Plaza sésamo

This was one of my favorite shows as a child in the 70s. (Though my sister always preferred "The Electric Company" - if anyone remembers that.) So, naturally, I thought my own two daughters would love it. Well, at age 2-3, my oldest loved Elmo, but at age 4, she's long over both Elmo and Sesame Street - and she won't enter Kindergarten for two more years! So, I give the current show a 6. It's too inane for my 4 year old. As for myself, I was much older when I stopped watching. This was one of my favorite shows. I give the old Sesame Street a 10/10. Thus we get 8 stars overall.

When I do occasionally watch the new show, I miss Kermit, am dismayed that Snuffy is visible to everyone (where's the fun in that?), think Big Bird acts like an imbecile (was he always such a baby? maybe so), wish Grover and Cookie Monster and the Count got more face time, suspect that the current production team is trying to make Ernie and Bert seem gay, and miss some of the old segments. I think they should just stop producing new shows and start re-running the old shows starting with season 1. The ratings would probably go way up and they'd save a lot of money.

"Oh waiter! There's a fly in this production!"

Sesame Street really got a makeover for its 33rd season, mainly because of the competitive environment of Pre-School TV, and how they learn things in this day in age. The show is now blocked into these segments in order.

Greeting of the day: Big Bird and the Sesame Street neighbors' great the viewers and either tell jokes play a game and/or sing a song.

Monster Time: In this segment either shorts with the classic Sesame Street monsters are shown (Grover, Elmo, Rosita etc.) or a new feature called "Monster Clubhouse" in which four new monsters give preschoolers a crash course in what goes on in a typical preschool day.

Number of the Day: The Count hosts this segment (who else could do it better on Sesame Street) in which he uses a special counting organ to find what the number of the day is. The segment is followed up with live-action and animated sketches which help the viewers give a better understanding of the numbers.

Street Story: The story of the day is now done in one complete segment rather than scatted throughout the whole show as it was done in the past. It seems that preschoolers don't like things interrupted but other things and messages (commercials or not). The stories teach everything from cooperation, friendship, feelings, problem solving etc.

Journey to Ernie: Big Bird and the viewers play a virural reality game in trying to find Ernie who hides in a box that resembles his red, yellow, and blue striped shirt with his rubber duckie in front of it. The catch is it may not be the first or second boxes that contain Ernie. The game begins a park and when BB is transported to other virtual environments and perform certain skills in order to find the box (memory recall, singing a song, doing a certain skill etc.). If a box is found and does not have Ernie inside then a clip or segment is featured ranging from a special song or a kid that does something special, after which the game continues. When Ernie is finally found then a sketch and/or song with Ernie is featured (sometimes with partner Bert).

Hero Guy: If Monster Clubhouse was not done in the Monstertime segment, then we see a sketch with Baby Bear and his imagery creation Hero Guy, in which they both learn about art, imagination, and problem solving. Don't expect this to turn into a 'Big Bird's imaginary friend' running gag. For those who complain about outing Snuffy this segement gives a fantasy friend to Baby Bear, and he is not going to try to prove that Hero Guy is real.

Letter of the Day: Cookie Monster is given the honor of hosting this segment by showing cookies that have a letter on them. The problem is Cookie eventually gives in to his instincts and eats the cookie. The clips after Cookie Monster's attempt to teach letters will help viewers learn the sounds and recognition of the letters themselves.

Spanish Word of the Day: Rosita along with Grover, Big Bird, and others on the street teach a Spanish word in a way that can be understood.

Elmo's World: This guy should get his very own show and I am not joking. In the meantime Elmo encourages to learn about all kinds of things like Mail, Music, computers etc. Elmo focuses on one subject to help kids understand what Elmo is inquisitive about on the day's segment.

Some complain that Sesame Street is not what it used to be, but keep in mind its own show anymore. It's now for OUR kids, and Sesame Street is forever programming to 2 to 5 year olds. With some many shows for preschooler out their Sesame Street is one of the few survivors today and don't be surprised if it's still on for another 33 years teaching the basics of numbers, letters etc.

I am 23 years old and I grew up watching Sesame Street. I love this show. It's so very educational but it makes it fun. I was probably eight or nine when my mom finally corrected me and told me that the real words to the Beatles song I often sang were "Let It Be", not "Letter B".

