https://kotaku.com/how-elmo-ruined-sesame-street-1746504585
Major thesis: "It started in small ways. A lot of stories used to be based around Big Bird, who was psychologically characterized as a six-year-old. And in a lot of ways, this was ideal—six years old was on the older end of Sesame Street’s age demographic, and Big Bird served as both a role model and a peer to his audience. Big Bird’s comparative maturity also meant that he could project a wide range of emotions—he was ‘old enough’ to understand mature concepts, such as the permanence of Mr. Hooper’s death."
"Elmo stories, on the other hand, tend to affirm and celebrate the child’s perspective. Rarely, if ever, is Elmo’s innocence challenged, or is he forced to think about someone’s happiness other than his own. He spends most of his time hanging out with Zoe, Abby, Telly, and Baby Bear—Muppets who share his emotional maturity, and unlike Grover, Kermit, and Ernie, do nothing to push him. In fact, he is the de facto leader of his group—the dialogue lowers to Elmo’s level, rather than rising to an older character’s. And while this is cute and fun, it gets old fast, and it doesn’t really go anywhere. Elmo is learning about counting to four and different shapes, but he’s not learning a whole lot of life lessons."
I don’t have kids of my own yet, so I’m out of touch with how the show is being run these days, but if Elmo is the lead now, this definitely sounds like a step back in quality level.
I guess it makes sense from a business perspective for the creators. I’m sure it helps the bottom line. Kids go nuts for Elmo.
Regardless, it makes me happy to see PBS expand their reach. The quality level across the board is astounding! If it was the only network I had access to I would be happy.
Nova science is unreal! ‘Nature’ episodes are best in the business for nature docs. Many of the Masterpiece series are great... and don’t sleep on all the cooking shows. For a publicly funded organization, it’s absolutely mind blowing the quality of product they put out.
A real treasure.
My (at the time 2 year old) referred to Seasame Street as "Elmo."
The shift in content aligns with the shift that has happened in Early Learning Education in the US--mainly less emphasis in academic subjects, and more emphasis on social and emotional skills.
Modern Seasame Street broaches social topics, with a small amount of academics (mainly letter and number of the day).
That being said the count is still the count and Chappelle's skit [1] is still spot on.
Sesame Street is for pre-schoolers, which was never academic outside of a cadre of upper class dog-eat-dog New Yorkers
Can you explain what you mean by this?
There's a torrent of ancient Sesame Street episodes out there, I used to show them to my kid
Believe me, there's no shortage of counting on Sesame Street, so the fact they detour into guessing once or twice isn't a bad thing.
Then Elmo became highly bankable (Tickle Me Elmo) and they leaned hard on him. Elmo is... not as good for modeling behavior and interactions.
Obviously kids love it.
So... yeah, you nailed it.
With Norah Jones: https://youtu.be/FEzxchU4RUY
With Katy Perry: https://youtu.be/PwZnCkoX5gI
And my absolute favorite, better than the original, with the Goo Goo Dolls: https://youtu.be/uGohKgNOXnU
Edit... but... yes... the Elmo Numa Numa tops everything: https://youtu.be/2rAKszSX2tU (which btw, was indeed uploaded 11 years ago, but I think has an erroneous view count..)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sesame_Street_Muppets
Here's Johnny Cash on Sesame Street:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is also a non-profit, funded solely by the federal government, but is independent from PBS and doesn't produce any programming.
My guess is they are trying to generate much-needed funds from toy sales, as well as compete for eyeballs with other more engaging children's programming ("bombardment" as Fred Rogers once called it).
The difference between Paw Patrol and Daniel Tiger is night and day.
For a reference essay on the shift from Big Bird to Elmo: https://kotaku.com/how-elmo-ruined-sesame-street-1746504585
Major thesis: "It started in small ways. A lot of stories used to be based around Big Bird, who was psychologically characterized as a six-year-old. And in a lot of ways, this was ideal—six years old was on the older end of Sesame Street’s age demographic, and Big Bird served as both a role model and a peer to his audience. Big Bird’s comparative maturity also meant that he could project a wide range of emotions—he was ‘old enough’ to understand mature concepts, such as the permanence of Mr. Hooper’s death."
"Elmo stories, on the other hand, tend to affirm and celebrate the child’s perspective. Rarely, if ever, is Elmo’s innocence challenged, or is he forced to think about someone’s happiness other than his own. He spends most of his time hanging out with Zoe, Abby, Telly, and Baby Bear—Muppets who share his emotional maturity, and unlike Grover, Kermit, and Ernie, do nothing to push him. In fact, he is the de facto leader of his group—the dialogue lowers to Elmo’s level, rather than rising to an older character’s. And while this is cute and fun, it gets old fast, and it doesn’t really go anywhere. Elmo is learning about counting to four and different shapes, but he’s not learning a whole lot of life lessons."
Not all but many episodes.