Why is Sesame Street slowly dying?

Hmmm.....

About change...

Well, here's my two cents.

First off, I'm one of those folks who is "nostalgic" for the old Sesame, but I'm glad that Sesame Street is around for today's kids, even though it isn't "our" Sesame.

I'll stand by what I said in a post I made about the special "The Street We Live On". My opinion hasn't changed there.

http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=13476&page=3&pp=15

I think a lot of people agree with me that we miss Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Mr. Hooper, Joe Raposo and so many others who are sadly no longer with us. We as Muppet fans feel that the next Sesame generation won't have these wonderful people to admire when we tune in to our local PBS station. We feel that these kids are getting cheated because they won't be exposed to Sesame's classic (and sometimes not so classic but still loved) Raposo/Moss tunes, the characters of Richard Hunt or Jim Henson. Think about it...these kids will tune in to Sesame Street and never see Kermit. Growing up in the 70's, Sesame Street without Kermit was just unthinkable. Now (because of Disney) we have to face that.

You know, Jay Leno said something about Johnny Carson that isn't quoted directly word for word here, but it's close:

"For those of you who were around during the 30 years Johnny Carson was on, consider yourselves lucky. We will never see the likes of him ever again."

Replace "Johnny Carson" in that quote with "Kermit the Frog". Now imagine Big Bird (or another Sesame alumni) saying this line on the steps of 123 Sesame Street. There's a similarity there, isn't there?

A lot of people can't stand Elmo (myself included), but there's another reason besides "he's taken over Sesame Street". It's overexposure, folks. Yes, we see Elmo all the time on Sesame Street, but he's everywhere else, too. You walk into any store, be it a Wal-Mart (or other discount store), any mall, or even a grocery store. "The Red Menace" is everywhere! Elmo cookies, Elmo stationery, and the forty five thousand different kinds of Elmo dolls out there...Tickle-Me-Elmo, YMCA Elmo, Rock-and-Roll Elmo, Orthepedic Surgeon Elmo, CEO Elmo, Elmo on a pogo stick...Elmo, Elmo Elmo. It's a little like hearing Christmas music nonstop from Nov. 1 to Jan. 1 every year. For a while it's okay, but just gets annoying.

People are also annoyed by Elmo's voice...and his speech. When the same word is screeched over and over again by a falsetto voice, it easily grates on the nerves of many. It's really too bad that kids have this (and mostly this) for their main daily dose of Sesame music. When Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss composed music and lyrics, the songs they wrote were simple, educational, got the point across without relying on one, single word being repeated. Think about some Joe Raposo songs you know. We all know some. There's repetition yes, but repeated words appear in a lot of music. How about I use "Everybody Eats" for example. Here's the lyrics:

"Everybody eats, everybody eats
Meat and fish and cereal
Carrots, peas and beets
Everybody knows
That everyone he meets
Likes to eat
How do we know it's so?
'Cause everybody, everybody eats

There are people who eat sitting
There are some who like to stand
There are people who go out-of-doors
And picnic on the land
There are folks who use their fingers
Others use a fork and knife
But no matter how you do it
Don't you know it's so?
Eating's part of everybody's life

Everybody eats, everybody eats
Meat and fish and cereal
Carrots, peas and beets
Everybody knows
That everyone he meets
Likes to eat
How do we know it's so?
'Cause everybody, everybody eats
Everybody, everybody eats."

We all know the clip. When we read the lyrics, we saw the mental images of the fish, carrots, peas and beets. We also saw mental pictures of animals and people eating in various places. The reason we did is because we saw the clip which showed us these things: actual footage of people and animals in the real world...in this case, they were all eating. As kids, we saw this (and other clips) which often played some kind of a Raposo (or Moss) tune with footage of the real world.

