The Day Sesame Street Died

sunny days sweeps away everyone loves Elmo the little furry red monster with a high-pitched voice has become synonymous with Sesame Street the Beloved children's show that has been entertaining and educating young audiences since 1969 but Elmo wasn't always the star of the show he didn't always have the same iconic high-pitched voice the version we know wasn't even introduced until the 1980s and while we're at it does everyone love Elmo well I don't because I think that Elmo has single-handedly ruined Sesame Street let me [Music] [Music] explain why you look stupid no I just this video is sponsored by flexispot I've had my standing desk from flexispot for a couple months now and I'm never never going back to a regular sitting desk ever again I feel better I don't have the same back pain I once did and I feel more productive I loved my standing desk so much that I actually got another one this time I got the E8 desk with a 472 by 25 1/2 bamboo top and it still has all the bells and 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standing desk but you'll help my Channel at the same [Music] time I'm sorry I will get it did you get it look see how it looks I love oh oh hello there oh you surprised me yes I did not see you there I like millions of other kids grew up watching Sesame Street and of course as a child you enjoy it for certain reasons like the songs and the characters Big Bird Kermit Grover Burton Ernie Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster cookie cookie cookie but now as a parent with two children of my own I've been rewatching the entire series from the beginning and I'm able to enjoy Sesame Street for other reasons the important reasons that made Sesame Street so radically Progressive when it first premiered back in 1969 like the show's focus on the intersection of the civil rights movement and education TV executive Joan Gans cuni who ran the children's television Workshop said the people who control the system read and the people who make it in the system read and with the rise in the amount of Television children were watching Cooney thought that she could use TV to help children read and close the literacy gap for inner city black children there's a very intentional reason why the show's setting wasn't a Fantasy Castle or some Suburban house with a white picket fence but a city street it was sending a message about the range of children it sought to welcome the racially diverse cast of children children and grown-ups communicated that this was an open and welcoming block where real humans lived alongside some strange and colorful monsters having this diversity was Monumental this would have been the first time many inner city children saw themselves reflected on television but outside of race Sesame Street also portrayed adults and children in wheelchairs blind deaf and with Down Syndrome portraying this diversity that was more reflective of the real world helped Norm I inclusion so while Sesame Street was educating children about letters numbers shapes colors emotions cultures and so much more they were also modeling Progressive social values for a new generation a b c d e f [Laughter] cook the first 16 years are magical full of so many heartfelt and iconic moments but there's a major shift in the show Once Elmo is introduced and the Ripple effects over the following years and decades have made the show so much worse let's break down Sesame Street into two parts old and new or maybe before Elmo and after Elmo in order to see just how much Sesame Street has changed he old Sesame Street episodes were a Vibe they were quiet cool and Abstract no one was in a hurry to go anywhere segments were drawn out you could see a segment where a toy boat in a bath is compared to a [Applause] tugboat or interpretive saxophone sounds made the molding and creation of a [Music] saxophone claim of letters and numbers montaging of animals walking around with the Quiet voice over narration of a child the show felt more experimental and wild while also educational in its first season Sesame Street welcomed its very first celebrity guest James Earl Jones who recited the alphabet slowly and methodically in a closeup without ever breaking eye contact y z it took something simple and made it riveting this can sound like a cliche when talking about children's programming but older Sesame Street episodes really were something that adults could enjoy too there was a better balance of adults to Muppets on the show and that translated to the kind of audience that was watching as a parent myself I can't stand a majority of the junk that's out there for kids that only appeal to them with Annoying characters bright flashing colors and loud sounds old Sesame Street definitely falls under the category of low stimulation shows that I enjoy showing my kids low stimulation show shows don't use a lot of visual effects like dancing letters swirling shapes flashing colors they also speak in normal voices and use a rich vocabulary with natural conversations and have a slower Pace unlike obnoxious TV shows that talk down to kids and use high stimulation visuals designed to be addictive adults were able to enjoy the show too because there was a better balance between the main Sesame Street storyline through the episode and then the sketches and songs and animations sprinkled throughout and it was in a lot of these sketches that the writers were able to put in humor and references aimed at adults like monsterpiece theater and that the story of Sir NOS the bersak how it ended nobody knows you said NOS in Sherlock klock Sherlock klock sees all hello oh I didn't see you there were a lot of sketches too that just consisted of adults doing more slapstick humor without a muppet in sight the adults had a lot of story lines to track too too like the Romantic relationships between Maria and Louise Bob and Linda and Gordon and Susan we watch them date get married give birth or go through adoption I always loved the scene where