Sesame Street Season 38 didn’t just premiere on August 13, 2007. It basically pivoted the entire philosophy of how the show functioned for the modern, digital-native kid.
Change is hard. Especially for a show that had already been on the air for nearly four decades. But honestly, the producers at Sesame Workshop realized that the "magazine format"—that classic, frantic jumping from a Muppet skit to a film about a milk factory to a cartoon about the letter J—wasn't cutting it anymore. Kids were different. Their brains were being wired by faster, more interactive media. So, Season 38 leaned into a "block" format. It felt more like a structured school day and less like a fever dream of counting bats.
The Big Shift to "What's the Word on the Street?"
You remember Murray Monster. He became the literal face of this transition.
Before every single episode in Season 38, Murray would pop up with his little jacket and his dog, Ovejita. They’d hit the real streets of New York City to ask actual humans about the "Word on the Street." It was a genius move for SEO-minded educational TV, even if we didn't call it that back then. By focusing on a single vocabulary word—like "hibernate," "squash," or "patience"—the show built a thematic anchor.
It wasn't just random anymore.
If the word was "persistent," the street scenes, the animations, and the celebrity cameos all circled back to that idea. This was a response to research suggesting that preschool-age children learn better through repetition and contextual reinforcement rather than the scattered "commercial-break" style of earlier seasons.
Why the format change actually worked
Some purists hated it. They missed the chaotic energy of the 70s and 80s where you might see a gritty film of a construction site followed by a psychedelic Pinball Number Count. But the reality is that the Season 38 structure provided a "narrative arc."
The street story—the part with the humans like Maria, Luis, and Bob—became a single, cohesive 10-to-12-minute tale. In Season 38, these stories were often more complex. We saw characters dealing with more than just simple misunderstandings. They were solving problems. They were using "The Thinking Cup."
Bert and Ernie’s Great Adventures: A New Look
One of the most jarring, yet fascinating, additions in Sesame Street Season 38 was "Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures."
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Suddenly, the world's most famous roommates weren't just puppets in a basement apartment on 123 Sesame Street. They were claymation. Or, more accurately, "clay-infused" stop-motion. This was a massive departure from the status quo.
Each five-minute segment saw the duo in wildly different settings. One day they were pirates. The next, they were cavemen or deep-sea explorers. It allowed for a level of physical comedy that traditional hand-puppets just couldn't achieve. Ernie could fall off a cliff, or Bert could be flattened by a giant boulder, and the slapstick felt fresh.
- The Pilot: "Caving"
- The Fan Favorite: "Tiny Town"
- The Tech: Produced by Misseri Studio in Italy.
This wasn't just about being "cool" or "new." It was about international distribution. Because these segments relied heavily on visual humor and had minimal, easily dubabble dialogue, they became a global asset for the Sesame brand.
The Celebrity Factor: From Chris Brown to Tina Fey
Let's talk about the cameos because Season 38 was stacked.
It’s easy to forget that 2007 was a specific cultural moment. You had Chris Brown appearing to talk about the word "exclamatory." You had Tina Fey playing a "Bookaneer" (a book-loving pirate) who tries to recruit the gang to her ship.
The Bookaneers segment is arguably one of the most iconic moments of this era. Fey’s comedic timing, even when playing against a giant orange monster and a grouch, was impeccable. It served a dual purpose: it kept the parents engaged while hammering home the literacy goals of the season.
Other notable appearances included:
- James Blunt singing a parody of "You're Beautiful" called "My Triangle." It is arguably one of the best song parodies the show has ever done.
- Anderson Cooper reporting on the "G" news.
- The Chicks (formerly The Dixie Chicks) singing with Elmo.
- Alicia Keys performing "Dah Dee Dah" with Elmo.
Abby Cadabby Finds Her Magic
Abby Cadabby had debuted in Season 37, but Season 38 is where she really found her footing as a permanent resident.
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The writers finally moved past her just being the "new girl who does magic." They started integrating her into the core cast's social dynamics. In Season 38, we saw the introduction of "Abby’s Flying Fairy School," a CGI segment that further pushed the show’s visual boundaries.
Interestingly, this was a period of high experimentation with animation styles. You had the traditional Muppets, the claymation Bert and Ernie, and the 3D-rendered Abby. It was a visual buffet. The goal was simple: keep the kid's eyes on the screen so the "educational vitamins" could be swallowed.
Global Warming and "Earthly" Lessons
Season 38 wasn't afraid to get a little bit political, or at least topical.
They introduced a recurring theme of environmentalism. This wasn't the vague "don't litter" messaging of the 1970s. This was about "Going Green."
In the episode "The Worms' Big Move," the show touched on habitat and environment. In other episodes, characters discussed recycling and saving water in ways that felt urgent. It reflected the global conversation happening in 2007—the era of An Inconvenient Truth. Sesame Street has always been a mirror of society, and Season 38 proved the street was ready to talk about the planet’s future.
The Technical Evolution
Behind the scenes, the show was transitioning.
High Definition was becoming the standard. If you watch clips from Season 38 today, they look significantly crisper than the grainy, warm-toned episodes of the early 2000s. The lighting changed. The sets looked a bit more "saturated."
Even the way the Muppeteers worked was evolving. With the block format, the filming schedule became more streamlined. They could knock out all the "Abby's Flying Fairy School" intros or "Murray's" segments in chunks, which was a departure from the way they used to film the old street-centric seasons.
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Why Season 38 is the "Modern" Baseline
When people talk about "modern" Sesame Street, they are usually talking about the template established in Season 38.
It’s the season where Elmo’s World remained a staple, but the rest of the show started to catch up to Elmo’s energy. It’s where the "Word on the Street" became a curriculum cornerstone.
Most importantly, it’s the season that proved Sesame Street could survive the digital revolution. By embracing new animation styles and a more rigid, predictable structure, they ensured that the show remained "sticky" for a generation of kids who were starting to have access to YouTube and on-demand streaming.
Lessons from the 38th Year
If you're looking back at this season for nostalgic reasons or researching child development, the takeaways are pretty clear.
First, repetition is king. The "Word on the Street" works because it gives a child a goal at the start of the hour and rewards them at the end.
Second, characters need to evolve. Seeing Bert and Ernie outside of their apartment breathed new life into characters that were decades old.
Third, don't be afraid of technology. Mixing CGI, claymation, and puppets didn't ruin the "vibe" of the show; it expanded the universe.
To truly appreciate what happened in 2007, you have to look at the episodes not as standalone pieces of entertainment, but as a deliberate response to a changing world. Sesame Street didn't just stay the same; it grew up alongside its audience.
For anyone wanting to revisit this specific era, focus on the "Bookaneer" episode with Tina Fey or the "My Triangle" segment with James Blunt. They represent the perfect intersection of the show's 2007-era wit, its educational mission, and its sheer ability to secure top-tier talent for the sake of teaching a kid about shapes and sounds.
Check out the official Sesame Street YouTube archives or the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to find specific segments from this season. Watching the transition from the old street stories to the Murray Monster intros provides a masterclass in how to rebrand a legacy property without losing its soul.