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I will never forget the episode where Mr.Hooper died. The owner of Mr. Hooper's store and big bird cried after he heard he had died.
I saw Gordon on an episode of Law and Order recently, and my head exploded a little. He's not on Sesame Street anymore? :S
And yes, I remember when Mr. Hooper died too; I even explained to my kids who Mr. Hooper was.. Not so much because I felt they needed to know, but moreso because I still felt a little sad.
I absolutely loved Sesame Street as a kid, and I still like it as an adult. I don't know how many times I watched Big Bird Goes to China and Follow That Bird (which I now have on DVD).
I got to meet Caroll Spinney last year, and I don't think I've talked to a nicer person. I told him how I grew up with Sesame Street, and how Barkley the Dog was my favorite as a kid. He told me I was the first to say Barkley was their favorite, but he then told me about how he tried to operate Barkley when they were doing Big Bird Goes to China, and he couldn't do it, how the muppets work, etc. It was awesome to hear the stories of this great show. I couldn't imagine a nicer person playing someone as influential in kids' lives as Big Bird.
Our dogs name is Barkley lol we're big fans too!!
Nice! I'd like to name my next dog Barkley!
Happy Birthday Sesame Street! I watched it as a child and now my child watches - you are wonderful (especially Grover :-)
Happy Birthday!
The first time I tuned in to Sesame Street, my daughter was about 2 years old....that was 30 years ago but seems like yesterday! She now has a son who watches and the cycle continues. What a wonderful show, wonderful cast and so many wonderful memories! My daughter was a big Bert & Ernie fan and my son loved Grover. They can still recall some of their very favorite episodes.
Good post. However, it leaves out how Sesame Street teaches ethics to preschoolers and how the show does have some detractors. For example, shortly after the show first began, a state commission in Missisipi voted to ban the show in May 1970. A member of the racist commission leaked the vote to the New York Times,, saying that "Mississippi was not yet ready" for the show's integrated cast.
Ethic Soup blog has a good post that includes Sesame Street's detractors not only because of the show's integration, but because of the strong, single women on the show and the belief that the show's fast pacing caused epilepsy in its preshool audience. It was just seven years ago that Congressional members threated the funding of Public Broadcasting System (PBS), warning them (read blackmail) to not allow the new Muppet character -- a little girl who was HIV-positive. This Ethic Soup post is at:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/11/sesame-street-has-taught-preschoooleers-ethics-for-40-years.html
I wish they would have had a charater like that when I was a kid. My brother contraced HIV through a blood transfusion and parents who were in a uproar over his "condition" had rallied to pull us out of school for fear of exposing and infecting thier kids. We were jeered taunted teased bullied and picked on constantly. We never had friends who were allowed to stay the night, and once when I stayed at a friends her mom rushed in the bathroom with heavy rubber gloves and bleach everytime I used it and we ate off of paper plates and plastic utensils the whole time. I sill refer back to many memories I had as a kid when making decisions for mine. Sometimes you have to think like a kid to make the most sense out of this world.
Here's to 40 more years of great programming.
Its a lovely show and very sentimental to me as i grew up with it...however, it is time we pull funding on PBS and NPR. NPR leans very heavy to the left, and Sesame Street, while it has many merits promotes left-wingers all the time. Also, their recent dig on fox news shows the producers true colors.
Our tax dollars should not pay for politically biased things. Imagine if our tax dollars were funding fox news - would the left go for that? No way, yet we've continued to fund politically left-wing programming for decades. Yes, keep Seasame Street, but its time for big bird to go out and sell advertising to pay his rent.
Oh hop off of the soap box, it's a kids show with muppets created by Jim Henson. What do you think the kids should watch, Glenn Beck?? Hannity and Combs?? I'd rather my children learn about the world through the eyes of positivity not the promotion of fear and lies. On the upside how awesome is it that your kids ge togrow up enjoying something you enjoyed and that your parents enjoyed. My mom and I still love watching it with the kids :)
i did not say for kids not to watch it...just to stop tax payer funding...
As far as my soapbox, i know the left would just assume silence everyone who has a differing opinion -- Apparently, you didn't learn much about tolerance on Sesame Street.
You know, Malt Shop, it's been said that reality has a liberal bias.
If learning about nature, the world, different cultures and ethnicities is your idea of left-wing propaganda, then you must hate any show that tries to educate and be objective.
