How did SS evolve from "schoolhouse" to "entertainment?"

[dwmckim]

Because those of us who actually experienced it as preschoolers would run and hide in the closet until it was over when it came on (though in all fairness i did that with some of Bob's songs too)

 

[CensoredAlso]

I don't believe I actually saw the Cow film as a kid, but the first time I saw it as an adult, I was instantly reminded of all those Sesame Street moments where they did take a moment to breath. When our pop culture could still afford to be a little artsy occasionally and not just worry about ratings.

 

[Drtooth]

Oh come on, leave the Cow film alone, lol. Sesame Street had other segments that weren't snappy and quick. I don't see why this particular film gets attacked so much.

There are a lot of quiet, poignant sketches too, we mustn't forget that. But some of them were really good. At the risk of overplaying the Joe Raposo card, he had some nice quiet tunes like "I Believe in Little Things" in contrast to louder, snappier songs like "Which Cam,e First, The Chicken or the Egg" or "There's a Bird on Me."

Of course, there were things that drove me nuts and went on forever... the sad flower skit made me angry every time, and I was growing impatient for it to end for something interesting to happen. To quote Kermit the Frog at the beginning of a Muppet Babies story book video, "But don't get too comfortable. I don't want you falling asleep on me!"

(Would you believe I did that once?)

Critically, there's so much to attack the cow film for. It's nicely filmed, I'll give it that. Actually.. I'm going to watch it again and count some stuff...

The announcer basically say everything at least 2 times, and there's NO attempt at talking about pasteurization. The music also repeats itself frequently. And not in a catchy way. Sort of like a bad poet who thinks their artistic in repeating everything.

There can be time in the show for slow breather segments sure, but this thing come up close to 7 minutes. That takes time away from Ernie and Bert and all the rest. it would only fly early in the show's inception when they were still working on the tone of the show.

 

[CensoredAlso]

the sad flower skit made me angry every time, and I was growing impatient for it to end for something interesting to happen.

I don't know how I would have felt about the sad flower film as a kid, but when I watch it now it really tugs at my heart strings somehow. And I love the reveal at the end. (SOMEWHAT SPOILERS)

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We find out this idyllic image of nature is growing not in a forest or suburban back yard...but on the brick roof of a New York City apartment building (with a view of the Brooklyn Bridge no less!). I remember one of the YouTube commentors said, "I was born in Brooklyn and being 4 years old at the time, I was amazed that the Bridge was on TV." The way I saw it, the film was a reassurance to young residents of New York that even though their city is made of bricks, cement and noise...the simple, quiet beauty of nature still survives.

The announcer basically say everything at least 2 times, and there's NO attempt at talking about pasteurization.

Well I think they were starting from the very beginning; for the child that didn't even know that milk came from cows, or even if they did, how it was obtained. Or hadn't seen a real farm before. And repetition is also a very important part of commercials; a phrase or melody drummed into the viewers' heads time and again.

I don't know, these kinds of sketches just feel like they were the background music of my early childhood and that's very important to me.

It's OK if you don't like it of course, no big deal, lol. Just wanted to defend my POV as well.

 

[Drtooth]

Well I think they were starting from the very beginning; for the child that didn't even know that milk came from cows, or even if they did, how it was obtained. Or hadn't seen a real farm before. And repetition is also a very important part of commercials; a phrase or melody drummed into the viewers' heads time and again.

I have more of a problem with it since I've heard...

well, I'm not going to post it hear because of the language, but look up Orson Welles Frozen Peas. not the The Critic Cartoon... the actual Frozen Peas blooper reel. The one the Animaniacs cartoon "Yes, Always" was based off of. it's like that exact same delivery, and you almost expect the announcer would have lost it multiple times.

I will say, that it should never be personal if a skit or something someone likes or hates gets praised/chastised. I think it's just unexpected from the source since I don't recall ever seeing it, either because I was very young when it stopped being in rotation, or it just wasn't in rotation when I was watching. it seems to be a segment that would fit in better with Mr. Rogers or something with a more gentle tone. But you can forgive the tone of the skit for being that early, and shows like Mr. Rogers were all they had to go on at the time. A LOT of earlier films seem to go on a bit too long, especially "round." but this was something fixed in time.

 

[CensoredAlso]

But you can forgive the tone of the skit for being that early, and shows like Mr. Rogers were all they had to go on at the time. A LOT of earlier films seem to go on a bit too long, especially "round." but this was something fixed in time.

I personally liked it when Mr. Rogers did skits like that too, lol. To me it wasn't something that needed to be "fixed." Maybe I got bored eventually as a kid, but that doesn't mean nothing important was sinking in. I think their goal was to get very specific ideas or images drummed into kids' heads; again the essence of a commercial.

About the Orson Welles recording, let's just say, heh, the guy could get a little self important.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

I recently came across this vintage SS clip from Season 1, with Susan talking about animals and their heads and tails to kids. Here is the clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTEAEpqSZgI

What's interesting about it is that it really didn't seem very entertaining for young kids, it seems just like a woman teaching a class. I'm guessing they did this a lot in the first season, or maybe even the first couple of seasons. I know that it continued just a little bit into the late 70s, and even later, but eventually, this is what really phased out. About when did they completely stop doing it?

Yeah. I've noticed that when I watched the first season eps on iTunes. It did seem to be very much similar to Romper Room and Mr. Rogers. Plus even the inserts are more or less connected to the main plot rather than just playing them at random. I think they started moving away from that around the second season when more Muppets were added that they felt that they should do more on the show than they had been doing in the past. But for the most part, I agree that it was sort of a gradual change.

 

[Drtooth]

I personally liked it when Mr. Rogers did skits like that too, lol. To me it wasn't something that needed to be "fixed." Maybe I got bored eventually as a kid, but that doesn't mean nothing important was sinking in. I think their goal was to get very specific ideas or images drummed into kids' heads; again the essence of a commercial.

Mr. Rogers was always a soft touch, gentle educator approach. He has been ever since his earlier shows that predate PBS. There was nothing wrong with his method, certainly. But when SS came on the scene, they had that stuff as a reference, and they were trying out a whole bunch of methods at once, seeing which ones would rule the others out. It seems that certain things slowly started to disappear, some things took longer than others. The Human sketch comedies (that didn't involve the immediate cast) were gone in year 4. The Muppet sketches started to be come more numerous... but that's also because new characters were constantly introduced. Sesame always used a pop cultury method of education, even if it was just trying to emulate commercials in the first season and test pilots. Not as gentle as Mr. Rogers, but in the same vein at first.

But then again, I like Sesame mostly as a Muppet fan, so I have a biased with the Muppet characters.

About the Orson Welles recording, let's just say, heh, the guy could get a little self important.

Well, to defend the guy, his career peaked very early, and he had a terrible time finding work and had to do commercials... I'm not surprised at all by being annoyed by those commercials. Though he seemed to REALLY enjoy the Paul Mason champagne ads. He believed in the product to say the least.

MMMMWwwwwwaaaaHAAAAhhhAaaa the French...campaign....

 

[CensoredAlso]

But then again, I like Sesame mostly as a Muppet fan, so I have a biased with the Muppet characters.

Yeah I can understand where you're coming from there. Get to the Muppets as soon as possible.

 

[D'Snowth]

Joe Raposo could have wrote a snappy 3 minute or less ditty about milk that we'd all be humming awkwardly as adults and not caring how childish we look.

I love the way you put that, 'cause wasn't that what Joe Raposo was all about?