User:Dexter's Mom/sandbox

Sesame Street (Seasons 1-32)
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.

Why These Seasons Can Get to the Street

 * 1) Preschool television in its purest form. Even today, it is probably the most famous preschool TV show ever made.
 * 2) A concept of the preschool-oriented counterpart to The Funny Company was very appealing.
 * 3) Uses a variety of techniques to teach children such as sketch comedy, humor, pop-culture references and songs.
 * 4) Very appealing Muppet designs.
 * 5) Clever humor.
 * 6) The entire Sesame Street set looks great.
 * 7) Great acting from the human characters.
 * 8) Likable, down to earth, and memorable characters, especially the two main stars of the show, Big Bird and Elmo.
 * 9) Each Muppet character has a very distinct personality which give them a lot of charm. Thankfully, their main traits are not exaggerated to death and most of the time, they can be very relatable to the viewer.
 * 10) *Big Bird is the lovable 6-year-old yellow bird who has a tendency to question things.
 * 11) *Elmo is cute, curious and imaginative in red.
 * 12) *Grover is a furry monster in blue.
 * 13) *Telly is slightly neurotic and loves triangles in magenta.
 * 14) *Count Von Count is a friendly vampire who has loved counting since the beginning of time.
 * 15) *Oscar is the green grouch with a heart of gold.
 * 16) *Cookie Monster is a very gluttonous blue furry monster, who is obsessed with cookies.
 * 17) *Ernie is very goofy and Bert is his grumpy friend.
 * 18) *Rosita is a bilingual monster who was created to teach acceptance of different cultures to the audience. Hispanic people are the largest non-Caucasian group in the United States, and in 1991 when Rosita was introduced, most Hispanic characters were villains or stereotypical comic relief.
 * 19) *Julia is a very well written who presents autism very well.
 * 20) *The Amazing Mumford is a funny magician whose magic tricks often fail.
 * 21) *Barkley is a humongous yet playful dog.
 * 22) *Zoe loves ballet and is orange
 * 23) **All the adults and children (Bob, Gordon, Susan, Mr. Hooper, David, Luis, Maria, Gina, Miles, Gabi, Mr. Handford, Ruthie, Alan, Chris, Nina, Charlie, etc.) are also very likable. They will usually give the Muppets a few useful tidbits and let them work things out for themselves.
 * 24) So many great and memorable skits and episodes.
 * 25) Catchy and nostalgic songs.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The show has gone down since Season 33, due to the show's format being changed drastically. Here are some notable problems with Season 33-present:
 * 2) * The segments now either feel like filler or are slow and tiresome. There are some that even go on for as long as 10-15 minutes.
 * 3) * The new formats, such as the "block" format for Seasons 33-39 (excluding episodes 4137 and 4145, in which the original format came back) and the "tune-in" format for Seasons 40-45, can get tiresome after a while as they are very structured and predictable.
 * 4) * Big Bird was permanently recast in the HBO seasons due to Caroll Spinney's retirement and eventual death, and his new voice is older-sounding and less energetic than with Spinney's performance.
 * 5) * Much of the show's cast have been reduced to supporting and minor characters or written out altogether.
 * 6) ** Miles and Gabi were dropped from the show in Seasons 40 and 43 respectively.
 * 7) ** Gordon, Bob, Susan, Maria, Luis, and Gina were reduced to supporting characters in the 2000s, only appearing in a few episodes in future seasons before all of them were written out in Season 46 (although they did return in Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration).
 * 8) *** By the 2010s, Susan only appeared in one episode per season and made no new appearances in Season 43; she was reduced to cameo appearances in Seasons 44 and 45.
 * 9) ** The Anything Muppets (Bert and Ernie, Prairie Dawn, etc.) have been reduced to supporting characters since the late 2000s and made irregular appearances.
 * 10) ** Kermit returned to Sesame Street in 1996, years after his sketches stopped being filmed (even when he was taken over by Steve Whitmire), but has disappeared again since Season 40. Since he was bought out by Disney in 2004, Kermit can't be used anymore without permission from them. However, he DID appear in Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration.
 * 11) * The show was reduced to a half-hour in Season 46.
 * 12) The remixes of the iconic theme song, despite being very catchy and pretty good, basically tried too hard to be "hip" and "with it" as they are more upbeat. But luckily, starting in season 46, the remix of the theme song sounds nicer, despite being short.
 * 13) Quantity Over Quality: Much like The Simpsons and Family Guy, the show has been on the air for way too long; currently, it has 52 seasons and over 4,630 episodes and counting. While still not a bad thing, the recent seasons can tend to "jump the shark".
 * 14) It sometimes gets cheesy at some points.
 * 15) A few of the characters are overly saccharine.
 * 16) Some bad episodes every now and then although its not very common.
 * 17) While most of the segments are good, some are bad or weird:
 * 18) * Hero Guy is about Baby Bear having an animated sidekick named Hero Guy with weirdly-pitched sound effects and odd animation.
 * 19) Political-left pandering in a kids' show:
 * 20) * Despite the praise of the character Julia, created with the help of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, they decided to work with Autism Speaks, an organization that dehumanized autistics (before 2016), which caused the ASAN to end their partnership. This is considered a bad move, as Autism Speaks dehumanizes people with the disability, although it is likely they didn't know this.
 * 21) * The infamous Black Lives Matter special, especially Elmo's interview with his dad about the movement, basically shoves political correctness down everyone's throats.
 * 22) * 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 this subject matter "unsuitable for children". Though that decision might be excusable since other kids might imitate those actions and injured themselves.
 * 23) Some gross-out humor:
 * 24) * One Abby's Flying Fairy School segment exists where Blögg's stinky sock comes to life and turns everything that it touches dirty and stinky. The students then conjure up a washing machine to clean his sock.
 * 25) * Penelope the Penguin gives the other Muppets some fish to go with their ice cream cones in Episode 4614, which disgusts them.
 * 26) * The "Feet" segment from Elmo's World is filled with gross imagery, even having a cartoon featuring a character named "The Girl Who Loved Her Feet" and a literal foot named Bigfoot visiting Elmo.
 * 27) * The DTV episode Elmo's Potty Time overuses toilet humor. Examples:
 * 28) ** The song "You'll Use the Potty", which is about everyone using the potty.
 * 29) ** There's a King Kong-esque segment where a giant gorilla needs to pee and chases a giant toilet.
 * 30) ** There are skits where a bunch of kids shout synonyms for poop and pee.
 * 31) ** The video is sponsored by the letter P and the number 2.
 * 32) * The Elmo the Musical segment "Prince Elmo the Musical" has a dragon spreading his bad breath everywhere and Elmo defeating him with his own bad breath.
 * 33) * On top of this, there are occasionally some weird and disturbing moments in the show.
 * 34) A few mean-spirited moments, though it's rare:
 * 35) * Shade from Elmo's World often messes with Elmo whenever he wants to talk with the Noodle Family by refusing to move when pulled or not letting him grab it at all.
 * 36) * In "Elmo's World: Happy Holidays", Door harasses Elmo with its mistletoe. It demands multiple kisses, and insists that Elmo answers it after each time it is kissed.

