Comments on: Street politics

By: yugenue

yugenue — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:49:54 +0000

A friend of mine took her kid to Sesame Street Live, maybe 10 years ago now, and while the kid had a great time, my friend spent a good deal of the show crying.

When we talked about it later on, she said that she just couldn’t handle how vivid the change in the show had become and how old that made her feel.

“Elmo was everywhere. Everywhere! And Grover, whom I used to love, was just one more background character!”

Grover (the hapless and hilarious—the singing telegrams! upstairs downstairs!), cookie monster, Oscar, and Ernie were definitely my favorites when I watched SS as a kid. I remember being sad when everyone could see the Snuffleupagus, too. I was so intrigued when only Big Bird could see him.

By: Shelby

Shelby — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:42:26 +0000

So here I am, scrolling down CT past posts on transplants, and on Sesame Street, and I find one on transplanting Sesame Street. Is this deconstructionist blogging?

By: vivian

vivian — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:45:57 +0000

Those Bernie und Ert videos are hilarious, and I only know the occasional German word. Creepily good impressions of Frank Oz and Jim Henson’s gestures though.

By: Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:42:16 +0000

More Sesame Street thoughts and links here.

By: Mrs Tilton

Mrs Tilton — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:43:15 +0000

For German-speakers who enjoy really tasteless humour, here are Bernie & Ert.

By: Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:42:33 +0000

Absolutely. For many reasons already mentioned, Sesame Street had been looking for a way to hook into the barely-past-toddler crowd for a while, but the emergence of Elmo surpassed even I think their own wildest dreams in that regard. He’s taken over the show, draining it of so much that used to make it fun (and, I would insist, better for kids than the pedagogical monotomy it has become).

By: Adrock

Adrock — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:16:43 +0000

Yep, its the Elmo factor. Half the damn show now.

By: mikesdak

mikesdak — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:35:41 +0000

I worked in the control room at a PBS station for 7 years, and got to sit through Sesame Street every day. For me the big decline was when they turned half the show over to Elmo, although the general sanitizing of the show over the years was disappointing as well. It seemed to coincide with Jim Henson’s Muppets going more mainstream with their own show and movies. Henson always had a mischievious edge that I think they lack on the current Sesame Street. #10 p.o’neiil’s reference to Kermit as a reporter is a prime example. That was a Henson bit that was used extensively on The Muppet Show.
Ah,the Muppet Show. The episode with Peter Sellers is just about as good as TV comedy ever gets.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:05:11 +0000

It is an interesting question whether the imputation of homosexuality is an expression of laudable openness to the variability of sexualities, or an indication that the public mind has developed a [perhaps unhealthily?] sexualised interpretation of ALL close relationships in the last 30-odd years…

By: Spoon

Spoon — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:44:22 +0000

I read a report last year on Canadian Sesame Street (called Sesame Place), which attempted to teach kids Canadian values. That meant replacing any segments where American money was used, teaching French words instead of Spanish words, etc. (Report’s online here.

Additionally, there’s an interesting documentary that came out in 2006 called “The World According to Sesame Street” that deals with the glocalization of Sesame.

By: Bloix

Bloix — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:27:11 +0000

Sharon #15- good question. The answer is that parents are familiar with the way that imaginative play works and enter into it with their children all the time, so that they have no difficulty accepting a world in which characters who are mental and emotional children also live without parents and take care of their own needs.

The problem arises when viewers who are not parents or children watch the show and see two characters who live together, share a bedroom and a bathroom (although not a bed), and have no parents or other adult supervision. What, no parents? They must be adult men. Share a bedroom? They must be gay.

But that’s not how a child’s mind works. The shared bedroom for a child implies a sibling relationship. And the interaction between Bert and Ernie is like the interaction between a self-important first-born child with his impish younger brother.

Bert and Ernie are not presented as actual brothers, presumably because the show does not want the audience to think about the specifics of the relationship – if they are brothers, where is the mommy? But the emotional connection between the two is a sibling connection, not a sexual or romantic one.

By: Frances

Frances — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:03:27 +0000

Just because: being deprived of good Flemish/Belgian television I grew up on Dutch Sesamstraat. I adored Pino (a big blue bird -- years later I discovered the yellow Big Bird, next to Pino he's just lame) and Ieniemienie (a mouse and female!) and Tommie (a cuddly bear). The other muppets referenced in the link weren't around when I watched in the 80s. This version of Sesame Street was so very Dutch that it took me a bit of adjusting when I realised that Bert and Ernie were American and that Pino had a yellow cousin. I still prefer "our" version with the stories of Dikkie Dik and Sien and Meneer Aart.

By: Buck Theorem

Buck Theorem — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:22:43 +0000

Ejh – ah, it was Channel4 (I couldn’t recall if it was CH4 or ITV). I remember a really good article on Sesame Street in The Times Sunday supplement, or magazine, I think, in the late 90s: it was there I distictly recall it stating that the owners wouldn’t distribute the show if it was broken down with commercials, because the short skit format could be mistaken as one and the same with ads by young viewers. I remember being very impressed with this, which is why I remember it, as I was with its stating that the show as the most heavily researched in terms of its impact and interpretation by its young target audience. My inclination was to think the same as you – surely they wouldn’t have run a whole hour without? But I really don’t have a sure enough memory to remember the show with or without.

That the show has such an international presence still is a real surprise to me.

By: bicycle Hussein paladin

bicycle Hussein paladin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:25:46 +0000

Sesame Street is a public TV show and only runs on public TV stations in the US, which don’t have commercials in the traditional sense. They do have breaks at the beginning and end and possibly middle of shows that advertise the stations other programs and name their larger corporate donors.

By: Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 12:34:36 +0000

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/gaymuppet.asp

Seems to be some sort of projection of social anxiety.

Often the first season or so of anything is when the creators have the relative freedom to push a little, because the corporate types aren’t watching as closely (e.g. The Simpsons).