Much love to Sesame Street

First, some music to listen to: Freedom by Rage Against the Machine



I heard this song last night at my wrestling event and I was reminded of simpler times when I was a teenager in angst and found refuge in listening to Rage, Tool, etc. Fun music.

This post isn’t about that, its about celebrating the 40th birthday of my second-favorite childhood program, Sesame Street.

Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood was my favorite as a kid. Something about that dude would make me stop and pay attention. I would literally cheer out loud when he would take his shoes off. When the train would go to the land of Make Believe or when he would feed the fishes, my day was set.

Anyway, back to Sesame. Today marked the 40th anniversary of the premiere episode of the show and it has brought me so many good memories over time.

First, the show was based out of the NYC, which wasn’t officially announced but we all knew the score. The set containing a brownstone, parks, stores with fruit stands, there was a darn bodega there. I enjoyed that element of it.

Most importantly though, I could completely relate to the characters, especially three in particular…

Before I get to them, there were several that I had beefs with.

First, Elmo could go kick rocks, even to this day. That dude was way too damn happy even for my adolescent self. Also, he was like the mainstream crossover character that the hardcore Sesame Street fans resented deep down inside. We respected the work that Elmo put into the product, but he wasn’t the main reason that people were watching the show even though he gets a lot of credit because he was red, fuzzy and moved the most units as far as toy sales. I was even given some of his products but didn’t care.

Next, Count von Count, stop telling me to count, I get it, you like numbers. Leave me alone.

Then, we get to the Cookie Monster, who I was feeling back in the day. However, I knew that his obsession with cookies was a little creepy and I knew this as a seven-year old. He was my first introduction into addiction. Before we all learned about drugs and alcohol, we gained knowledge from Cookie Monster’s desire to get his next hit. That’s right, I said his next hit. Replace those chocolate chip cookies with cocaine and you get what I’m saying.

However, I didn’t cosign when they made him stop eating cookies and incorporated fruits and veggies into his diet. Look, the dude likes his cookies. Granted he has diabetes, high blood pressure and probably will lose his sight soon but he was consuming what he loved…and don’t tell me that he made kids fat. I’m a big boy and I like cookies because their tasty and not because the Monster told me so. He could have mixed up his choices however. We always saw him with chocolate chip cookies. He needed to mix in some oatmeal, sugar, etc, just for variety sake.

Oh, one more and this is going to get some of you heated but Big Bird, he could kick rocks as well. He’s probably the marquee name of the show but I have issues with him as well. Enough with the damn questions, no one likes someone who doesn’t know anything. Also, the voice, get some bass in there. The biggest thing with Big Bird was…how big he was. That’s a freak. Everyone else on the show kinda looked normal relative to the situation but here’s some eight-foot tall yellow bird trying to enter the conversation. Go away.

Now on to the characters that I had a ton of love for:

- Oscar the Grouch: He’s my profile picture on Facebook right now, so you know that I had love for him. He was cranky, mean, kept it real and loved living in his element, a lot of stuff that I wasn’t as a kid. I was a nice kid who would get picked on for being too friendly and made fun for being positive on the outside. I wanted to be like Oscar and tell people to leave me alone and call them stupid. As kids, we aspire to be like the things we aren’t and Oscar fit that bill.

But lets look at things from Oscar’s prospective. He’s trying to mind his business and enjoy his trash but people keep coming up to his home and bothering him. If this was happening in your life, you would be cranky or dare I say grouchy as well. Furthermore, doing my extensive research on this post, I learned that Oscar is Canadian, no joke! This means that he was probably kicked out of his homeland at a young age and forced to live in a foreign county away from his family and friends. Once again, if this happened to you, wouldn’t you be a little grouchy as well? Just saying.

-Ernie: First, lets clear this up. Its completely normal for two single guys to live in the same apartment and share a bedroom. This is standard procedure for many guys at one moment in their life. Usually it happens in college in a dorm room. This situation doesn’t make Burt and Ernie a gay couple in any way, not that there’s anything wrong with it…granted, you would think that one of them would get married or come upon some money at one point over 40 years to move out, but economic times are hard. Let’s just move on from that point.

On Ernie, as I mentioned earlier, I was a friendly and happy kid on the outside just like him. I even a little pudgy like him so there was a connection. I would always want to run around and play with my friends in the same way that he did…and yes, I had a rubber duckie that I would play with while taking a bath.

The funny thing now is that I’m much more like Bert than Ernie in my life now. I enjoy quiet evening reading or writing, maybe watching TV. Ernie’s personality is more about going out, meeting people, living the fun social life.

-Snuffleupagus. You want to talk about someone who I related to the most inside, it was that dude.

My parents divorced at a fairly young age for me, five years old, and while I was acting like Ernie about it, telling people that it was all good, stay positive, all of that stuff, I was definitely feeling like Snuffy inside.

Big Bird used to blame Snuffy all the time when something wrong happened and I did the same in my life. If something went wrong, whether it was at school, between my parents, etc, I would blame myself and feel like it was all my fault, which seems to be a common trait of children of divorced parents that I’ve interacted with.

Once again, doing my extensive research , I’ve come across the info that there was supposed to be an episode where Snuffy’s parents divorced in 1992. It received such negative testing results with kids that the episode never aired. I would have enjoyed seeing that episode as an 11-year old.

No matter what Snuffy did or tried, he felt inferior to everyone on Sesame Street, especially Big Bird. I still remember the episode like yesterday when Snuffy got some balloons and tried to fly so he could be like his buddy. Of course, he’s a big elephant and couldn’t do it. That tore me up inside.

However, Snuffy would find a way to persevere and try to live his life, no matter how flawed things may have been.

So as we think back on all of our memories of the show, two questions are asked.

First, if this show was pitched in 2009 instead of 1969, does it even make the air. I say that it doesn’t because its too simple and the current generation of children wouldn’t accept the simplicity of the original concepts of the show. Sesame Street has adjusted over time and has survived thankfully.

Second, does the show still hold relevance as an adult? I think it does. All of the stuff that I mentioned above still apply for me. I still want to hurt Elmo, so that’s a start.

More importantly, I remember the honesty that Oscar lived his live with and try to do the same in mine. Not in such a crude way but in some other ways.

I remember to stay positive and see the fun in life like Ernie did.

I try to keep the perseverance of Snuffy in my life and take on all challenges, even if failure takes place.

You don’t have to tell me how to get to Sesame Street because I’m already there.