Your Thoughts: The Street We Live On

[dvakman]

Look, Sesame Street to me is old Joe Raposo songs,

Amen friend. I snipped the rest to save space but you've perfectly captured how I feel about this show.

 

[Censored]

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.

Actually, if they took that theory to its logical conclusion, they'd have to stop calling it "Hooper's Store" and rename it "Alan's".

 

[dvakman]

I watched this at my parents' house and subjected my dad to an hour of Elmo's World. I am actually slightly embarassed. I would not have been ashamed to watch a retrospective special at 25 years of age, but I am still red in the face for watching an entire hour of Elmo's World.

I really feel for you. It was a painful show. We all went into it with the best of intentions.

 

[Erine81981]

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.

And alot of want to too but until that happens ur either going to have to watch what u taped over and over or watch the new ones. U see Ssetta she hasn't cried about the speical being bad even tho she might not like him that much. I really don't care at all, I care about is seeing new episodes even if I do have to set through Elmo's World. I don't like him that much but I remember him being on when I was little and that was 1980's. I've seen alot of SSU and I see why alot of people want old Episodes but we can't expect everything to come on TV. Look at Nick. There are alot of shows that I miss so much that I could see them but I know until they show them on TV again or when they make VHS or DVD then I'm going to have to wait. There's alot of old show that don't come on TV land that used to come and they don't. I liked Donna Reed, Patty Duke, My Three Sons and Car 54 Where are u? I used to watch them alot but I really don't care anymore because I don't care. So just deal w/ SS and get over it. JUST SHUT UP! ELMO ELMO ELMO ELMO!!!!! HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!

 

[Baughdie Howes]

I cried through the whole thing too...from being lied to by something that had always purported to be my friend, and had always promised to tell the truth.

This may illustrate to younger forum members, why we older ones are feeling so betrayed:
________________________

Several years ago, I attended a book-signing and one-man promo concert starring Bob McGrath, for the launch of "Sesame Street Unpaved", at a big bookstore in Toronto. The audience was full of kids, accompanied by their parents who had (like me) grown up with "Sesame Street". Bob told some stories and led us all in singing a bunch of songs. Most of them were the "classics", but there were a few newer songs thrown in to keep the kids happy.

Now, as a general rule, I have never felt comfortable around little kids---not even when I was a little kid. I've spent years trying to figure out exactly why, and I'm still not sure.

However, that evening, for the first and only time in my life, I felt so comfortable and connected with them, that I took off my glasses and used them to turn the sleeve of my faux-fur coat into a makeshift puppet to entertain the little kids sitting closest to me, while we waited for the show to start. I even made my "puppet" sing along for them, when Bob led us all in the ultimate classic, "Sing"!

I remember Bob speaking very fondly and admiringly of the millions of "Sesame Seeds" out there. That's the "inside" term for those of us who grew up with the show. He said it was amazing to think that that the very first generation has now produced its own generation of little "Sesame Seeds". He also commented on how much the cast and crew of the show appreciated the deep love that we still had for them all, even though we were now older than many of them had been when the show first began.

That night, we were all united by the magic of "Sesame Street".
__________________________________

We "Sesame Seeds" thought that magic would always be there. We thought we could always trust our old friend.

Sure, we knew it would evolve, because we'd watched that evolution, even as children. Those hour-long, deep storylines showed all sorts of changes happening in our little world. And when they were extended over a whole week, we could see such things as Big Bird going off to camp, being nervous, making friends, and then being sorry to have to leave the place. If you've ever gone through the "summer camp" experience, you'll know that's a really big evolution for a kid to go through...and all in just one week!

And we all thought it was great when suddenly the adults could finally see Snuffy...and when Maria went from being a librarian to being a construction worker...and when Maria and Luis fell in love and got married...

And we were all heartbroken by the most dramatic change of all: Mr. Hooper's death.

So "Sesame Street" was always evolving, a little bit at a time.

Evolution is one thing. Catastrophic destruction is quite another. On last night's anniversary special, we saw a clip of Big Bird discovering that a hurricane had wiped out the corner where he lived. Remember his plaintive, lost cry of, "My nest... My home..."?

Well, that's how I felt upon discovering that I had been lied to, and that the "Sesame Street" I'd loved so much had been totally destroyed by a devastating, heartless, outside force. That big tree of memories I'd been told would be there was gone, except for a few little twigs, here and there.

