Where are the older humans?

D'Snowth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2003
Messages
40,651
Reaction score
12,811
Keep something in mind: as much as we may or may not like certain changes made to the show, its characters, its cast, the sets, what have you, the show isn't made for us, it's made for the ever-changing audience of preschool kids.
 

Censored

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
2,437
Reaction score
557
And another thing, to put it bluntly, the older cast members are, well, old. Kids don't respond or relate to older people as well as they do to younger adults/teens. As evident with many other current preschool shows. As some have pointed out on another thread, most of those shows only have about one or two main adult characters, and they're usually in their 20s to mid 30s. And as we know, Sesame Street has been trying to have younger cast members for many years. .
Kids must really hate their grandparents.
 

Censored

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
2,437
Reaction score
557
. And another thing, to put it bluntly, the older cast members are, well, old. Kids don't respond or relate to older people as well as they do to younger adults/teens.
Sorry, I just don't buy that "old people are bad for kids" argument.

Here is what Captain Kangaroo was about:

"..the show revolved about the grandfatherly Captain Kangaroo, whose name was inspired by the kangaroo pouch-like pockets of the coat Keeshan wore.

"I was impressed with the potential positive relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, so I chose an elderly character," Keeshan said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/captain-kangaroo-dead-at-76/

The truth is it's not the children who have problems with the elderly, it's the adults. They fear the elderly because they remind them that they too are going to get old one day.
 

Censored

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
2,437
Reaction score
557
Keep something in mind: as much as we may or may not like certain changes made to the show, its characters, its cast, the sets, what have you, the show isn't made for us, it's made for the ever-changing audience of preschool kids.
Perhaps, but what does that have to do with betraying three veteran actors who have devoted their lives to the show?
 

Censored

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Messages
2,437
Reaction score
557
In any case, Captain Kangaroo was a highly successful program for decades. If elderly people were really TV poison for children's shows, that could have never happened.
 

Drtooth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 16, 2002
Messages
31,718
Reaction score
6,707
Well no, at this point, since Alan and Chris have been the cast members who have appeared the most out of all the cast members it makes sense to keep them. Those are the guys that kids would recognize at this point. And another thing, to put it bluntly, the older cast members are, well, old. Kids don't respond or relate to older people as well as they do to younger adults/teens.
I think, old or no, there's no way kids would really respond with characters that don't appear frequently as well. Roscoe was the only one who was a regular actor on the show the past few seasons up until this point. Luis really didn't appear on the show for a few seasons until the bike shop. Bob was only cameoing every so often. Can't remember exactly when he had an entire street story about him. Suffice to say, kids respond to characters who regularly appear on the show more than someone who pops up here and there. That's why they're focusing on a small number of characters, and frankly I still can't tell if it's a good or bad thing. I miss Telly appearing in most stories.

Whatever the reason, ageism or just plain cheapness, they cut the human roles down to three, and the puppeteer roles down as well. I don't like it, I care not for how clumsily it was handled, but it's something that was an unfortunate necessity of a crappy budget that PBS didn't want to give them. The comeback of 15+ year old Elmo's World segments as filler brutally points this out. Too bad these actors couldn't have been rehired after HBO's money kicked in.
 

D'Snowth

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2003
Messages
40,651
Reaction score
12,811
In any case, Captain Kangaroo was a highly successful program for decades. If elderly people were really TV poison for children's shows, that could have never happened.
CAPTAIN KANGAROO is from a completely different time and from a completely different generation: back then, kids may have had more to do with their grandparents and such, but fast-forward to today, parents are getting steadily younger, due to poor upbringing and improper sex education, and as such, grandparents are getting steadily younger. In addition to that, notice something else too: other adults that kids would interact with are getting steadily younger too - teachers, instructors, coaches, etc. Kids today aren't very likely to interact with older people as much as they used to, and like others have been pointing out, today's kids are more likely to relate and respond to younger humans like Chris and Nina than they would the older humans. SST has always been about reflect the times, and these are the times now.
 
Top