tylerkermit

Gives great opportunities to talented people, but I don't personally think this show should stand toe to toe with some of the all time great comedy programs. The amount of legends spawned from this program is incredible, but I feel that most of these comedians best works appeared after their time with show, with maybe the exception of maybe Phil Hartman and Norm Macdonald, the two best cast members the show ever had to offer. The show is incredibly childish in my opinion, relying on funny costumes and fecal matter-based humor. I bet if you edited down the 50 years of this show, you'd get a pretty decent season's worth of sketches out of it.

Maybe I'm being a bit generous and, of course, I always recognize that I'm not the target audience for this show anymore, but I did enjoy this street story quite a bit. Aside from the format change-weirdness and the lesser humor focused curriculum, just about everything worked for me. Hooray!

The exciting aspect of Sesame Street having an ensemble cast is never knowing which characters are going to appear, and when. Of course, Elmo is going to be there 99% of the time these days, but man, what a treat it was seeing Prairie Dawn and Gladys the Cow. These are characters that, I'm sure, no one from Gen Alpha will recognize, but they used to have such a presence on the show.

Gladys didn't really have much of a chance to shine in this episode, unfortunately resorted to basically just a singer and friend of Elmo. Her huge personality doesn't necessarily come across here, but just seeing her is nice. I know that Jenn Barnhart can, and has done great work with her as well; possibly this script just didn't call for her Gladys' extravagance. Also, Barnhart does double-duty as Zoe in this episode, so major props for that.

Prairie really shines. Immensely. Stephanie D'Abruzzo has channeled the character in a beautiful way. Truly one of the best and most faithful Muppet-recasts in recent memory. Her assertiveness and confidence takes a pretty basic plot to comedic heights.

Sesame Street has such a rich backlog of great characters and talented performers, any time that they use them properly is admirable. I have no idea what Snuffy was doing at the top of this episode, but no complaining.

This street story really took me back to those late 80s-early 90s years of Sesame Street, where any given episode would star Fran Brill's Prairie Dawn or Richard Hunt's Gladys the Cow sharing the plot along with Kevin Clash's Elmo. Nowadays all of the performers have changed, but the idea that these characters are still alive and vital brings me great joy.

Melissa Manchester...I guess she was famous enough to appear on the Muppet Show in the 80s. Well, I shouldn't say that; Season 5 had some incredibly weird guest stars to begin with; Melissa Manchester kind of fits in with the bunch. She definitely seems like she really wanted to do the Muppet Show, but she's not enough of a singular talent to carry the Muppet-less moments of the episode. Compare her to a guest like Elton John, Loretta Lynn, etc. Who demand just as much attention as the Muppets themselves: she just brings nothing but a good singing voice and some mediocre acting chops. Of course, the muppet performers kill it. There's some great segments in here, but overall, it's one of the more average episodes, which still amounts to an 8/10. Go figure. Greatest television show of all time.