Maria fixes the typewriter and gives it to David for his birthday you ever get that feeling that you know one particular day out of maybe one once a year very special day no that never happens to me no it's quiet it's not played for Laughs it feels very honest and real another one of my favorite scenes is the opening to an episode from season 5 it's a long one take shot that's about 4 minutes long it's a quiet Slice of Life moment with these characters bumping into each other it highlights the essence of Sesame Street with adults children and Muppets living side by side not one is highlighted more than the other again there's a balance hi welcome to just another quiet day on Sesame [Music] Street Not only was there a better balance but there was a specific intended purpose to the adults in Muppets the diverse cast of adults helped normalize other ethnicities that had largely only been given specific stereotyped roles up to that point in media I don't remember ever reading for any kind of a positive character the only roles that I could find were gang members or drug addicts I had gotten a role on television that was the role of a Latino Mexican amican who was like a regular person on Sesame Street they were all able to be strong and safe role models to the children on set but also the children watching at home the adults were also the ones guiding the learning on the show this makes sense since a number of the cast members came from educational backgrounds they showed proper methods on how to educate children but also how to handle behavioral issues social issues and other questions that kids have of course a famous example of this comes from the episode Goodbye Mr Hooper when Big Bird struggles to understand the death of another adult cast member Mr Hooper Big Bird when when people die they don't come back ever no never and this was the intended purpose of Big Bird in these early seasons tooly big is hello Big Bird oh hi Gordon he started off as a dumb o but quickly turned into a character that could represent the children at home you know I don't think I should be playing him as a goofy guy he is so much more depth he's very complex character His official age is 6 years old and Big Bird portrayed a lot of the experiences fears and questions that six-year-olds have we needed a PE for the audience a character that was young enough to make the same mistakes and have the same problems that a four-year-old would have big bird was able to communicate that unique perspective we watched him go through life events like going to school going to Camp going to the doctor and learning about death as I already mentioned it makes sense that big bird was the connection to children because he was basically the only Muppet that would continually interact with the adults on Sesame Street since he wasn't confined to a particular set location or the short segments in between the larger episode stories big bird wasn't stuck behind a table he was able to walk around it's easier to connect to a creature that moves and acts and thinks like we do it's why big bird singing at Jim Henson's funeral hit so much harder it's not that easy being green Carol spin's beautiful performance never breaks the illusion and just for a few minutes you forget that big bird is just a puppet with a man inside saying goodbye to his [Music] friend thank you Kermit Big Bird had a purpose and the adults had a purpose and that was made abundantly clear what the snuffle upus storyline I'm big bird who are you oh yes yes I am a Snuffleupagus Snuffleupagus was introduced at the beginning of the third season he became best friends with big bird but there was a running joke for years that no one else could ever see him besides Big Bird Big Bird he had big legs right uh and he was about the size of a Tru was this the snuff of what I don't see it his very existence became ambiguous he would Shuffle off screen just missing the adults no one ever believed that snuffle upus actually existed the adults would even gently tease Big Bird telling him that snuff upus does not exist H they didn't believe me well you saw him you believe me don't you this ongoing story line continued on for 14 years but in the 1980s an alarming issue started hitting the news a 60-minute series on child abuse made the writers and producers think that it wasn't a good idea to continue a storyline where one of the main childlike characters wasn't believed by grown-ups executive producer Carol Lynn parent said the fear was that if we represented adults not believing what kids said they might not be motivated to tell the truth that caused us to rethink the storyline is something we've been doing for 14 years that seemed innocent enough now something that's become harmful they felt it was important for children to feel that they could talk to adults and be believed and so in the premiere of season 17 Snuffy is finally revealed to the adults I told you all along that there was a snuff Opus my best pal he's not imaginary but you you never believed me the show drove the point home when Bob says from now on we'll believe you whenever you tell us something yeah and who was also there to experience this Monumental moment in the series El oh El Elmo you and I have already met never mind that's right Elmo but let's back up a little bit to see how Elmo got there that's the letter L Muppet's Creator Jim Henson believed in letting a puppet grow and Take Shape organically each Muppet had a distinct personality but it was the job of the Puppeteer to uncover it puppeteers would slowly experiment with voices and personalities however long it took until something stuck I mean you can look at the first appearances of Big Bird Grover Oscar and Snuffleupagus to see that some Muppets didn't show up fully formed no no one I'm not first and and I'm not last experimentation was the name of the game but nothing ever seemed to stick for Elmo Elmo first appeared on Sesame Street in the early '70s as an anything Muppet a background character without