Malt Shop:
I think the whole "dig" at Fox Network is being blown way out of proportion. Sesame Street parodied news show names with their own, which is what they've done for multiple skits they've done. They make something that's a parody of a well known name. I don't think they were calling Fox News trashy... GNN and Pox news were parodied names that they could tie to Oscar the Grouch. And besides, in Oscar's world, trashy is good... so were they trying to say that it's good?
I just really think people need to lighten up a little. It's a show to entertain and teach children. I don't think it has to do with the "liberal media" trying to influence children to be left or right.
I think it's people looking for something to make a huge deal about nothing.
All I see when I watch it is a group of muppets and human friends learning and teaching together. Our public viewer broadcast system and the programs on there that are funded by tax payers have been a God sent for us. We cannot afford cable and it's good to know there's something he can watch that is safe and wholesome. Sure beats noon coverage of TMZ or Maury of Steve Wilkos which are the only other programs we get. I thank the goverment for their support of shows like Sesame Street and Inbetween the Lions, and others they have on there. It does us a great service and we're glad to have it.
I appreciated Mr. Spinney's comments on puppeteering. Most people don't think about the physicality of working puppets. I was on a puppet ministry team in college for two years and it is TOUGH! My puppet was only a small child puppet and my right arm would kill after lengthy shows. I have great respect for a man--in his 70s even!!--who has opperated such a large puppet for 40 years!
Love the show--had forgotten about Barkley the dog. My favorite segment, not entirely sure why, was always the animated pinball numbers countdown. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve...." And I learned how to count to 10 in Spanish as a little girl from Sesame Street--LONG before Dora the Explorer taught Spanish to a new generation. Keep up the good work!
When I talked to Mr. Spinney about Barkley the Dog, he told me how he tried to get into the costume and operate it, and he couldn't. He said to move the front legs, the puppeteer had to lay on his stomach and use crutch like devices with his arms to move Barkley's legs. And this guy did it running down the Great Wall of China during the movie, Big Bird Goes to China!
It really is a tough job to do, and it takes a lot of physical strength, and for him to be doing it into his 70's is an amazing feat!
I just wish they had left cookie monster alone, maybe teach a different language other than spanish and leave rap music out and WTF happened to the Electric Company now its just rap music and spanish, what a waste of a good show. Ni hao Kai LAN is a great show and not adulterated with the liberal bias that has infected Sesame Street, seriously anti-Fox on a children's show..that's just childish.
I agree in a part with you on how they should teach other languages, but I have to disagree that they shouldn't teach anymore spanish. That's a great way for latinos kids and others kids learn about the language. And I assume they teach spanish 'cause is the second language with more speakers worlwide, leaving Mandarin Chinese in the first place and English as third.
And for the rap, well that's what kids hear today (not a FAN of rap or anything like that), but is the same that for the past 40 year maybe they consider making Disco music so kids on the 70's learn things that way (I don't know if they did that on does years, but it was a good idea, since that was one of the hit's of that time), it's all about what's a "hit" in this days.
And my baby, he's watching Sesame Street since he was 9 month old, and he love too watch Elmo's World, and we love it.
I'm stunned. Are there really people politically posturing on a sweet children's television show? Some Americans have truly gone mad with paranoia and fear. Please don't spread this on to the next generation. They have enough to deal with. Probably the same folks running around screaming about 2012 being another end of the world. Interesting how children are a lot smarter than this.
Is the Electric Company still on the air? EC and Sesame Street were two of my favorite shows when I was a kid. Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman were so cool!
How about Petey Green's Washington lol does anyone remember that crazy show?
My childred are 34, 29 & 27. Sesame Street was always watched. My favorite stuffed toy was Suffleupagus. Congrats to Big Bird, the original. 40 years and still working.
My kids are too old to watch now and I stopped liking it years ago --- too PC for me. Where are the white, English speaking guests and characters?
I still never miss the program Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, my mother still tells me how she would put me in the baby carriage in front of the TV and to this day I still watch it everytime I get the chance. I guess I'll never grow out of it.
Count Count is my favorite! "Vun, doo, tree, vore!"
People show how unAmerican they can be by speaking ill of a great show like Sesame Street.
He slipped the big bird in Michelle.
Grover Rocks! Especially when he used to turn into SuperGrover.
www.stumbleuponguru.com