Excuse me while I hijack…
I know I’m gonna catch heat for this, but I’m not at all enchanted with Elmo. At least, not as much as others seem to be. I have nothing against him, he just has no personality. For my money, Super Grover, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch made the show for me. I’m kind of disappointed to see how Elmo-centric the show’s become. Granted, I haven’t seen a whole episode since I was in feety pajamas, but I’ve seen enough.
In a similar vein, does anyone remember the name of the insect family on the show that lived in an empty milk carton? I’ve been trying to remember for years.
Am I the only one who literally cried when Mr. Hooper died? If you saw the episode where they explained what happened to Big Bird, there’s no way you could believe the Muppets aren’t real.
Actually, KCSuze, my six-year-old daughter feels the same way. She often watches Sesame Street and then turns it off at the end when “Elmo’s World” comes on. She used to like him a lot, but I think his schtick is easy to outgrow.
Sesame Street is so compartmentalized these days that it’s easy to avoid Elmo like that. Perhaps they did that on purpose–I don’t know.
You actually see Super Grover a lot more these days than you used to. He’s even in the opening song!
Yeah, I loved Elmo when he was just one of many small, recurring characters (much like Baby Bear [who can’t say his Rs], and the Twiddle Bugs, and of course the yip yips). In small doses, he’s charming. In large ones, he’s grating.
In line with what gvsantos said, I think that all the special effects and CGI animation prevalent in kids’ cartoons and movies these days, it’s harder for kids to suspend disbelief for something that isn’t absolutely convincing. I think it’s sad, really – it doesn’t require as much imagination or empathy. Everything is spoon-fed and done at hyper speeds. Entertainment like the Muppets and Sesame Street are based on real experiences and real emotions, and it’s sad that little visual details could get in the way of that.
Well, we have the Muppet Show collection on tape as well as the majority of the Muppet films Follow That Bird and The Dark Crystal.
We are huge fans of the wonderful works of Jim Henson and along with the morning Seseme Street stuff, it makes up most of what we put on for our daughter.
Unfortunately, I have no idea when or on what channel they put on Fraggel Rock these days.
Thanks, GuanoLad , my thirst for knowledge has now been slaked.
I think I was too young to remember when Mr. Hooper died, but I do remember everyone thinking Mr. Snufalupagus was only Big Bird’s imaginary friend.
As for Elmo, the last time I saw him on the show I was in a hotel room in College Station, Texas. It was some unholy hour of the morning, and Elmo was in the company of a puppet water glass. He was singing the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” but the only lyrics were, “water, water, water, water…” I thought I was either still asleep and dreaming or that my water had been laced with LSD. It was surreal.
And Super Grover rocks. One of my favorite bits he did was learning how to use a computer. Turns out it wasn’t turned on.
Sorry–one more thing:
Am I the only one who actually finds Big Bird annoying? He annoys me even more than Elmo does. don’t known why either. This is a deep seated grudge dating all the way back from my earliest childhood memories. Maybe there’s something wrong with me…
I liked the yips too - especially the incident with the the telephone -
brrrrrrrrrrrrroing!
brrrrrrrrrring!
yip yip yip
noh-hoh noh-hoh
Big Bird bugged me with his goofiness.
Grover and Cookie are my Sesame Street favourites.
Especially Grover’s “Near and Far”.
I remember a student radio session in my home town, where they played the C-is-for-Cookie song on solid rotate for an hour!
I also have most of the Muppet show on tape somewhere too - Stars acquired merit/lost merit in my eyes based on how well they interacted with the Muppets.
I remember Sylvester Stallone rose up in my esteem, and Elton John dropped, because of the Muppets.
\ I’m not annoyed by Big Bird, except in the way I’m annoyed because I’m older. I always wondered just how these cartoons related to the rest of the street (was the trolley real on Mr Rogers) and where on the street was the shelf where toddlers sat with Grover. The aliens who came down and said aw…aw…aw, aw, awawawawawaw yep. Ray Dee Oh. Yep…yep…yep, yep, yep yepyepyepyep were actually scary.
\ Burundi, which one? I liked Bert. I liked them both but when I got older I mostly remembered Ernie getting the best of Bert. So I liked to look for times when Ernie was embarrassed and Bert got back at HIM. And did his little aaaaaaa, aaaaaaa.
\ I refuse to spoil it by watching now. They changed the theme song and made everything choppy. I then noticed that they emphasized “rooms”. Elmo’s Room. Their world is so small.
\ If people still watch it I hope they at least do some more Navajo and Alaska episodes. Maybe I should watch to find out if and how long that new actress (it seemed she just started in 1992) was on. She’s a blonde who got her hand stuck in a cookie jar. ? It was an episode that also promoted the word “no.”
I’ve always said I much prefer the muppets not on the street (Bert and Ernie, Grover, Cookie, Kermit) to the ones on the street (Big Bird, Oscar, Elmo, etc.)
I’m guessing because the non-street bits were done with greats like Jim Henson and Frank Oz and didn’t need to be done as often - allowing for much better quality.
