Your Thoughts: The Street We Live On

[Censored]

Okay... I take it now that you all think Sesame Street is actually ment for nostalgic 20 year olds, and not kids....

Seriously. I would NOT like to see them go out, for 2 simple reasons...

A) It's still the best educational show on Television. It seems to always will be.... look at the other crap on the channel. Boobah. Teletubbies... Jay Jay the Airplane.

B) Do you really think it would be replaced by a show just as good in quality? Shell no! It could easily be replaced with some forgettable poorly made crap used to sell toys to 3-5 year olds like 90% of the other shows on PBS. I mean, seriously. Over here it took Mister Roger's death to have them air Mr. Roger's Neighboorhood again, and not the flimsy little puppet show or whatever that was on in it's stead.

After all, Kids are the main target for SS. Do you think they care to see a nostalgic clip from 1970? No. They would rather watch Elmo. They're losing a lot of competition from quantity garbage on most of the other networks. Kids sympathise with Elmo. Do you think they feel the same as Forgetful Jones or Don Music? Not totally. Pretend that your a little kid, what character would you mpost likely pay attention to, a character that resembles the psycological age of a 3 year old, or something that's a parody of something that you've never heard of? The reason why Guy Smiley and the rest aren't on the show, isn't because they want to deny the nostalgic fans, but because kids get fidgety when they're on. They feel they can play with Elmo. He could easily come out of the TV and be your friend.


Now look at it this way. Your 20 years old, and it's 1975. What do you think whne you watch the show? "You gotta be kidding me!" or if you're watching Pinball number count or Jazzy spies you think... "Pfft! What the shell are they on?"

I mean, as much as I'd like to see the show become more nostalgic, you have to think realistically. It's a show for kids and parents to watch together.

But besides that, I do agree that they overperfect the characters too much (I feel the same way about Gonzo and Fozzie). Bert and Ernie reached peak great looking ness just before Jim Died. I'm still unsettled about Cookie Monster, and the new Grover looks too dead. Plus I do agree that they could have easily shaved a few bits donwn for more classic stuff.

Frankly, I don't see where the current Sesame Street is that different from any other children's show today. The current writers and producers have done their best to make it a clone of the standard format for kids' shows today without any unique identity of its own. If they took Sesame Street off, children could get the same thrills from Blue's Clue's. The children are the ones who are really being cheated out of anything with an identity today.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm surprised no has said anything about Kermit! They actually showed Kermit during this special, I thought that was the best part, that and Mahna Mahna at the end. I liked the new Grover puppet, only he looks like he has a "hunchback" now. I didn't enjoy the new Oscar puppet at the end though. No voice overs on my PBS station except when a severe storm is on the way. Hopefully they might show more Kermit in the future because "WE NEED THE KERM!" By the way, why did Elmo go back in time to see Maria and Luis's wedding if he was seen in the bottom left corner of the frame?

 

[Censored]

By the way, why did Elmo go back in time to see Maria and Luis's wedding if he was seen in the bottom left corner of the frame?

Only the people at Sesame Workshop know the answer to that one.

 

[Dantecat]

Nope Ssetta,No Voiceover on NJN.Just WHYY did for a very little bit.

 

[jzion12345]

OK...I've read what all of you have to say about this special and I have one question...Why does everyone hate Elmo? I love Elmo. I respect Elmo and the ability he has to reach out to children and relate to children. Elmo is the mopst popular character EVER to walk down Sesame Street. Elmo is not aimed at older people. NOTHING on Seasme Street is aimed at older people. It is something that children and their parents can watch that is entertaining and and educational. It is very non-offensive. Look at Teletubbies. That talks down to kids. Sesame Street does not. I am very offended when some people write that Sesame Street as dumbed down. It has most certainly not. It just has a completely different focus than it did in the older days. Racial harmony, number and letters...those are not the focus of the show anymore. In the world we live in, kids are expoerienciung much more by the time they watch Sesame Street. With the Internet, they have access to much more information than before. Global Grover is one example.

Frankly, I thought this special was great. While it was really nothing more than 45 minutes of Elmo's World with some extra stuff thrown in, I think Elmo's world was a good format to choose. 10 years ago, Elmo's world did not exist. The culture of this country was a bit different. Kids were different. Jim Henson Company was different. More older clips were still being played on the normal episodes back then. The show was much differently produced. If 35 years had passed in 1994, we would have seen a much different special. But, the way kids watch TV is different. While most adults have a shorter attention span, young kids have grown up watching 30 minute long tapes of Barney and the Wiggles and Bear. This is why the show has moved from short skits to longer segments. Kids have long attention spans. This is why they framed the special around Elmo's World. While I think they could have thrown a few more older skits, all in all, I thought it was well done.

And am I the only one who cried during the last song?

 

[Censored]

And am I the only one who cried during the last song?

