Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 38

[Phillip Chapman]

Just a reminder that Sesame Street's 38th season officially begins today on PBS stations across the country. Check your local channels for times in your area.

After you see the new episodes, post here and let us know what you think. When you're the first to post about a new episode please include a description of the street scene or an episode number so that we know which episode you are talking about. New episodes will be airing daily for the next several weeks.

Here's a preview of Sesame Season 38:
http://www.muppetcentral.com/news/2007/072907.shtml

[Drtooth]

I didn't realize this until it was too late, but in my area, they started showing the new episode at 8 AM. Usually I have to wait until 10 am. So I slept in and woke up just now and caught a couple seconds of it.

I am pretty sure a lot of people won't be happy. They brought back the old skits of the Count at his organ from 5 years ago, for one.

More at 11

[The Count]

OK... Knew the show would air at 8 AM, but now it's on both PBS affiliates at that time.

First off, the new theme sounds kind of folksy and hip-hopy at the same time.
Second, not sure if this'll be done throughout the season... Letter of the Day with Cookie Monster's gone and we got two letters as sponsors again.
Third: Get Up and Play is gone... Thank you Sesame!

Here's the episode rundown.

4135: Elmo and the Bookaneers.
Word of the Day: Murray Monster asks about "Squid".
Street Story.
Song: "At The Library".
Brian Williams: Sesame Street Nightly News: Word of the Day: Squid.
Song: "Words" by Abby Cadaby.
Letter of the Day: F in the Pool.
F Around Town, shops named with the letter F.
Adventures of Alpha Boy: F.
Song: "See The Signs" with Elmo and unknown recording group.
Animation: Suzy Kabloozy Pretends to be a Pirate.
Muppet-Kid Moment: Cookie Monster and Lexine: L.
L-Words Segment.
Animation: The Land of L.
Song: "You Can Sit Or You Can Stang".
Number of the Day: The Count's Counting Organ: 8, with 8 bats including the triplets Sasha Grisha Misha.
Animation Song: "It's Number 8!".
Animation: Kids Count up to 8 with mechanical gears appearing in according amounts for each number.
RSI Rhyme Scene Investigation.
Beatnik Animation: Phil the Bat and Claire the Cat Poem.
Elmo's World: Beach, New!
Mr. Noodle spreads out his beach towel.
Kids spread out a beach towel.
Elmo asks a Baby about spreading out a towel.
Count the Surfers Surfing.
What Do You do at the Beach?
Email from Oscar and Slimey.
Live Film: Charles at the Beach.
TV: The Beach Channel: Beach Blanket Bingo (parody) with animated or Muppet shellfish? Song: "The Crabby Crawl".
Additional Parodys: The Beach Boys/Toys and Fiddlercrab on the Roof.
Guest: Who was the "dude" that went surfing?
Is this the same guy that wiped out when counting the surfers?
Is this the Sea Gull that's been seen throughout the episode?
Is this some AM known as "The Surfer Dude"?
The Beach Song.
Rotten Eggs and Jam by Dr. Sewage: Sponsors.
Oscar sings "Rock-a-Bye Slimey" before fading out.

[CookieCountDawn]

I didn't really like 4135.

4135 didn't have anything like 'Global Grover', 'This is the Game Today' or Cookie Monster's Letter of the Day.

The episode had many celebrity sketches/parody put together including Tina Fey in the street story, Brian Williams talking about a squid, Chris Brown singing "See the Signs" and RSI.

I liked the Word on the Street and the word was Squid.

The theme song changed and looked exactly like how "See the Signs" looked like. I didn't like it.

I thought the street story was a bit boring.
And since when was there a Library eight steps down from the Fix it Shop?

After the street story, there was a library song that I think used to be sung by someone else.

It surprised me that the episode had two letter of the days - F and L.

The number of the day was 8 and they showed The Count's Number of the Day using his organ from 2002. I'm actually glad that they reused the organ skits because I was getting tired of The Count and Countess singing the same thing over and over or the kids with the jack-in-the-box film.

I didn't watch Elmo's World but I think it was about the beach.

At the end, instead of Oscar reading Trash Gordon to Slimey, he read a parody of "Green Eggs and Ham" with a grouch in it. Gordon was in it too as the cat in the hat.

The ending theme changed just like the theme song did.

Out of 5 stars, I give this episode 2.5 or 3.

I didn't really like it but it was still good.

[somethingofafan]

I was expecting more characters in a season premiere, but I'm sure they'll show up later in the season.

I rather liked the visual style of the opening and closing, and the music in the closing. Not terribly fond of the opening music, but that's just my personal taste. Nonetheless, I only expect it to last a few years; otherwise it will become dated.

I, for one, am glad that Oscar's bedtime story is branching out into parodies of other genres.

With this season's focus on literacy, going back up to two letters of the day makes sense.

And finally, we have a canonical answer to what lies beyond the Fix-it-shop...until they change it.

[FellowWLover]

Only ten minutes into the new episode, it's good so far, with the exception of the change to the theme song in the opening. I understand wanting to appeal to the taste of a new generation, but I didn't like it.

[Kerri]

I guess I stand alone here, but I really liked it, as always. I was glad they had Tina Fey guest star, good choice, I really like her of course from SNL; haven't seen her 30 rock show but once and that was a rather hysterical show. I liked the Brian Williams talking about a squid, then as always in the news the wrong picture come up, a picture of a dog shows up instead of the squid... I'm 47 minutes into it and my 2 year old's glued to it, that's what matters most to me!

