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Sesame Street is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop before 2000) and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. The program is known for its images communicated through the use of Jim Henson's Muppets, and includes short films, with humor and cultural references. The series premiered on November 10, 1969, to positive reviews, some controversy, and high viewership; it has aired on the U.S.'s national public television provider PBS since its debut, with its first run moving to premium channel HBO on January 16, 2016. Since 2020, the show is currently available on Max.
Plot[]
A longtime favorite of children and adults, and a staple of PBS, "Sesame Street" bridges many cultural and educational gaps with a fun program. Big Bird leads a cast of characters teaching children numbers, colors, shapes and the alphabet. Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch and Grover are just a few of the other characters involved in this show, set on a city street full of valuable learning opportunities.
Why It's On Its Way to Sesame Street[]
- Preschool television in its purest form. Even today, it is probably the most famous preschool TV show ever made.
- A concept of the preschool-oriented counterpart to The Funny Company was very appealing.
- Uses a variety of techniques to teach children such as sketch comedy, humor, pop-culture references and songs.
- Very appealing Muppet designs.
- Clever and hilarious humor, memes, songs, and sketches:
- Cookie Monster going "OM NOM NOM!" whenever he eats anything, especially cookies.
- Grover annoying Mr. Johnson.
- Elmo and Zoe arguing over a rock named Rocco.
- Jack Black showing Elmo an octagon.
- Kermit teaching a girl about the alphabet.
- The Numerosity segments are funny.
- Neil Patrick Harris and Elmo dancing.
- Elmo dancing on the moon.
- The "Sesame Street is brought to you by the letter(s) and by the number(s)" sponsors.
- The entire Sesame Street set looks amazing.
- Great acting from the human characters and the Muppets.
- Likable, down to earth, and memorable characters. Each Muppet character has a very distinct personality which give them a lot of charm. Thankfully, their main traits are not exaggerated to death and most of the time, they can be very relatable to the viewer.
- Big Bird is the lovable six-year-old yellow bird who has a tendency to question things.
- Ernie is very goofy and Bert is his grumpy but lovable friend. They have orange and yellow skins respectively.
- Oscar is the green grouch with a hatred of friendly people who lives in a trash can.
- Cookie Monster is a very gluttonous blue furry monster, who is obsessed with cookies.
- Grover is a furry blue monster who has various jobs. He also has a superhero ego called Super Grover.
- Prairie Dawn is a young Muppet girl, who likes writing and directing school pageants.
- The Amazing Mumford is a funny purple magician whose magic tricks often fail.
- Count Von Count is a friendly lavender vampire who has loved counting since the beginning of time.
- Barkley is a humongous yet playful orange and white dog.
- Telly is a neurotic magenta monster and loves triangles.
- Elmo is a curious three-year-old red monster with a big imagination, even though he has a high-pitched voice.
- Baby Bear is a brown teddy bear who loves porridge and is cooperative to his sister Curly Bear.
- Rosita is a bilingual turquoise monster who was created to teach acceptance of different cultures to the audience. Hispanic people are the largest non-Caucasian group in the United States, and on her debut in 1991, most Hispanic characters were villains or stereotypical comic relief.
- Zoe is an orange monster who loves ballet.
- Abby Cadabby is a pink fairy in training who likes to do magic and passionate on gardening.
- Julia is a very well written yellow creature who presents autism very well.
- Tango is a cute and playful brown and white dog who complements to Elmo's furry and friendly personality.
- Ji-Young is a young Asian-American Muppet girl who likes playing the electric guitar and skateboarding.
- All the adults and children (Bob, Gordon, Susan, Mr. Hooper, Linda, David, Luis, Maria, Miles, Gina, Gabi, Mr. Handford, Ruthie, Alan, Chris, Leela, Nina, Charlie, etc.) are also very likable. They will usually give the Muppets several useful tips and let them work things out for themselves.
- Can appeal to everyone (including those looking back on it) without sugarcoating reality.
- The special effects and puppeteering are outstanding.
- Great voice acting for the puppets.
- The theme song is very timeless.
- Despite going downhill, every new preschool audience can still enjoy the show, as well as its later seasons, in the recent years because of the love the show has gotten that has never gets old.
- Tackles many mature and challenging themes such as autism, foster care, death, disability, lead poisoning, parents being in the military, hunger, HIV/AIDS, racism, divorce, incarceration and dealing with a traumatic event.
- Although the sponsors are never used at the end of each HBO-era episode, the sponsors are still used for the PBS airings of the HBO-era episodes.
