Sesame Street

Sesame Street is a long-running 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) 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.

Following the death of Jim Henson in 1990, Sesame Street severely changed. This article will mainly focus on seasons 33-37 and 40 onwards, though some other seasons after Henson's death will be mentioned.

Overall

 * 1) While these seasons are nowhere near awful, they lack the charm that made the show special in Seasons 1-24 and 31-32 and (to a lesser extent) Seasons 25-30 and 38-39 for reasons listed below.
 * 2) Quantity Over Quality: The series has been running for way, way too long (it started in 1969), as it now has 52 seasons with over 4,631 episodes and counting. To be fair, the majority of the show is good, but the show will often jump the shark because of this by introducing new characters and gimmicks.
 * 3) *Speaking of which, the show has spawned way too many TV and direct-to-video specials, and the quality varies depending on the special.
 * 4) **Some DTV and TV specials are alright but not perfect due to various problems:
 * 5) ***Elmo Saves Christmas consists of a storyline of Elmo wishing that Christmas came every day without realizing the consequences of his actions.
 * 6) ***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.
 * 7) ***The Street We Live On was an alright way to celebrate the show’s 35th anniversary, though not the best due to it being an extended Elmo’s World episode.
 * 8) ***Elmo's Potty Time is littered with toilet humor, in a similar vein as the Bear in the Big Blue House episode "When You've Got to Go", The Emoji Movie, the finalized version of Doogal, and Teen Titans Go!.
 * 9) ****There's a King Kong-esque segment where a giant gorilla needs to pee and chases a giant toilet.
 * 10) ****This song.
 * 11) ****Toilet paper jokes are made during the toilet paper factory sketch.
 * 12) ****Kids shout synonyms for pee and poop in one sketch. Even Baby Bear does the same when he teaches Curly Bear how to use the potty, using the terms "wee-wee" and "woo-woo".
 * 13) ****There are multiple scenes of kids and baby Elmo using the potty and they're uncomfortable to watch.
 * 14) ****The song "You'll Use the Potty" is very weird because it's about everyone using the potty.
 * 15) ***CinderElmo is basically a retelling of Cinderella with the Sesame Street Muppets shoehorned into the story.
 * 16) Starting with Season 44, the episode numbers are numbered in seasonal order, rather than the numerical and chronological fashion used since the very first episode. For example, episode 4401 is the first episode of the 44th season, but not the 4401st episode (it is in fact the 4328th episode).
 * 17) A few flawed characters:
 * 18) *Abby Cadabby (introduced in Season 37) was only made because the crew wanted another prominent female Muppet on the show, despite the show already having two prominent female Muppets named Zoe and Rosita prior.
 * 19) **Being a fairy, there are episodes where other Muppets will be in a situation and Abby will solve them by using magic. This is not how things work in real life since most problems can't immediately be solved by simple things like magic.
 * 20) **When she does magic, she often makes things disappear or turns them into random stuff like pumpkins for no real reason.
 * 21) *Rocco (introduced in Season 30) is just an inanimate rock who does nothing. Zoe's tendency to treat him as if he were a person or even alive in general is also not funny in the slightest.
 * 22) *Zoe (introduced in Season 25) was created to be solely to be a prominent female Muppet and nothing more.
 * 23) **The show also put her in a tutu in Season 33 due to her love of ballet before being used infrequently it in Season 49.
 * 24) *The Noodle siblings from Elmo's World act extremely immature for their ages.
 * 25) * Baby Bear (introduced in Season 22) mispronounces his words a lot.
 * 26) While most of the sketches are still good, some of them are mediocre, bad, unoriginal, or even weird:
 * 27) * Monster Clubhouse is bad, way too loud, and so fast-paced that it doesn't leave its audience any time to breathe.
 * 28) * Journey to Ernie is unoriginal at best, as it involves Big Bird searching for Ernie in various places (like Dora from Dora the Explorer). To find him, Big Bird is given three clues (like Steve and Joe from Blue's Clues) and finds him in the span of five minutes.
 * 29) *Hero Guy is a very weird sketch about Baby Bear having an animated sidekick named Hero Guy. (Is that the best name they could come up with for him, by the way?) Not only does Hero Guy mispronounce words like Baby Bear does, but his animation is odd and his voice is too high-pitched.
 * 30) **In the segment "Pirate Ship", Hero Guy cries an entire ocean all because Baby Bear forgot to draw one for their ship and gets praised for it.
 * 31) * There are spoofs of Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never", Icona Pop's "I Love It", and Pinkfong's "Baby Shark".
 * 32) **The "Never Say Never" spoof is called "Measure, Yeah, Measure".
 * 33) **The "I Love It" spoof is called "Me Want It".
 * 34) **The "Baby Shark" spoof is called "Cookie Shark" and features Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Abby Cadabby.
 * 35) Some bad/average episodes, such as:
 * 36) *Episode 4199 ("Abby's Fairy Freckles")
 * 37) *Episode 4629 ("Dress-Up Club")
 * 38) * Episode 4631 ("The Good Sport")
 * 39) *Episode 4074 ("Super Sitters")
 * 40) *Episode 4401 ("Telly Gets Jealous")
 * 41) *Episode 5022 ("The Disappoint-O-Meter", which ended Caroll Spinney's career on a sour note and dubbed over his vocals for Big Bird and Oscar before his retirement)
 * 42) *Episode 4616 ("Rocco's Playdate")
 * 43) *Episode 4197 ("The Cookie Tree")
 * 44) *Episode 4601 ("Bedtime Story", which started Season 46 on a sour note)
 * 45) Sometimes, certain Muppets will forget lessons and re-learn them.
 * 46) In the Elmo's World segment "Eyes", there is a CGI crocodile flooding Elmo's room with his tears.
 * 47) Cheap-looking CGI in some aspects, such as in Elmo's World, Hero Guy, and Journey to Ernie.
 * 48) These seasons dropped many older sketches.