"My Street... My childhood..."

 

[Philo and Gunge]

I just watched the special again on PBS this morning (my PBS station showed #4054 for some odd reason) and now I can say what I like & hate:

I like:
The flashback scenes
The evolution scene at the end
The song
The beginning
The new Grover puppet
The Grover, Big Bird, Maria & All Elmo's Friends Channel (it was good until the ABC Song & Dance, what the ****? They never did that.)
I Dance Myself Do Sleep
Global Grover
The doors green again!
The return of Herry

I hated:
Elmo's World extension
The 3D cartoon with the kid in a wheelchair (This thing dragged on forever)
That the number wasn't 9 (we could have had folks!)
Oscar (He got on my nerves, it got annoying hearing "Get lost!" for the 30th time in one show)
That you could see Elmo at the wedding (Elmo: Why is Elmo here if he wasn't born yet? Grover: Oh, stupid Sesame Workshop executives.)
That creepy talking tree during the song
The fact that it was nothing but a regular Sesame episode with Elmo's World around it.

And I also pretty much hate everything else about the special.

 

[janicegroupie]

I just got done reading everybody's reactions and I have to agree that I too felt cheated by having the whole special be an episode of Elmo's World. I actually have not really watched any new episodes of SS only read about them so it was kind of surprising to me how it seems to be just like an episode of Blue's Clues. I can see how this really appeals to kids though yet I was still disappointed because I thought there would be more flashback clips since it was an anniversary special. I know me and my fiancee watched expecting to relive our childhood instead we watched Elmo being really annoying. I had always liked Elmo but there was just way too much of him, but again I do see how he appeals to kids I just wish the special hadn't been all him. There were things I really liked about the show though one being the clips at the end those were awesome. Also I don't think people are giving enough credit to the song The Street We Live On. That was an amazing song and me feel a litte better about the new SS. Overall the special was a disappointment but at least there were some old clips and a great end song. I know next time not to set my expectations too high so I won't be disappointed again.

 

[mikebennidict]

well i saw the SS special and i just loved it! not!!!!!!!! it was stupid!!!!!!!!!!!! yes there were some great momments. but not enough reminincing, too much elmo, and it was pathetic how they spent such a short time on the Mr. Hooper, Miles being adopted, Maria & Luis' Wdding and Gaby Being Born. shots. and there was no sound! please! the whole thing was more bad than good. and i don't wanna hear about the young kids of today and all that has been discussed about how kids are different today then from what they were when SS 1st hit the airwaves i do understand they're more of the focus and is generally more important. but they have every day Mon. thru Fri. for the kids. i think just this once they could of done a very good job compared to what they did and if the young ones liked it fine. but if not. oh well. they have all week long for the stuff they're most familier with.

 

[gildir]

Thoughts

The most important fact about the special which has not yet been emphasized enough is that it aired on Monday morning as a regular episode of Sesame Street in the regular time slot. (WGBH again refrained from having a voiceover during "Mahna Mahna" on this occasion.) Presumably it will be shown again in the future in the regular rotation of episodes. Therefore, it had to be written in such a way that it could stand as an ordinary episode while also serving as a nostalgic prime-time special. I don't think that it could have accomplished these two simultaneous goals any better than it did. Indeed, the cleverness shown in writing it with those goals in mind places it, not among my ten favorite episodes, but certainly among my 35 favorite episodes of all time.

As others have pointed out, the entire purpose of the regular segments such as "Journey to Ernie" is to give children in this frazzled, fearful world a comforting sense of familiarity and predictability. Since "The Street We Live On" was to air as a regular episode, the inclusion of these segments was absolutely necessary, no matter what adult fans might think. Indeed, I was surprised the special departed from the usual format as much as it did by having the Letter and Number of the Day, "Journey to Ernie" and "Global Grover" interwoven with "Elmo's World" rather than being separate entities. Whatever one thinks of Elmo, this allowed the episode to flow better as a special.

The Mr. Noodle, Question for You, Ask a Baby, Drawer and TV segments within "Elmo's World" were all used to celebrate Sesame Street in ways small children would understand, such as the discussions of how Cookie Monster would eat a cookie. And I suspect that the TV cartoon segment may have been a highlight of the special for casual adult viewers who would find it weird and trippy to see the familiar Muppet characters as cartoons rather than Muppets.