- The closing theme, starting in 2016, "Smarter, Stronger, Kinder," sounds very heartwarming and catchy, and coincides with Sesame Workshop's mission.
- The Sesame Street Old School DVD and CD collection is great. It was not only aimed to preschoolers, but also aimed to grown-ups who always remembering the show.
- Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration was the most heartwarming and amazing anniversary special, which was aired on both PBS and HBO networks.
- And speaking of its popularity, it even deserves lots of the international-produced shows such as Sesame Park in Canada, Plaza Sesamo in Mexico, Vila Sesamo in Brazil, Barrio Sesamo in Spain, Sesamstraße in Germany, Sesamstraat in the Netherlands, Sesame Tree in the UK, Sesam Stasjon in Norway and many others.
- Some of the occasional celebrity appearances and cameos are quite clever and fun, such as when Fred Newman of Doug and Between the Lions fame made an appearance in the Elmo's World segment "Mouths", when Kermit the Frog made a cameo in "Frogs", and when Fred Rogers made an appearance in Episode 1445 (the last Season 12 episode).
- The series served as a launchpad for talented animators such as Mo Willems (the creator of Sheep in the Big City), who created the "Suzie Kabloozie" segments, Craig Bartlett (the creator of Hey Arnold!), who created the short "Arnold Rides His Chair" (which featured an earlier version of the title character), and John R. Dilworth (the creator of Courage the Cowardly Dog), who created the "Noodles & Nedd" segments.
Grouchy Qualities[]
- While the Sesame Street Old School DVD collection was very well-received, it has a poorly-made disclaimer.
- Quantity Over Quality: While nowhere near as bad as The Simpsons, South Park, and Family Guy, it ran for way too long since it began in 1969 and has been a cash cow for Sesame Workshop. While still not really a bad thing, the recent seasons can tend to go downhill.
- Since Season 33, the show's format has been changed. This is mostly because the show has been competing with other preschool shows since the 1990s.
- The show got slightly better in Seasons 38-39 (with the original format even returning for two episodes in Season 38).
- However, in Season 40, the show once again has some issues, such as classic (pre-1998) sketches dropped, the sketches becoming longer, later they dropped all of the pre-HD (pre-2008) sketches in Season 44, and in Season 46, they dropped most of the human cast, and the runtime being reduced to 30 minutes, however most Sesame Street fans still find the later seasons decent or great.
- In October 2023, it was announced that Sesame Street will be dropping the magazine-styled format it has been using since the very beginning in favor of two 11-minute stories with a new animated segment, "Tales of 123" to go along with it, It was also revealed that after Season 55, It would no longer be on (HBO) Max.
- Modern seasons of the show also tend to suffer from being overly cutesy. They tend to believe that every child would only be happy, while encouraging happiness is a good thing, as you should, despite it may seem flat-out that you would be happy all the times.
- Since Season 33, the show's format has been changed. This is mostly because the show has been competing with other preschool shows since the 1990s.
- The DTV episodes and special episodes had some surprised flaws:
- In Kids' Guide to Life: Learning to Share, Elmo initially refuses to share his toy train set with Zoe. This makes him rather out of character because he is supposed to be a kind muppet.
- CinderElmo is basically a retelling of Cinderella with the Sesame Street Muppets shoehorned into the story.
- Elmo's Potty Time overuses toilet humor.
- While most of the characters are likable, the only flawed characters in the series are:
- Elmo, most notably in Seasons 27-29 and after season 33, gets away with his mischief in some episodes. He also shouted "YAY!" a lot. When he started to get too much screen time, Elmo also treats the audience like how Barney the Dinosaur, Blue from Blue's Room, Joe from Seasons 5-6 of Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, Diego from Go, Diego, Go!, Kai-Lan from Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, the Teletubbies, the narrators and puppets from Baby Einstein, the Little Einsteins, JoJo from JoJo's Circus, the Sensational Six from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Special Agent Oso, Darby from My Friends Tigger & Pooh, and Pinky Dinky Doo do. However, this is excusable, due to his young age, and his prominent status is due to Sesame Street attempting to compete with other post-1992 preschool shows, such as Barney and Friends and Blue's Clues.
- While Elmo being energetic is pretty close to how any child would be energetic, sometimes it might get overdone to the point where it may get tiresome.
- Abby Cadabby was created solely to be another prominent female Muppet. She uses magic to solve her friends' problems by casting spells, even though most problems can't immediately be solved by simple things like magic in reality. However, this is obviously because she's a fairy, and her prominent status is also due to Sesame Street further competing with even more preschool shows through the 2000s decade and beyond.
