Sesame Street: Should It End?

Madeline Fretz - With the ends of Muppet Babies and Arthur this month, it's both amazing and surprising to know that a certain Muppet/Henson-related PBS series has outlived both shows … Sesame Street. The show has premiered on November 10th, 1969 and is still going strong, running for 52 seasons and counting.

Now, I don't want to start up a fight about this, but with several animated series ending recently, should Sesame Street end? A recent thread on the ToughPigs forum has inspired me to write this post. From what I've read on Muppet Central and Facebook, many people (some of whom have been with the series since the beginning), it is too iconic to end, should keep going for new generations to enjoy. Bill Cosby, the host of the 20 and Still Counting special from 1989, once spoke of why Sesame should keep going: "There's always something new to learn and someone new to teach it to."

However, I have mixed feelings about today's show. Let's focus on the "bad things" first. The show has never gone bad, in my opinion, but recently they spend too much time on the same characters over and over again and have gotten too "babyish" - doing things like releasing Cocomelon-esque videos on their YouTube channel (they used to release classic segments, but sporadically do nowadays), repetitive season curriculums, forgettable plots. I know they do these things to make little kids happy, but these changes are not for us fans. We all know that. On the bright side, I'm always excited to see what the new plots are (babyish or not) and whom the guest stars will be (even if they're ones I don't know).

So should the show end? I can't decide. The show has been on for more than fifty years, coming up with new, exciting ways to educate and entertain. Meanwhile, many fans have complained about how "dumbed down" the show has gotten nowadays and over the years. Unheard of the first time, although many fans are on the disagreeing sign, will Sesame Street come to an end anytime soon?

It's up to the producers and nice people at Sesame Workshop.

If the show does end (which will probably never happen), they should go out with a bang and have a big series finale, starting with a big marathon of almost every episode (ala Arthur). If not, something similar. That way, the cast, puppeteers, and crew can move on to other things. Plus, like Arthur, there can always be new content like online videos starring the Muppets.

On the plus side, we'd have 55(?) solid years of fun and learning (HBO Max has picked up five seasons, up to 55, in 2019). On the downside, I think Sesame is the only Sprout show still running (the original Thomas & Friends recently ended), so cancelling "the street" may leave no Sprout shows still making new episodes.

Here's the silly thing - since I didn't like how babyish the show became, I started an online petition to cancel the show. As previously mentioned in this post, many people said that the show shouldn't get cancelled, so I abandoned the petition. 

So, in the meantime, let me ask a question that has been asked a million times before. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

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