Sesame Street making up for Elmo?

[23skidoo]

I'm 41 years old which makes me a first-generation Sesame Street watcher. Well, almost. Here in Canada we didn't start to see it till about 1972, but that's close enough. And I watched the show throughout my young childhood and even as I got older I occasionally would tune in, whether for nostalgia (given the show's one-time policy of replaying certain segments for years, even decades), or to see a celebrity, or because I once had a crush on Maria (check her out on those early episodes on the Old School DVDs), or occasionally because of the "Flintstones" effect - the show may be made for kids, but it was loaded with in-jokes that only adults would get. And as I got older, I started to "get" them.

And then the show went to hell with Elmo. It broke its rule of "no baby talk" for one thing, and for a few years there it seemed as if the show had been taken over by Elmo.

Sadly, I never had any kids so I never had the experience of having them grow up with Sesame Street again. Which is too bad because I don't know if they hired some new writers or what, but Sesame Street seems to have pulled away from it being "The Elmo Show" and seems to be getting cool again.

First there was their True Blood parody (the very fact they even considered doing that means they realize part of their audience is a bit older than 4).

The there was the Katy Perry thing. Yeah, it had Elmo, but who cares - Katy Perry, guys. And, yes, they banned it from TV. But the Sesame Workshop made the clip available online, which I thought was great. They could have buried it. They didn't even complain when Katy wore the Elmo T-shirt on SNL.

And now, we have Grover doing a pretty cool parody of the "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" Old Spice ads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6hyCTKx5UA

They're even letting Elmo talk about necrophilia! (well, off-camera for a website interview, and Ricky Gervais actually says the word. But still!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr9_5uZn6ds

To heck with Fringe and Doctor Who. I'm gonna start watching Sesame Street again if they keep this up!

Well, maybe not. Still, I'm glad to see Sesame Street getting cool again after 20 years of "Elmo's Song" or whatever.

Next thing you know they'll announce a remake of Follow That Bird directed by Quentin Tarantino and produced by the nuBSG guys...

Alex

 

[Samurai8472]

Sesame Street has on occasion broke past being just for kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ9WiuJPnNA

1234 by Fiest on Sesame Street

 

[Christopher]

Sesame Street has on occasion broke past being just for kids.

No, as 23skidoo said, for most of its existence it was never just for kids. After all, it was meant to be watched by parents along with their children, so it was intended from the start to be entertaining for adults as well. However, that seemed to change in recent years with the format changes and the dominance of the more toddler-oriented "Elmo's World" segments. I watched Sesame Street often in my 20s and 30s, but lost interest when the format changed.

The sad thing is, I originally liked Elmo. But then he got too famous and overexposed.

 

[clint g]

The final nail in the coffin was that retarded Tickle Me Elmo craze

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Ricky Gervais' Celebrity Lullaby makes up a lot for Elmo, you should check that out on Youtube if you haven't seen it.

Rewatching that Katy Perry segment, it's too bad the adults are so caught up on her outfit because it's a cute segment and she obviously put some effort into it unlike some I've seen.