Sesame Street season one. Not suitable for children.

[Savannahmann]

Chasing links this evening, I came across this gem. Part of me smiles, because I'm sure I watched this in the 1970's. Part of me is horrified by what the story exposes, wondering how the hell we made it out of the 1970's.

http://theweek.com/article/index/254157/10-classic-sesame-street-moments-we-wouldnt-show-todays-kids

W

hen the Children's Television Workshop unleashed Sesame Street on the world in 1969, it sparked a revolution in television programming. For the first time, TV was supposed to educate children as well as entertain them — make learning fun, using techniques developed through years of rigorous research. Parents across the U.S. had a TV show they could feel safe letting their kids watch.

When you buy the first season on DVD or iTunes today, though, it comes with a warning:

These early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child.

For parents today, especially those who grew up in the 1970s and '80s, this is not your child's Sesame Street. For one thing, Sesame Street has become pretty gentrified over the past 45 years — New York provides some examples. For another thing, "Prozacky Elmo didn't exist," says Virginia Heffernan in The New York Times Magazine, in a remembrance that both playfully mocks today's heightened sensibilities and notes some real differences between the Sesame Street of yore and today's more sanitized version.

I looked at the clips included with the story.

If anyone tried to call that children's programming today, they'd be locked up. I don't remember that from my childhood, but it must have been a part of what I watched. I don't know if it's sad that we used to watch that and call it educational for our children, or if it's some how proof of miracles that we have moved past it.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. The psychedelic stuff

was par for the course for any kid my age in the 70's. In fact I loved it. The fat knees was a little weird though. The up/down device would have been far more useful for tube tops.

[napkinz]

25. what a trip ...

[Pretzel_Warrior]

2. what are you talking about? I just watched them. they gave kids credit for intelligence.

why must things be infantalizing for 3 to 6 year olds (around the time I watched it). Jim Henson knew more about reaching kids intellectually to help them learn than any of these modern cartoons do. The violence allowed on so-called children's programming today is unbearable.

[RandySF]

26. I've noticed that lately.

I see a lot of parents treating 6, 7 and 8-year old kids like they are still 2,3 or 4 in terms of what they are shielded from/exposed to.

[SheilaT]

3. I'm a very inbetweener.

I was an adult by the time Sesame Street showed up, and my first child was born in 1982.

I never had that show on for my kids. Partly because I was VERY restrictive and particular about what my kids could watch, and partly because by then I'd noticed that Sesame Street very much encouraged a short attention span. Yes, I know that they say it's in response to what was already going on, but it honestly seems to me as if they are very largely responsible for it.

In the end, my kids wound up with much longer attention spans than their age mates. All of the kids in question come from middle class or upper middle class homes with the accompanying privileges. I hdo think that the attention span thing is something that can very much be laid to the feet of Sesame Street.

[El_Johns]

4. I never liked it either, except the theme song. But what creeped me out was this:

"Also in 1990, Cooney married businessman Peter G. Peterson, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Richard Nixon."

That's Pete Peterson, the guy who's trying to kill Social Security. Joan Ganz Cooney is the granddaughter & daughter of bankers, and the whole story of how Sesame Street got started is top-down, a Carnegie Foundation creation.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. thank goodness you kept from the evils of Sesame Street

teaching kids about counting and diversity.

It is hilarious that you think a program airing an hour a day would cause mass attention deficit disorder when those same kids were also growing up with video games, cable television, etc.

[El_Johns]

13. SS first aired in 1969. We were still on 3 channels and video games didn't become widespread

until the 80s.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

14. Y response was to someone who's children were born in the 80's

When home video games and cable were quite prevalent. I watched Sesame Street as a kid in the early 70's and enjoyed their wholesomeness ages and learning opportunities.

But I'm telling this to a person who has suspicions evil was afoot when the twisted minds at The Carnegie Foundation built the Sesame Street idea from the beginning with malicious intent. Probably to defund social security and have a whole generation of Sesame Street be ok with it.

[El_Johns]

47. Anyone who'd marry Pete Peterson is evil.

[SheilaT]

19. And Sesame Street is the only way for kids

to learn about counting and diversity?

I am not saying it causes ADD, but it certainly promotes a very short attention span. And my kids are old enough that they did not have video games in their early childhood.

