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Last night on Thanksgiving eve, I took my teenage son and adult daughter to see a horror movie. ( Have you noticed how often horror movies are released during the holiday season?) The movie was good, but possibly just as scary as the movie was what I heard the guy behind me say to his girlfriend about the classic children's television show Sesame Street.
He said, "Yeah, so Oscar the Grouch can no longer live in a trash can, and Cookie Monster can't eat cookies. That's harmful to kids."*
I apologized for listening and then asked him what was he talking about. He told me that he'd heard on the news that "new political correctness" said that old Sesame Street was damaging our children. "Hmm. Thank you for telling me about this. I'm going home to look that up."
I haven't seen the show in years. Oscar's trash can may still be around on today's Sesame Street. He still has his trash collection at the Children's Television Workshop website, but a foul and grouchy past haunts him and the original Sesame Street characters. Old Sesame Street now comes with a warning:
Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.
Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, "Sesame Street: Old School" is adults-only: "These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child." (The Medium, "Sweeping the Clouds Away" by Virginia Heffernan at The New York Times Magazine, November 18)
Heffernan's commentary on the dangers of Sesame Street is highly entertaining.
Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.
Nothing in the children’s entertainment of today, candy-colored animation hopped up on computer tricks, can prepare young or old for this frightening glimpse of simpler times. Back then — as on the very first episode, which aired on PBS Nov. 10, 1969 — a pretty, lonely girl like Sally might find herself befriended by an older male stranger who held her hand and took her home. Granted, Gordon just wanted Sally to meet his wife and have some milk and cookies, but . . . well, he could have wanted anything. As it was, he fed her milk and cookies. The milk looks dangerously whole. (The Medium, "Sweeping the Clouds Away" by Virginia Heffernan at The New York Times Magazine, November 18)
I'm tempted to excerpt more of Heffernan's humorous piece, but that just wouldn't be right. I urge you to read it at the NYT site.
Unlike many bloggers and readers, I can't claim to have grown up on Sesame Street. I was nine when the show premiered and already knew my ABCs. However, my brother was a Sesame Street kid. He's seven years younger, and our mother, an elementary school teacher then, fully-supported and promoted the show.
Nevertheless, while I may not have grown up on Sesame Street, I'm still a big fan. I love Oscar, Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, and "it's-not-easy-being-green" Kermit the Frog. And I always chuckled at Don Music: "Oh, I’ll never get it! Never, never, never! Oh, I'm sorry, Ludwig! OH! (bangs his head on the piano keys) ~ Don Music, 1974." I truly identified with his angst.
When my daughter was little, she and I used to watch the show together. Yes, the old shows. And she seems to be doing quite well. However, I have noticed that she loves cookies and struggles with a desire to lose weight. Is this where I went wrong, too much Cookie Monster?
It could be argued that the changes at Sesame Street have made life more confusing for young children today and stressful for young parents who
