OK, PEOPLE -- pay attention!Today is the 40th birthday of Sesame Street. Programs come and go (don't we just know it, and if they ever bring "Firefly" back I'll watch) but Television is like that little girl: "There was a little girl, who had a tiny curl, right in the middle of her forehead." (If you're Of An Age, say the rest with me now...)
"When she was good, she was very VERY good,
And when she was bad, she was...HORRID!"
(Love writing that, for the nostalgia - my mother said it a lot - and for the chance to use the much-underused word "horrid".)
Now, I agree with Mr Dearling to a great degree when he says that television has wrought more woe than good in all these years. Mark you, I have HAD television in my home most of my adult life. There was a time there when I got rid of ours in a fit of Hippie-ness, and we all managed very well. Then we got a card in the mail saying we should go to Sears to collect a present from my generous sister,which proved to be a brand-new color television. I had to agree, it was pretty nice. Made the Shakespeare plays on public teevee fabulous.
But back to Sesame Street: I allowed my children to watch it. I encouraged my children to watch it, and in fact often watched it with them. I'll say it right here in public: I propped my Youngest up in his babyseat in front of it.
I think it was a brilliant and wonderful show, and I'd forgotten about it pretty much for the last few years, other than knowing it was still with us. There was also "Electric Company", which took my youngsters a little forward in their learning. I just remembered that I have a DVD somewhere with some Electric Company episodes on it - I want to get it out for my grandsons.
I'm going to tape me some Sesame Street this week to see how it's aged, but I still APPROVE. And call me an old curmudgeon (I won't argue) but I do NOT like that stoopid square sponge thing, which I find poorly-drawn, unattractive and abrasive, and unfortunately my youngest grandson has toted up many hours of his infancy planted in front of it. I would NEVER describe one of my own darlings as "slack-jawed" but I don't care for his demeanor when he's watching that. I do not fear permanent damaage, his parents are bright and clever and besides Mr Dearling and I are his grandkin. But that sponge is no Big Bird.
So - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Sesame Street! Long may you wave........oh, and thanks for a lot of hours of laughter and fun and learning you brought my children (and the quiet time for ME, o bless yer little red hearts).
7 comments:
Many years before we had kids, I used to have Sesame Street on the TV when I was working in the kitchen. At that particular time of day -- noonish -- the other choices were soap operas or really dumb game shows. SS was definitely the better alternaive.
When I was a little girl my very hippy mother had a lot of strong opinions about exposing children to violence. We weren't allowed any toy weapons and we weren't allowed to watch most cartoons. We were allowed to watch as much PBS as we wanted. This probably contributed to both my sister and myself learning to read and write by the age of 4. Funny story, when we were really little my mom used to tell us times in Seasame Streets and Mr. Rogers. As in "The car trip will be over in two Seasame Streets and one Mr. Rogers"
I dunno DH! I grew up with no TV except for the public station out of Bangor. 'Bout the only TV I watched was Sesame Street, Electric Company and Mr. Rogers and look how I turned out. I KNOW right? I no longer think it's the benign entity we think it is!
Let me know if you need to borrow my DVD set of "Best of the Electric Company Volume One." HEY YOU GUYYYYYYYYYYS!
I now realize that show was probably my first exposure to Tom Lehrer. I can't thank them enough for that.
Last half of 1969 was good times! Moon Walk, Woodstock, Sesame Street and yours truly! ;o)
La la la! ::sticks fingers in ears and straightens forehead curl with third hand::
I have reasons for not loving that poem.
Ok... Sesame Street still good... but this Broccoli Monster business is UnAcceptable. If people can't teach their children that eating nothing but cookies is just pretend, no television show is going to fix the problem.
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