I have so many fond memories of this show. Hats off to Sesame Street's 30th birthday and here's to 30 more. This is a show that I want my children to be able to grow up with as well. I applaud and thank the cast and crew for their dedication to children.

Oh yes, finally, I love Elmo & Grover & Telly Monster & Cookie Monster & Kermit the Frog & Snuffie, & Big Bird & Bert & Ernie& Harry & yes, even Oscar the Grouch.

Sunny Day, everythings A- OK. Friendly Neighbors. That's where we meet. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street.

When I was a child, there were two main educational programs shown to children. Play School, being the other one, basically got me shouting at the television that I was not retarded, not stupid, and not a diminished human being, just a child. From what I've seen from observing some of my cousins' children, it hasn't changed a lot except parents have revised their opinion of its suitability for five year olds. Unfortunately, Sesame Street is going much in the same direction.

In the 1990s, Sesame Street had a rather nasty competitor in the shape of Barney, a purple dinosaur with a support cast that showed no difference in emotional response. Even when that support cast consisted of four year olds and fourteen year olds. As if that wasn't harmful enough, Barney would openly tell children they weren't good if they didn't have good feelings, or alter the rules of a game to make someone else the winner. That such "lessons" were allowed to be broadcast shows how useful the regulators of television really are. By contrast, the Sesame Street I remember even dealt with such issues as the death of a loved one. Goodbye, Mr. Hooper was one of the most amazing episodes of children's television ever broadcast because it made an effort to try and teach children about something so difficult that even live adults are often no help with it.

Other brilliant aspects of the show included using monsters to portray certain feelings or behaviours that the audience might be conflicted about. They had a cookie monster to show what a negative (but highly funny, the way they presented it) appearance gluttony can bring. They had a grouchy monster to show the effects of an anti-social mentality. More "cute" monsters such as Grover were used to show things like fear or sadness. There was a good reason for all of this. Negative feelings are difficult enough for a child to understand, so having puppets to thoroughly explain them was very educational.

Kudos are also due the adult cast of the show. During every episode I saw, even Goodbye, Mr. Hooper, the adults were never condescending or smug. They never acted as if they had every answer. Instead, they told the monster, other puppet, or child characters a few useful tidbits and let these characters work things out for themselves. Even today, if you see the sequences with such annoying characters as Elmo, it is the children or the child-like characters who deliver all the answer lines. Those consultations with child psychologists done by the Children's Television Workshop really paid off.

Unfortunately, and there always seems to be an unfortunately these days when it comes to children's television, a certain adherence to marketing over education crept in over recent years. The greatness of such characters as Oscar or Grover was that they could appeal to children without needing to be cutesy. Oscar was a grump who appeared to have worked too many night shifts, while Grover seemed to be just a fearful but friendly guy trying to make his way in the world. Perfectly normal, ordinary people wrapped up in some very bizarre-looking trimmings, in other words. Nowadays, characters like Elmo seem so awfully sugarcoated that it makes me wonder if his audience is going to encounter problems in later life when they learn they cannot get by simply on acting cute.

I don't know who pulls the strings on this show these days, but I would like to implore them for the sake of future generations. The old way of educating the children about the fundamentals of life, and letting the cute factor take care of itself, was a much better one. Please go back to it. I might not be part of the audience anymore, but I do have second cousins, and maybe one day a niece or nephew, who are.

This is a children's television classic. It's educational and entertaining, and not painful for parents to watch with their kids. At least it never used to be. It used to be quite edgy, high-brow, very adult-accessible. It's been dumbed down considerably over the years. This is a result of playing to lower age-groups, shorter attention spans, and competing with the run-of-the-mill trash in the kid's TV arena.

The adults have virtually vanished, the muppets have gotten annoying (I'm sure we're all familiar with Elmo by now), the show has shrunk to 40 minutes, the last 20 being a new show-within-a-show known as "Elmo's World". As if the 20 minutes of Elmo aren't enough, even more grating is that there are only about 10-20 episodes of Elmo's World, yet it runs every day! And rather than dealing with reading, writing, counting, nature, social skills, Elmo's World revolves around things like balls, puppies, hair, etc. Yes, this is not your parent's Sesame Street, or probably even the Sesame Street you grew up with. It's a more modern, simple, conformist Street that has considerably less charm but at least more educational value than the other, more commercial stuff out there.

The only reason to turn your kids on to television is rapidly shrinking into another Barney.