Your Thoughts: The Street We Live On

[Censored]

I, for one, would not be particularly disappaned if Sesame Street went off the air tomorrow. The current shows mean absolutely nothing to me. I only care about how much nostalgia I can collect.

 

[doctort13]

Not so special

Although Elmo doesn't annoy me as much as he does others, I could have done with less of him. I would have liked to have seen more of the cast/puppets "remembering" old neighbors (Mr. Hooper, David, Ruthie) old Muppets (S.A.M., Little Bird, Roosevelt Franklin, and Don Music).

My wife and I are in our 30's (well I am almost 40) and we grew up watching EARLY Sesame, so of course that is what we hold dear. I feel that the producers could have made it more of a specail for the whole family by mixing more clips of the past & present cast/puppets.

We loved watching the show (and the TV sets) "evolve" at the end of the special.

Oh- here's any idea for the 40th anniversary special:

Show inside Oscar's trash can, he can be sitting on a pile of trash. Suddenly a junked TV set from the 70's turns on to show a fuzzy image of Matt Robinson (Gordon # 1) and the first few minutes of Sesame. Elmo can come over and have Oscar give a commentary of life on Sesame Street, after all he has the best spot to observe all that has happened around the steps of 123 Sesame Street, NYC

We loved seeing all the old animated films, but missed Wanda The Witch and her Weasel...so next time get W to sponsor the special!

If you want to see a really cool look at Sesame Street, check out the Biography Close Up on Sesame Street

 

[dbarrie]

It was actually Shirley Horn singing. I remember hearing her rendition of the song on a 25th anniversary compilation (now OOP) 10 years ago, and she basically re-performed it with her original arrangement.

OI MuppetFan

Loved seeing the old clips - esp. Beverly Sills (?) doing "C is for Cookie" one of my faves as a kid, I remember singing it opera-style. Wish it hadn't been "Elmo's World" style, too much time spent on those bits.

The baker falling down the stairs brought up an interesting point - notice they rarely COUNT the number more than once; when they do, they don't label a group of things? It's a shame those clips were axed because of the physical humor, because their educational value is better than anything else since. My biggest challenge with my three-year-old is getting him to understand that you only count each thing once.

 

[Drtooth]

Am I the only one that doesn't blame the writers for the current status of the show?

Think about it, the reason why SS is "dumbed down" isn't because of the writers, or Elmo, or anything like that... it's the competition.

What other kid's shows are hot right now? Blue's Clues, Nick Jr..... heck... they still watch telitubbies.

It's, as I've said 1000000 times before, because of trash like that that they had to tone SS down to appeal to younger kids. Face it, times have changed.

Now, we could also blame SNL for being crappy, but the American sense of humor has changed. Times change, and people change. Do you really expect the show to be the same? Do you really think they're gonna hold on to older skits, especially how it's jarring to see changes in puppet likenesses? No.

 

[hehehe]

Doo-bee-doo, doo-be-do...

I enjoyed it! I'm going to write an eopinion on it, and I'm going to start it like this:
If you were expecting a clip show showcasing many old clips, you will be dissapointed.
However, if you are just looking to see how Sesame Street can show kids what it's been doing for 35 years, you'll enjoy how they chose to do it!

 

[WiGgY]

There are plenty of skits from the 80's that can be shown without worrying about shocking children with puppet likeness differences. Besides, look what they did to Grover. He was normal last year, and now he's plush! Now that is a jarring likeness change. I can't even look at him without thinking he looks like a cheap knock-off. I guess if they can't make the plush toy look like the puppet they'll make the puppet look like the plush toy.

If they took out the "How does Cookie Monster eat a cookie?" segment, they could have done a REAL tribute to Mr. Hooper. If they took out the awful television channel bit, they could have done a REAL tribute to Gabby and Miles as they grew up on Sesame Street. The Mr. Noodle junk could have been replaced with 1 great skit that actually taught something.

Sesame Street is dumbed down and I think you are right about other shows forcing them to do it, but I'd rather they go out with dignity than hang on with none.

 

[Whatever]

Personally, I don't live on a street, I live in a dorm on S. Rotherwood Ave.

 

[Splurge]

The baker falling down the stairs brought up an interesting point - notice they rarely COUNT the number more than once; when they do, they don't label a group of things? It's a shame those clips were axed because of the physical humor, because their educational value is better than anything else since. My biggest challenge with my three-year-old is getting him to understand that you only count each thing once.

I've come to feel that Jim Henson was very good at that when creating films and animations teaching numbers, even other than "The Baker"* series. (King of 8, 12 rocks in the sand, Doll House, "Nobody" teaching 10 and others).

It looks like they were designed by presenting and counting groups of familiar objects, which allowed the viewer to see the same quantity in different contexts, and the repitition encouraged viewers to join in, too. And because they were so enjoyable, viewers just wanted to see them again and again.

The more I learn about Jim's non-puppet contributions makes me realize how underrated he was, even by his own standards.

*"The Baker": might not be the official name, just my pet-name for the series.

 

[Drtooth]

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.

 

[Censored]

Am I the only one that doesn't blame the writers for the current status of the show?

Think about it, the reason why SS is "dumbed down" isn't because of the writers, or Elmo, or anything like that... it's the competition.

What other kid's shows are hot right now? Blue's Clues, Nick Jr..... heck... they still watch telitubbies.

It's, as I've said 1000000 times before, because of trash like that that they had to tone SS down to appeal to younger kids. Face it, times have changed.

Now, we could also blame SNL for being crappy, but the American sense of humor has changed. Times change, and people change. Do you really expect the show to be the same? Do you really think they're gonna hold on to older skits, especially how it's jarring to see changes in puppet likenesses? No.

Everything changes from old to new, but the old is not always thrown away or buried. I love classic sitcoms like "I Love Lucy", "Leave It To Beaver", and "The Honeymooners". Do I expect them to make sitcoms like that today? No. Do I expect to be able to see reruns of every episode of those shows anytime I want? Yes. In that same matter, I would like to be able to view every old episode of Sesame Street for my enjoyment. Give me that and they can make current Sesame Street about group therapy for all I care.