Street Knowledge (Chapter 6)

 

Chapter 6: Back To Basics

Sesame Street had established its Around the Corner setting for 6 years, and many people responded positively to it. It seemed too good to last… because it was.

According to Mr. P Robinson:

“In Season 25, we opened up the whole "Around the Corner" set filled with new humans and dozens of new puppets. Remember the Furry Arms Hotel? It was a great cast and the plot lines were hilarious, but research discovered that kids couldn't keep track of all these people and puppets, making the shows visually exciting and entertaining for adults, but confusing for kids."

Yeah, it turns out maybe adding all these new locals and characters and expecting kids to be okay with it, might not have been the best idea.

So, for season 30, Around the Corner was shut down, (though the Subway entrance would be moved to the end of the street) and most of the characters were retired, to focus on a smaller, more central main cast. Which I’ll talk about in a minute.

This season also wanted to utilize some of the classic songs sung in the show’s early days, so kids being introduced to the show, and their parents, who have fond memories of it, could watch it together and connect.

Even the new intro would somewhat be influenced by that, as it now went back to its original pitch, and featured Big Bird playing with kids again.

Now let’s talk about the cast. While smaller, it still kept the same faces everyone remembered the most, though it would introduce one more new addition.

This is Alan. He’s played by Alan Muraoka, and ever since 1998, he’s been the owner of Hooper’s Store. I think this about telling that this period of Sesame Street is the one that I grew up watching, and like I said two chapters ago, I had no prior knowledge of any of the previous owners of HS, and thought that Alan had always been there. (I also thought that most of the other characters were always there, even though they weren’t, but that’s besides the point.)

Speaking of humans, now that Around the Corner was gone, Gina needed something else to do, so starting with episode 3787, she went back to school and began studying to become a veterinarian, and that’s what we’d see her do for the majority of this season, and the season that followed.

Also, there weren’t too many guest appearances this season, but I do wanna mention this segment, where Patti LaBelle sings a gospel rendition of the alphabet, with the muppets, in tow.

Zoe also got more time to shine when she gained two new things. The Zoemobile, a go-cart that Maria made for her, so she could get around the street faster, and Rocco, her pet rock, which she’d take with her almost everywhere, and constantly drive Elmo up the wall every time she’d mention him.

Speak of the devil, Elmo-mania was just getting started, not only would Elmo get his own 20 minute segment on the show, (Elmo’s World, where he, his goldfish Dorothy, silent friend Mr. Noodle (played by Bill Irwin), and crayon-colored inanimate objects would learn about a different topic in every episode.)

Not only would he get his name in the 30th Anniversary special, (More on that, later)

Not only would he star in CinderElmo, a Cinderella-based story that aired on FOX.

But he would also get his own movie.

Yes, on October 1st, the CTW released the second full-length Sesame Street film, “The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland”, which, as you can guess by the title, stars Elmo. And while, yes, the rest of the SS cast is in it, the real story is about Elmo going on a quest to retrieve his favorite blanket.

But wait, didn’t I say I was gonna come back to something? Oh yeah, Sesame Street’s 30th Anniversary, right! To celebrate 30 years of joy Sesame Street brought, there was the aforementioned special, known as Elmopalooza.

An episode where the cast takes over the Rosie O’Donnell Show.

A short about the history of movies, that would air before movies.

Double page spread pictures in both People and Vanity Fair.

And Sesame Street Unpaved. Something that would take two forms: One, as a documentary, that would air on Noggin. And the other, a book, that I currently own.

But at this time, the 90s were coming to an end, and the 2000s were just kicking off. And that meant it was time for season 31, where nothing really big changed.

(Well, except for my OC Jimmy Karren and his parents moving into Sesame Street, but I digress.)

Zoe would gain a new interest, as well as a new attire. Starting with this season, Zoe would now love dancing (Ballet in particular), and would now almost always be seen wearing her ballet tutu.

Baby Bear would put his artistic skills to the test, when he made Hero Guy, an animated bear superhero who Baby Bear who makes adventures for, with the powers of his imagination.

Oh, and I should also mention, there was this girl muppet named Elizabeth, who was introduced two seasons ago. She appeared in this season, and this time with a new pet kitten named Little Murray Sparkles, and the two of them appeared in this season and the one that followed it.

Speaking of which, once 2001 began, the Children’s Television Workshop was going through some major changes, for one, they would no longer be known as the Children’s Television Workshop. To acknowledge that its mission stretches far beyond the world of television into a wide variety of interactive media, and totally not because Sesame Street was their biggest flagship show, the CTW would henceforth be known as: Sesame Workshop.

Also, side tangent, the logo that would appear from 2000-2006 at the end of every episode did, and still does creep me out.

Except for this version, this version is fine.

Anyway, because of the name change, they were gonna have to do something about the street sign.

