep some of the format, but mix it up and make it more spontaneous. They tried to go back to the spontaneity of the pre-32 seasons 2 years ago, and they were moving in that direction... now they lost it.
• Take a little more care in picking out segments for filling out the rest of the hour. A lot of stuff seemed thrown in and pointless (today's stop motion violin sketch for example).
• If you can trim down the Murray segments from last season, I don't see why they can't trim Elmo's World down a little without ruining it. A couple seconds here and there, and you lose 2 or 3 minutes without much effort.
• Better scripts for celebrity word of the day. Some were great, some seemed like they were on a baby show waving high to their babies at home.
• Shorter, better letter and number segments. The Sesame Street English segments are cute, but go on longer than they have to by at least 30 seconds.
• And, this is per my own taste... NO KAREN AQUA ANIMATIONS! NONE! NEVER! IX-NAY! I hate to be mean to an animator, but her work on the show is repetitive and sloppy in most cases.

 

[dwmckim]

One thing i meant to include in my last post but ended up leaving it out before hitting send...

Given that they only have 26 episodes a season, one would think a LOT more thought and care would go into individual episodes since they aren't having to "crank those puppies out" like they once had to. I mean even though SST is still shown daily, the number of episodes is now down to what's typical for a weekly series. Yet, the episodes feel more rushed and glossed over than ever.

Remember what i said about the main thought in my head watching this season's episodes have been "Do these guys really know what they're doing?" I have a feeling the people who really were attentive and responsible for the overall flow and care of the episodes were among those laid off.

 

[Drtooth]

Given that they only have 26 episodes a season, one would think a LOT more thought and care would go into individual episodes since they aren't having to "crank those puppies out" like they once had to. I mean even though SST is still shown daily, the number of episodes is now down to what's typical for a weekly series. Yet, the episodes feel more rushed and glossed over than ever.

Remember what i said about the main thought in my head watching this season's episodes have been "Do these guys really know what they're doing?" I have a feeling the people who really were attentive and responsible for the overall flow and care of the episodes were among those laid off.

Heh... I wouldn't doubt it for a second if that's the case. It Does feel like the series came off shorthanded, and it feels like (in case it really isn't the case) they shot everything in a shorter amount of time so they don't have to pay studio fees or anything like that. And it really feels like they didn't spend all that long to put the episodes together... but frankly, last season felt that way too. And even the writing feels short handed... the Elmo Camping with Chris episode especially feels like "Okay, we've got 2 more minutes left to write a script or no one's getting paid. We gotta shoot something out quick." It seemed like a lost oppertunity to do a BETTER story with the same subject.

And something tells me they didn't even focus test the block format as well as they could if any...

Honestly, I'm sticking completely to my last minute recession Christmas comment. We got 2 nice books and a nice DVD set... but the only attempt of making this season special is hiding stuff in the background, in cases, inside jokes that get blocked and don't really seem worth it. Was there anything in the camping episode? Even the season 35 opener attempted to make it a special. The only thing special is Big Bird considers leaving and the number of the day was 40? Not even an old skit shoved in anywhere?

I'm not one to say "Where are the old segments" since we have them all over Youtube and DVD in some cases. But it would have been nice to give a nod to the 40th anniversary without adding anything to the budget with some good older segments instead of stuff we saw as late as last year and as early as earlier this decade.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Better scripts for celebrity word of the day. Some were great, some seemed like they were on a baby show waving high to their babies at home.

I see what you mean, but I thought today's was fairly good. It's nice to see Grover still does that, "Hey, ? bab-eeeeeee!" bit.

 

[Muppet Frog]

Hey, Everybody Be Yo'Self was on today's episode. So that means we got to see Kermit twice this season.

 

[Drtooth]

I really did like this episode with the weird writer slobby guy with the caps with stuff on it from 30 Rock. Nice, od littl story we had today. Too bad there were only about 3 Muppet characters in there... that thing with the letter R went on a bit too long for my taste, and it almost felt like they ran out of stuff to do, and threw it in last minute. But still, a very good episode. And even though I kinda saw the coming, I thought it was very amusing.

The word of the day was alright too, if you like Jimmy Fallon. At least he wasn't talking down to kids and got the spirit of the show.

A lot of stuff I like to see, a New Abby where they go to Colonial Trolliumsburg, where we get to see a real powerful bit about Blogg, and find out more about his origins... nice gags about Simon and Garfunkle. And a really good Ernie and Bert great Adventure too. I still think the newer letter and number segments this season are weak, but that's been like that for a while now, so I can't really complain.

Hey, Everybody Be Yo'Self was on today's episode. So that means we got to see Kermit twice this season.

Yeah... the one little thing I wish was that in the Elmo's World segment he actually interacted with some SS characters or something. But I'm not looking a gift frog in the mouth. But 2 appearances by Kermit in one season.. Man is that a sad thing to be happy about.

 

[InvaderZim]

Has Marco (Gina's son) made appearances this season?

 

[Gonzo's Hobbit]

I watch Sesame Street every now and then when I'm not at school or work. It's wierd, because it has changed quite a bit from what I remember growing up. But it hasn't changed as much as I had expected it to. There is a bunch of stuff that I recognize. They still use clips that I recognize from older episodes and the avant garde aspect of many of the clips is still present.

 

[dwmckim]

Okay - this is something that has REALLY bothered me about this season that i keep forgetting to mention...

This really cuts to the core about how it seems like some of the most important people that really understood what makes the show work were among those laid off and how overall the show seems very rushed and sloppily put together.

No matter what - the children come first right? And while appealing to kids of all races, backgrounds, and social class, Sesame from the beginning was meant to give lower income children a headstart.

So, if one of the biggest parts of the curriculum is learning letters and numbers as well as the initial building blocks of reading, why did everyone involved with Sesame Street seemingly forget that just because the show switched to hi-def/widescreen last year, that that doesn't mean that every single household WATCHING the show on the other end of the screen doesn't have these newer fancy (expensive) television sets...especially during a major recession? A large portion of children watching don't have widescreen tv's and various PBS stations don't maintain the widescreen format, instead switching to a fullscreen presentation (my local PBS sometimes switches to fullscreen and sometimes doesn't).

So if you have an educational show built on getting kids to recognize letters, numbers and words that show up on the screen, they should be FRAMING all those as if a viewer is still watching in fullscreen - as i've seen countless words cropped off - what good is it to teach how the letter "R" starts the word "Rodent" if all you see on the screen is "odent"? The lower income families that can't afford the latest fadgets are getting left behind...which should NEVER be the case when it comes to Sesame Street. They're losing touch with the realities of how their audience is seeing the show to the point where it interferes with a child's ability to learn from it and that just flat out makes me furious.

On a lighter note, saw Jimmy Fallon's second Sesame appearance this season with his word of the day bit - man, this guy is just the BEST when it comes to working with the Muppets whether it's the Classic Muppets or the Sesame gang! Kind of fitting that Jimmy took the place of John Denver when the Muppets recreated the 12 Days number on his show as Fallon really should be to the Muppets what John was...a frequent collaborator that would come to have his name associated strongly with them.