Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 41

[cahuenga]

Great! I wonder if someone can put it in video on youtube! I would be very pleased!

 

[Oscarfan]

I don't think that was her. There was another women similar to her, but Susan wasn't a part of it.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

Oh, okay. So Susan's yearly appearance may still be coming up.

 

[Oscarfan]

She'll be in the "Rahki Road" episode, as well as (I think) the word of the day explanation of "volunteer" (she's in the promo shot of it at least).

 

[Drtooth]

Disappointment isn't even the word

Wow... for an episode that was supposed to be all about Bert, it sure was all about Abby and Elmo again.

His appearance at the beginning and end was fun, but then it degenerated into another "This is this and that is that" episode... I'M REALLY starting to get sick of this "My world is green and growing" initiative. They do like 3 of these a year. We get it, animals have different attributes, even generalized species. And would it have killed them to write Bert in every scene at least? The fact that he gave up and went home made me give up on the episode. Like that they managed to mention Doin' the Pidgeon, but the episode actually quite depressed me. I was looking forward to Bert, and I get another Elmo and Abby explore nature plot.

OOh! And a freaking Abby Fairy School that was on at least 4 times by now! Wow! Yeah, I'm not going to bother with the rest of the episode...

 

[Convincing John]

Today's episode!

You guys! You'll never believe it! Today's episode did something totally different! Y'know those guys they have in that claymation segment? They actually made a Muppet of one of them! (The yellow one with the pointy head). He sure was interested in seeing pigeons. He wasn't on long...I think his name is...Bart or Bort or something. Like I said, he was only on a moment or two.

I really like this new character. I really hope they have more of this Bart or Bort or whoever he is. Hey, wouldn't it be cool if they made a Muppet out of the other clay guy? I bet if those two got together in a sketch or be on the street in more scenes, they would really be funny! The kids would like them, too.

(ahem) --->

Convincing John

 

[The Count]

Episode 4221: Bert's Pigeon Search.
Sponsors: P, 12.
Airdate: October 12, 2010.
Season: Season 41.

Cold Opening: What's the Word on the Street?
Binoculars.
*Note: This was the first episode where the last sponsors, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Viewers Like You were voiced by Chris instead of Gordon.

Street Story.
Elmo and Abby are playing with their toy spaceships...
Bert shows up looking for a special pigeon, unfortunately he's confusing the noise Elmo and Abby are making for their spaceships.
Apparently Abby's attention is shortened, she asks Bert about the seven kinds of rock pigeon even after he shows them the list.
Bert gives up almost quoting Don Music's famous quitting line, prompting Elmo and Abby to search for the elusive blue-bar pigeon themselves to help Bert.
Abby poofs them some birdwatching gear...
Good tough New Yorker voice for the chickadee.
Like the British uppityness of Madame Robin Redbreast.
"Are you looking for a bird with a beautiful rrrrred breast?" Look Madame Robin, that's what got Katy Perry booted from Sesame in the first place.
Also, Madame Robin sings at the Nestropolitan Opera Theater... That's 2, 2 references to 2, 2 Richard Hunt characters!
Nice Don Addams-ish voice for the blue jay.
"If we only knew what sound a pigeon makes..." Further prooving Abby's short attention span.
They finally find the blue-bar pigeon, prompting Bert to finally check off the last pigeon on his life list, and then break into a pigeon dance party.
With all the bird Muppets they introduce for episodes like these, why can't we get a raven?

Celebrity/Muppets: Julie Bowan and Elmo explain "binoculars".
Letter of the Day: What's on Me that Starts with P?
Murray's wearing a purse, parrot, pencil, pirate hat.
Film: P is for princess, pickle, picnic, petals. Another bleh segment.
AFFS: The Pinocchio Process.
Even though this is a repeat, it's funny to see Blogg wrestling with the concept of puppetry since he is a puppet, or a CGI character, that's why it's funny.
Number of the Day: Murray and the kids count 12 eggs.
Apparently they don't know about the new cartons that bring eighteen eggs.
Animation: Pinball Number Count: 12!
Shorter than the original... And it was coin-operated instead of the pullback knob to launch the ball... But still an enjoyable highlight.
Bert & Ernie's Great Adventures: The Bird Games.
Bert ends up dressing like a pigeon to inspire Bernice after seeing Ernie dressed as a duck for Rubber Duckie.
Rubber Duckie takes gold in the squeaking event.
Bernice loses the speed birdseed pecking event to the turkey.
The turkey lays an egg in the middle of the fancy flying event, which Bernice wins after saving Pigeon-Suit Bert.
Good adventure, maybe they should've used this one when they had the Bird Games street story with Big Bird in Season 39.
Muppets: Backwards/Forwards with Murray again.
Muppets: "Everybody's Song" sung by Rocco Fiorelli from Season 40.
Elmo's World: Bells.
Closing: Murray rewinds back to the sponsors.

Good story... Pinball Count and Great Adventures were the true highlights from today.

 

[Convincing John]

"Are you looking for a bird with a beautiful rrrrred breast?" Look Madame Robin, that's what got Katy Perry booted from Sesame in the first place.

ROFL!

Oh thanks a lot! Now I'm going to be laughing about that at work tonight. It's bad enough one of my co-workers had a cold and sneezes exactly like Mrs. Sparklenose.

Also, there was a classic faint when our favorite pigeon fancier saw the blue-bar pigeon. It was quick, because Elmo helped him back up again.

The word on the street is "binoculars"...that's what I'll use from now on if they say a classic character will appear in an episode. Like the blue-bar pigeon, these guys are rarely seen! (Gets out my list and checks the box next to the species "Yellow Pointy-Headed Antron Fleeced Pigeon Fancier". Sighs at the empty square next to "Orange Antron-Fleeced Duckie Squeaking Trickster").

Convincing John

 

[Drtooth]

I just wish they'd STOP using the same "This is this and THat is that." plotline. This episode had so much potential, and as I said earlier, I was beyond disappointed. We had 3 like this so far (also Camouflage Challenge, Happy Scientists) , and several last season. This episode was ALMOST identical to Cowmonster Pair from last year, only with Bert in it. He made the plot better, Abby and Elmo's forced appearance took away what could have been an otherwise good episode. There is something so mechanical and inorganic about it. Their chemistry really doesn't work the way they want it to. Elmo, unlike Kermit or even Big Bird can't work with just anyone. I've said that several times.

Now, had the episode been about Bert and Elmo,Bert and Abby, all three or even better... Elmo Zoe and Bert THEN it would have worked. It would have been much better had Bert followed them, saying "No! That's not a pigeon! That's a _________," getting more and more dejected with every wrong guess. That's why Happy scientists worked. Telly kept reacting to the situation until he got very frustrated. Couldn't you imagine Bert on the cusp of giving up and having Elmo hear something in the distance, only to have Bert realize that's what he was looking for?

No... instead we got 2 characters who don't emote with each other talking to different birds (and one was SUSPICIOUSLY missing ) about how different birds are different. Even if they at LEAST were all the other kinds of pigeons (such potential in listing all the different kinds) it would have been more meaningful. But no, we get Cowmonster Pair with animal sounds instead of animal tracks.

 

[The Count]

Yeah... There are too many on the list with empty checkboxes.
Violet fang-toothed numerian obsessor.
Blue shag-furred biscuit devourer.
Green scuzzy candwelling contrarian.
Brown tuskless metropolitan mammoth.

At least the Richard Hunt references helped this episode's storyline.
*Marks down quotes attributed to pink operatic endangerment-causing flamingo and yellow tubular-headed broken-crowned unrhyming composer.