Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 41

[ISNorden]

I was able to see the Pigeon episode today, and yes; very disappointing that Bert was only see briefly at the beginning and end of the street story.

That makes at least two of us. Bert didn't even react to Abby and Elmo the way I expected him to ("Leave me alone so I can find the blue-bar pigeon, OK? You guys can't even tell a pigeon from a chickadee...") Someone else already suggested that Bert should've been the one to ID the other birds as wrong: "Elmo, you meatball, that's a robin, not a blue-bar pigeon! See, it's got no blue anywhere on its body, just a lot of red on the chest...and does that song sound like 'coo, coo'? No...listen again, Elmo!" Even a one-species fanatic would know enough about other birds to tell them apart, after all...

Why do the writers hate the classic characters so much? Would it really have been so hard to include Bert in the whole story?

The trouble is that Bert and other classic characters don't make as much money for the show; maybe Sesame Workshop needs to talk some toymakers into new tie-ins. Hey, if that got Elmo into the spotlight, it just might save Bert and Ernie...

One of the reasons why I was happy with season 40 is that a lot of the classic characters were seen a lot in street stories. There was a lot of Big Bird, Oscar, and Cookie.

But not so much with season 41. And the recycling of footage is getting worse.

Amen. The target age range may be getting smaller, but that shouldn't become an excuse for lazy production: even in a 26-episode season, the writers and research staff have enough time to find new, fun ways of teaching the lesson material.

I cannot even remember the last time that Ernie and Bert were seen together in a street story.

The "Ernie leaves Bert alone for his birthday" episode, hmm--what season was that?

I hate to say it, but perhaps it is time to re-cast Ernie, it just seems to be too demanding for Steve, and if things keep going the way they are, I fear that we will never see Ernie in a street story (or new sketch) again.

You and me both. It's terrible to let one of the oldest surviving characters rot away like this because no one has time to perform him regularly.

And if Sesame Street keeps having budget problems, I question if the show will last much longer, since the quality is rapidly decreasing.

Mmm-hmm...I'd hate to see the show go out with a whimper, but that looks like the way it's headed. Overworked performers, rehashed material, deserted set, and not enough funds to get out of those ruts. If I ever win the state lottery, Sesame Workshop is getting a huge donation from me (after the IRS and my creditors take out their share). It might not even cover one episode, but I hope it'd help!

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Yeah, I remember the Bert and Ernie birthday, episode that was from season 34 I believe.

That makes at least two of us. Bert didn't even react to Abby and Elmo the way I expected him to ("Leave me alone so I can find the blue-bar pigeon, OK? You guys can't even tell a pigeon from a chickadee...") Someone else already suggested that Bert should've been the one to ID the other birds as wrong: "Elmo, you meatball, that's a robin, not a blue-bar pigeon! See, it's got no blue anywhere on its body, just a lot of red on the chest...and does that song sound like 'coo, coo'? No...listen again, Elmo!" Even a one-species fanatic would know enough about other birds to tell them apart, after all...

Yeah. I said that. Glad someone agrees with me there. Lol.

As for recasting Ernie, I don't know. Sure that would be good if that would give him more airtime, but recall the Artie Esposito/Kermit on 'America's Got Talent,' we all agreed that wasn't such a hot idea. Steve does really well with Ernie, I think it's just a matter of making himself more available.

 

[Oscarfan]

Just so everyone's aware, yesterday's repeated episode featured a new Super Grover sketch (not 2.0, but a letter of the day bit).

 

[mbmfrog]

I have to agree. I was hoping Bert, Elmo and Abby would have worked together on finding that pigeon. Instead of having the Muppet birds just tell Elmo and Abby what they were, Bert could have been around and told them and eventually got frustrated like he often does with Ernie. That would have been great to see. I guess the writers didn't think of that. Or maybe they had to limit how much airtime Bert got because of Eric's availability. I don't know. Though it was interesting to see how many different types of pigeons Bert has seen. I can't help but wonder what kind Bernice is.

I was thinking the same thing too. I mean I would have loved to see how Bert reacted to Abby's magic or at least give a brief explaination on some of the birds around the street.