 * 49) *It was announced in 2009 before Season 40 premiered that the classic (pre-1990) sketches would no longer be rerun on Sesame Street. By Season 41 or 42, all of the pre-HD sketches were retired from the show as well.
 * 50) *"The Alligator King" hasn't been seen since Season 37.
 * 51) *"Pinball Number Count" has not been seen since Season 33.
 * 52) * Only a few Bert and Ernie sketches have been seen on Sesame Street since the 2010s; this also caused Ernie and Bert to be reduced to supporting characters.
 * 53) Despite Sesame Street intending to teach its audience of preschoolers letters and numbers, its current incarnation is not as focused on these things as it was in the past.
 * 54) *Speaking of letters and numbers, the only segments that deal with these things in the modern seasons are the Letter of the Day (originally hosted by Cookie Monster) and the Number of the Day (originally hosted by Count von Count), and barely anything else.
 * 55) The show now primarily deals with multiculturalism, kindness, self-esteem, and emotions rather than reading, writing, counting, etc.
 * 56) * Speaking of emotions, there are now way too many times where a Muppet is told by an adult (Nina, Alan, or Chris) or another Muppet to calm down because he/she is angry or frustrated, which gets tiresome quickly.
 * 57) Caroll Spinney retired fully from Muppet performing in Season 50 and later died, which caused Big Bird to be permanently recast. His new voice sounds older and more nasally than his previous one, which makes it slightly annoying.
 * 58) *The character used to have this voice whenever Spinney was unavailable to perform him, mainly in the Journey to Ernie and Elmo's World segments.
 * 59) Though rare, there are a few inappropriate moments in a kids’ show:
 * 60) * In the Elmo's World segment "Firefighters", two Anything Muppets in firefighter gear and a talking firetruck rush in when Elmo opens the door. This implies that Elmo's room is on fire, which is extremely disturbing and upsetting.
 * 61) *In the Journey to Ernie segment "Jungle", Big Bird spots a tiger with almost all of his fur shaved off taking a bath. Not only is this weird and disturbing, but it also implies that the tiger is naked.
 * 62) * The Elmo's World segment "Bath Time" features a cartoon where Bubbles Martin is taking a bath, but thankfully only her face and arms are shown.
 * 63) Chris and Nina (while likable) tend to act as substitutes and/or replacements for classic favorites like Gordon and Maria, along with Miles and Gabi.
 * 64) The show will try way too hard to be hip and cool with the kids at times:
 * 65) *In the HBO seasons, Hooper's Store now offers free Wi-Fi.
 * 66) *The characters are seen taking selfies in some episodes, like in Episode 4610.
 * 67) *The Elmo's World revival has a talking smartphone named Smartie.
 * 68) Some mean-spirited moments:
 * 69) *In Elmo's World, the shade often messes with Elmo whenever he wants to talk to the Noodle Family by refusing to move when pulled or flat-out not letting him grab it. The Drawer will also knock down Elmo in the process of getting out the photo quiz.
 * 70) *In Elmo's World: Happy Holidays!, the Door harasses Elmo with its mistletoe and insists upon being kissed each time that Elmo answer the door thereafter.
 * 71) *In the middle of one Season 30 episode, Zoe rudely interrupts Elmo by yelling “TWELVE” as soon as he announces the number of the day all because he was late for Rocco’s playdate. This causes him to Elmo to yell at her for interrupting him and plan to move to Alaska.
 * 72) False Advertising: The 2009 DVD cover of Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird has Elmo on it, but he only makes a brief cameo appearance in the movie.
 * 73) Over the years, many people who were key to the show's creation and/or songwriting have either died or left, including but not limited to:
 * 74) *Joe Raposo (deceased in 1989)
 * 75) *Jim Henson (deceased in 1990)
 * 76) *Richard Hunt (deceased in 1992)
 * 77) *Jon Stone (deceased in 1997)
 * 78) *Jeff Moss (deceased in 1998)
 * 79) *Frank Oz (retired by 2002)
 * 80) *Kevin Clash (fired in 2012)
 * 81) *Jerry Nelson (deceased in 2012)
 * 82) *Desiree Casado (retired in 2013)
 * 83) *Fran Brill (retired in 2014)
 * 84) *Joey Mazzarino (retired in 2015)
 * 85) *Sonia Manzano (retired in 2015)
 * 86) *Loretta Long (retired in 2015)
 * 87) *Alison Bartlett (retired in 2015)
 * 88) *Bob McGrath (fired in 2016)
 * 89) *Roscoe Orman (fired in 2016)
 * 90) *Emilio Delgado (fired in 2016 and deceased in 2022)
 * 91) * Caroll Spinney (retired in 2018 and deceased in 2019)
 * 92) Some characters, such as Rudy and Abby Cadabby, feel like they were made to capitalize on Elmo's success since their personalities are near-identical to his.
 * 93) Much of Sesame Street's cast have been reduced to side characters or reused sketches, with some even being written out altogether:
 * 94) *Miles and Gabi were dropped from the show in Seasons 40 and 43 respectively without an explanation.
 * 95) *Gordon, Bob, Maria, Luis, and Gina were mostly reduced to supporting characters after Season 30 and made gradually fewer appearances until they were written out entirely in Season 46.
 * 96) * Susan only made one new physical appearance per season by the early 2010s and was reduced to a background extra by Season 44 before retiring from the show.
 * 97) **Bert and Ernie have been supporting characters on the show since the late 2000s, appearing only in a few episodes. The same goes for many other anything Muppets like Prairie Dawn, the Amazing Mumford, Guy Smiley, and Sherlock Hemlock; even before these seasons, some of them were reduced to supporting and minor roles.
 * 98) **Many of Jerry Nelson's characters were recast or were dropped from the show by the mid-2000s, due to his failing health and eventual death in August 2012.
 * 99) **Kermit the Frog permanently disappeared from the show after Season 32 and is now only used whenever Sesame Workshop has permission from Disney (who purchased the rights to The Muppets in 2004), most notably in Elmo's World: Frogs and Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.