I limited all TV, and encouraged reading, play of all sorts. I took them to parks, went for walks, read books to them, played cards and board games, enrolled them in various programs where they got to do things they wouldn't have done at home.

Sesame Street has long been held as some sort of gold standard for early childhood education. In a home where the parents don't talk or read to their children, it would be a good thing. But I've long considered it overrated.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

20. Like schools, it is a good reinforcement to what parents are doing

I'd say your children benefited by very limited TV and active parenting--not lack of Sesame Street.

It wholesome educational TV entertainment. Nothing more and nothing less.

[enlightenment]

30. My kid was born in 1980

and loved Sesame Street and that other show (Fargle something . . .) - he also loved Wild Kingdom (I had a tougher time than he did with the "this is life on the Savannah" moments, as the lion brought down the baby gazelle) and some of the other nature shows. That's all he was allowed to watch and he never watched any program unsupervised (in other words, I watched them along with him).

Those shows never had an impact on his attention span, which was unbelievably long when he was engaged with something and typically short when he wasn't. I don't think you can lay the blame on Sesame Street - I think it's more the environment in which the products are consumed. If you use a TV as a baby-sitter, it doesn't matter if the show is something as inane as Barney the Dinosaur or as deep as Ted Talks - your kid is not interacting with a human, but with a machine (same goes for all these "educational" toys and videos). That is going to impact their ability to cope with the real world. Full stop.

Turn off the tube, replace the button pushing gizmos with building blocks, butcher paper, crayons, and books - and spend time with your child while they're learning what it is to be human. By the time they're ready to start school they may actually be ready to be interactive, functioning members of their little society.

[SheilaT]

33. You are absolutely correct.

Turn off the tube, replace the button pushing gizmos with building blocks, butcher paper, crayons, and books - and spend time with your child while they're learning what it is to be human. By the time they're ready to start school they may actually be ready to be interactive, functioning members of their little society.

Alas, too many adults think that the gizmos are a perfect replacement for the other stuff.

[enlightenment]

36. Remember when we were young and thought our mothers were

so out of it? Then realized that what we preach is what they taught us?

My son doesn't have any kids, yet (though he's thinking about it more and more) - he does me the courtesy of admitting that it's good advice . . . except he says "Mimi (grandma) was right, wasn't she!" She was - and I was happy to listen to the "told you so", too.

Cracks me up - but I'm glad, because I know that any grandchild of mine will spend more time coloring on the walls than he or she does on an I-pad or whatever. At least they have washable crayons now!

[SheilaT]

43. Coloring on walls!

Lucky me my kids never did that.

One of my mom friends would have her kids and their little friends "paint" on the patio sliding glass doors. She gave them soapy water and let them go to town!

[enlightenment]

44. Well, the crayon on the walls

was an improvement over some of the even more creative projects he came up with. I wish I had thought of the soapy water on the glass door!

[PeaceNikki]

38. Fraggle Rock

[enlightenment]

40. That's the one.

I definitely preferred Sesame Street!

[Pretzel_Warrior]

48. Thnk you for injecting reason

Into this Sesame Street thread

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. the clips... LOL. Very inappropriate by today's standards.

[bobclark86]

7. Well...

I think people have way too much free time on their hands.

1) Kermit was showing how things made people feel. He showed how mean things make people sad.

3) Up and down being terrorist? Give me a break.

6) Yes, Wanda's knees got fat. The point is this: Get up off your fat ass and do something.

7) Cookie Monster always went overboard on things.

9) Did Ernie buy it? Nope. Good role model.

[Niceguy1]

8. some people like

To raise their children as delicate flowers.

I found that watching the same cartoons that I watched as a child with my children to be a good bonding experience.

[blkmusclmachine]

11. Run for the hills!!! It's Sesame Street!!!

[blkmusclmachine]

12. Oh, and this:

[frazzled]

15. Deemed inappropriate by a humorless, non-creative person

trying to do yet another "ten things" piece. At least they didn't make you click ten times through a slide show. I'll give them that.

I looked at each of these clips and found them not just totally acceptable--but endearing, charming, funny, instructive. Certainly a lot better than the pap kids watch today. I used to watch Sesame Street with my kids in the early 80s, and remember watching it with my nephews in the 70s as well. And I totally enjoyed that it worked on two levels at once: for toddlers and for adults. Now, when my grandniece comes to visit I honestly can't sit through the shows. I mean really, Bubble Guppies? You have to leave the room. There's really something positive in getting parents to sit down with their kids to watch TV.

