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My Week with Sesame 2.0 February 4 - 8, 2002
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I never used to have an opinion about Sesame Street. It was always just there, humming quietly along in the background -- and even being a Muppet Fan, I never had to think too much about it one way or the other. Back in my MuppetZine days, the biggest change on Sesame Street was when they went around the corner -- a Non-Event if ever there was one.
But Elmo's World changed all that. Thanks to Elmo, I've now had arguments -- actual knock-down, drag-out, take-no-prisoners arguments -- about Sesame Street. Just since I wrote My Week with Elmo a couple weeks ago, I've had more heated discussions about Mr. Noodle than any adult human should ever have.
It's Muppet Fan against Muppet Fan. It's sad, really, and after a while, it all starts to seem like the infighting in Life of Brian between the People's Front of Judea and the Judean Popular People's Front. (Splitters!)
In order to make some sense of this obviously vital social issue, I'm going to appropriate some terms from Doctor Who Fandom -- Trad Fans and Rad Fans. Traditional (Trad) Fans are the ones who appreciate what made the show great in the first place, and they don't like things to change much. Radical (Rad) Fans like new characters and new approaches. The words can be used as positive or negative, depending on your perspective. Trad Fans can be seen as staying true to the original, or as dull and conservative. Rad Fans can be seen as innovative, and keeping the show fresh; they can also be seen as shallow and trendy, liking change just for its own sake.
Of course, Trad and Rad can be used more like a continuum than like two distinct labels; every fan is some mixture of both. Personally, in the Muppet world, I have a big Trad streak (I like my Christmas specials uncut, thank you), but I lean towards Rad (I like new stuff, and I don't mind the occasional recast).
Which brings us to the new season of Sesame Street, which I'm sure is gonna stir up the Trad/Rad pot a bit. On the one hand, the new season is focusing more on the main Muppet characters, which ought to please the Trad fans -- but it's also a big format change, which is just the kind of thing that puts Trad fans into that Cranky Grandpa "back in my day..." mode.
So try to keep all that in mind, and place your tray tables in the upright and locked position. We're going in.
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Monday, Feb 4: Fire dogs are really excellent?
By the way -- worry not, Trad Fans. I know that I've beaten up on Trad folks before in the My Week columns, but I'm looking out for ya this week. Here's an example. The new opening starts with Big Bird and some kids in a park, and the blocks they're playing with start bouncing all over the place. The bird and the kids follow the blocks through the park, and as blocks fly by, they show different clips of what we're going to see. There's Elmo and Dorothy the goldfish, and Monster Clubhouse... but right at the end, the last block shows a vintage shot of Ernie putting a pot on Bert's head. A point for the Trad Fans. See? I've gotcha covered. Then Super Grover flies by and makes a crash landing onto the Sesame Street sign. He comes back up, shaken, with a sign that says the episode number. I am all in favor of the new opening. Really, anything with Super Grover crash landing gets points with me.
So Big Bird's on the Street, and he runs into Cookie Monster, who is playing that old Sesame chestnut, One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others. He's got a hat, a shirt, a shoe, and a chocolate chip cookie. "MU-SIC!" They sing the One Of These Things song. And you know, it's like they wanted to give the Trad Fans a special gift right at the start of the new season, because I personally can't think of a more Classic Sesame thing to do than have Big Bird and Cookie Monster playing One Of These Things. Big Bird says that the cookie doesn't belong, so Cookie Monster eats the cookie. Now: "ROUND TWO!" Cookie Monster adds another item -- an OATMEAL cookie! Big Bird hesitates: "Well, uh... it's kind of like before, isn't it?" They sing the song, and Cookie Monster eats the oatmeal cookie. Now it's time for ROUND THREE! "This time me make it harder... Hat, Shirt, Shoe, Peanut Butter Cookie!" Big Bird observes that Cookie Monster is just playing this game because every time the game is over, he gets to eat another cookie. "Me think you right!" Cookie Monster shouts. "GAME OVER!" He eats the whole jar of cookies. Cookie Monster, ladies and gentlemen! What a pro.
Next up is Monster Clubhouse, starring four shouty monsters who run around a lot. This is basically an excuse to get your kids to run around and exercise so that they're tired and want to sit down and watch the rest of the show. It's fairly transparent, but they're working their furry little butts off, so I'll allow it.
Then the Count presents the Number of the Day by playing on his Muppety pipe organ. I don't want to keep you in suspense, so I'll tell you up front that the number is 3. Confetti falls from the ceiling, the three bears come and dance, and then we get a couple of animated inserts about 3.
Now, here's something I'm liking so far: There's a lot more Muppet content in the new format, and a lot fewer inserts. If you're the type of Sesame Fan who likes long, slow cartoons about clouds or whatever, then you're not gonna like the new Sesame. But if you like your Muppets pretty much 24/7, then this is a big step up.
