My Thoughts on Sesame Street (and other kid's programming)

1-Sesame Street has gotten a lot more formulaic than I remember.  They change up the formula every couple of seasons, but for the most part it very much follows a standard formula and I don't remember it doing that when I was a kid.

2-I don't know when they introduced The Bear Family, from Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but holy cow do I find those characters entertaining!  Baby Bear has the most adorable speech impediment, they gave them a new baby (Curly Bear), and they made Mama and Papa Bear beatniks. 

3-Considering the fact that Elmo drew his entire world, I would think his furniture would be more cooperative with him.  His door and window shade won't open without a considerable amount of cajoling, his drawer smacks him in the head every time it opens, and his computer runs around shrieking every time he gets mail.  Elmo needs a new apartment.

4-Speaking of Elmo's World, there's a character called Mr. Noodle...he's a caricature of the old hobo-style clowns (think Red Skelton), and Elmo asks him to demonstrate certain things depending on what the topic of the day is (such as getting dressed, riding a bike, helping a friend, etc.).  Occasionally, Mr. Noodle's brother or sister will show up and do the demonstration instead...and I noticed a couple weeks ago that it's Kristin Chenowith playing the sister.  How cool is that?

5-I <3 The Backyardigans.  Plain and simple.  It's clever, cute, and not so insipid that I can't stand to watch it with Aurora.  The music is so catchy!  I occasionally find myself with songs from the show stuck in my head days after watching an episode.

6-Angelina Ballerina has proven to me that we need to get Aurora into dance lessons as soon as possible.  She is so naturally interested in music and movement, and she has started copying dance movements from not only Angelina, but The Backyardigans and other shows as well. 

7-I miss The Wiggles.  Netflix streaming took down all their dvds, so we haven't had any Wiggles in a while.  I'm torn between buying a couple of the dvds and just letting it go...it seems silly to drop the cash on a dvd that I know we're going to get rid of when I could instead get a dvd that I am relatively confident we'll keep (for example, a Disney movie not yet owned), but we really did enjoy the Wiggles.