Editor’s note from the future: All of the links mentioned in this article are dead. Possibly because the internet is just a passing craze. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Synergy Sesame
Monday, April 15
Synergy SesameOh, good! You’re all here! I’ve been waiting for you. This week, I’m going to be watching Play With Me Sesame, the new interactive Sesame spin-off. And guess what? I’m going to be watching it with all of you! Are you ready? Great!
Well, to start with, there’s a bunch of circles. Get used to circles, kids, we’re gonna see a lot of them this week. There’s all these circles with the letters that make up the name of the show, and then there’s four circles with the main characters inside — Ernie, Bert, Prairie Dawn and Grover. Grover shouts “Hello everee-bodeeee!” and then all the circles sort of bounce around, and they play a groovy version of “Somebody Come and Play,” and they all appear and sing, and then they’re in circles again, and…
Wait. I’m not describing this right. Let’s get interactive.
Okay, everybody out there — put your hand on the mouse! Is your hand on the mouse? Good! Now click on this link. Did you click on the link? Great! Now you can see what the show looks like. See the circles? That’s what I’m talking about. The show and the website were designed to work together seamlessly, so kids can go straight from the TV to the computer to keep playing with the Muppets.
This is the deal. It didn’t work when they tried to make websites act like TV shows (see: MuppetWorld), so now they’re making TV shows that act like websites. Welcome to Synergy Sesame.
(By the way, speaking of websites: Have you noticed all the big circles on the new redesign of the Henson.com site? Looks to me like the web designers had a 2-for-1 sale. Let this be a lesson to us: When you’re shopping for web design, always pay retail. It’s worth it.)
So, anyway. Brave new world it is. You may have noticed when you were clicking around on the site — (You did click around on the site, didn’t you? Of course you did.) — so you may have noticed that this is new-school Sesame, with Steve Whitmire as Ernie, and Eric Jacobson as Bert and Grover. I’ve written about Steve’s Ernie and Eric’s Grover before — see the raves about Steve’s Ernie in My Week with Sesame Street and Eric’s Grover in My Week with Sesame 2.0. (Hey, more links. Interact with me!) Eric’s Bert is not quite as good as his Grover. I mean, he’s fine. He’s funny. But when I see Steve’s Ernie, I don’t think of him as Steve’s Ernie. He’s just Ernie. Ditto with Eric’s Grover, who’s definitely just Grover. But Eric’s Bert is still a bit jarring for me. Maybe I just need some more time to get used to him.
But here’s what they’re doing together. Bert enters and looks for Ernie. He turns to us. “Have you seen Ernie?” Well, yeah, like two seconds ago, during the theme song. Ernie appears — hanging upside down from the ceiling. “I’m up here, Bert! Hello down there!” Bert tells Ernie to get down before he hurts himself… so Ernie says, okay, Bert! and turns the screen around — so now Ernie is right side up, and Bert is upside down. Bert is put out by this, as naturally he would be. Then Ernie announces that we’re going to play a game of Ernie Says together, and it’s going to be all about up and down. Ready to play? Bert is still hanging from the ceiling. Ernie tells us to stand up. Ernie Says: Put your thumbs up! Bert complains: “Ernie! You know I’m afraid of heights.” Ernie ignores him. Ernie Says: Put your thumbs down! Bert looks around. “I think the blood is rushing to my head.” Ernie Says: Look up! He looks up at Bert. “Gee, Bert! Whatcha doin’ up there?” There’s a rimshot. A real live actual sincere rimshot.
All interactivity jokes aside, this is good stuff. This is classic type Ernie and Bert stuff. And when was the last time you watched a TV show that had a rimshot? This is just straight-up good television.
Then there’s an old Sesame clip with Grover talking to a little girl named Morgan, who helps him name body parts. “Where is my nose?” Right here. “And where is my mouth?” Right there. “Very good. Where are my cute, attractive arms?” Goodness. This is so cute. Then Morgan lifts up her shirt and shows Grover her bellybutton.
We are now four minutes into the show. Already this has gotten so cute I think I may never recover.
Next up is Prairie Dawn’s art show segment, which starts with a song that is so excellent that I fear I will not be able to do it justice. Prairie is playing her piano, and she’s playing that same little tune that she always plays for her pageants. And this is what she sings:
Hello, dear play friends
My name is Prairie Dawn
I would like to share with you
Some things you have drawn!
So let me present
Without further ado
A Play With Me art show
That stars lots of YOU!
Then she shows a bunch of pictures that kids drew. But that’s not the point. The point is that that first verse makes me happier than I ever thought possible. The rhyme of “Prairie Dawn” with “things you’ve drawn”… It’s just perfect. Sing that song to yourself as you go to bed and have sweet, funny dreams all night. This is minute five.
Okay, I don’t have time to go through this entire thing and tell you every little moment that makes me smile. I mean, I do, but you won’t read it, so why bother. But there’s more little clips from Sesame Street — a Bert and Ernie sketch, Grover singing “My Furry Little Shadow,” an Ernie and Cookie Monster sketch. There’s some little clips of kids playing instruments and dancing. Bert plays an Oatmeal Art computer game that’s actually on the website. And there’s not one single boring cartoon about clouds. It’s all Muppets, all the time.
But I’m going to skip to Grover’s segment, which is the dancing and moving around part. Grover runs in: “Hey, evereee-bodeeeee!” I love that part. “It is your mooo-ving and groooo-ving monster Grover here!” That’s growing on me too. “I am so excited, because today we are going to jump to a special song all about jumping! But — it is impossible to jump in the sitting down position!” He gets us to stand up, so we can jump with him. They roll a song from Sesame Street about jumping, and Grover appears over it — jumping, commenting on the song, singing along, getting us to jump along with him. “Now flap your arms like a birdie!” He starts getting tired, but he keeps jumping. “Oh, my little tootsies!”
Grover’s relieved as the song ends — he’s exhausted and needs to rest. But then Ernie, Bert and Prairie Dawn enter, jumping: Boingy boingy boing! Ernie asks why Grover isn’t jumping. Grover explains that he has jumped his last jump. Ernie asks if Grover wants to play just one more game of Ernie Says. Grover nods: “For you, Ernie… okay.” Ernie starts the game. Ernie Says: Everybody jump! And Jacobson executes a classic Grover faint. Top marks from the judges.
And there you have it. If you love the Sesame Muppets, this is a very easy show to love. But where’s the challenge in that? Tune in tomorrow to find out what I hate about it. You will? Great! See you tomorrow, play friends!
by Danny Horn