- Zoe started treating her pet rock Rocco like a friend when he was introduced in Season 30 and using him in order to get her way at Elmo's expense.
- The Monster Clubhouse Monsters (Googel, Mel, Narf and Phoebe) are overly hyperactive.
- Murray is the cheesy host of the show from Seasons 38 to 45, and he does repetitive stuff like "What's the Scoop", "Word on the Street", "Letter of the Day", and "Number of the Day". Cookie Monster and Count von Count also had these respective roles in 2002-2007 except the execution there was much better.
- These mentioned flawed characters (while otherwise likable, depending on one's view) also treat the audience like how characters in other shows who try to compete with Sesame Street do. They also tend to believe that every child would only be happy.
- Some of the older characters were also flawed as they were removed due to significant controversy:
- Don Music, played by the Richard Hunt, was banned from rerunning in 1998, when parents sent Children's Television Workshop complaints, that their kids were imitating his head banging on piano keys.
- Harvey Kneeslapper, played by Frank Oz, was banned for two reasons: his signature laugh would strain Frank Oz's vocal cords, and he was only good for that one joke.
- Elmo, most notably in Seasons 27-29 and after season 33, gets away with his mischief in some episodes. He also shouted "YAY!" a lot. When he started to get too much screen time, Elmo also treats the audience like how Barney the Dinosaur, Blue from Blue's Room, Joe from Seasons 5-6 of Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, Diego from Go, Diego, Go!, Kai-Lan from Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, the Teletubbies, the narrators and puppets from Baby Einstein, the Little Einsteins, JoJo from JoJo's Circus, the Sensational Six from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Special Agent Oso, Darby from My Friends Tigger & Pooh, and Pinky Dinky Doo do. However, this is excusable, due to his young age, and his prominent status is due to Sesame Street attempting to compete with other post-1992 preschool shows, such as Barney and Friends and Blue's Clues.
- Most of its old episodes back then were lost, such as #12 (first one), #108 (Pete Seeger), #202 (Slimey's debut), most of other Season 2 and 3 episodes, and #1444 (aired when Pac-Man launched), making it one of the few partially lost shows.
- The remixes of the iconic theme song, despite being very catchy and pretty good, basically tried too hard to be "hip" and "with it" as they are more upbeat. But luckily, starting in season 46, the remix of the theme song sounds nicer, despite being short.
- A few of the characters are overly saccharine.
- Some bad episodes, even in these seasons.
- Episode 847, the most controversial episode. The wicked witch of the west frightened the children.
- Even Episode 2985 was controversial, which caused the episode to be cancelled before even being aired.
- While most of the segments are good, some are bad, mediocre, meh, or pretty weird:
- "Monster Clubhouse" is one of the worst offenders, due to its overall frantic pace.
- Elmo's World was only made to boost the ratings of Sesame Street, as children started to lose attention with the show after 40 to 45 minutes in the late '90s, and due to competition brought on by other preschool show made since the 1990s, such as Barney, Blue's Clues, Teletubbies, etc.
- Journey to Ernie involves Big Bird searching for Ernie in various places and is given three clues. As it shares many similarities to Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego Go!, Little Einsteins, and Blue's Clues, the segment is unoriginal.
- Abby's Flying Fairy School features outdated CGI animation and has way too many episodes where Abby and her classmates are depicted as punching bags.
- Hero Guy is pretty weird because of the titular character's odd animation and his voice being weirdly-pitched.
- Despite the praise of the character Julia, created with the help of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, they decided to work with Autism Speaks, an organization that dehumanized autistics (before 2016), which caused the ASAN to end their partnership. This is considered a bad move, as Autism Speaks dehumanizes people with the disability, although it is likely they didn't know this.
- They also joined Global Tech Link, an organization that monopolizes phone calls, and exploits families dealing with incarceration. Although, much like joining the previous organization, it is likely they didn't know this.
- There are times when the show can get political, surprising for a preschool show, like for an example, the infamous Black Lives Matter special, especially Elmo's interview with his dad about the movement, basically shoves political correctness down everyone's throats.
- Bad/mediocre/meh voice acting for some characters like Big Bird (in seasons 1-2 and 49-present, later Elmo's World episodes, and Journey to Ernie), Zoe (Season 46-present), Count von Count (Season 44-present), and Snuffy (Season 3-11).
- Though rare, there are a few mean-spirited moments, especially the Elmo and Zoe arguing over a rock named Rocco.
- Sesame Beginnings is basically a "baby-ized" spin-off version of this show, considering it's based on merchandise.
- The babies aren't even that likable for the most part, as most of them come off as inconsistent or incompetent. Most of them are also very bland, forgettable, and one-dimensional.