Ever since the season premiere, the arch above the words Sesame Street contained the letters C, T, and W. (Guess why.) So starting with this season, those letters were replaced with the numbers 1, 2, and 3, which gave the sign more geographical accuracy. (You know, because 123 Sesame Street is the name of the apartment building the sign was in front of.)

And this was also the time where the workshop would be able to get the rights for the muppet characters featured on Sesame Street, when they bought EM.TV, the company that owned the rights to Jim Henson’s creations at the time, though the Henson Puppet Workshop would still make new muppets for the show as it went on.

Speaking of new muppets, this season would introduce four new muppet monsters (Googel, Narf, Phoebe and Mel) in a new segment known as Monster Clubhouse.

As for major storylines, Gina finishes her classes and becomes a veterinarian, like the totally awesome and amazing character she is.

And as a five-part episode finale, a hurricane sweeps through Sesame Street and levels Big Bird’s nest. So, yeah… heavy stuff.

Though, our favorite giant canary’s home wouldn’t be the only thing to bite the dust. This year and season would be Kermit’s last appearance on the show for several years. Because as I’m sure you’re already aware, he and his co-stars on the Muppet Show were going to get snatched up by Disney. So that meant Kermit would no longer be on the street he grew up on. (Though, for that rule there were some exceptions, but we’ll get to that later.)

Meanwhile, Sesame Workshop would launch a new initiative to stress how important it is for kids to understand music called “Sesame Street: Music Works”, which would kick off with a DVD/VHS special.

And also, in the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade, the Big Bird balloon would go through an update.

But, there was also something else that happened this year. And it’s the reason September 11th is remembered so well.

Given that Sesame Street takes place and is actually filmed in New York, the staff could tell that kids would need some help coping and that they were just the team to do it.

So when Season 33 started in 2002, four episodes were aired to help kids out, which consisted of the following…

• Elmo learning that fires can be really scary, but firefighters and people who work to serve you, are not.
• Big Bird’s pen pal, Gulliver learning that not all of your friends have to be birds.
• Big Bird, himself, having to deal with a new friend, who comes and goes really quickly. (Ironic, considering the friend is a turtle.)
• And Telly learning that when someone is bullying you, hitting them is never a good option.

And they worked. The messages really got to kids, and made them feel better about the whole situation, in fact, season 33 of Sesame Street in general, I think, made kids feel better about what was going on. Speaking of which, let’s go through some of the major changes.

First, the intro was changed again to still show Big Bird playing with kids, but this time, they’d be playing with animated blocks that jump all over the place and show the segments that would be shown.

Oh right, I forgot to mention, during this season, Sesame Street would ditch its loose way of telling episodes, and instead go for a more structured, formulaic format, which included new segments that would air in between the street scenes.

There was the Letter of the Day, where Cookie Monster would constantly try, and fail to keep himself from eating a cookie that would have the letter of the day on it.

The Number of the Day, where the Count would play a certain number of keys on his pipe organ, and whichever one he stopped on would be the selected number.

The Spanish Word of the Day, which features Rosita, and occasionally another character saying said word.

And last but not least, Journey to Ernie, where Big Bird and Ernie play hide-and-seek, with Ernie doing the hiding and Big Bird doing the seeking.

And of course, the previously mentioned Monster Clubhouse, Hero Guy and Elmo’s World would still be there, as well.

There was also a major change on the street itself, Maria and Luis, who had operated the Fix-It Shop for 12 years, decided to transform the place into a Mail-It Shop, where they would help the street residents send and receive letters and parcels. Though, this change would only last for four years, and the couple would go back to fixing toasters in season 37, which we are not on, yet.

As for memorable guest stars, this was when they started to become more gimmicky and silly, which makes for great memorable-ness.

Like, John Leguizamo (Sid the Sloth) becoming the real-life equivalent of Captain Vegetable.

The Dixie Chicks singing a song about the letter B, with the three most popular B-name muppet characters.

Ray Romano (Manny the Mammoth) tries to talk about the word “frustrated”, but keeps getting messed up by Grover.

And last, but certainly not least, Destiny’s Child performs a cover of the Oinker Sisters hit single, with Elmo, Grover and Zoe.

Also, of worth-noting, Sesame Street reached its 4000th episode, this season. Though, as you might recall, the 1000th episode wasn’t really that much to get excited over, so what happens in this episode?

Elmo and Big Bird hear the story of “The Mark of Elefante”, which is about an elephant who saves a town that’s put under a stop-dancing curse, by dancing himself. And after that, Elmo decides to become Elmo-fante. That’s alright. It's certainly more exciting than Bob finding a puppy.

Speaking of Elmo, he was about to make one of the biggest steps in his 3½ year old life. Dressed in a sharp suit and tie, he went up to the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Appropriations Committee in Washington, D.C., and gave a testimony about how important music is to help kids grow, and convinced them to spend more funds on music research and musical instruments for public school programs. That is something that no other muppet can claim that they did. Well done, Elmo.