The Blocks Era (Seasons 33-37)

 * 1) Beginning with these seasons, the show's format was changed completely. New recurring segments like Journey to Ernie, The Spanish Word of the Day, The Letter of the Day, and The Number of the Day were introduced. More sketches such as Global Grover, Global Thingy, Trash Gordon, and This Is the Game Today were later added. The main problems with the format for these seasons are 1.) that it's too structured and predictable and 2.) there isn't enough room for variety like there was with the original magazine format.
 * 2) *On top of that, the street stories are now resolved in 11-15 minutes.
 * 3) Hoots the Owl tries to get Cookie Monster to change his diet in one sketch from Season 36, which caused enormous controversy. While he has been seen eating foods other than cookies in the past, this really takes the cake.
 * 4) Annoying/mediocre transitions.

The Murray Era (Seasons 40-45)

 * 1) Murray (the host of these seasons) can be a little bit annoying.
 * 2) The format changed again in these seasons, being modeled after preschool blocks like Nick Jr., Playhouse Disney (now Disney Junior), PBS Kids (which ironically airs the show), Sprout (which also ironically used to air the show), and Qubo. Murray Monster (who debuted in Season 36) also started hosting the show because that's definitely what it needed from the get-go.
 * 3) The segments have become lethargic, and some of them run anywhere from five to ten minutes.
 * 4) *The worst offender is Abby's Flying Fairy School, which takes up almost a quarter of the show's runtime in these seasons.

