Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 44

[Oscarfan]

NEW ELMO THE MUSICAL ON

TUNE IN NOW

 

[Drtooth]

I was going to complain about these reused episodes only having reused footage. It's nice to know that we finally got a new, and not to mention unlisted, ETM.

So, all I can complain about is having kids forced to see Jenny McCarthy think she's on Barney and Friends and talk down to the audience. Really. That's why the first crop of WOTD segments failed.

That new Guy Smiley game show was phenomenal. Sesame Street proved that it can bring back classic fan favorites with fitting recasts and give an old school feel to the show and not having to rely on parody or celebrity to be entertaining. Eric has become adapt at playing Guy. And the writing and performance of both characters makes this feel like an unused script for Jim Henson and Frank Oz to perform back in 70's or 80's. I loved Cookie Monster's weird Kung Fu sound effects. That is very classic Frank Oz style Cookie right there. David really has come into his own with Cookie.

Anyone else notice the Mr. Johnson statue in ETM? Anyone else think that was a tribute to Jerry? I really liked that Great Halfini design. Too bad it would have been too much to complete the effect and give him Two-Face style half and half skin tones as well... but I'm just fascinated by that character design.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

That new Guy Smiley game show was phenomenal. Sesame Street proved that it can bring back classic fan favorites with fitting recasts and give an old school feel to the show and not having to rely on parody or celebrity to be entertaining. Eric has become adapt at playing Guy. And the writing and performance of both characters makes this feel like an unused script for Jim Henson and Frank Oz to perform back in 70's or 80's. I loved Cookie Monster's weird Kung Fu sound effects. That is very classic Frank Oz style Cookie right there. David really has come into his own with Cookie.

I have to agree. If they can bring back those, they can easily bring back othe classics like, Monsterpiece Theater, Grover the Waiter (though we still do see Grover/Mr. Johnson sketches), SS News Flashes, maybe with Telly in his Monster on the Spot attire if they can't use Kermit. Just a few thoughts. As for Eric, as Guy, I don't know. I still feel like the voice isn't quite right and that's mainly because Eric is better with Frank's characters. It would be interesting to see what Steve Whitmire or Bill Baretta can do with him. Just a thought though. I guess we can't complain too much about the voice because it's good that at least he's still around.

 

[Drtooth]

Voice isn't half as important as having an overall handle of the character, and I think Eric is just there, especially compared to his earlier performances as the character. Guy's signature loud voice, speech patterns, and movement are all perfectly in character. I really liked his aside about "Do we have any more of those macaroons in the back?" That seemed to be ad libbed.

 

[JonnyBMuppetMan]

I personally think Eric is terrific as Guy Smiley, and I've noticed that in recent years he's become more used to performing him and sounding more like Jim. The voice does lack that certain gruffness that Jim had, but if anything, Eric can accurately capture Guy's frenetic energy.

Honestly, I'm happy as clam that so many of Jim's characters have come back over the last decade, and to me, having Guy back on Sesame again is icing on top of it.

 

[Drtooth]

Sesame Street loves to do idiotic guessing game episodes. If they put Guy in those instead of Mr. Guess or some other random character, they wouldn't be so bad.

 

[Oscarfan]

The new ETM had a lot of songs in it, and felt longer than usual. Not that that's bad; the songs were all great.

Also, the new stuff from Jerry's tribute episode (except for Homelamb) are up on SS.org, but alas, the videos aren't working. YET....

 

[Drtooth]

The new ETM had a lot of songs in it, and felt longer than usual. Not that that's bad; the songs were all great.

The intro gag where Elmo was having Musical Artist's block and comes up with the tools kinda made it seem longer than it usually is. I have to admit, I'm almost disappointed the CGI tools didn't actually appear in the musical nor did they sing beyond that.

 

[dwayne1115]

The new ETM had a lot of songs in it, and felt longer than usual. Not that that's bad; the songs were all great.

Also, the new stuff from Jerry's tribute episode (except for Homelamb) are up on SS.org, but alas, the videos aren't working. YET....

I saw the street story for Jerry, and I must say it was done very well.

 

[sesamemuppetfan]

While there's nothing really worth commenting on for most of today's episode (except for I how I enjoyed the "F is for Father" song; it was my first time seeing it, and yes I know it's from Season 42.), the 2 biggest highlights were of course Make it Fit! and the new Elmo: the Musical. Like everyone has been saying, Make it Fit! had a real classic feel; especially at the end. I agree with all of these comments about the segment overall, and especially with Oscarfan regarding how much of a great effort the writers are putting in to make a lot of Season 44 segments have a classic feel! Not to mention Daffyfan2003's comment on how nice it would be if they could try to revive those good old classic segments. As for today's Elmo: The Musical, it was absolutely stupendous! When I saw they were playing unabridged theme, I thought to myself, "oh brother!", because I thought it would be a repeat from last season, but then when the hammer, screwdriver, and wrench came in, I obviously got proved wrong. Plus, as Daffyfan2003 noted, there was a statue of Mr. Johnson in the park! How cool is that??

Last, but not least: I just watched the street story for the Jerry tribute on Sesamestreet.org. HOWEVER, I watched it with the volume off, so do NOT expect to ask me about what exactly happened; I'll save that for next week, but as a disappointing spoiler alert: none of Jerry's classic characters appear like we'd been hoping. (If you're really desperate to know what it is, you'll just have to highlight that big space above. Or you can go to the website, and watch it for yourself.

See ya next week!