I'll take Sesame Street of the late 60s and 70s, when they were experimenting with truly top-notch animation and people like Lily Tomlin over drab correctness or dumbed down, lifeless "correctness."

And I don't think this author gives enough credit to kids. When Cookie Monster takes the ingredients for the egg salad sandwich and snarfs them whole--including the stick of butter--young kids would laugh their heads off, knowing how "wrong" it is. It plays on their sophistication. Does the author really think children would think they should stuff a stick of butter down their throats? Dumb.

[HappyMe]

16. I agree.

My sons loved Sesame Street. I watched it with them all the time. They would sing along, holler out the number or letter....

It was very well done, and not mindless goofiness.

[phylny]

37. Count me in as a devotee of Sesame Street.

Our daughters, born in '85, '88, and '92 all watched. It was based on Kindergarten curriculum, and they all knew their alphabet, numbers, and word recognition by the time they started school.

Plus, we loved "Doing the Batty Bat," the Yip Yips, and Ernie & Bert's skit, "Here fishy fishy fishy!"

[Pretzel_Warrior]

49. Exactly. The piece came off as inauthentic

That's the problem with all these "going viral" web hit factories. Constantly writing garbage to try garnering clicks.

[MineralMan]

17. How are they not suitable for children?

I watched all of the clips. They seem just fine to me.

[X_Digger]

18. Meh. Lighten up, Francis. n/t

[napkinz]

21. from 1969, the preview episode and the first episode ---->

I don't see any problem with this material. What's all the fuss about?

[Revanchist]

22. Yipes, I forgot Gordon had hair!!!

gotta love those mutton chops also

[napkinz]

23. I think three actors have played Gordon

The most recent doesn't have hair.






(the same actress has played Susan, his wife, since 1969)

[Revanchist]

24. Looks like you're right

But the current guy's been doing it since 1975 so it feels like he's always been there

[napkinz]

27. Big Bird's gone through some changes ...

[Revanchist]

29. Bad feather day? N/T

[napkinz]

32. ROFL!

[abelenkpe]

28. My kids are 7 and 9

When they were younger I flipped on Sesame Street because that's what I grew up with and found a bland, boring show with way too much Elmo. Personally prefer the old Sesame Street to what it has become today.

[napkinz]

31. Elmo ruined Sesame Street!

By 1990 Elmo's position on Sesame Street was equal to or greater than Grover's. In only 5 short years (since the voice operation) he had become a major player on "Sesame", and Grover wasn't the only one who was starting to wonder what was going on. "It seemed like management started to care only about the possibility of making money," said Bert. "Even though the Childrens's Television Workshop was by nature non-profit, they were cleaning up on merchandising. And Elmo was a hot ticket from the start. Some of us started to wonder whether our little red furry friend was greasing the wheels a little bit at the top of the CTW foodchain."

Whether or not Elmo had anything directly to do with it may never be known, but it was one of the biggest children's merchandising phenomenons in modern history that was to change the face of Sesame Street forever. The Tickle Me Elmo doll was released in 1996 and became the hottest item of the year. Parents stampeded into stores to get one for their kids' Christmas gifts, but demand outstripped supply and it was not uncommon to see the little dolls being sold in newspaper classified ads for $100 or more. Overnight, Elmo had become the most popular Sesame Street character of all time. And that hurt the cast that had been with the show for over 25 years. ...

The nineties were Elmo's decade. He starred in several movies, had a hit single with "Elmo's Song" and the merchandising flurry continued unabated (though the success of "Tickle Me Elmo" was never repeated by any toy manufacturer before or since). ... But the final blow was yet to come. In 1998 the CTW made the announcement that Elmo was to get his own segment on "Sesame Street" called "Elmo's World" and that it would take up a full 20 minutes of each broadcast. This was, of course, in addition to the large amount of time already devoted to Elmo and his annoying new friends Zoe and Rosita during the regular part of the show. To the people who had grown up watching Sesame Street in the seventies and early eighties, this was nothing short of a complete and utter sell-out, and "Sesame" would never be the same again.

read more: http://www.zeroboutique.com/grover/grover6.htm

[napkinz]

34. really ... this is a problem? --->

from the article:

2. Bob gets trippy... and creepy

Not only is dulcet-voiced Bob wearing a groovy shirt and hanging out with (vaguely stoned-looking) hippy Muppets while singing a song from Hair — Hair! — but he's snuggling with a very young-looking Muppet girl while crooning about his "lover." Bob looks young here, but not that young:

So big deal, Bob is singing with hippies. Really, that's a problem?