I cried during the whole special.

 

[MuppetQuilter]

I have to disagree with that to a certain extent. The beauty of television, film, and videotape is that it allows actors to "live forever" to their audiences. Don't they still show Mr. Rogers episodes on television even though he died? Mr. Hooper, David, and all of the old characters could be used if Sesame Street just adopted the right format. Some shows could have flashback episodes with the characters REALLY talking about the old days. Or they could just make the radical move of rerunning old Sesame Street episodes at one time of the day and showing new episodes at another. Sitcoms have done this for years; I don't see why children's shows can't as well. JMO

They can't rerun old episodes of SST. Sesame Workshop signed a contract that puts old eps on Noggin (don't remember when that expires). Noggin scaled that back because kids weren't watching or responding to the old episodes. We may not like it, but the truth is, kids aren't engaged by the old episodes. We can debate why that is, but it won't change the fact that it is.

You can't flip three year olds back and forth between two different realities that way. Remember, the core SST audience is no longer 5 year olds, it's 3 year olds. Three year olds are extremely literal. They thrive on consistency. One week without preschool for spring break can throw them into an uproar. You can't have Mr. Hooper running Hooper's store one day and Alan the next. They can't make that work. Characters can't talk about the old days and have flashbacks because three year olds don't have a very sophisticated concept of time. That's why they ask if it's Christmas again yet in January. They need predictibility-- that's why the new format SST adopted where each segment of the show is in the same order everyday is so successful with their audience-- the kids know what's coming and it makes them feel secure with the show and gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride when they say 'Counts going to do the number of the day next' and they're right.

Mr. Rogers is different. If they brought in someone new to play Mr. Rogers and made new episodes, they wouldn't be able to show the old ones because it would confuse kids. But nothing has changes within the world of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood other than that there are no new episodes. Some kids know that Mr. Rogers died and the shows are reruns, but many don't know (death is another complicated concept to grasp and not one most parents want to tackle before they have to). If it's Alan's store, than it can nolonger be Mr. Hooper's. If they had quit showing Hooper's store and Alan did something else on the show it would be different.

People forget how much younger the SST audience is today than it was in the early days. Instead of 5 and 6 year olds we have 3 year olds (as well as some 6 year olds, but also some 1 year olds-- heck, my 8 month old will watch with my three year old if given a chance). Developmentally three is tons younger than five.

 

[dvakman]

NOTHING on Seasme Street is aimed at older people.

It used to be. Do your homework.

 

[Censored]

They can't rerun old episodes of SST. Sesame Workshop signed a contract that puts old eps on Nogging (don't remember when that expires). Noggin scaled that back because kids weren't watching or responding to the old episodes.

You can't flip three year olds back and forth between two different realities that way. Remember, the core SST audience is no longer 5 year olds, it's 3 year olds. Three year olds are extremely literal. They thrive on consistency. One week without preschool for spring break can throw them into an uproar. You can't have Mr. Hooper running Hooper's store one day and Alan the next. They can't make that work. Characters can't talk about the old days and have flashbacks because three year olds don't have a very sophisticated concept of time. That's why they ask if it's Christmas again yet in January. They need predictibility-- that's why the new format SST adopted where each segment of the show is in the same order everyday is so successful with their audience-- the kids know what's coming and it makes them feel secure with the show and gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride when they say 'Counts going to do the number of the day next' and they're right.

Mr. Rogers is different. If they brought in someone new to play Mr. Rogers and made new episodes, they wouldn't be able to show the old ones because it would confuse kids. But nothing has changes within the world of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood other than that there are no new episodes. Some kids know that Mr. Rogers died and the shows are reruns, but many don't know (death is another complicated concept to grasp and not one most parents really want to tackle before they have to). If it's Alan's store, than it can nolonger be Mr. Hooper's. If they had quit showing Hooper's store and Alan did something else on the show it would be different.

People forget how much younger the SST audience is today than it was in the early days. Instead of 5 and 6 year olds we have 3 year olds (as well as some 6 year olds, but also some 1 year olds-- heck, my 8 month old will watch with my three year old if given a chance). Developmentally three is tons younger than five.

Somehow, I can't see many three year olds going to counseling for trauma over "Hooper's Store inconsistency." Sometimes we don't give children enough credit.

In any case, all I want is to see all the reruns of Sesame Street the same as I see the reruns of any other favorite show. I don't care if it's on regular TV, cable, VHS, or DVD. It makes no sense for it to be treated like an untouchable resource.

 

[dvakman]

One reason that the 20th anniversary was so much better was because at that time, Sesame Street had not yet lost much of its essence. As I've said before, when Jim Henson died, it seemed like all bets were off and they just went crazy.

Add to that the deaths of Northern Calloway and Joe Raposo around the same time. The writing was on the wall.