Plaza sésamo

When I was a child, there were two main educational programs shown to children. Play School, being the other one, basically got me shouting at the television that I was not retarded, not stupid, and not a diminished human being, just a child. From what I've seen from observing some of my cousins' children, it hasn't changed a lot except parents have revised their opinion of its suitability for five year olds. Unfortunately, Sesame Street is going much in the same direction.

In the 1990s, Sesame Street had a rather nasty competitor in the shape of Barney, a purple dinosaur with a support cast that showed no difference in emotional response. Even when that support cast consisted of four year olds and fourteen year olds. As if that wasn't harmful enough, Barney would openly tell children they weren't good if they didn't have good feelings, or alter the rules of a game to make someone else the winner. That such "lessons" were allowed to be broadcast shows how useful the regulators of television really are. By contrast, the Sesame Street I remember even dealt with such issues as the death of a loved one. Goodbye, Mr. Hooper was one of the most amazing episodes of children's television ever broadcast because it made an effort to try and teach children about something so difficult that even live adults are often no help with it.

Other brilliant aspects of the show included using monsters to portray certain feelings or behaviours that the audience might be conflicted about. They had a cookie monster to show what a negative (but highly funny, the way they presented it) appearance gluttony can bring. They had a grouchy monster to show the effects of an anti-social mentality. More "cute" monsters such as Grover were used to show things like fear or sadness. There was a good reason for all of this. Negative feelings are difficult enough for a child to understand, so having puppets to thoroughly explain them was very educational.

Kudos are also due the adult cast of the show. During every episode I saw, even Goodbye, Mr. Hooper, the adults were never condescending or smug. They never acted as if they had every answer. Instead, they told the monster, other puppet, or child characters a few useful tidbits and let these characters work things out for themselves. Even today, if you see the sequences with such annoying characters as Elmo, it is the children or the child-like characters who deliver all the answer lines. Those consultations with child psychologists done by the Children's Television Workshop really paid off.

Unfortunately, and there always seems to be an unfortunately these days when it comes to children's television, a certain adherence to marketing over education crept in over recent years. The greatness of such characters as Oscar or Grover was that they could appeal to children without needing to be cutesy. Oscar was a grump who appeared to have worked too many night shifts, while Grover seemed to be just a fearful but friendly guy trying to make his way in the world. Perfectly normal, ordinary people wrapped up in some very bizarre-looking trimmings, in other words. Nowadays, characters like Elmo seem so awfully sugarcoated that it makes me wonder if his audience is going to encounter problems in later life when they learn they cannot get by simply on acting cute.

I don't know who pulls the strings on this show these days, but I would like to implore them for the sake of future generations. The old way of educating the children about the fundamentals of life, and letting the cute factor take care of itself, was a much better one. Please go back to it. I might not be part of the audience anymore, but I do have second cousins, and maybe one day a niece or nephew, who are.

Can this really be the same show that dealt with the death of Mr. Hooper? I can't see them doing anything like that now. They used to count up to twenty. Now they sometimes go past ten. I even remember one cartoon segment where they went up to 40! I miss Mumford the Magician(ala peanut butter sandwiches!) and the honkers. I had a honker doll when I was little. Drove my folks nuts.

Please get rid of Elmo World! He doesn't even TEACH anything.('cept for that one PC Holiday Speacial) and as many others pointed out he's annoying and talks down to kids.

For people who tell me not to get upset over a kids show, I remind them that Sesame Street was a show parents could watch with their kids without being bored silly. The show had jokes that parents could get. and some awesome guest stars.

I have a feeling this show may be coming to an end. It will be replaced by Elmo's World in hour long form.

Farwell Sesmae we had great times together.

I wrote in another review on this site about how I was born to a military family stationed in Germany, Land of No Cable (And the world's best chocolate, but that's another story.).

Anyway, one of the few kid's shows on TV that my grandparents didn't have to record and send over was Sesame Street, and the only one that was on the entire eight years we were there (Eureka's Castle was on for bit, but then one day it vanished. Same thing with Lampchops.). On my dad's side of the family, everyone had a Sesame Street character that they had a bond with (Dad's was Cookie Monster), and naturally, I followed the tradition by latching on to Ernie. Many a night I could be heard singing "Rubber Ducky" in the tub (I had two Rubber Duckies, but one got chucked because it got moldy, I think). To this day, I still hold Ernie dear to my heart (I even have a "Tickle Me Ernie", much, much cuter than "Tickle Me Elmo"!)

Not only did Sesame Street give me Ernie to love and make me laugh, but like everyone else who watched this show, it taught me to read and count. Then one day, this obnoxious bear showed up on Sesame Street, whining about Goldilocks stealing his porridge. I hoped he wouldn't be a permanent addition to the cast. Everyday, I'd turn on the set, and there he was, screeching in that high pitched voice of his. Soon, I stopped watching Sesame Street because I was so sick of Baby Bear. I was seven years old, and I had been watching Sesame Street for seven years.

Over the years, I did what all kids do, grew up. But about three years ago, I turned on Sesame Street again, and BABY BEAR IS STILL THERE!!! Not only that, some doofus gave Elmo a twenty minute segment, in which he spends most of those twenty minutes hopping around singing, "Dee dee da dee, Elmo's World!" over and over! And BABY BEAR IS STILL THERE!!! Horrible still, I hardly ever get to see my beloved Ernie and his Ol' Buddy Bert anymore. Worse of all, BABY BEAR IS STILL THERE!!!

So yes, Elmo may have ruined Sesame Street permanently (Unless God decides to raise Jim Henson from the dead), but for me, the death of Sesame Street came with the introduction of Baby Bear. So thanks a lot, you big throw rug! I hope the rest of the cast gets wise and turns you into a fur coat!

Sesame Street has to be one of the best classic kids shows ever! i loved it as a kid, and use to wake up extra early every morning just to see it! they just don't make shows like that anymore. it doesn't talk down to and patronise kids like the shows do these days. there were so many different quirky characters that were so easy to fall in love with, like big bird and elmo and so many great songs that were catchy fun as well as educational. i'll always be a great fan of jim hensons work as his shows and movies were a big part of my childhood. even if sesame street is no longer on TV when i have kids, i'll still dig out the videos and show them how good kids TV used to be!

Bring back sesame street!!

This was one of my favorite shows as a child in the 70s. (Though my sister always preferred "The Electric Company" - if anyone remembers that.) So, naturally, I thought my own two daughters would love it. Well, at age 2-3, my oldest loved Elmo, but at age 4, she's long over both Elmo and Sesame Street - and she won't enter Kindergarten for two more years! So, I give the current show a 6. It's too inane for my 4 year old. As for myself, I was much older when I stopped watching. This was one of my favorite shows. I give the old Sesame Street a 10/10. Thus we get 8 stars overall.

When I do occasionally watch the new show, I miss Kermit, am dismayed that Snuffy is visible to everyone (where's the fun in that?), think Big Bird acts like an imbecile (was he always such a baby? maybe so), wish Grover and Cookie Monster and the Count got more face time, suspect that the current production team is trying to make Ernie and Bert seem gay, and miss some of the old segments. I think they should just stop producing new shows and start re-running the old shows starting with season 1. The ratings would probably go way up and they'd save a lot of money.

"Oh waiter! There's a fly in this production!"