Big Bird just can’t keep himself out of the election news cycle. In 2012, he was on then-presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s chopping block. And today, in the midst of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, he’s making headlines again, reportedly because he and his Muppet-buddies are taking over Sesame Street and pushing the older, human characters out of a job.
Bob McGrath, 84, is one of only two original cast members still in Sesame Street. (You can hear his voice on “People in Your Neighborhood.”) That is, he was still in Sesame Street. Earlier this month, he told the audience at a Q&A; session at the Florida Supercon that he was fired from Sesame Street along with his colleagues Emilio Delago, who played Luis, and Roscoe Orman, who played Gordon. Delago had been with Sesame since 1971; Orman since 1974. Their dismissal, McGrath said, was part of the show’s revamp for HBO.
The MuppetCast broke the story on Wednesday, airing McGrath’s statement: “As of this season, I have completed my 45th season this year. And the show has gone under a major turn around, going from an hour to a half-hour. HBO has gotten involved also. And they let all of the original cast members go, with the exception of Alan Muraoka — who is probably 20 years younger than the rest of us — and Chris Knowings, who is also young.”
On Thursday morning, Sesame Street responded with a statement from its official Twitter account. The formal announcement danced around the issue of whether or not McGrath, Delago, and Orman were fired, instead alluding to a “constantly evolving” series which, by design, leads to changes in the cast “over the years.” It’s not really clear what Sesame means by saying “you can still expect to see many of them in upcoming productions.” But the kicker is straightforward: The decision was made by Sesame Workshop, and Sesame Workshop alone.
Regarding our beloved cast members: pic.twitter.com/NzZ3HAuIc6
— Sesame Street (@sesamestreet) July 28, 2016
That message doesn’t really click with McGrath’s reference to HBO’s “involvement.” But it does align with what both HBO and Sesame Workshop have said since their game-changing — and Sesame Street-saving — partnership was announced last August. (HBO did not return a request for comment.)
The mutually-beneficial deal was this: HBO would provide a bank and a platform, and Sesame would hand HBO one of the most trusted, celebrated brands in children’s television. Sesame Street had been gushing money by the millions for years, and HBO was willing to foot the bill with reportedly little-to-no creative inference.
On the eve of Sesame Street’s 46th season premiere, HBO representatives told ThinkProgress that the premium sponsor would stay out of the Sesame writers’ room. (As for the new series HBO will develop with Sesame Workshop, Michael Lombardo, HBO president of programming said, “We will play a much bigger creative role.”)
Convenient as it would be to blame this unseemly shakeup on HBO, corporate landlords of the recently-renovated brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, the big creative changes going on behind the Sesame scenes predate the Sesame-HBO deal by over a year.
There Goes The Neighborhood: The Story Behind The New ‘Sesame Street’ And Its Journey To HBOThe rent is high at 123 Sesame Street. It’s always been an expensive address. But for a while, the funding was there…thinkprogress.orgJeff Dunn, a Nickelodeon alum, took over as CEO of Sesame Workshop in 2014. He was replacing Mel Ming, who retired, and was the first external hire to join the Workshop at that level. He oversaw two seismic changes: The division of Sesame Workshop into two branches (one for philanthropy, one for commercial and programming efforts) and, more importantly, the hiring of Brown Johnson as creative director. Johnson also hailed from Nickelodeon, where she was the primary driver behind the creation of Dora the Explorer and led Nick Jr., Nickelodeon’s brand for preschoolers.
At the end of last summer, Joey Mazzarino, who started at Sesame as a puppeteer in the early ’90s and rose through the ranks to head writer in 2007, left the show. He explained his departure in a Facebook post: “After almost a year of battling for what I believe is the heart and soul of the show, I lost the war.”
It was under that new management, not the still-a-year-away partnership with HBO, that new direction came to Sesame Street. The new plan was to focus on “core characters” — Elmo, Grover, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, Rosita, and Oscar the Grouch — at the necessary expense of humans and Muppets with less name recognition.
“Kids relate to characters, and we know that licensing is driven by characters,” Dunn told the Wall Street Journal just over a year ago. “So the more engaged kids are with a character, the easier it is to do licensing and merchandising.”
The Sesame episodes that would eventually move to HBO (though continue to air on PBS nine months after their premiere) were going to be revamped regardless of which benefactor stepped in to save Sesame Street from its financial crisis. The decision to cut episodes down from 60 minutes to 30 was reached before the partnership was sealed, as was the call to all but eliminate parodies.
Kids these days are less likely than ever to watch Sesame with an adult, for a variety of reasons: More women in the workforce means fewer moms at home, the rise of personal devices like iPads means children and parents can have separate screens. (Today, two-thirds of the Sesame Street audience discovers the show on digital platforms.) The decline in co-viewing isn’t great news for Sesame’s educational objectives; all available research indicates that the series is a more effective teacher when adults and kids watch together. It also means that the two-tiered style of writing that made Sesame Street such a standout — the show was littered with references and jokes adults could enjoy without sacrificing the humor kids love — is no longer required.
Change In The Channel: Why ‘Sesame Street’ Is Cutting Back On ParodiesQuiet on the set. Enter: Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster is not in his usual attire – he usually has no attire – on this…thinkprogress.orgWithout needing to lure in adults, Sesame writers can focus their energies entirely on what kids like. Shows for children, then, are really and truly just that: Shows for children, not caretakers. Series like Sesame are competing for eyeballs with easily 100 other television shows that target that same toddler demographic, and that’s before you count the infinite entertainment vortex the internet provides.
The creative overhaul was set in motion at Sesame long before HBO got involved. That’s not to say no one at HBO would ever send a network note Sesame’s way; when you’re footing the entire bill for a show that reportedly costs about $20 million to produce, you buy yourself at least the power to make a few suggestions. But HBO has a reputation for not being too hands-on with creatives, even, it should be noted, when a bit of meddling may be in order. (Said it before and will say it again: True Detective, season two.)
By the time Sesame Street moved to HBO, it had been operating at a loss for years. How big a loss? Over its last three PBS-only fiscal years, Sesame Street lost $21.7 million. The biggest hit to the series was the huge drop-off in licensing for merchandise. You’ve heard this song before: Digital streaming rose, DVD sales fell. With so much Sesame stuff available free on the show’s official YouTube channel, and with so many kids watching the show on smartphones and tablets, there’s little incentive for a parent to shell out $14.99 for Elmo and Abby’s Birthday Fun!.
The best place to make up that loss in revenue (aside from the bank of HBO) is with Sesame stuff. As Dunn essentially told WSJ, Muppets move merchandise. Humans, not so much. Six-year-olds want to snuggle into bed wearing Grover pajamas, a stuffed Cookie Monster tight in their arms. Six-year-olds probably do not want to wear Gordon pajamas, or to sleep by the warm glow of a Bob nightlight.
So it’s doubtful that some suit from HBO stormed onto the Sesame Street set, opened a moon door in the floor, and kicked Bob, Luis, and Gordon into oblivion. More likely than not, the call came from inside the house.