I have to say it was the best episode of Sesame Street I've ever seen - and I've been watching SS on and off for 30 years.
The "On the street" segment was absolutely stupendous: touching and fun. Karaoke was a terrific idea for bringing all the characters together at the opening, and bringing out some of the songs I remember singing when I was three (most notably, Big Bird singing "Abcdefg...where he runs the alphabet into one word) My little boy loved it, too, singing along at the end of Bob's "People in Your Neighborhood." I loved how the segment handled two problems: Telly's theoretical and Baby Bear's real stage fright, and the loss of the karaoke machine. Nobody made a big deal or a sermon out of either problem, but each was solved with the help of the entire group. Terrific.
Didn't miss "monster time," though Narf and Google were in the background of the Karaoke crowd. Gotta love Wayne Brady! My son loved the "Playdo" cave people fighting over the chair.
JTE was fine, though I missed my "classic" Bert and Ernie sketch (I'm old...maybe that WAS a classic...but there WAS that "Horse Whisperer" reference) I hope they've filmed lots of them, though because I don't think I want to see that one more than 30 times.
I wish they'd fixed the number of the day segments; I think they should trash those and start over - they're much worse than the old JTE.
I thought "Global Grover" was a terrific addition; I liked how they used Sesame Street documentary-style footage with the little African girl narrating, but chose a location that was very different to American kids. It stopped short of a "save the children" commercial in that it didn't hide the lack of facilities, food, and classroom space (we complain about class sizes of 30!) but still showed children with dignity and an eagerness to learn and play. I will be interested to see more.
The other "Global" thing was fine, but I didn't really understand why the concept of standing in line and sharing the fun was being explained with a globe.
And, there was a new Elmo's World! Yes, I could live completely without Elmo and life would be fine, but I'll take a month free of Elmo reruns if I can get it!