The HBO Era (Season 46-present)

 * 1) The sponsors are no longer announced at the end of each episode, due to the show moving to HBO (a commercial premium cable network). This basically defeats the purpose of the show, though the sponsors are added for the PBS airings.
 * 2) The show has severely scaled back its parental bonuses (jokes/references in kids' shows that only adults will catch), as less than 30% of parents now watch the show with their children.
 * 3) Caroll Spinney recorded his lines for Big Bird and Oscar in Episode 5022 ("The Disappoint-O-Meter"), but they were dubbed over by his successors Matt Vogel and Eric Jacobson before it even aired.
 * 4) Pandering to political left-wingers in a kids' show:
 * 5) *For some reason, despite the praise of the character Julia, created with the help of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Sesame Workshop decided to work with Autism Speaks, an organization that dehumanized autistics by claiming that they could cure autism (before 2016), which caused the ASAN to end their partnership, although it is likely that Sesame Workshop did not know this. This is considered by many as one of the worst childhood betrayals since Bill Nye Saves the World and Disney’s live-action remakes of their animated films.
 * 6) *The infamous Black Lives Matter special, especially Elmo's interview with his dad about the movement, basically shoves political correctness down everyone's throats. While this topic should be taught to children, it isn't well-executed here.
 * 7) *Subject matter like pipe-smoking, kids playing in construction sites, and even kids dancing on the street has been cut from HBO Max prints of classic (pre-1990) Sesame Street episodes because times have changed. Due to many realizing these things are dangerous for kids to do, SW now deems these things "unsuitable for children". However, that decision might be excusable since other kids might imitate those actions and injure themselves.
 * 8) Season 47 introduced Rudy.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Despite its downfall, Sesame Street is still the most-watched preschool program. In fact, every new preschool audience can still enjoy the show, especially its later seasons, because the love of the show that likely never gets old.
 * 2) Some of the sketches are still good and have their share of strong points:
 * 3) *Despite being a bit repetitive, Trash Gordon is not a bad segment.
 * 4) *The sketch where Jack Black shows the audience and Elmo an octagon is hilarious.
 * 5) *Cookie Monster's Foodie Truck is an interesting skit since it teaches kids about food and cooking.
 * 6) *Journey to Ernie teaches children how to play hide and seek, despite its similarities to Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer.
 * 7) As the show goes on, it has managed to tackle more and more mature and advanced themes such as war, autism, hunger, foster parenting, divorce, and HIV/AIDS.
 * 8) The voice acting is still great for the most part.
 * 9) The show spawned plenty of nice direct-to-video and television specials:
 * 10) *Do the Alphabet and 123 Count with Me respectively teach kids about the alphabet and counting numbers.
 * 11) *Both Elmocize and Get Up and Dance encourage children to exercise, with the former taking place outdoors and the latter taking place in a dance room.
 * 12) *Quiet Time encourages children to perform appropriate activities during periods of silence.
 * 13) *Sing Yourself Sillier at the Movies contains a well-written storyline of Telly Monster and Oscar ranking various Sesame Street songs with the catchphrases "wow" and "phooey". It is also sweet to find various characters from the show watching the songs with Telly and Oscar.
 * 14) *Kids’ Favorite Songs, Kids’ Favorite Songs 2, and Kids’ Favorite Country Songs encourage children to sing along to various types of music.
 * 15) *Elmo’s Musical Adventure: The Story of Peter and the Wolf is a solid adaptation of Peter and the Wolf featuring the Sesame Street cast. All of the characters are appropriately redesigned to fit their roles, and the subplot of Baby Bear and his father watching an orchestra serves as a great father-son bonding experience.
 * 16) *Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration was a great anniversary special.
 * 17) The special effects and puppeteering are outstanding as always.
 * 18) *Caroll Spinney still did a great job puppeteering/voicing Big Bird, though he passed away on December 8, 2019.
 * 19) The majority of the characters are still likable.
 * 20) *In fact, Season 26 introduced Suzie Kabloozie—one of the greatest Sesame Street characters of all time; the character was created by Mo Willems, who would go on to create The Off-Beats (which aired on Nickelodeon as part of KaBlam!) and Sheep in the Big City.
 * 21) **Speaking of which, the series was also a launch pad for other animators such as Craig Bartlett (who went on to create Hey Arnold!) who made "Arnold Rides His Chair" (involving an early version of the title character) and John R. Dilworth (who went on to create Courage the Cowardly Dog) who made "Noodles & Nedd".
 * 22) 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 episode "Mouths".
 * 23) The grand majority of the show is still good (as mentioned above).
 * 24) The 2010 version of Shalom Sesame is great.
 * 25) Despite them now being few and far between, there are still parodies like Sharing Things, Sesame Street Presents the '80s, and Pre-School Musical—the former two of which were released online.
 * 26) Charlie, despite being a Mary Sue and a know-it-all, is likable and friendly child.
 * 27) The remixes of the theme song sound really good and catchy.