Another new thing about this season is that the Street story is all one eight-minute block, instead of being chopped up into little scenes. Today, Maria and Elmo are having lunch at Hooper's Store, when there's a grease fire, and they have to evacuate and call the fire department. The firefighters come and put out the fire, but now Elmo's scared to go back to Hooper's Store. There's a long sequence when Alan, Maria and a firefighter are trying to reassure Elmo. Elmo says he's okay, but he's clutching really tightly onto Maria's skirt and talking really soft. It's a great, subtle performance from Elmo. I'm amazed at how they can completely trust Kevin Clash to nail this moment, with very small gestures and a change in the tone of his voice. Elmo looks so genuinely frightened that I actually go into the other room to get an Elmo doll to hug. He's that good. Then Elmo and Maria visit a real New York firehouse, and the friendly firefighter shows Elmo all their equipment, so that Elmo knows that he should always call an adult if he ever thinks there's a fire. They reinforce a lot of fire safety tips. By the end of the story, Elmo's back in Hooper's Store, wearing a fire helmet and playing with fire trucks. Doing the story as one complete chunk really works; it's like an emotional journey.
Then real kids talk about firefighters. My favorite part of the episode so far: A little boy hugs a dalmatian, and says, "Fire dogs are really excellent? And they're so great? Because... they're so excellent." The Fire Dogs Kid is my new favorite Sesame Street character.
Gosh, still a lot to go. Jill Scott sings "We Are All Earthlings" with a whole crowd of Muppet animals. I've never really liked the song much before, but this is the post 9/11 world, so if I don't like "We Are All Earthlings," then the terrorists win.
Then there's "Journey to Ernie" which is just fine and which I think I'll talk about tomorrow.
Then comes my first genuine laugh-out-loud moment: Cookie Monster's Letter of the Day. Cookie reaches into his cookie jar and finds the Letter of the Day -- which is L, in case you're keeping score -- printed in icing on a cookie. "Me know what you thinking. Cookie Monster going to EAT Letter of Day, right? Noooo! Today, me different. Me go through SEA CHANGE!" Instead of eating the cookie, he's going to sing a La-La-La song: "The more me sing, the more music in me mouth -- no cookie in me mouth!" He sings la la la, then gets distracted by how delicious the cookie is. He tries to resist, and finally ends the song: "La la la -- CHOMP CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH!" It's just fantastic, classic Cookie Monster. I've actually watched this piece three times now -- once more to show Ed how great it was, and then once just now to get the quotes. It makes me laugh every single time.
Then comes Elmo's World, and Elmo is talking about Fish today. But that just gets us back into the whole Mr. Noodle thing, so let's not start.
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Tuesday, Feb 5: The whole "not being three" issue
Okay, let's come to order. On the agenda for today: Journey to Ernie.
Here's the deal. Journey to Ernie is this new problem-solving segment with Big Bird looking for Ernie in a computer-animated environment. It's kind of like a computer game, except you just sit there while Big Bird does all the work.
So where's Ernie? Ernie's in a box. No, seriously. He's hiding in a box marked with stripes and a rubber duckie, and this box is somewhere out there in the universe. Big Bird travels around to different environments, which so far means outer space, the North Pole -- and, today, a disco. I kid you not. Big Bird has to solve little logic problems to figure out how to get the box. If he finds the right box, Ernie's inside, and we get to see an Ernie skit. If he finds the wrong box, then we have to watch a sand sculpture sing Joe Raposo songs, and then we start all over again.
And you know what? While I was watching it, that all seemed to make sense, but now, when I'm trying to describe it to you, it sounds kind of stupid. It's like when you try to describe a dream to someone, and you have to explain how the dog didn't LOOK like your sister, but you knew that it WAS your sister. You know what I mean? Like, why is Ernie in a box? Why do some boxes have Ernie and some boxes don't have Ernie? And why a disco? It just don't add up.
Then again, there's the whole "not being three" issue, which I've had to deal with before. The conversation basically goes like this. I say, "Hey, have you noticed how Journey to Ernie is kind of a mess conceptually," and then you say, "Yeah, but it teaches problem solving skills, and three year olds like computer games." So then I say, "That may be true, but three year olds also like putting dirt in their mouths," and then you say, "Well, you're not three, so how the heck would you know," and then it just kind of degenerates from there.
And I have to admit that that's true. I'm not three. In fact, I haven't been three in a long time. So let's call someone who's three and see what they think about it.
I'm gonna have my secretary find me a three year old. Hey, Jason! I need to talk to somebody who's three. Okay. Hold on just a sec. Jason's going to buzz me when he's got a three year old.