Also what kind of Piegeon is Bernice, since I would have thought that she would at least make a brief appearance along side Bert during the episode.

 

[Drtooth]

I cannot even remember the last time that Ernie and Bert were seen together in a street story.
The availability factor is certainly a tough thing, since Disney is doing things with the Muppet Show characters, and the fact that Sesame Street is still going strong, its very demanding for the performers who do work for both The Muppets Studio and Sesame Workshop.

I hate to say it, but perhaps it is time to re-cast Ernie, it just seems to be too demanding for Steve, and if things keep going the way they are, I fear that we will never see Ernie in a street story (or new sketch) again.

Wanna know the worst part? They actually have an alternate Ernie already. Sometimes he's busy with other commitments on Broadway. I wouldn't mind another Ernie recast, just until Steve is available. Or better yet, record Ernie and Bert segments on site in the off season. Maybe you could knock one or two out.

And if Sesame Street keeps having budget problems, I question if the show will last much longer, since the quality is rapidly decreasing.

We might as well come clean here. EVERYONE is having a budget problem... but I don't want to go into that. I'm blaming PBS's lackluster treatment of its own celebrated kid's programming. All the pledge funds go to making sure we have more Wayne Dyer infomercials and old fogey music to get people to pledge money to see the same specials during pledge month. PBS is probably facing it worst of all. I swear, they CLEARLY are trying to get old people to give them their social security checks/sign their estate over to PBS. They're that desperate. I could go on for hours about this, but I won't. Suffice to say we don't have children's TV specific pledge drives anymore (a good way to show and create SS specials, by the way), and all the shows have to suffer relentless reruns. stingily saving new episodes form this season to rerun next season. I swear Curious George's new season was 3 episodes. Not even a week's worth.

As a side note, I personally don't have a problem with "Flying Fairy School" I like the new characters and I think they nailed the Muppet feel. Yes, perhaps sometimes its a little long, and I wish that they didn't recycle footage so much.

That's my problem too. I really do enjoy the segment, considering I was opposed to hearing the announcement. I was delighted to see they made it a little show with a PLOT, and not just jumping around about the same subject with no flow like EW (Elmo or no Elmo, the format of that is TERRIBLE, and I'm still dumbfragged that it's still on the air). It's just that making it an every day segment when you only have 13 segments spanning 2 seasons of 52 episodes combined... you have to see them 4 or 5 times in "new" episodes. That's where they lose me, and I'm sure many other viewers. If it alternated with other segments, it would work fine. If they had 26+ episodes (preferably + ) it would work fine. This way they're just BEGGING to say "change the channel to our competition!"

 

[cahuenga]

I think that the show is too much centered around Kevin Clash ans Joey Mazzarino nowadays,I know they are great performers and I love them, but I think their characters receive too much atention and time in the show, and I think that this is because their positions as Executive producer/ Puppet captain and senior writer . I would love to see more scenes with the other muppeteers and humans. They would save some money from the computer animation in order to produce more skits with the puppets, I think that is more cheap!

 

[Drtooth]

Wow. What an episode. I'm not even going to talk about the reused footage... but at least it was a rerun of a NEW Abby.

Anyway, Big Bird and Snuffy in a street story? No Elmo? And Abby's screwy magics being integral to the plot? What's not to like there? And Gordon too. I will say this, the best part about science based episodes, they reference the fact Gordon's a science teacher. Not directly today, but it seemed like for the longest time in the series they didn't even mention what Gordon did. Now THIS was an episode.

Plus, I have to say, if you're gonna reuse something, reuse Ernie and Bert segments. At least that's a way to keep them on the show. How many characters were part of the show for the longest time ONLY in repeated film inserts? Even Cookie and Grover were subjected to that at one point or another.

 

[Oscarfan]

There was an image on the On Air section of SS.org, showing Grover giving Mr. Johnson a letter G. Is that skit in the episode?

 

[Drtooth]

There was an image on the On Air section of SS.org, showing Grover giving Mr. Johnson a letter G. Is that skit in the episode?

No... the letter was B and we had the Chibi-Hello Kitty Elmo segment instead.

 

[Oscarfan]

Huh. They list this episode with G as the sponsor, and the Superfoods episode with B.