- The baby spin-off is way too predictable because of the stories they go for, and it is a baby-ized version of the show it's spun off from.
- In 2005, there was a rumor that Cookie Monster will be renamed to Veggie Monster. There were skits where Cookie Monster eats healthier treats (for example, after having a nightmare on meeting The Giant Talking Monster Cookie).
- While still great, the earlier seasons still share several issues.
- There are unintentionally creepy and disturbing scenes in the earlier seasons, such as:
- The original Big Bird design, which consists of Big Bird having a smaller head and a hick-like voice, making him look awkward to most people. However, his redesign (mostly at least Season 3) is a considerable improvement over his original design.
- The early Mr. Snuffleupagus puppet from Season 3 looked creepy with yellow irised eyes with green sclera and tan eyelashes all the way around, and his voice sounded very scary and Eeyore-like before Martin P. Robinson took over. However, his redesign (Season 4 onwards) is a considerable improvement over his original design.
- Proto-Grover puppet from Seasons 1-2 had dark green shaggy fur, which scared many children.
- The early Telly Monster puppet from Season 10 with swirling eyes and antennas.
- The Placido Flamingo segments, because the look and voice of the puppet.
- Episode 847 (“The Wicked Witch of the West Comes to Sesame Street”) gave children nightmares and caused CTW to receive a ton of letters from angered parents.
- The early Mr. Snuffleupagus puppet from Season 3 looked creepy with yellow irised eyes with green sclera and tan eyelashes all the way around, and his voice sounded very scary and Eeyore-like before Martin P. Robinson took over. However, his redesign (Season 4 onwards) is a considerable improvement over his original design.
- Most of the pre-1990 Sesame Street segments involve pipe-smoking, kids playing in construction sites, even kids dancing on the street, and cartoon violence, which Sesame Workshop now believes that children may imitate those reckless actions and injure/harm/hurt themselves.
- There are unintentionally creepy and disturbing scenes in the earlier seasons, such as:
- Some of the episodes and segments are banned, such as:
- Episode 847 ("The Wicked Witch of the West Comes to Sesame Street") gave children nightmares and caused CTW to receive a ton of letters from angered parents.
- Numerosity - All ten segments no longer aired after the late-1980s after it was decided that the baker falling was too violent to the target audience (although the #10 segment appeared one more time in The Street We Live On). Additionally, the "10 little Indians" scene from the #10 segment was replaced with "ten bells" in airings from Season 4 onward. In the #5 segment, the scene where the man says "Five... whatever they are" after five monsters break the window is dropped from the official YouTube release.
- The Mad Painter segments encourage criminal behavior, in which they stopped airing by 1988.
- The season 1 sketch "Ernie, the world's greatest counter" has a portion of the ending where Bert violently bangs his head on a counter in frustration omitted from season 2 onwards.
- The first seven Monsterpiece Theater segments began and ended with Alistair Cookie holding a pipe, which he ate at the end of the first four segments. Four of them (The Sound of Music, Chariots of Fur, The 39 Stairs, and Gone with the Wind) had Alistair Cookie's scenes reshot, while the others no longer aired by the time these altered scenes were shot (the reshot Chariots of Fur never actually aired on the show).
- Maurice Sendak's shorts "Bumble Ardy" and "Seven Monsters" were both eventually taken off the show after kids were "freaked out" by them.
- Segments involving Roosevelt Franklin and the character himself (though segments where Roosevelt appeared in the background without dialogue continued to air for years), due to Roosevelt Franklin being stereotypical to African-Americans and a stock character that involves racism.
- The song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" had too much drug use.
- The song "I Want a Monster to Be My Friend" had lyrics that talk about a mother who feared they would encourage child molestation, which is inappropriate.
- The song "Alphabet Polka" was dropped after its initial airings due to it being a stereotype to the Polish.
- Segments involving Roosevelt Franklin and the character himself, though segments where Roosevelt appeared in the background without dialogue continued to air for years, due to Roosevelt Franklin being stereotypical to African-Americans, and a stock character that involves racism.
Trivia[]
- The Around the Corner set was criticized for the confusion to young children in the target audience. After Season 29, the Around the Corner sets and most of the new characters were dropped from the show.
- Monster Clubhouse was criticized for its frantic pace and hyperactive characters. The segment was discontinued after Season 34.
- According to Dr. Rosemarie, Journey to Ernie was discontinued after Season 36 due to the crew feeling that it wasn't "Sesame enough" and didn't fit in with the rest of the show.