[SSLFan]

Well, I just got done watching today's ep, and I must say, it was OK. I think the new theme is pretty good, along with the closing theme. As somethingofafan mentioned earlier, I too expected more charcthers to show up(notably Big Bird). I was glad to see something new like the library show up, I hope they continue to use it more in future episodes. All in all, I would give this episode a rating of 4.1 out of 5.

[Muppet dude]

The new opening wasn't that great, but at least it wasn't cheesy like the 1992 Calypso opening! And I thought it was clever to have the episode number appear on a street sign next to the SS sign. The pigeon from the 1992 closing sequence also made a cameo in it (right before we see Ernie and Bert). And there weren't a lot of crazy sound effects to ruin the mood, either. I also thought the street-scene-intro music was interesting. It was another calypso version but it wasn't the 1993 version. There were also TWO letters of the day, instead of one like they've been doing since 1998. I also liked the "Green Eggs and Ham" parody at the end, complete with Gordon's cameo appearance. I guess they're going to vary the short stories at the end of each episode. And instead of the old 1969 closing theme heard at the end of the scene, they played a newer "nighttime" version of the theme, so at least it fits with the setting. I also liked the new closing credits. It was a refreshing change from the obsolete 1992 closing sequence, it was calm and cool instead of exciting and upbeat.

It looks like we still might get a classic skit rerun or two during this season. Even so, it looks like we just got a slight format change to the show!

[Drtooth]

(Wish I cought the 8 AM epsode so I could get the first review in).

The Good: The new cold opening "Word on the Street." Despite being obviously staged, I LOVE LOVE LOVE to see Muppets on the street talking to people, and not just kids.

I'm not a Tina Fey fan by any stretch, but considering the bad blood between the Muppets and SNL that first year, I love seeing SNL stars work with them. Just don't let Andy Samberg anywhere near there.

The main segment was actually pretty funny. Even making fun of the old "ARrRRRR" joke about Pirates ("You're just buying into the stereotypes!")

2... count them ....2 Letters of the Day. Not since before 2002 have we had 2 letters of the day.

The Word of the Day with Brian Willaims. Hillarious... Hillarious.

A Suzie Kabloozie rerun that isn't a "Let's see what the Judge says" bit. I LOVE Mo WIllems... check this out... http://www.atomfilms.com/film/man_who_yelled.jsp my favorite of his work.

RSI: A very good send up. Even making fun of the Who theme song they have. I hate the real show so much. So glad someone's took it down a peg, albiet lovingly.

Abby's song was actually... well... cute. She could endear me after all.

New Elmo's World. Not an EW fan buy any stretch, but this was good for what it was. Was that Peter Lindz by any chance playing the seagull? He seems to have used the same voice he used for Gawain in Gawain's world on BTL.

Trash Gordon is replaced by something even funnier, and Gordon still gets on the act. The Green Eggs and Ham send up was a total riot.

And best of all? NO GET UP AND PLAY! (Flails arms wildly like Kermit) YAAAAAAAAAAYYY!

The Bad:
The new song and scene transistions. Terrible. And people thought the calypso 1990's opening was bad. YUCKKA... the visulas were kinda cool, but this Hip Hop style opening is the worst one yet.

No Ernie and Bert or Global Grover segments, the best thing that happened to the series have been cut.

Like always, there's mostly Elmo. But I saw more Muppets during EW than the rest of that show.

Can someone tell me what the deal with the Stand up Sit down number was? It just wasted like 3 minutes the Ernie and Bert segment could have filled.

Wasn't crazy about the Chris Brown thing. not so much cuz of Elmo, but because of the whole Celebs doing parodies

And what's with all the bad 1990's skits... like the kids dancing around in blocks with the rythmic African type drum beat? What happened to the bad NEW shorts?

And why the heck did they have to reuse the Count counting organ stuff? I thought we got out of that. It's almost retro clip territory now,.


Over All... well, much like the focus on healty habits for life, they aren't being at all subtle with their litteracy stuff. Not that I was expecting them to. Least it's not as annoying.

All and all, other than the changes I had to brace myself for, it was decent. Not as good or close to it as the old days, but good for what it was.

[jeffkjoe]

Count me in as one who thinks the new version of the theme is LAME.

Sesame Street ceases to be extraordinary and becomes ordinary.

[abiraniriba]

I missed most of 1st ep today Thanks for the rundown Count. I'll put an extra squid in your calamari. Megan wanted to watch a video. Her Elmo's Potty Time video, that is. I came in on Elmo's World and liked the beach idea. Guess I'll catch it on the reruns dude!

[heralde]

That's great that Abby was kinda cute. I'm probably bias but I would love a female character to be successful.

That's too bad about no Bert, Ernie and Grover in this episode. Hopefully that will change. I think when I have children, the first DVDs I will buy will be "The Best of Bert and Ernie" and "The Best of Grover." Lol Someone has to do the introductions. (insert Grover smiley)

[ssetta]

Cons:

The new theme music was a little upsetting, since they had used the same closing theme for 15 years.

I didn't like the new Abby song, or that Chris Brown song. And I was REALLY upset when they redid the "In the Library" song. They kept the original video, but the recording is entirely different.

Pros:
I was surprised to see all the old letter and number inserts, AND they have gone back to having 2 letters per episode, for the first time since 1995!

[SSLFan]

I agree Drtooth, the whole "Stand up, sit down" bit was a complete waste of time. It could have been time for a Bert and Ernie skit, or a street scene insert.