Sesame Street

[Bilesuck]

I really hope this is a late April Fools joke.

 

Sesame Street

[fieldarchy]

nope I don't think it is a joke. I can totally see their points though just from my days of watching Sesame Street. I loved it but they do have a point!

[wildbill]

I think that there was some tongue-in-cheek with the article, but since it was the NY Times, I'm willing to bet that they were fairly serious through most of it. I remember Cookie Monster munching on his pipe. I thought that was the funniest thing. I think that is pretty lame of them to knock it so hard.

 

Wild Bill

[Warlady]

Sesame Street was a great show - I watched it all the time with my kids. Monsterpiece Theatre, Placido Flamingo (the Telephone aria still sticks in my mind as one of the best parodies of all time), Bert & Ernie - we loved all of it. The Spanish that I knew before we moved to Puerto Rico, I learned on Sesame Street....Guess it's just not PC enough these days. Sheesh!

[Nanite]

The current Seasme street version is geared towards an even younger audience then the old one.

 

I miss Jim Henson.

[Spike]

I was one of those kids who watched Sesame Street at an age which I am sure was well beyond the age of the target audience, even back in the seventies..but at that age and for much of my childhood I wanted to be a puppeteer.

 

Yep, I'm sure the author of that article had tongue well placed in cheek there, though the article sparked a serious disussion in this household.

 

The last time I watched Sesame Street was something like six years ago. I was home sick with a slight fever and decided to indulge myself in a Zoobilee Zoo, Teletubbies and Sesame Street spree on our local PBS station. (Yes, I like Teletubbies.. but Elmo scares the hell out of me)

 

What I saw of Sesame Street was disappointing to say the least. What happened to the "Who are the People in your Neighborhood" song? I suppose today's child need not be encouraged to talk to "the people that he meets while he's walking down the street"...not unless he/she wants to get abducted and exploited and all other kinds of mean nasty ugly things.

 

What happened to the in-spanish segements of the show? At one time Sesame Street promoted multiculturalism, not just latino culture, but Asian, African (not just African-American), urban, rural.. and so on etc. I guess nowadays it's not PC to admit that the world is full of people who are not all the same and some of whom actually like being a bit different.

 

Where's Harry the Monster? I'll tell you where.... replaced by that marketable cash-cow known as Elmo. I loved Harry..... Elmo scares the hell out of me still.

 

And remember when Sesame Street was brought to you by the letter Z and the number 6? Well.. I guess nowadays it's brought to you by the symbol $.

 

Them's my twopence.

[wyrmgear]

I feel that we are in a scary rounded-edge plastic prison of our own design.

 

At the moment I feel I could discourse on any number of ways we are making each successive generation a touch more spoiled and out of touch than the last... or putting one too many layers in the swaddling. But for all I know my mind was twisted by the Sesame Street (and I like The Electric Company too!) of old...

[Spike]

Rage on brutha! "rounded-edge plastic prison"... that's the gawsh-honest truth!

 

I don't care how creepy the concept would be today, but Fred Rogers is still the sort of neighbor I'd want my kids to have. May he rest in peace.

 

Which is creepier... a man in a red cardigan sweater and loafers who invites kids to visit with him in his "televison home".... or the big-purple-dinosaur that lingers around the schoolyard and coaxes little kids into hanging around after-class when there's no teacher or other grown-ups present?

 

Ah hell...I just scared myself again!

 

YOu know what I really miss... Frank Oz's voice behind the antics of SUPER GROVER!

 

"Little girl... could you please move. You're standing on my cape."

[rgtriplec]

I think WB and Spike are correct it is very tongue in cheek. I think it is as satirical about society today as the show.

 

I actually ordered the old ones recently for my baby... for Christmas. I like the new version and watch it everyday, but miss Kermit who was lost when the Muppets were seperated from the Sesame Street characters and sold to Disney.

 

Although Kermit is gone, lots of the old standards are still around: Bert & Ernie, Oscar, Grover, Cookie, Bird, Snuffy, Prarie Dawn to name a few. Many of the newer characters have taken center stage, but are very good and really appeal to little kids, I can see why pre-schoolers love Elmo, Zoe, and Baby Bear. My favorite new character is Abby Kadabby.

[Sivrel]

Rage on brutha! "rounded-edge plastic prison"... that's the gawsh-honest truth!

 

I don't care how creepy the concept would be today, but Fred Rogers is still the sort of neighbor I'd want my kids to have. May he rest in peace.

 

Which is creepier... a man in a red cardigan sweater and loafers who invites kids to visit with him in his "televison home".... or the big-purple-dinosaur that lingers around the schoolyard and coaxes little kids into hanging around after-class when there's no teacher or other grown-ups present?

 

Ah hell...I just scared myself again!