Now, let's compare this to Elmo's World. Since I'm on the topic of music and food, let's suppose Elmo is thinking about food today. Also, since we're on the topic of music, let's focus on the musical portion of Elmo's World. For what it's worth, the enviroment is as such: an animated, scribbled background filled with stretching and wobbling furniture with no other purpose than to get kids' attention. Any images of food so far? No. Well, let's see...Elmo sits down at the piano and to the tune of "Jingle Bells" we get this song aboud food:

"Food food food, food food food, food food food food food. Food food food, food food food food, food food food food food food FOOD!" (Okay, that's enough).

Any mention of the different kinds of food there are? No. Any images of food? No. Any educational value to this song at all? None. Will having this same song be repeated for the next five days straight be any more helpful in teaching kids about food? No. But those who support Elmo's World will say that Elmo might teach about food in other ways, such as watching "The Food Channel". Here's a tip: since Sesame Street is supposed to teach kids about READING, why not have Elmo read a BOOK about food to the kids? But back to the subject of music: can Elmo teach at all through music? Let's face it, folks. Elmo can't hold a candle to what Joe Raposo and Jeff Moss did for Sesame Street. I bet a lot of parents feel bad that their kids can't experience the Raposo/Moss tunes (and clips). Those same parents probably would also feel bad that Elmo's daily screeching to "Jingle Bells" is the main exposure to Sesame music that they get.

You know, another reason that people may be annoyed by Elmo is that he hasn't really evolved as a character and become as three dimensional as the rest. Many other Sesame characters have changed and grown from their original appearances. Big Bird is no longer a dopey klutz, Oscar is still grouchy but has become more endearing, Cookie Monster is not the one-dimensional cookie thief he was back in 1970. Grover has become full of heart and emotion, especially in his "comeback" to the show...

But Elmo? He started out in his early years as a monster that often was found giggling and screeching the same word over and over again for the fun of it. In one early skit of his, he was yelling the word "original" over and over again until (Maria?) told him what it meant. Elmo was happy no matter what. Now we see "Elmo's World" and Elmo...is always happy, always giggles and daily he screeches the same word over and over again. Hmmm...

Other observations:

When Sesame Street first started, a lot of parents were complaining about Cookie Monster's speech and eating habits, but Cookie's still around after 34 years. I'm not sure how Cookie survived all the criticism. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Other parents have complained about Baby Bear's "Elmer Fudd-like" speech. When Baby Bear first appeared, his character was pretty one-dimensional: he was mad at Goldilocks. Now, most of the time he's "dwawing his favowite supoh hewo, Hewo Guy!" The Tough Pigs editorial on this bit matches my opinion of Baby Bear and "Hewo Guy" perfectly:

http://www.toughpigs.com/myweeksesame.htm#Friday

Come on, I mean that kind of voice is okay if you're performing a dumb, klutzy character with not a lot of common sense (think what Richard Hunt did with Junior Gorg). But on an educational kid's show where you're "twying to get kids to pwonounce deyr wuhds cuhwectwy", Baby Bear just causes "twubboh" for kids just learning to pronounce their consonants and vowels.

The absence of the puppeteers we grew up with left gaps to be filled by characters done by new Muppeteers (like Kevin Clash). Fortunately, there are folks out there like Steve Whitmire to bring Ernie to life, Matt Vogel to help out with Big Bird, and Eric Jacobsen, who brought Grover back into the spotlight once again. I applaud these folks who are keeping the characters going after their original puppeteers are no longer available. Parents now can feel glad that Big Bird, Ernie, Grover, etc. can be a part of their kids' childhoods. It's too bad though that older skits aren't seen...not so much for their nostalgic appeal, but for their educational value. Some of my favorite sketches when I was a kid were ones that filmed the real world outside Sesame Street, either with or without song accompaniment. I learned how a homemade three-legged stool was made (The Little Stool For Me), the famous crayon factory clip, the saxophone factory, and even "how to make chicken soup" with the Spanish girl "Mmm, Mommy. The soup's bueno!"

There's good stuff about Sesame Street now...but there was also good stuff about "our" Sesame back in the olden days too.

Convincing John