By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — New home. Some format changes. Same monsters.
“Sesame Street” launches its 56th season on Nov. 10 with NASCAR champion Bubba Wallace as a guest, a slightly tweaked format and a new way to watch — via Netflix.
“There you are, hi,” Elmo invites viewers at the top of the show. “Elmo so happy to see you.”
The popular children’s staple will be offering an 11-minute main story at the top — up from 9 minutes last year — and a few new segments mixed with favorite returning ones.
“In the history of ‘Sesame Street,’ we’ve always reinvented in some sort of way over our last 56 years,” says Sal Perez, the executive producer. “We’re always looking for ways to modernize — have the look and feel of the show feel really engaging for kids today.”
The 11-minute main story in the first episode involves Elmo, Abby and Zoe having three kinds of races in the neighborhood, joined by an alarming amount of puppet chickens and Wallace offering sideline commentary.
First up is a sprint with a chicken on each of their backs — “poultry in motion,” Wallace offers — then a race with a chicken on a spoon and, last, a sack race with chickens also in the sack. Elmo gets discouraged when he doesn’t win initially but soon realizes that he didn’t have lunch so is low on fuel, the lesson of the day.
“I just love when we get to bring celebrities to ‘Sesame Street’ because they bring their own flavor, they bring their own point of view and experience. And so much of that Elmo racing episode was just heightened by Bubba being there,” says head writer Halcyon Person. (Miley Cyrus is also an upcoming guest.)
Person says expanding the main story even by a few minutes gives her and her team more runway to add elements she thinks connects with kids.
“That extra two minutes may not seem like much for our audience, but it allows us to have a song in every episode which we know our audience loves,” says Person, whose credits include “Dee & Friends in Oz” and “Karma’s World.”
“We get to have even more animation, even more comedy, more time for physical humor. We know when kids are laughing, they’re learning. So, we just love when we can get them laughing so that our salient messaging can come through loud and clear, too.”
Netflix and the fourth wall
The deal with Netflix is a game-changer for “Sesame Street” since the streamer gives it a worldwide reach — the new season will be streamed in 30 languages — while keeping it on its long-standing home, PBS Kids and the PBS Kids Video app, at the same time. Episodes will be available on both Netflix and PBS on the same day.
“The partners themselves have been amazing and really supportive and allowing us to do what ‘Sesame Street’ does,” says Perez. “They know that we’ve got a history of knowing how to produce content. So, they’ve really just been supportive and elevating the brand.”
“Sesame Street” will also lean into breaking the fourth wall, with creatures turning to the viewer and perhaps confessing their feelings or asking for advice.
“I think this season, we wanted to just play that up and make it really an expected feature of the show — the characters are not just talking to you, but they’re really pulling you in,” says Person.
“This is just another way to really build that relationship and make children feel like they’re a part of the action, that none of what’s happening in the story could happen without them and that our characters really need them.”
Segments like “Cookie’s Foodie Truck” and “Abby’s Magic Beasties” will make the transition, and there’s the introduction of a new one — the animated “Tales from 123,” which takes viewers into the apartment building where the furry monsters live.
“This gave us an opportunity to get a peek inside. You have our amazing cast of characters living in an apartment building, with Elmo and Tango having really physical comedy adventures throughout, really zany adventures,” says Perez.
In the inaugural “Tales from 123,” Elmo wants to meet Grover for a playdate, but both get mixed up, so they go in elevators and race up staircases until Tango saves the day. Finally reunited, they naturally play hide-and-seek.
It’s like a backstage pass to “Sesame Street” and, of course, one gruff monster will be complaining. “No New York apartment could be complete without Oscar as the superintendent,” says Perez.