any clear purpose or personality and he wasn't even named Elmo at the time veteran Puppeteer Richard Hunt tried to make something work with the puppet attempting a raspy caveman approach that never worked I am tall do matter much a as The Story Goes hunt threw the Muppet across the room where it landed in the hands of Kevin Clash Clash molded Elmo into a three-year-old who was cute cheerful and naive it fit with his appearance as he already looked more cutesy than the average monster puppet but the thing about three-year-olds is that they're all annoying and selfish trust me I have a 3-year-old it's why Elmo always refers to himself in third person he's very inwardly focused like three year olds while Elmo Waits Elmo will imagine Elmo already knows how to tap dance yeah yeah okay here ELO goes whereas Big Bird was old enough to understand mature Concepts and emotionally complex issues like death sickness and abandonment and then could voice the same questions that children watching at home were undoubtedly having too Elmo started having a bigger role in the episode where snuff Opus is revealed to the adults Elmo was even made an ingal part to it happening as he kept snuffle upus from absent-mindedly shuffling off as he normally did before the adults could show up oh wait in the following years Elmo slowly became a cultural phenomenon appearing on talk shows and becoming the must-have toy for the holiday season in 1996 with Tickle Me Elmo more storylines started revolving around Elmo and by the late '90s Sesame Street seemed like a completely different show you got it it you got it too adults started having less storylines and skits and all of a sudden adults weren't the ones leading as much of the teaching with Elmo as The prominent star front and center it suddenly fell on his furry red shoulders to help educate to capitalize on Elmo's popularity Sesame Street started dedicating specific time to Elmo in a new segment called Elmo's World that lasted about 15 to 20 minutes near the end of Sesame Street taking up about a third of the entire episode [Music] the state of Sesame Street today is pretty bleak and a far cry from what it used to be in 2015 Sesame Street jumped from PBS to HBO and with that move came some major changes in 2015 Maria finally left the show oh it can kiss oh Maria and 2016 HBO fired Bob Gordon and Louis three of the other original adults who remained on the show in a much smaller capacity Sesame Street used to work because of its balance of Muppets with trusted adults that the audience could form relationships with now the only consistently recognizable adult is Allan who's been on the show since 1998 hi you uh this is kmit frog here to talk to you about the letter K and uh when you watch the new episodes on HBO there's a fake shine and gloss to it a lot of Sesame Street has become lazy green screen backdrops which is diametrically opposed to the original purpose of Sesame Street in the early Seasons Sesame Street felt like a quirky dirty and diverse New York City street it was meant to highlight the beauty and Community found in places that were once overlooked in media now Sesame Street is a sparkling Street more reminiscent of some Hallmark movie devoid of of dirt grime or anything real and authentic the move to HBO also reduced the normal hourlong format to just 20 minutes a reaction to What producers feared was shortened attention spans in today's children but what makes me so incredibly angry is the fact that last year HBO removed over 200 classic episodes of Sesame Street from its catalog just so they could save some money on licensing fees that's where I got to rewatch and enjoy so many of these classic moments with my my children but now they only have a few episodes from seasons 1 5 7 and then nothing until season 39 through 52 the move to HBO has just been disastrous for so many reasons now I don't want to completely discount everything about modern Sesame Street it's still a fine show for children to watch and there have been some important and Beautiful Moments in recent Seasons covering difficult topics like divorce parents in prison foster parents homelessness covid-19 and autism all right hey Julia Julia let's take a break okay break in a recent interview original Puppeteer Frank Oz who originally brought Bert Grover and Cookie Monster to life said this about the current state of Sesame Street unfortunately Sesame Street is only a shadow of what it was they're just aiming it to little kids and I'm unhappy about that and that's my main point modern Sesame Street is regretfully fine it's just a kids show but for a time it used to be so much more than that Sesame Street was brilliant Transcendent a work of art and the gold standard of Children's Entertainment this episode is brought to you by the letters E L and K hey everyone thanks so much for watching this video I really hope you enjoyed it if you did please like it and share it with a friend and also leave me a comment below if you love Sesame Street 2 please tell me who your favorite Muppet is and if your favorite's Elmo maybe you can tell me why you love him so much why I should love him so much if you're not already make sure you're subscribed to the channel but also click the Bell below so that way you never miss a new video whenever it drops thanks again everyone for watching and I will see you all in the next video

Channel: Entertain The Elk

Views: 455,578

Keywords: How Elmo Ruined Sesame Street, The day sesame street died, Sesame Street, entertain the elk, entertain the elk day died, entertain the elk Sesame Street, entertain the elk Elmo, best of Sesame Street, street gang Sesame Street, Sesame Street full episodes, Sesame Street songs, Sesame Street Elmo, best of Elmo, sesame street Elmo's world, Sesame Street essay, Sesame Street Christmas, Sesame Street classic episodes, Sesame Street old episodes, Sesame Street celebrity, tv, kids

Id: vQrB2hLClnU

Length: 21min 23sec (1283 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 21 2023