Many fans have expressed a wish that Mr. Hooper had made a longer appearance. Given that this show had to be watched and enjoyed by three-year-olds, how could this have been accomplished? If Grover and Elmo had stayed in that timezone much longer, Elmo would have inevitably asked where Mr. Hooper was now, and Grover would have had to tell him he was dead. Death is a big concept that cannot be casually mentioned in a show for children of that age. (The reference in the final montage to Mr. Hooper "not coming back", out of context as it was, would have sailed right over young children's heads.) Elmo's visibility in the wedding scene was regrettable, but as a Doctor Who fan, I know that continuity errors are inevitable in an anniversary special for a long-running series, especially when the plot involves time travel.

The time travel sequence could, of course, have been extended in scope to include events that Elmo actually remembered. This would have avoided the continuity error and allowed the inclusion of further big events like the revelation of Snuffy's existence, Slimy's trip to the Moon, the hurricane and the (post-9/11) firehouse visit, all of which were shown only in brief clips in the final montage (but those clips had sound). But this might have left insufficient time for the regular segments which, as I have explained, had to be included. (Indeed, the special had no opening title sequence, perhaps also for timing reasons.)

As for the suggestions that a number other than 10 should have sponsored the special, all I can say is that I was overjoyed to see the "Song of 10" with the baker and the "10 tiny turtles on the telephone" again. And the operatic version of "C is for Cookie" with Marilyn Horne, which I had never seen before, is surely one of the best Sesame Street segments ever. (But I was underwhelmed by the song about counting 10 flowers by twos -- am I right in suspecting that it dates from after the passings of Raposo and Moss? Also, I distinctly recall seeing the "10 bells" section of the "Song of 10" in the early 80's -- if it was edited into the segment after the fact, this was done before then.)

I have only one serious criticism of the special. I was a big fan of the late actress Lynne Thigpen, who starred on the "Carmen Sandiego" series as the Chief and appeared on CBS' "The District" as Ella Farmer. She also appeared on Sesame Street in the "Slimy to the Moon" storyline as the head of Mission Control. I missed all the episodes of that storyline because I was busy with school, and I very much wish that the final montage in the special had included a clip of Lynne Thigpen rather than the clip of Tony Bennett singing about Slimy. But other than this, I was extremely pleased with "The Street We Live On". And we did get to see Mr. Hooper, David, and both Ernie and Kermit played by Jim Henson.

And even though I love Elmo, my jaw dropped open with surprise and pleasure when Oscar called him "the little red menace"! How many TV shows are that responsive to their fans?

 

[lowercasegods]

Sesame Street shows cracks in its pavement

I'd like to think that my girlfriend and I were not the only ones who found the 35th anniversary special an atrocity. What should have been a warm and entertaining look back through interviews and ancient clips was instead an over extended Elmo's World episode (which, for the record, is absolute junk and should be removed from the regular episodes). Ideally the show should have been a lot like the 20th anniversary special which was hosted by Bill Cosby. Now that was a brilliant tribute, extremely touching, and hit all the necessary bases. The bit where Ray Charles sings Bein' Green never fails to floor me. The best parts of the 35th Anniversay special (and they're weren't many) were the few (and man do I mean few) brief clips from the past, like the footage of Mr. Hooper ("Who's that?" Asks Elmo. My answer: somebody with greater significance to the show than you'll ever have, you little fleece and fabric menace). The scene at the very end of the show with the classic Manah Manah song was so wonderful to see. That's how the whole show should have gone. And it was so great to see Gordon, Susan, Luis, Maria and Bob still keeping things together on the show. It'll be a dark day when they all move on. And I'm sorry, I love Kevin Clash and his contribution to the Muppets, but I hate Elmo and how he's taken over Sesame Street. The current powers that be of Sesame Street have no respect for the show's past at all. No mention was given of Joe Raposo, Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Jeff Moss, Jon Stone or even Joan Ganz Cooney, just some of the great people who helped make Sesame Street the beautiful gift it was. The only good thing about Sesame Street's modern day incarnation is that new puppeteers (specifically Eric Jacobson) are bringing back long ignored characters such as Cookie and Grover. My hope is that the new generations that discover these characters will prefer them over Elmo. Kevin Clash needs to put that puppet down and show what else he can do. So bottom line, the special was horrible, and a sad sign of what's happening to the street. If this is the quality we can expect from now on, maybe we're all better off that the show has been cut down in its number of episodes this season. This is not what Jim Henson would have wanted for the show.