Your Thoughts: The Street We Live On

[WiGgY]

Watch the show by yourself before watching it with other people. If I had watched this with other people, I would have been ashamed of myself.

I can see why they didn't want to do the same stuff as other specials, but they could have done it in a different way. They could have brought it down to Elmo's level and had kids see the history of the show they love through his eyes. Instead, it's Elmo's World for an hour. Our worst fears come true. And who didn't want to shoot themselves when Elmo Starting to sing the Sesame Street song? No, I don't mean the theme song, I mean Sesame Street over and over again to the tune of single bells. ARGH!!!!! At least it was cut very short and wen to a real song.

Oh, and did anyone else HATE that everyone on the street was just waiting for Elmo as if they couldn't live without him? So many characters live on that street. Why were Big Bird and Snuffy talking about Elmo feeding his gold fish?

I relate to Bert. How do we get out of Elmo's World?

 

[towels]

Okay...so far 13 people voted as liking this...I wanna hear their side. In the meantime, I'll try to find the good things...
Was that Brian in the 10 bit?
I liked the taxi stalling on the pinball set.
I thought Grover sounded really good, especially at the beginning.
I liked the seatbelt gag.
The clips at the end.

 

[Ryan]

That was John Henson in the Baker #10 bit. It replaced the "10 Little Indians" portion, for racial reasons.

 

[CarburetorJane]

IT could have been SO much better.

Yes, How *do* we get out of Elmo's world?!?!

The best things about the show was the taxi stopping on the Pinball backdrop, although I wish they had shown that, it's one of my fav segments and probably attributes to my pinball addiction...

Christopher Meloni's (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit) dancing in "Dance myself to sleep". I couldn't stop laughing at that.

Bert wanting to leave Elmo's World.

The clips at the end, saying from what year they were from.

And probably the biggest and best surprise, Mahna-Mahna at the end.

 

[WiGgY]

The taxi part was good and I thought I was in for a real treat then. But it didn't happen. And I too thought we'd see the pinball segment, but they just showed that in the back and that was it.

It did have good moments. And if this was treated as a regular show, then it would have been a great regular episode. But it was advertised as the 35th anniversary special. That's what brings it down for me. It wasn't really made like a special. It was made like an extended version odf Elmo's world. And I'm scared that this will be the new format for this year.

 

[MuppetQuilter]

I think the problem here is one of two completely different audiences. Remember, this wasn't strictly a 35th anniversary special made for prime time. This was also the first episode of the new season. Thus, it absolutely has to appeal to the 2, 3 and 4 year old who are the core SST audience today. We want a special that celebrates the history of SST in a way that is meaningful for adults-- we want more of the old stuff and less of the new. But kids watching today don't know who Mr. Hooper was and it doesn't make sense to invest a lot of time in teaching them-- there's certainly no way to bring the character back.

In terms of making a special for kids watching today that celebrates the history of SST, I thought they did a really good job. Of course Elmo annoys all us grownups, but little kids LOVE Elmo. My three year old loved the special.

I loved seeing the typewriter-- something clearly for adults as few three year olds today have ever even seen a typewriter.

Two things I really didn't like: 1) the new Grover puppet-- his hair is too smooth and brushed out. Grover should be a little matted, like he's fallen from the sky a few hundred times. 2) My local PBS station used a voice over to promote other shows during Mahna Mahna! You don't drown out a classic like Mahna Mahna!

Over all I think it was a pretty good mix of tossing in a few nuggets for adults while keeping it in a format today's SST audience could understand.

 

[WiGgY]

Let's face it, kids like anything with cartoons and puppets. They could have done a REAL special and kids would have liked it just the same.

 

[JaniceFerSure]

Saw a little of the Anniv. Special

Hi there.From what I watched of the anniv. special,didn't seem like one to me; it seemed like another SS episode.I expected the whole special to be all of the cast members,human & muppets to sit around & talk about the history evolution(that's what I read in the tv guide synopsis that the special would be on). I expected flashbacks,sing-alongs,seeing old muppet skits(bert & ernie,number songs & alphabet songs),especially when SS has 35 years of clips.Like it was pointed out,yes once again Elmo took over the show,only a handful of flashbacks were shown. I hope to see more of clips in further anniv. specials & less of the little red furry one.Yup,I do agree that Elmo should have his own show,would be for the best if that were to happen.JaniceFerSure

Alapeanutbuttersandwiches!-Mumford

 

[Drtooth]

The again, it could be an entire episode with celebrities doing horrid covers of old songs.

What you people don't thik about, is it's supposed to be about the entire series, the past, present and future.

They made an effort to dust off the old clips NOT SEEN ON SS IN WELL OVER 20 YEARS and mix them with newer clips. Plus they at least attempted to teach younger fans about the old days.

Think of it this way... it could have been just another uneventful episode, like the 4000th... zzzznk...

I think it was great. hardly the 20th or 25th, but I thought it was clever.

I mean, I had my doubts about Elmo hosting the show, but I feel that rather than jsut a fan driven retrospective, it was Sesame through the eyes of the younger generation.

Face it... we're all older now, and nothing pleases us as much as the kids.

Besides, from what I picked up no one got

The appearance of Wanda the Word Fairy, in a brief cameo

The subtle parodies of Elmo's World (Elmo sing the Sesame Song, the Big Bird, Maria, Grover, and all of Elmo's friends channel).

Oscar calling Elmo "the red menace" (a fan coined term)

Susan returning

Luis returning

The gag about the Pinball count

The retrospective at the end actually used clips like Star Wars, and the death of Mister Hooper, and ending it off with Manah Manah (WHICH I HAVE NEVER SEEN!!!!)

I mean, if Sesame Unpaved was actually on the air, I'd feel a little cheated, but these guys made an attempt! I mean, even seeing just the Baker Falling down the stairs was worth the entire episode!

 

[ceecee]

I didn't have high hopes for this special, so I wasn't too let down.

However:

I was pleasantly surprised by the Typewriter Guy, and the Song of 10.

I thought the segments were far too drawn out. I kept thinking, "C'mon! Get to the classics!"

When Grover and Elmo saw Mr. Hooper, I started to cry, and then continued to cry until after it was over. Seeing all those old clips (all 2 seconds of each one) at the end made me realize how much this show meant to me when I was a kid, and how different it is today. It was like you could see it disintegrate when they got to the '90's.