![[Sesame Street Old School DVD]](http://wearehugh.com/public/2007/12/sesame-street-old-school.jpg)
Sesame Street Old School © Sesame Workshop
Sesame Street Old School © Sesame Workshop
These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.
So spoke a cuddly animated typewriter on Christmas morning, as three generations of Pilgrims gathered around the television to watch Sesame Street ‘Old School’.
“Oh my God, why?” my father exclaimed. “Mark, what have you done?” my wife chided. “Where’s Elmo?” my son asked.
“Ethan, Elmo’s not in this one. Dora, trust me. Dad, I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
This article from last year claims it’s because the characters look different:
Rosemarie Truglio, vice president of education and research for Sesame Workshop, said reasons for the disclaimer were many. She said the changing mores and dangers of today’s kids emulating the on-screen children playing in the dump was part of it, but not the primary motivation.
“To kids today watching ‘Sesame Street,’ this ['Old School' DVD] looks significantly different,” she said. “This ‘Sesame Street’ is not their reality. Kids have no concept of time, so for parents to tell them, ‘This is the “Sesame Street” I watched growing up,’ would be a disconnect. It has a different Gordon, Oscar is orange, not green. Big Bird looks significantly different.”
But this more recent article claims it’s because the characters act differently:
Sesame Street executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente told the New York Times that Alistair Cookie (Cookie Monster’s alter-ego) used to appear with a pipe and eat it on Monsterpiece theatre and ‘that modelled the wrong behaviour’.
So the scenes were reshot, this time pipe-free, and then the parody was dropped.
Oscar The Grouch was another problem. The filthy, trash can-dwelling muppet was, well, too grouchy.
‘We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,’ Ms Parente said.
When two spokespeople give you two different answers to a simple question, chances are that both of them are lying.
The real reason is hidden in the DVD liner notes, under “A Salute to Jon Stone”:
“Jon had a very clear vision on what the show should be,” recalls his former assistant, Dulcy Singer. His influence and insight was seen and felt throughout the entire set, which was largely designed based on his ideas. He didn’t want the show to feel too magical or other-worldly; instead, he wanted it to reflect an urban child’s reality. Stone lobbied for the now-familiar city street, creating a world that many children in the target audience recognized.
An urban reality. Sesame Street originally aired on PBS, a free television program viewable by anyone with a TV and some rabbit ears. According to some reports, in its heyday the show reached 95% of its demographic in places like Harlem and Washington DC. But the latte-sipping parents1 who buy these DVDs at Barnes and Noble now (retail price: $39.95) will probably not share the “urban reality” that Sesame Street portrayed 30+ years ago. And make no mistake: the early Sesame Street was filthy. Row houses of decaying brownstone, laundry hung outside the windows, trash cans on the sidewalk, unswept leaves in the street. Interspersed with furry blue monsters, but still.
After a little more online digging, I found this article in the New York Times, which finally gets to the point on page 2:
The concept of the “inner city” — or “slums,” as The Times bluntly put it in its first review of “Sesame Street” — was therefore transformed into a kind of Xanadu on the show: a bright, no-clouds, clear-air place where people bopped around with monsters and didn’t worry too much about money, cleanliness or projecting false cheer. The Upper West Side, hardly a burned-out ghetto, was said to be the model.
People on “Sesame Street” had limited possibilities and fixed identities, and (the best part) you weren’t expected to change much. The harshness of existence was a given, and no one was proposing that numbers and letters would lead you “out” of your inner city to Elysian suburbs. Instead, “Sesame Street” suggested that learning might merely make our days more bearable, more interesting, funnier. It encouraged us, above all, to be nice to our neighbors and to cultivate the safer pleasures that take the edge off — taking baths, eating cookies, reading. Don’t tell the kids.
So it’s not about language, and it’s not about “modeling the wrong behavior,” and it’s not about the color of your skin or your fur. It’s about class — the one subject that’s still taboo in America, after all these years.
For the record, my preschool children sat mesmerized for the entire hour-long show. The other generations of Pilgrims did too, each for our own reasons.
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I highly recommend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AXPnH0C9UA
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AihWK5On7tc
— Sina 
[comment removed at author's request]
— Anonymous
Ah well, it can’t possibly suck as much as Dora The Explorer, can it?
(Disclaimer: I thought Sesame Street was patronising, saccharine and above all dull when I was five years old.)
— Jake
A couple of Xmas’s ago I bought the entire Pee Wee Herman’s Playhouse series for my then 9 and 7 year olds. They had no idea who he was and I wanted to introduce them to the shows and to reconnect with one of the best children/adult series I’ve encountered (you know, like the Simpsons, a series that can be read on multiple age levels).
It was a big hit with my girls. But when they tell their friends about it, their friends have no idea what they’re talking about. ;-)
— Jeff
A few thoughts on Sesame Street from a former West-Sider (West 93 btwn Col & Amst, 1966-1987):
1. The actor who played Mr. Whipple lived near 93rd and CPW and could often be seen sitting on the park bench near the 93rd st entrance. It was always a treat to see the childlren’s faces when they recognized him, and said, “Look, it’s Mr. Whipple!” I’m sure he thought it was fun, too.
2. My first Macy’s Day Parade was around 1977 or so. I was standing near 76th and CPW with my daughter on my shoulder when a giant balloon rounded the corner. I said to my daughter, “Look, it’s a giant green frog.” A thousand voices near me shouted out, “Hi, Kermit.” I realized our desire to shield our child from TV was misplaced, and we started regular viewing of SS soon thereafter.
3. Back in the early 80’s private kindergartens in NYC had their own entrance exam (I bet they still do). One of the questions was “What color is Big Bird?” This was obvious if you (a) had a TV, (b) watched Sesame Street, and (c) had a color TV. While most folks then below 96th and Park met all three conditions, one wonders how many above 96th and Park (i.e., Harlem) met condition (c)…
4. A friend of ours spent some time back in the 60’s baby-sitting for some people who lived on Park Avenue. She once saw a note scribbled next to a phone pad that said, “Send check for $100,000 to Children’s Workshop.” From that one can deduce the apartment was below 96th Street (See previous comment).
thanks,
dave
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© 2001–9 Mark Pilgrim