Oh, there we are. Hello? Who's this? Carmen? Hi, Carmen, this is Danny from Tough Pigs. Listen, babe, I need your thinking on this Journey to Ernie thing. How old are you, Carmen? Three? All right, good. Let me just run this past you. We've got Big Bird, and then Ernie's in a box. You with me so far, sweetheart? Now the box -- get this -- the box is somewhere out there in the universe, and Big Bird's got to solve problems like it's a computer game. That's the basic pitch. Now just give me the first thing that comes to you.
What's that? What? Jason, I think we got a bad connection. I can't hear a word this girl is -- What? Speak up, Carmen, I can't hear you. Oh, great. Now she's crying. Carmen, sweetheart, stop crying. This is very unprofessional.
Oh, terrific. Now she hung up. That's just great.
Well, now I still don't know what to think about Journey to Ernie, and I just made a three year old cry. Are you satisfied?
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Wednesday, Feb 6: The Furry Feeling of the Day
Ray Romano is here to tell us about Frustrated. You see, Frustrated is a feeling that you get when -- he's interrupted by Grover, who wants to help. Grover thinks that Ray's talking about Pineapples, so he gets a Pineapple. No, Grover! Ray is trying to talk about Frustrated. Then Grover thinks Ray's talking about Hats, so he gets a Hat. And I think you can pretty much get where this is going.
This is Sesame Street's Emotional Literacy curriculum, where we take normal, whiny, spoiled children and turn them into overtherapized communicators who announce "I'm Frustrated!" instead of hitting people.
I like this. I'm in favor of this. I say, the more emotional literacy training that kids get from Grover, the less likely they'll be to cut in front of me at Starbucks. This is a good thing.
Monster Clubhouse has a Furry Feeling of the Day, too, which is Surprise. I'm not entirely sure how the Surprise curriculum applies to the Starbucks thing, but why not. Surprise it is.
And hey, speaking of Surprise -- the Street story today is about Rosita, Zoe and Lulu learning to sing together, with Telly being the Monster Music Reporter. They're taught how to sing by Gabi, and a tall boy who I don't remember... Then Gabi calls the boy "Miles." Miles! That's Gordon and Susan's kid! Is that really Miles? He's enormous! I don't know if this is the same kid who's been playing Miles all along, or if they "aged" him like they do with kids on soap operas. But the Furry Feeling of the Moment for me is Ancient.
The three monster girls who love to sing apparently also love to try different foods. There's not a lot of conflict in this story today. Every time Telly sets up a big conflict -- Will they like their cheese sandwiches? -- then a second later they're just like, yeah, cheese sandwiches are okay. I'm not gripped by this story so far. I long for another grease fire. That was exciting. We want more grease fires. Hey, Sesame Street! I'm Frustrated! Set something on fire for me!
But one nice thing about the new format is that if you're bored, just wait a minute, and something fun will happen. Cookie Monster finds the Letter of the Day written on a cookie -- but, once again, he doesn't want to eat the cookie. "Letter of the Day too important to eat!" So he wraps up the cookie in a box and calls for a mail carrier. Grover shows up, from Federal Impress. "Let me guess," Grover says, looking at the box, "You did this yourself. It looks like a home job. You have truly impressed Federal Impress!" Grover takes off with the package, then comes in a moment later from the other side. "Package for Mr. Cookie Monster!" It's the same box. Cookie opens the box, finds the Letter of the Day, and eats it. Crunch crunch crunch! Grover does a take to the camera. "I do not think he understands the concept of the postal service."
So the Furry Feeling of the Day is Love and Appreciation for pretty much everything that involves Cookie Monster and Grover. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to fight my way through those three year olds to get my coffee. I'm Thirsty!
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Thursday, Feb 7: Things get fuzzy
Yesterday, I had a visit from the Rad Squad. They weren't at all pleased. They told me that my Sesame reviews this week were leaning far too much toward the Trad, and that I'd better shape up. I don't really like Journey to Ernie. I'm not that interested in Monster Clubhouse. And, really, the thing I've mostly liked about the new Sesame format is that it gives me more Grover and Cookie Monster. If I don't start liking more new stuff this week, I may be in danger of losing my Rad cred.
But, in the immortal words of Herry Monster, I just can't help it. Grover and Cookie Monster are everywhere on Sesame Street these days. Sesame is doing some very clever gradual recasting -- Frank Oz is still performing Grover and Cookie Monster in the Letter of the Day inserts, but new performers are playing them on the Street. (David Rudman is playing Cookie Monster, and Eric Jacobson is the new Grover performer.) And Rudman and Jacobson are just plain excellent. In fact, in yesterday's Letter of the Day segment with Grover as the Federal Impress mail carrier, they actually switched off performers within the same sketch -- Oz played Cookie Monster first, and then when Grover entered, Oz played Grover to Rudman's Cookie Monster. It feels like a very smooth transition, and I don't think the kids will notice a thing. They're just not jarring at all, and if I wasn't preternaturally attuned to the specific timber of Frank Oz's voice, I wouldn't notice myself.