Trivia

 * The show was reduced from a full hour to 45 minutes in Season 30, with Elmo's World filling the remaining 15 minutes.
 * Seasons 24-37 used a new closing credits sequence.
 * Due to PBS having trouble paying the show's licensing fee, HBO began airing Sesame Street in 2016 with a half-hour runtime, in order to get enough money for PBS. In fact, PBS decided to air the show as its second-run program, nine months after they premiered on the former network. The show moved again to HBO Max in 2020, but PBS still airs the second-run of the show.
 * Contrary to popular belief, the reduction to 30 minutes was not HBO's fault, as the way to have more money for the PBS show.
 * It spawned several DTV episodes, compilation videos, and TV specials. Examples include Elmo Saves Christmas, Being Green, Kids' Guide to Life: Learning to Share, CinderElmo, Kids' Favorite Songs, Kids' Favorite Songs, Kids' Favorite Songs 2, Elmo's Alphabet Challenge, Abby in Wonderland, and Kids' Favorite Country Songs.
 * The theme song has been remixed multiple times since the show's 24th season.
 * Seasons 24-29 and 33-37 use upbeat reggae and rock versions of the iconic theme song, while in Seasons 38-45 it's done in an R&B style.
 * Seasons 24-37 also uses a hip hop version of the theme song for their end credits, which was modified in Seasons 32-33 and shortened in Season 34.
 * From Season 46 onwards, the theme song is done in a folk style.
 * Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper, died in 1982. His character was subsequently killed off.
 * Like with Mr. Hooper, David disappeared from the show once his actor Northern Calloway died in 1990.
 * The predecessor to the show was The Funny Company, which is aired during the 1960s.
 * The Children’s Television Workshop, the non-profit organization behind this show, was renamed Sesame Workshop in June 2000.
 * The show spawned two spin-offs called Play with Me Sesame and the well-received HBO Max original series The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo.
 * Due to its massive popularity, the show has quickly spawned toys, books, merchandise, educational video games, clothing, and two theatrical feature films called Mh:greatestmovies:Follow That Bird and Mh:greatestmovies:The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.
 * Caroll Spinney, best known as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, was diagnosed with dystonia in 2015; the disease would kill him four years later.
 * Due to Jerry Nelson's failing health, many of his characters on Sesame Street (save for Count von Count) were gradually phased out by the mid-2000s; Nelson eventually died on August 23, 2012 from emphysema.
 * Northern Calloway (who played David) died in January 1990; his character David moved to his grandmother's farm and was subsequently dropped from the series.
 * Since the sketches tended to act like commercials, at least one was repeated twice in the same episode. By the mid-1970s, this practice stopped.
 * Earlier seasons of the show were much slower-paced.
 * Grover’s age is vague; Nogginoid (an interstitial series that aired on Noggin from 1999 to 2002) confirmed that he is supposed to represent the psychological age of a 4-year-old, yet he is seen working various jobs.
 * Much of the cast starred in a policy trailer for Lowes movie theaters back in 1996.
 * It is unknown if Bert and Ernie are brothers, despite them acting as such.
 * There have been rumors about Bert and Ernie being gay, which Sesame Workshop has cleared out several times.
 * Kevin Clash was fired from the show in November 2012 due to sexual allegations; Elmo has been puppeteered by Ryan Dillon since then.
 * Elmo's World was revived in 2017, lasting for only five minutes, but then stopped production by 2021 to be replaced with "Elmo and Tango's Mysterious Mysteries".
 * Along with Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Sesame Street is one of the most-watched preschool shows.
 * Upon the show's move to HBO in 2016, most of the human cast (Bob, Gordon, Susan, Maria, Luis, Gina, Miles, Gabi, etc.) were dropped from the show.

Reception
Sesame Street has been very positively received and remains a staple of children's television to this day. It currently has an 8.1/10 on IMDb.

Phantomstrider placed it 1# on his Top 6 best kids shows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMX_PU8uqt4&t=1s