But Sesame Street itself wouldn’t be the only thing flourishing this year. On April 4, the Sesame Street spinoff, Play With Me Sesame debuted. This show centered around four of the SS muppets, (Ernie, Bert, Prairie Dawn and Grover) who would play certain games with the audience while Sesame Street inserts aired between them. I should note that I watched a lot of this growing up, and I liked it, the characters I had grown to love were still there, and they had a nice rendition of “Somebody Come & Play” for their theme song.

And finally, a group of international Sesame Street muppets would join the US cast on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float, as they all sang “We Are All Earthlings”.

Before you knew it, 2003 was upon us, as was Season 34.

Though, I would like to note that two changes would be made this season: Linda would no longer be on the show, and Miles would get a new actor. His name is Olamide Fasion, and much like Miss Reed, he sings so well. To show you what I mean, here’s him singing a jazzy rendition of the alphabet with the monsters of Sesame Street.

Speaking of monsters, Grover would also get some more time to shine with his new segment, “Global Grover”, in which he would share a story of a country he went to and then try to do an activity he learned there, with little success.

But Grover wouldn’t be the only global thing this season. Global Thingy would also make its debut this season, which revolved around an anthropomorphic globe that would play parent to the other creatures that inhabited Earth.

If you’re wondering if any new muppets debuted this season, yes, there was one debut. In episode 4054, Papa Bear and Mama Bear announced to Baby Bear that they were gonna have another baby, and just an episode later, the Three Bears became Four Bears as Baby Bear’s new little sister, Curly Bear was born.

For guest stars, first lady Laura Bush came to read Big Bird, Elmo and the kids a book.

Wayne Brady showed us what between looks like.

Sheryl Crow soaks up the sun, with the SS monsters and the letter I.

And Natalie Portman plays “The Princess and the Elephant”, with Elmo and the muppet elephant known as Horatio.

And as for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the aviant, helium-filled version of Big Bird would be joined by the avaint, helium-filled version of Super Grover.

But now, it was time for 2004. AKA: Sesame Street’s 35th consecutive year of service.

As you can imagine, many things to commemorate this year were made, such as…

A TV special that would kick off the 35th season. (Which I will talk more about later.)

New Cold Opens, where different people talk about their favorite Sesame Street moments.

A DVD special that answers a question long time fans have been wanting to figure out. (Besides the obvious.)

A three piece set of Christmas tree ornaments.

Two sets of PEZ dispensers.

A watch.

And not just special versions of the popular games, Monopoly and UNO.

But its own game entirely.

Needless to say, this anniversary was something to be remembered.

But going back to the 35th season, it was pretty good. All of the main characters at the time were still there… Except for Gina.

No, seriously, I went through all of season 35, and not counting the special, Gina doesn’t appear in ANY of the episodes. Not in street scenes, not in inserts, not in anything! Why is that?! I have no idea why this is, and I really wanna know. I-It boggles the mind!

Anyway, the street scenes this season were pretty good. Some highlights include Rosita deciding she doesn’t like her accent, after some kids make fun of her for it, Elmo making his own Anybody-Who-Loves-To-March-In-A-Parade Parade, Miles and his band having to find a silent place to practice, Cookie Monster writing his own story, Snuffy turning invisible for a two-part episode, and three generations of Robison men helping Elmo form a quartet, where Gordon makes a major continuity error.

Apparently, when Gordon was a teenager in the 70s, he, Bob, and Luis were in a band together. Even though he and Bob were grown-ups when the series began in the 60s, and Luis didn’t come to Sesame Street until 1971, and was also a grown-up. Speaking of Luis, he talks about how he’s beginning to fall in love with Maria and basically states his future-life plans, even though I’m pretty sure he had no idea that’s what would happen, and besides he and Maria didn’t fall in love with each other til 1988.

Sorry Mr. Joey Mazzarino, (He was the one who wrote this episode) but you can’t just throw a major breach in the Sesame Street timeline like that and not expect fans, like me, to catch on.

Anyway, this season would also introduce Traction Jackson (TJ), a 3D animated kid bound to a wheelchair, and his rollerskating dog, Bernie.

TriangleBob TrianglePants on Trianglodeon. (If you don’t get what this is a reference to, I pity you.)

And Trash-Gordon, a superhero version of Gordon, who Oscar would read to Slimey about at the end of every episode.

Now, on to guest stars. Harvey Firestein sings about noses.

Ruben Studdard sings the alphabet with Elmo.

Dr. Phil feels feelings with Dr. Feel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98KrzA3Ht6E

And my personal favorite, Norah Jones mourning the absence of her friend, the letter Y.

Now we come to season 36, which featured a tragedy so tragic, that I have to end the chapter right here, and go over it in the next one.

Chapter 5: https://thomperfan.blogspot.com/2020/10/street-knowledge-chapter-5.html

Chapter 7: https://thomperfan.blogspot.com/2020/10/street-knowledge-chapter-7.html