And this means that those characters can take their old places at the center of Sesame Street again. In the Street story today, Luis and Maria renovated their old Fix-It Shop and turned it into a Mail-It Shop, which I guess makes sense, since kids these days aren't very likely to live near a Fix-It Shop anyway. Everybody sings a song about how great it is to have a place where you can send and receive mail. They're all terribly excited, as if it just weren't possible to ever send mail before the Mail-It Shop opened. It feels to me like we maybe already had one of these already, except we called it a Post Office, but whatever. As long as they're happy. Anyway, all the Muppets come in for their mail. Big Bird gets birdseed from his Granny Bird. Elmo gets fish food for Dorothy. Cookie Monster gets a package from L.L. Cookie.
And who's the one bringing all this mail? It's Grover, the furry blue mail carrier and tuba delivery monster! Grover keeps running in and out with big packages, falling down every single time. It's great. Before the recasts, this couldn't possibly be Grover getting so much air time. It would have been some no-name mail carrier Muppet, which wouldn't have been nearly as much fun. I predict that this year little kids will be falling in love with Grover all over again. I certainly am.
Not to mention the ever-hilarious Cookie Monster's Letter of the Day segment: "Hello there! Cookie Monster here! Me asking provocative question... What is Letter of the Day?" This, of course, is why it's also nice to still have Frank Oz around to perform these characters. Who else but Oz would be using the word "provocative" in a Sesame Street segment? You gotta love the guy. Once again, Cookie doesn't want to eat the cookie with the Letter of the Day, so he disguises the cookie with his Cookie Disguise Kit. He puts a mustache and glasses on the cookie. "Excuse me, sir," he says. "Have you seen where cookie went?" This is so excellent. I can't believe they've made 26 of these, and so far they've all been consistently hilarious.
So this might actually be where Rad and Trad meet. Yes, Grover and Cookie are sometimes performed by new puppeteers -- but this means that our old favorite characters get to keep working their magic every day. I'm finding myself getting more and more swayed to the Trad Side of the Force. The new characters are fine, but there really is a reason why, 33 years later, Cookie Monster and Grover still feel fresh and real and funny. They're just good characters, and it's great to have them back.
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Friday, Feb 8: Waving, not drowning
So, if you'll recall, my first My Week column back in August was My Week with Sesame Street. And by Friday of that week, I was drained. A whole week of watching last season's Sesame just took it out of me. I snapped at Baby Natasha, I snarled at Baby Bear. I don't know what to say about it. It was a tough week is all.
And this week with the new season just couldn't be more different. Case in point: There was a "Hero Guy" segment in yesterday's episode that I didn't even bother commenting on. I could snipe at Hero Guy right now. I could go on and on about it. But I won't. See? See how good a mood I'm in?
The difference between last season and this season isn't even a huge jump in the quality of any particular segment. Yes, the Letter of the Days and Spanish Word of the Days are consistently excellent, but Journey to Ernie isn't so hot, and Monster Clubhouse doesn't really get me going. It's still a mixed bag in that way.
The difference is that the new format gives the show a sense of direction, of forward movement. Old School Sesame never seemed to go anywhere -- there'd be a Street scene, and then a cartoon about 12, and then a film of clouds, and then a song about Z, and then another Street scene... The end of a Sesame Street episode felt pretty much just like the beginning, only an hour later. I think that's what made me so cranky watching it last season. After a while, I just felt battered by clip after clip; it started to feel like it would never end.
This season, it's much more structured, so you get more of a sense of accomplishment as you watch the show. Watching today's episode, I kept catching myself thinking things like, "Oh, it's time for the Number of the Day already?" It moves along from segment to segment, and I never felt like I was just getting bogged down in something that I couldn't escape. Even the segments that I wasn't crazy about would end, and then move on to the next thing.
So this, I think, is where I end up parting company with the Trad Fans. There aren't a lot of vintage 70's clips in the new season, which is a shame... but clips can really only take you so far anyway. An endless Sesame clip reel -- even if it only has the greatest, funniest, most beautiful clips -- would just get wearing after a while. It would be Sesame's Greatest Home Movies, a dead show still walking around the land of the living. To make a show really come to life, you need more than just sketches. You need a sense that things are going somewhere.
To paraphrase Annie Hall, a TV show is like a shark -- it has to keep swimming forward or die. What I watched in August was a dead shark. This season, Sesame 2.0... It's alive, it's going places.
I don't like every single place it stops off. But it's just so great to be swimming again.
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