Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 43

[Drtooth]

I was right about Quiet or Loud having connections to Wubzy. The same guy that wrote the song (the lyrics anyway) is the creator of Wubzy.

I knew those mouths and trees looked familiar.

 

[Convincing John]

That most certainly did NOT look like a huge lump of paint.

 

[Oscarfan]

Can I just say I don't care for the Elmo puppet they've been using in the these past two episodes. I'm pretty sure it's one of the travel models Kevin used for outside appearances.

 

[cahuenga]

Its bigger didnt he?'

 

[Drtooth]

Can I just say I don't care for the Elmo puppet they've been using in the these past two episodes. I'm pretty sure it's one of the travel models Kevin used for outside appearances.

I'd say it's some sort of Elmo alternate puppet that has something attachable to its head. Something they want to get mileage out of, like the homunculus Zoe. I noticed a huge change in the puppet design in the "Innovation" word of the day spot when they switched from Elmo to Elmo-bot.

As for today's episode... I REALLY hope they cool it with the engineering schtick next season (doubtful) While not as bad as the nature guessing game episodes, these engineering ones are exactly the same. No wonder they put these things on a longer wait. The last 2 episodes didn't just have an identical story, they had identical themes and even the identical villain (just swapped out a different puppeteer for the wolf). But they're all the same and stiffly formulaic. Fairy Tale character or special human guest as parody character has to get something done. One attempt fails, they do something else, that attempt fails and then there's some song parody sung every time they start a new attempt... we see the same trial and error over and over, at least 4 times. While they do try to write the episodes as funny and engaging as possible, it's getting very repetitive. Especially for a show that has 26 episodes a season, interspersed with reruns of the same storyline. I swear the writers are goaded into using that same formula, so we can't even blame them.

SIGH! How about we drop engineering from the show and try to get a new version of 321 Contact on the air, SW? Older kids need to learn about science as well.

Other than that... I really wanted to be good about complaining about repeats, but I just have to ask...

in 3 seasons of the show, we have had 12 Super Grover 2.0 segments. This season saw ONE new segment. We have at least twice that many unseen Bert and Ernie cartoons. Yet they always favor SG, even though there are also that many reused Bert and Ernie cartoons. If it's that whole "it's not in widescreen" bit, that hasn't stopped them from using older footage before, and those cartoons can be easily cropped to look like it's widescreen. I would hate to say let go of SG 2.0, but we see every segment at least 2 times a season, in a season crushed with reruns. That and Abby...

 

[Oscarfan]

There's a second new segment of SG 2.0, but I have no idea when they're airing it (there's a photo of him and a sheep on a farm in the press kit). But even so, the Lemonade one is probably a hold-over (as it was in a video I found with clips from the other season 42 ones, and this was pre-season 43).

I think they didn't make any new ones this year was because of ETM. Considering they broke up the filming into two halves, whatever effort and money they put into filming this year was the usual celebrity/spoof segments and ETM, which as Philip explained, is the probable reason we got some repeat storylines instead of actual new episodes.

 

[antsamthompson9]

The new street story was good. I liked Matt, Joey, and Stephanie's performances as the pigs. And Leslie's performance as Fannie the photographer. Leela was funny too. The Word of the Day was good. I never heard of the woman, but she's hot. I loved when the Word Pad said, "Ow, that hurts." The People in Your Neighborhood bits were great. Oscarfan, here's the old Muppet bits they showed until you get the episode file: AFFS Gene the Genie, SG 2.O penguins with block of ice, Ernie and Bert sing It's a Circle, and ETM President.

 

[Drtooth]

I think they didn't make any new ones this year was because of ETM. Considering they broke up the filming into two halves, whatever effort and money they put into filming this year was the usual celebrity/spoof segments and ETM, which as Philip explained, is the probable reason we got some repeat storylines instead of actual new episodes.

ETM is eating a lot of the next to nothing they have. That's an investment that will come back to them no doubt. But the real problem is, the celebrity and pop culture parody focus they absolutely think they need that's draining the budget. They painted them the heck into a corner with the celebrity word of the day bit. And half the time it falls completely flat anyway. Try and tell me Terrance Howard wasn't on something when he stumbled through incognito.

But then again, for a company that's strapped for cash and using every available resource, I still don't see any logical reason that they're sitting on at least 20 Bert and Ernie cartoons that have been finished for a couple years now. I don't see why they don't even get so much as an internet release, actually. Even if they just reran the ones they run and favored them over the Super Grover 2.0 segments. Sesame Street did have a long tradition of repetition, but they repeated shorter segments and in more episodes. When a huge 5-9 minute segment gets rerun over and over in a short period of time, it makes a noticeable difference. It's a shame it can't be helped.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

As for today's episode... I REALLY hope they cool it with the engineering schtick next season (doubtful) While not as bad as the nature guessing game episodes, these engineering ones are exactly the same. No wonder they put these things on a longer wait. The last 2 episodes didn't just have an identical story, they had identical themes and even the identical villain (just swapped out a different puppeteer for the wolf).

I know what you mean. The idea of a fairy tale character using engineering to solve the problem is kind of getting old. Plus the characters we know on the street aren't involved much in the plot rather than trying to help the fairy tale character. I'm starting to think that Minor Muppetz should send his ideas for S.S. 2.0 to the Workshop and give them some new ideas. Lol.

This season saw ONE new segment. We have at least twice that many unseen Bert and Ernie cartoons.

Well, speaking of Bert and Ernie, I'm glad they played the sketch about the circle. I know that's an older one (a bit older. I know it's still Steve as Ernie there), so it was good to see one of those we haven't seen in a while.

 

[Oscarfan]

As I stated before, if they'e worried about the E&B claymations not being in widescreen, then they do have 7 unaired from the second, widescreen season of them (19 of the 26 have been aired). So, unless they didn't test well or something, I have no idea what's keeping them from using them. And if not, they shot 14 E&B sketches for this Barrio Sesamo mini-series that are all basically a minute and a half to two minutes long; and with ETM leaving around 4-5 minutes of need material, they can easily fit in. There's also (at least) two more shot on the same day as the bottlecap box sketch we saw this season, so that's 16 widescreen bits they have at their disposal and are not doing anything with.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but the format of the show now barely allows for any extra material. If there's any place for an extra Muppet bit, it either follows AFFS or the pre-Elmo slot. We've gotten a lot of Grover sketches (which are all gems) and mostly spoof bits. Where's a Cookie Monster sketch? An Oscar or Big Bird song maybe? They're proving they can still make classic Muppet bits ("Change the World", Two-Headed Monter with milk, "I Am Special"), but they're too few and far between. As great as The Voice and Downton Abbey spoofs were, they're overshadowing the material they do produce, but don't get enough attention or produce enough of.

Also, this has no relevance to what I've said, but SW just posted a very interesting blog post about dated material, which is quite true.