- The segment Elmo's World has multiple subjects like the main show, such as things that people do, what people have on the human body, and sometimes animals.
- Elmo: The Musical is based on musical shows like Glee, as it revolves around Elmo imagining himself in different musical situations with a talking curtain named Velvet.
- Elmo and Tango's Mysterious Mysteries is inspired by some mystery shows like My Friends Tigger and Pooh, Busytown Mysteries and Archie's Weird Mysteries.
- The show was reduced from a full hour to 45 minutes in Season 30, with Elmo's World filling the remaining 15 minutes.
- Due to PBS having trouble paying the show's licensing fee, HBO began airing Sesame Street in 2016 with a half-hour runtime, in order to get enough money for PBS. In fact, PBS decided to air the show as its second-run program, nine months after they premiered on the former network. The show moved again to HBO Max in 2020, but PBS still airs the second-run of the show.
- Contrary to popular belief, the reduction to 30 minutes was not HBO's fault, as that was the way to have more money for the PBS show.
- The show spawned several DTV episodes (most of which were distributed by Sony Wonder and Warner Home Video), compilation videos, and TV specials. Examples include Elmo Saves Christmas, Being Green, Kids' Guide to Life: Learning to Share, CinderElmo, Kids' Favorite Songs, Kids' Favorite Songs, Kids' Favorite Songs 2, The Street We Live On, What's The Name of That Song, Elmo's Alphabet Challenge, Abby in Wonderland, and Kids' Favorite Country Songs.
- The theme song has been remixed multiple times since the show's 24th season.
- Seasons 24-29 and 33-37 use upbeat reggae and rock versions of the iconic theme song.
- In Seasons 38-45, it's done in an R&B style.
- Seasons 24-37 also uses a hip hop version of the theme song for their end credits, which was modified in Seasons 32-33 and abridged in Season 34.
- From Season 46 onwards, the theme song is done in a folk style.
- Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper, died in 1982. His character was subsequently killed off.
- Like with Mr. Hooper, David disappeared from the show once his actor Northern Calloway left the show in 1989 and died in 1990.
- The predecessor to the show was The Funny Company, which is aired during the 1960s.
- The Children’s Television Workshop, the non-profit organization behind this show, was renamed Sesame Workshop in June 2000.
- The show spawned two spin-offs called Play with Me Sesame and the well-received HBO Max original series The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo.
- Due to its massive popularity, the show has quickly spawned toys, books, merchandise, educational video games, clothing, and two theatrical feature films called Follow That Bird and The Adventures of Elmo In Grouchland.
- Caroll Spinney, best known as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, was diagnosed with dystonia in 2015; the disease would kill him four years later.
- Due to Jerry Nelson's failing health, many of his characters on Sesame Street (save for Count von Count) were gradually phased out by the mid-2000s; Nelson eventually died on August 23, 2012 from emphysema.
- Northern Calloway (who played David) died in January 1990; his character David moved to his grandmother's farm and was subsequently dropped from the series.
- Since the sketches tended to act like commercials, at least one was repeated twice in the same episode. By the mid-1970s, this practice stopped.
- Earlier seasons of the show were much slower-paced.
- Grover’s age is vague; Nogginoid (an interstitial series that aired on Noggin from 1999 to 2002) confirmed that he is supposed to represent the psychological age of a 4-year-old, yet he is seen working various jobs.
- Much of the cast starred in a policy trailer for Lowes movie theaters back in 1996.
- It is unknown if Bert and Ernie are brothers, despite them acting as such.
- There have been rumors about Bert and Ernie being gay, which Sesame Workshop has cleared out several times.
- Kevin Clash was fired from the show in November 2012 due to sexual allegations; Elmo has been puppeteered by Ryan Dillon since then.
- Elmo's World was revived in 2017, lasting for only five minutes, but then since 2021 has been alternated with "Elmo and Tango's Mysterious Mysteries."
- Along with Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Sesame Street is one of the most-watched preschool shows.
- By the time the show moved to HBO in 2016, most of the human cast (Miles, Gabi, Leela, Maria, Bob, Gordon, Luis, Gina, Susan, etc.) were dropped from the show, except Alan, Chris, and Nina. However, most of the retired human cast did return for the 50th anniversary celebration.
- The actor who played Luis, Emilio Delgado, died in March 2022. Bob McGrath, the actor who played Bob, also died in December 2022.
- Roscoe Orman returned to play Gordon in the first episode of Season 54.
Reception[]
Sesame Street has been very positively received and remains a staple of children's television to this day. It currently has an 8.1/10 on IMDb.
PhantomStrider placed it #1 on his Top 6 best kids shows.