MovieChat Forums > Sesame Street (1969) Discussion > What the hell happened to Sesame Street?...

What the hell happened to Sesame Street???

posted 11 years ago by bastets_kitten
7 replies | jump to latest

My husband and I, both Gen X members, found Sesame Street on Netflix and, on a whim, decided to watch an episode to see what it was like now, sort of an old school/new school comparison.

The new stuff was absolute garbage.

Hardly any Muppets, several CGI sequences of characters that used to be Muppets (such as Bert and Ernie), the show's theme song was turned into a rap song, the intro sequence was a mix of children and bad CGI, and the whole show was bright, loud, and flashing. I mean, if kids are watching this crap, it's no wonder we have an ADHD problem.

If we had children young enough to watch Sesame Street as it is now, I wouldn't let them watch it. I would want my kids to watch something educational, not an hour-long Elmo promo.

[–] mactach 11 years ago

Well what do ya know. Another one complaining about the modern day SS.

Boy I get so sick of them.

You people need to realize there's a reason why the show changed and perhaps it was either that or risk losing their audiences.

[–] samixsaysxhi 10 years ago

Are you literally in every thread whining about people's opinions? You do understand not everyone will feel the way you do, right?

You keep telling people to "get used to it", bah, blah, blah. Maybe you need to take your own advice and get used to the fact that everyone has an opinion. It's not the end of the world. Move on.

you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.

[–] mactach 10 years ago

No Sam you and others like you need to move on.

Look we're all entitled not to like the present day SS but today it is what it is, it's been that way for sometime and it's not gonna go back to the way it was anytime soon.

I've been looking over this board for quite sometime and there's always some nut coming aboard complaining about the modern day show and that's all they have to say.

Frankly, instead of complaining about it, we should focus on discussing SS in the old days.

Why not do that? I would rather do that then moan about that way it is today.

[–] Ploopy 11 years ago

I mean, if kids are watching this crap, it's no wonder we have an ADHD problem.

The funny thing, I remember one of my teachers saying a similar thing about Sesame Street when I was in Kindergarten (1979.) She told my mother that shows like Sesame Street focus on very short attention-span learning, and it makes it difficult for children when they get to school and they have to learn from a teacher who (a) isn't a muppet, and (b) doesn't sing and dance and tell jokes all day. A lot of learning on SS was also done through cartoon segments, which was obviously not what children would experience in school. So, by comparison, school could seem very dull to children who grew up watching SS.

Sesame Street actually tried to address the "short attention span" problem. Back in the old days, the show jumped around a lot more (there would be a segment on the street, then it would jump to something else, then back to the street, then off to something else again, back to the street, etc, etc.) In more recent years, they try to spend longer amounts of time on each segment, rather than jumping around so frequently.

I agree with you that Sesame Street was better in the past (largely just because I liked the characters better then), but I think it's interesting that the same complaints people have today about kids with short attention spans were also voiced back then.

[–] drxcreatures 11 years ago

The Elmo promo is for money reasons. That's all.

http://www.cgonzales.net & http://www.drxcreatures.com

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] truther 10 years ago

This is a really good analysis. I came here to see what other parents think of contemporary Sesame Street and am glad to see the same concerns.

There's still some good stuff. The episodes are clearly put together by people who know a bit about teaching young children. That being said, the whole thing is much more frenetic. It relies on CGI to a detrimental extent, the characters are flashy and shallow, and the whole presentation seems hectic. I can absolutely see why people think that watching this show encourages short attention spans.