 

YOu know what I really miss... Frank Oz's voice behind the antics of SUPER GROVER!

 

"Little girl... could you please move. You're standing on my cape."

Remember it's not just any purple dinosaur, it's a purple imaginary dinosaur. Not that pointing that out would make the idea sound any better.

[Jen]

Considering all the things that were normal when I was growing up but are considered far too dangerous to be allowed these days...it's a wonder anyone my age survived to adulthood.

 

But somehow, even with playing with lawn darts, playing outside in the neighborhood without constant adult supervision, being told pizza was good for you (it has all four food groups!), walking to school, and all the other horrible risks our parents subjected us to, we did survive.

 

Even after Sesame Street!

[Helltown]

Hey those lawn darts were fun! Well.. at least until they took the spikes off, then they just slid across the lawn or worse... bounced.

[Spike]

*sigh* Kermit got sold??? ... to Disney???

 

That just smacks of slave-block mentality. I feel as though the last shreds of my childhood have been raped.

 

Fred Rogers would never sell King Friday or Henrietta Pussycat down the river.

[rgtriplec]

*sigh* Kermit got sold??? ... to Disney???

 

That just smacks of slave-block mentality. I feel as though the last shreds of my childhood have been raped.

 

Fred Rogers would never sell King Friday or Henrietta Pussycat down the river.

 

They did it after Jim Henson died.

[Nanite]

The last time I watched Sesame Street was something like six years ago. I was home sick with a slight fever and decided to indulge myself in a Zoobilee Zoo, Teletubbies and Sesame Street spree on our local PBS station. (Yes, I like Teletubbies.. but Elmo scares the hell out of me)

 

Zoobilee Zoo? The one with Ben Vereen? I loved that show!

 

If I may quote an MST3K episode:

 

Joel is squeezing a goop bottle.

 

Joel: See the trick is is not to get any on the edges.

 

Tom: Hey Joel, what are Creeple People?

 

Joel: Oh, Creeple Peeple are these really wacky creepy people that use pencils and stuff to make their bodies and then you bring them to school, its pretty neat. Oh, hi everybody I was just teaching the bots how to make Creepy Crawlers. I found my old set and this batch is just about ready to smell. Crow, check it out.

 

Crow: 'sniff' 'sniff' 'sniff' Mmmmm that's good goop!

 

Tom: Here, I'll be the judge of that, move over. 'sniff' 'sniff' 'sniff' 'sniff' Oh it kind of smell like hot plastisol with traces of calcium zinc the FDA approved stabilizer. No how's this different than Incredible Edibles?

 

Joel: Uh, well incredible Edibles were the ones that you could eat so I would probably say that they were both non-toxic.

 

Tom/Crow: Non-toxic?

 

Joel: Yeah, non-toxic was what they called things when they were toys and you could eat them and it won't hurt you. There was Crayola Crayons, and Plasti-Goop and Play-Dough, and uh, just about all the breakfast cereals now that I think about it. But anyway the real thing that was dangerous about this toy was the aluminum plate that would heat up in excess of 300 degrees.

 

Crow: But didn't you little kinds back on Earth get burnt?

 

Joel: Yeah I'll say we got burnt. We got burnt all the time. It was just part of what went with the territory when you got to make your own cool plastic toys. We had a saying when I was growing up "Lean with the Creepy Crawler Maker... Burn with the Creepy Crawler Maker"

 

Tom: Well what happened? I mean why can't kids today play with the Thing-Maker or all the neat accessories here, like the Creepy Crawlers, or the Fun Flowers, or the Fright Factory, or the Picadoos (?), or the Fright Men, or the Mini-Dragons, or the EEKS!

 

Joel: I'll tell you why. Because some little kids squealed and wrecked it for everybody! They'd get burnt and go screaming up stairs to their mammies. The Mom's would call the FDA. The FDA would call the manufacturer, and before you could say "It's Mattel, It's swell" the great goop factories of Taiwan were shut down forever.

 

Tom: You know I was just reading something about that the other day. There were lots or really fun toys hauled off the market during the 60's because kids were careless.

 

Joel: I'll say, the Susie Homemaker Oven, The Whamo Air Blaster...

 

Tom: Lawn Darts

 

Joel: ...Lawn darts, and Creepy Crawlers, the Vertibird. The list goes on and on...

 

Tom: Vacuform...

 

Crow: Poor dumb kids. They never even knew.

 

Joel: Well, I don't know if we can really blame the kids, Crow. You see, I really think this society is basically still crawling out of the slime, or goop, as we should say. I think the real responsibility lies with the toy designer of tomorrow.

 

Tom: How's that Joel?

 

Joel: Well, the toy designer of tomorrow responsibility is to design "Action packed, intensely interesting and affordable toys that are safe, soft and colorful". Good night.

 

Crow: (strange voice) and may God bless.