[BuelahWitch]

45. I imagine those muppets

looked a lot like Henson & crew did around that time. [link:|

[kickysnana]

35. Ah the good old days. My kids born 75 and 77.

When the youngest was 4 both were invited to a neighborhood birthday party for another 4 year old boy. I am thinking balloons, cake and pin the tail on the donkey.

Me: "What did you do at the party today?"

Them: "We watched 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' it was really cool!" (The four year old had teenage siblings.)

Me: Jaw and stomach on the floor. World in shambles. But they did survive and were good kids anyway.

Yes they woke up with nightmares and yes I asked what was going to happen at all future birthdays but nothing of that sort was ever repeated.

The kids did not just go out to play until they were 5 and when the youngest hit 5 they asked to go play down at a brownstone 6plex that several friends lived in. The oldest came home crying and bleeding from the head and I had to explain at the ER for stitches that the 5 year old had dropped a real bowling pin from the third floor onto his brother's head, and worse his brother just stood there and let him. Later that year I learned they were hotwheeling off the high porch down the stairs onto the sidewalk using parked cars as a stop. One of the mother's put a stop to that before anyone was hurt but again "it was cool!".

When the youngest was 9 I was still very careful about what they watched but someone told me that "Married with Children" was a funny show and the kids wanted to see it so we watched the one where Santa parachuted to his death in the Bundy's back yard. I was in shock, they not so much. We didn't watch MWC again, until they were in their teens. It was a funny show.

[TheMightyFavog]

39. Is Bob McGrath still on the show?

Guy's gotta be pushing 80 now.

Fun fact: He was a big singing star in Japan during the mid 60s.

[napkinz]

54. yep, here's an episode from 2012

[one_voice]

41. I remember the criminal muppet.

I watched Sesame Street and so did my kids. My daughter loved Fraggle Rock (like another poster up thread) more.

I watched all the shows my kids watched with them.

I used to record Power Rangers for my son and he was allowed to watch after his homework was done, he'd finished playing outside and his bath was over. Most of the time he was too tired to watch..lol. He'd catch up on rainy days...which meant Power Rangers in the background for me.

[Ms. Toad]

42. Well - compared to the alternatives available at the time

it was a breath of fresh air.

E.g.:

Elmer Fudd with his shotgun.
Wil-e-Coyote perpetually plotting to kill the road runner, and getting blasted to smithereens.

Definitely not perfect, but it tried to be educational - and to make learning fun.

[Vashta Nerada]

46. That guy was really stretching it with the fauxrage.

I didn't see a problem with those.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

50. I just had to set this Sesame Street thread ablaze.

To show people on DU can argue and complain about literally anything.

[Scootaloo]

51. Not seeing a problem

"Kid's shows" should be enjoyable by adults as well as the "target audience" for the obvious reason that, well, parents are going to be watching this stuff with their kids. Oddball things like this can then lead to the kid looking to their parents and going "Okay, what the hell was that?"

The idea that "children's entertainment" needs to be as bland and sterile of content as possible, while just flashing colors and sounds to hold their attention is probably vastly more harmful than kermit the Frog berating cookie monster.

[appleannie1]

52. My kids loved it. I believe totally that kids should be exposed to both sides of the coin.

It teaches them that life is not always some happy little trip and teaches them how to cope with the things that are not happy and appreciate the good. In other words, it teaches them how to cope with real life.

[Blue_In_AK]

53. I was 21 in 1968,

no kids yet, but I LOVED Sesame Street. It was an absolute gas when you were high - or so I was told.

[napkinz]

55. does anyone remember a show called Electric Company?

With Morgan Freeman and Rita Moreno

[Pretzel_Warrior]

56. Yup. I listed it up thread as one of the top 5 shows

I watched as a kid including Sesame Street, Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Rogers, and ZOOM!

[napkinz]

57. I don't understand why The Electric Company "failed" ...

I thought it was a great.

Sesame Street is still with us, and Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers lasted decades. PBS even brought back ZOOM.

But if I remember correctly, The Electric Company went off the air in the 80s.