Today’s Show Is Brought to You by the Number 40
I sleep with my radio on at night, tuned to NPR (WPLN here in Nashville, of which I am a contributing member) because they play classical music all night, and then I can wake up listening to Morning Edition and find out what’s going on in the world. This morning, I woke up to the strains of the Sesame Street theme song and hearing one of the correspondents wish this “experiment in children’s television” a happy 40th birthday. Yep, that’s right. Big Bird, Oscar, and friends have been on TV for forty years!
Now, I haven’t watched a full episode of the show since the early 1990s (back when I was in college and we didn’t have cable and there was nothing else on TV during the day but SS and soap operas), and I know there are tons of new characters and that they’ve even “updated” the theme song. But I thought it would be fun today to share our memories about growing up watching Sesame Street (or watching it with your kids now—how has it changed?).
Here’s the piece that was on NPR this morning.
And here are a couple of my absolute favorite memories from Sesame Street:
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KayeDacus.com 
I loved Sesame Street and Electric Company when I was a kid. I do have 2 boys, so I had an excuse for a few years to watch Sesame Street again. 😉 The boys are teenagers now, though, so now more Sesame Street.
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I didn’t grow up watching Sesame Street, as I was well into 2nd grade by the time they appeared. But I know the Muppets from the primetime specials and movies they used to do, and I’ve watched the Street with my own children.
Oscar the Grouch is the best. (Because I always like the vulnerable rebel.) I like Count because I’ve always been into math. And I loved the fact that this was one of the few multicultural children’s shows around, right from the beginning.
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I never really watched it, but love Grover and Cookie Monster. A lot of the recent changes to the show have not been for the better IMO, such as promoting gay marriage by Bert and Ernie getting married, so when I have kids they won’t be watching it.
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Not sure where you heard that Bert and Ernie are “married,” but that’s just a rumor:
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/gaymuppet.asp
From the article: “Bert and Ernie are not married. They’re not even homosexual (if indeed it’s possible for mere puppets to be sexual). They are nothing but well-loved puppets from a hugely popular children’s TV series.”
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A little further research shows that at a Gay Pride parade in Chicago a couple of years ago, two people dressed as Ernie and Bert “got married” as part of the festivities. But this was not sanctioned by the Children’s Television Workshop/Sesame Workshop, the creators/proprietors of the characters, who have stated, “Bert and Ernie . . . do not portray a gay couple, and there are no plans for them to do so in the future. They are puppets, not humans. Like all the Muppets created for Sesame Street, they were designed to help educate preschoolers. Bert and Ernie are characters who help demonstrate to children that despite their differences, they can be good friends.”
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Thank you for sharing your wonderful Sesame Street memories, Kaye, and congratulations on your recent book deals!
You make Seton Hill proud.
Best,
Heidi
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My sons learned how to count with Count von Count in the early 90’s. My personal favs were the Yip Yips . . . uh hu, uh hu.
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Haha, I’m going to date myself here…I grew up watching Sesame Street. I always liked Elmo. And Grover…and Bert and Ernie. Lately after re-viewing some of the older ones I realied that duh…several of the SS characters were voiced by Muppeteers…ok, so I knew that Sesame Street was a part of the Muppets, but still…it was interesting.
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My daughter Katherine’s favorite song is “1,2,3,4” by Feist because of the parody she did of it on Sesame Street: “Counting to the number 4.”
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